A HISTORY OF EVERYDAY THINGS

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 6, Issue 84, 25 June 1943, Page 6

A HISTORY OF EVERYDAY THINGS

FURNITURE

Thousands of years ago, when men lived in eaves or mud-huts, they had nothing that we should call furniture in their houses at all. A few skins, or a pile of dry grass, or heather, served them for a bed ; and if they had a bowl or two for food and a few rough tools and weapons they had all they needed. It was only as men learned to build better and more comfortable houses that they began to "furnish" their rooms, and so in time, tables and chairs and other things were invented to meet their needs. PILLOWS OF WOOD We can imagine that the piles of hay or grass got very untidy and scattered about, the. hut; so perhaps one day, the mother of the household thought she would stuff it. into some skins which she sewed roughly together. In this Avay she made the first pillow in the world! For no doubt pillows existed long before beds. But though we think of a pillow as something soft, in some countries pillows were: for a long time, made of wood! Probably the very first, was just a log of wood with, a curve in it; then smooth blocks of wood were -specially carved with ?i hollow to take the. head. We wonder how anyone could sleep on such a hard pillow.—but they were used, even by -wealthy people in Kgypt, and for many years, peasants- and poor people in England had nothing else to put their heads on at" night. And of course the floor, spread with skins or rugs, was used as a "bed."