ORIGIN OF OLD SAYINGS.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 4065, 1 August 1884, Page 4

ORIGIN OF OLD SAYINGS.

Tho majority of these pio verbial sayings are, I suppose, of old date, and come down to us from our English or' Dutch forefathers. Here is $vo ovigin of the expression " tick," for credit, which I have always taken to bo quite modern slang. It scorns, on tho contrary, that it is as old as the seventeenth century, and is 'corrupted from ticket, as a tradesman's bill was then commonly called. On tick was on ticket. "Humble - pie," refers to the days when the English forests ■were stocked with deer, and venison pasty was commonly, seen on the tables of the ■wealthy. The inferior and refuse portions of the deer, termed the " umbles," wore generally appropriated to the poor,: who

made them into a pie ; hence "umble pie " "became suggestive of poverty, and afterwards was applied to degradations of other kinds. "A wild goose chase" was a sort of racing, resembling the flying of wild geese, in which, after one horse had got tho lead, the other was obliged to follow after. As the second horse generally exhausted himself in vain efforts to overtake the first,: this mode of racing was finally discontinued. The expression " a feather in his cap" did not signify merely the right to decorate one's self-with a token of success, but referred to an ancient custom of the people of Hungary, of which mention is made in the Lansdowne Manuscripts in the British Museum. None but he who had killed a Turk was permitted to adorn himself in that fashion, or to " shew the number of his slaine enemys, by the number of fethers in his cappe." It occurs to me to question whether the similar phrase to " plume himself," had not its source in the same tradition. "Chouse" is a Persian word, spelt properly kiaus or chiaus, meaning intelligent, astute, and as applied to public agents an honorary title. In 1609, a certain Sir Robert Shirley sent before him to England a messenger, or chiaus, as his agent from the Grand Signor and the Sophy, he himself following at his leisure. The agent chiaused the Persian and Turkish, merchants in England of four thousand pounds, and fled before Sir Robert arrived. A "baker's dozen" was originally the devil's dozen, thirteen being tho number of witches supposed to sit down together at table. The baker was an unpopular characterr, and became substitute for the devil. (Query, Why was the baker unpopular?) The explanation of the proverbial saying about " Hobson's choice is given by Steele in the Spectator, No. 509. Hobson kept a livery stable, his stalls being ranged one behind another, counting from the door: each customer was obliged to take the horse -which happened to be in the stall nearest the door, this chance fashion of serving being thought to secure perfect impartiality. — T> ecember Atlantic.