POPULAR SAYINGS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXV, Issue 19974, 16 June 1928, Page 4 (Supplement)

POPULAR SAYINGS.

"GONE TO POT." Many popular sayings which are considered vulgar at tho present are of great antiquity, and have an interesting origin. Take, for instance, tho saying, "Gono to pot." This is ceuainly not considered a very graceful form of expression now, but, like many others, it has ..(Jme nvn to us from very ancient tuues. It seems probablo that in olden days it was not considered more vulgar than other proverbs, ior we finct it in the writings of Dr. Arbuthnot, a learned physician of the utii century. The author oi ponderous works on mathematics and potical economy cannot be lightly accused of iiippany, yet we find him recording the melancholy fact than "new and then a farm went to pot!" a mode of expression which to-day is left to school boys and costermongers, although the meaning of the words has not altered one whit. "Gone to pot" is not without its legendary history, which is worth lecording, however mythical it may be. Once upon a time, we are told, there lived a Samarcanda tailor, whoso cottage stood near the city gate, beyond which was the cemetery. The little tailor took a great interest in the number of funerals which passed by. At his door stood an old earthern pot, into which he cast a pebble each time a corpse was carried through the gate. Each new moon he counted the contents and recorded the number. He kent this nuaint register for many years. By-and-hy it was his turn to be carried through the gates, and laid to rest in the cemetery, and then his neighbours said that he also was "gone to pot!" —From Doreen Cave, aged 16, Great South Road, Panatoetoe.