WAR CAKES.

Woodville Examiner, Volume XXVII, Issue 4514, 11 April 1913, Page 4 (Supplement)

WAR CAKES.

At first sight there does not appear much connection between an article of fancy confectionery and a disastrous battle, and probably the px-esent war in tha Balkans will not leave much of an impression upon the shape or size of penny cakes. But it is a fact that, iu many cases, tho origin of various articles of food can be traced to such happenings. It is to an encounter between tho Turks and Austrians, for instance, that wo owe the popular Vienna rolls, with their distinctive crescent shape. Nearly four hundred years ago tho Turks, under Suleiman 11., besieged the city of Vienna. I/nahlo to take the city bv storm, tho Turks drove a tunnel undor the ramparts, and would probably have effected their purpose had not the noiso of their hammering attracted the attention of a baker, whoso underground bakehouse happened to bo just above the roof of tho subterranean passage The baker was thus able to give warning to bis countrymen, and next dav UioV surprised the Turks, and in a fierce battle no fewer than 10,000 of the invaders were slain, valiant defence of Nikolous von Salm in the end compelled the Turks to mice the siege, and tor a century and a half after Vienna was free from tho too pressing attentions of the Turks. It was because of their great deliverance, and to commemorate the manner of tho warnthat tho Viennese bakers make np tlmir rolls of broad in the form of increscent, the recognised emblem of tho Ottoman Empire. And though much has happened since, and there have been many changes in the history of the city, Viennese rolls are still made in crescent shape. Few people would creel d the harmless gingerbread with so s - n:eter a significance as it pesser-'-ses. Everyoody is familiar with the phrase “taking the gilt off the gingerbread." wliica refers to the. little gilt fignivs which uses! to adorn tho gingerbread cakes that one saw exposed for sale at country fan.-.. Tim gdt, (;i> the gingerbread typifies an rid Oriental custom of human sacrifice, in which the body or the victim was first anointed with oil. then covered with gold dust -and .afterwards rolled, and tho flesh cooked and eaten. Those littlo giit figures, made and linked and oaten, are the modern survival of this horrible* practice. Tho strangest .story on record in connection with bread-making i» -that known as tho Ohupattie Mystery. Shortly before the lud : au Mutiny a native pn-licaman entered one of tho villa go; of Oiulh, carrying a couple of eluipat-t-ios or cakes. Tho person who took them was ordered to make ten more and distribute them, two by two, in tho neighbouring villages. Each recipient in turn followed this plan, and soon there were native runners all over tho country carrying the cakes from one house to another. Thero was no spoken message, but tho receipt of the chupattie evidently had a moaning, fox soon India was in revolt, {several continue* previously a similar distribution of cakes in China preceded tho great popular rising in that country, but why if. did so remains a mystery to this day.