HOUSEHOLD WORDS.

Otago Witness, Issue 2209, 2 July 1896, Page 51

HOUSEHOLD WORDS.

*!*'.• "As deaf as an adder" is an allusion < ! to the fact that the hearing of many kinds of serpents is far from acute, owing to the oircumatance that their auditory apparatus is covered by the outer skin or epidermis, whioh is shed every season. [4".' "The dog watch," a term wed by sailors, was once the dodge watch, a shock * watch introduced between those longer in duration, in order that too great an amount of work should not be put upon the same men in the course of the day. V.* "To haul over the coals" recalls the former legal custom ot trial by fire, the accused walking barefoot over a bed of glowing coals, and his innocenoe or, guilt being deduced from the condition of hiß feet after a certain number of days elapsed. ,^C . ' "To kick the bucket" is said to have originated in the time of Queen Elizabeth, when a shoemaker named Hawkins committed suicide under peculiar circumstance*, placing a bucket on a table in order to raise himself high enough to reach a rafter above, then kicking away the, bucket on whioh he stood. ~* * . ' "To save one's bacon "is a reminiscence of the Dunmow Flitoh, for several centuries bestowed at Dunmow on married couples who make oath and prove that they had lived together without a quarrel. _V • . • " Good wine needs no bush " is explained by the fact that in former days, both in England and on the Continent, a bush or living bough hung before the door was the usual sign of a wine-room. Establishments which became noted for the quality of their liquors did not expose this or any other sign, and hence the proverb. a • . • "To take anyone down a peg or two " recalls the Saxon tankards', or wassail bowl*, graduated by lines running around the in- , terior. Small holes* were made partly through the sides of the vessels, and in these, | were placed pegs to regulate the amount drunk by each participant in the feast. To drink a greater portion than another was to take him down a peg. ' j^' . ' "To give the cold shoulder "Is said to have originated in a practice once common In France, and during Norman days in England also. When a guest had outstayed bis welcome, instead of the haunch of mutton or ' venison usually served at dinner, a cold shoulder of mutton was placed before him as a hint that he had better go. jv- 1 .," "As dead as a door nail" at first seemed utterly senseless, but is, in a measure, lively and picturesque. Formerly, beneath the knooker, in order" to avoid disfigurement of the door, a large nail or bolt was driven . An impatient caller, waiting for the door to be opened, would frequently use the knocker with great force, and the irreBponsiveness of the nail gave rise to the expression. jf 1 , 1 "By hook or crook" recalls the day when the poor of the English country districts were allowed to go Into the forests and pickup such branches as had fallen from the tree. As a hook at the end of a short stick was frequently brought to assist in this labour, and as the straight branches must be ~ - left for the landlord, the' expression "by hook or by crook " came to mean the accomplishment of an end in one way or another. U« • . • " Whom the gods love die young "is an adage whioh has come to us from the Stoiqs, ! who believed that lengthening years invariably meant increase of sorrow and misery. There is a story told of a mother In Athena who, having rendered the gods some service, was asssnred that any petition she offered! would be heard and answered. She prayed! for her three sons the best gift the gods couia bestowj the next morning they vrece. a£ found dead.