THINGS NOT FOUND IN ANY BOOKS

Sun (Christchurch), Volume I, Issue 151, 1 August 1914, Page 3

THINGS NOT FOUND IN ANY BOOKS

Curing Man of the Habi

How we got our KNIVES, FORKS and SPOONS

instruments resulted. Bronr.e continued in favour until the time of Caesar, but iron had come into use a thousand years

is indicated by the fact that ivoryhandled knives were found in the Roman tombs besides dishes of food. There are certain -monuments, depicting banquet scenes, at which the guests were with knives, but ordinarily the food was cut; before being placed upon the table. We learn from ' Clement of Alexandria that by the second half of the second century the. use knives at table had become common in the Roman Empire.

But certain it is that until tbc fourteenth century the table knife did not appear in' a class by itself. Tip to that time the guest attending a dinner party provided his own, or, if he failed to do so, used his fingers. Within another century, however, the table knife became so popular that three distinct kinds of knives were manufactured —a small knife used in eating, a carved knife with a broad blade, and the parepain, or breadpeeler, designed to trim the crusts from flat pieces of bread, which were often used instead of plates. During the first half of the seventeenth century Cardinal Richelieu, the founder of the French Academy, became offended by the rude manner J2l which pointed knives were used, and thereafter caused his knives to be rounded. Before long the fashion was generally adopted, and the pointed blade, which, in lieu of a fork, had been useful in picking up pieces of meat, was abandoned. Since the seventeenth century the form of table knife has remained substantially as we know it.

The knife with which you cut your hieat to-day is the result of a slow development from the most remote ages. The human race cannot long have existed before necessity prompted the use of a rude cutting instrument with which game might be killed and then divided.

The knife was chipped out of flint or stone, though originally such instruments may not have been fashioned at all beyond the rude shape that Nature gave the.M. Sometimes they were made from shell or the bones of animals or sharpened pieces of tough wood.

before. The steel of Damascus gradually took their places. In literature the earliest use of the knife has reference to its use in the sacrifice. We are familiar with the reference in Genesis: ''And Abraham stretched forth his hand and took the knife to slay his son.''

For ages the same instrument served indiscriminately on the field of battle, in the chase, and at meals. Finally it took different shapes, according to the use to which it was to be put. A curved blade was used for whittling, a straight one for domestic purposes, and a pointed or dagger-shaped knife served as a weapon.

The Greek word knife is derived from a verb which means fight, and refers to a large knife worn by heroes and used by them for slaughtering animals. Since the Greeks were in the habit of feasting on their secrifices, we can hardly imagine that this knife would often be used in carving meat. In the works of Herodotus we have reference to its use as a carving knife. Pherecrates, a comic poet w!:r> flourished about the same time, menti; s

There can be little doubt that the spoon has come down to us from remote antiquity, and that prehistoric man must have felt the need for it as soon as he discovered the use of a knife. The Greek name for spoon is derived from a word meaning shell, which would suggest that the shell.* of molluscs and oysters were the first spoons used. Later bone and wood were undoubtedly utilised. There are in existence ancient Egyptian spoons of glass, stone, marble, wood and ivory, curiously wrought.

a knife for cutting meat on one's pL; '. At the beginning of the Christian vIA table knives were still without favour. That they were used to a limited extent

When history opens, men are already using knives of copper. Somewhat later tin was added to the copper, and bronze

The spoon made ita appearance on the

t of EATING WITH HIS FINGERS was a Long, Slow Process

table long before the table .knife:,was. known. Even in the Old Testament may be found various references to golden spoons used in, connection with the sacrifice. Among the early Greeks, with whom soup and porridge were popular dishes, pieces of bread at .first-served reasonably well as spoons;., but since table knives were not in fashion, since oysters, snails, and eggs appeared on every banquet table, metal utensils became an actual necessity. These were often made of

handle was pointed for convenience in removing oysters from the shell, and in lifting food to the mouth, and it really combined the functions of' knife, fork, and spoon.

