HERE AND THERE.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 18630, 6 December 1928, Page 8

HERE AND THERE.

AN EYE FOR EVERYTHING* How the Collie became Popular. Though the collie is now an aristocrat among dogs, it had quite a humble origin, for it was first known as a sheep dog for Scottish farmers. Then Queen Victoria, on one of her first visits to Balmoral, became very fond of a collie, and the breed was brought into social prominence, and has never entirely lost the popularity that the Queen’s favour won for it. The collie’s ancestry goes back to the sixteenth century. Its name (originally spelt “colley”) is derived from the Anglo-Saxon word “col,” meaning “ black.” This was the dog’s original colour. x x x Canned Music. Once upon a time there were folk who thought they had ridiculed the gramophone out of existence by contemptuously calling its music “ canned music.” But this wonderful instrument long ago confounded its detractors by improving itself and its records beyond recognition. In any case, “ canned music ” fails to hit the mark as a term of reproach. The messages of the telephone, telegraph and wireless are all canned in a similar way; and is not the wisdom of the ages canned, in the books of the world? For the matter of that, sculpture and architecture and painting all “ can ” beauty. May the gramophone keep on canning music! St X X The Knife, Fork end Spoon. Even to-day the knife, fork and spoon are not in universal use. Here and there they are beginning to lose ground, as, for instance, in the case of asparagus, where fashion prescribes the use of the fingers, whilst the fork, oftener than not, is used alone for sweets. Our forefathers, who thought more of a rich meal, ate, even as the Greeks and Romans, in the most primitive way. That is to say, they took the food with their fingers. The spoon, too, was superfluous, for if the’- wanted to partake of the sauce they simply squeezed the bread into the shape of a spoon and dipped it into the sauce or broth of the common bowl. The fork is of a relatively recent date. It first appeared towards the end of the tenth century. Peter Galveston, a favourite of King Edward 11., had sixty-nine silver spoons and three forks. The chronicle adds that the works were reserved only “to eat pears with.” It was regarded as an offence against natural simplicity when, at the beginning of the fifteenth century, some patrician families of Italy adopted the custom of using a fork. A curious pamphlet written against the favourites of Henry 111. bears witness to the indignation its introduction aroused in France. “ Firstly,” says the anonymous author, 44 they never touch the meat with their hands, but with forks.

... It is strictly forbidden in this country to touch salad with the hands: but they rather touch their mouths with this strange instrument than with their fingers.” In Scotland the use of the fork was a penal offence. Originally a weapon against enemies and beasts of prey, the knife soon became one of the most important tools of everyday use. It was found among people of the lowest phase of development long before iron began to be used in its manufacture. For want of iron and other metals, primitive man made knifelife instruments of hard bamboo, wood, shells, and teeth of the shark. Later, knives were made of stone. Specimens have been found by the thousand in the explorations of prehistoric burial places. The hollow of the hand, with which primitive man carried water to his mouth, may have suggested to him the idea of the spoon. In explorations in Assyria well-made spoons of copper or bronze have been found. The Egyptians, too, had artistically adorned spoons of wood and ivory. They seemed to have served less for eating than for the sprinkling of incense on perfuminv fans. Greek# and Romans knew the spoon in variou* forms. In the Middle Ages the spoon was used chiefly for ecclesiastical purposes.