gold, and the bowl, although it terminated in a point, was broad and hollow. Thus the pointed end could bo used in opening foods served in the shell, whereas the bowl was adapted to the eating of liquid food. The Romans, like the Greeks, used spoons, of silver, bronze or ivory to convey to the mouth what the fingers could not manage. Two kinds seem to have been in general use, the ligula and the cochlear. The ligula was shaped much like our own tablespoon. The cochlear had a much smaller bowl, was circular in shape, and very slightly hollowed. Its

For this reason we may be sure that the fork is ,of far more recent origin thaneither the knife or the spoon. The Egyptians used bronze forks for lifting sacrificial offerings out of seething pots, implements have been found in Egyptian tombs. Among the Greeks and Romans the' sacrificial fork usually had five prongs, and was used in roasting pieces of meat oyer the fire. More often, however, a long, pointed stick, called an obelus, was used for supporting the meat

The carvings and the decorations on spoons of various periods reflect the interests and the beliefs of the people Who used them. Both Greek and Roman spoons have figures of the gods carved upon them. The early Christians crowded the handles, and even the bowls, with symbolic characters.

From the later Middle Ages spoons of silver washed over with gold and set with rubies, or spoons of pure gold with four pearls set in the broadest part of the handle, have come down to us. For such workmanship kings and nobles paid the goldsmiths vast sums. Those who were not wealthy used spoons of pewter, brass, and tinned iron. Even wood and bone were used until late in the sixteenth century. From the thirteenth century on, however, a limited number of stiver spoons were common, even in the less pretentious households. During the seventeenth century the bowl of the spoou gradually became wider near the stem and narrower at the base, thus assuming an egg-shaped form, with the small end downward. Et was not until after 1660 that the stem, which had been as great in thickness as in width, became flattened, gradually expanded from the bowl upward and rounded off at the top.

Strangely enough, the obvious use of forks for table purposes seems not to have occurred to mankind until a comparatively modern date. If forks had been used, there would surely be some surviving relics, pictures of them in. banquet scenes, or references in contemporary literature. On the other hand, in Homeland Ovid there are distinct references to the use of the fingers in conveying food to the mouth; and we are all

Spoons of standard sizes, which are so familiar to us, have not long been in general use. The teaspoon, for example, is of comparatively recent introduction, for tea itself seems not to have been imported into Europe until the seventeenth century. A sharp piece of flint naturally suggested itself to prehistoric man as a cutting implement; an oyster shell served his purpose as a spoon or ladle. It required no little skill to fashion a forked implement, however, and there was little in Nature to suggest the idea.

familiar with a reference in the account of the Last Supper. Many assert that our table fork is

descended from the same ancesta||||tt : v that of .the Chinese chopstick. stick resembles a tapering pencil pearance; it would seem..not to :mdre c»nyjjnient utensjl than the Roman. '■-,;■■ sjkjon/the* handle of which was some- ; times used in eating bits of meat or ~ V fish. Whatever its origin, the instrument ; c first- used in Italy assumed the form ' of a two-pronged fork, like the fork in a carving set of the present day. Humanity waited long for the fork,' yet was loth to adopt the improvement after it had been introduced. In representations of feasts previous to the sixteenth century, forks are rarely shown. During the earlier Middle Ages, we ara told, they were used for roasting meat over the fire, and not for table purposes. Franklin assures us that the use of forks did not begin to be introduced in the high society of France until 1600, that during the seventeenth century most persons ate with their fingers, and that not until the eighteenth century were forks used regularly by all classes -of society. After the middle of the seventeenth century the history of the fork chiefly concerns its spread from the aristocracy to the more humble circles. Even during the eighteenth century it was customary for a gentleman, when travelling, to carry a case containing his own knife and fork, since the inns and public places had but a meagre supply. For centuries the tv?opronged instrument, bedecked with jewels and inlaid decorations, prevailed. This type gradually gave way to simpler forms that enabled the fork to come into mora general use. Even the first-steel forks made at Sheffield, England, had only two tines, but by and by a three-pronged fork made its appearance.

The foun-pronged fork, conveniently" curved and adapted to the purpose for which it is used; is. of comparatively recent origin. It is said that only two of those in existence are known to date from the seventeenth century.