WOMAN’S WORLD

Evening Star, Issue 20058, 26 December 1928, Page 12

WOMAN’S WORLD

PICNICS Jane Austen once coldly described picnics ns “parties to eat ham and cold chicken out of doors,” thereby betraying her scant sympathy with such-goings-on. An elevant collation lit by candles in Sheffield candelabra, tea sipped from blue Worcester cups in a panelled parlour, were fitting refreshment for the inimitable Jane, but a real picnic—fie! Do you see the Miss Dennetts scrambling over the moors for the pleasure of eating hard-boiled eggs among the heather when they might have partaken of them genteely out ol eggcups at home, or Elizabeth Woodhouso devouring bread and cheese out of a knapsack for the sake of the sea’s salt tang? (asks a London ‘ Evening News ’ writer.) Never! Men might stuff their pockets with bread and meal for a day’s shooting, but la! gentlemen had such odd, rough ways I If the ladies decided upon a picnic it was as elaborately rustic and as prettily sophisticated as Marie Antoinette’s dairy play at Versailles. . .. Yet nowadays picknicking is a feminine pastime for as a rule, has small patience with a picnic—a genuine one, 1 mean, not the bloated variety which requires a car, a fitted basket complete with chauffeur to carry it, iced drinks and lobster mayonnaise, and which persists in diffusing atmosphere of Derby Day and striped awnings wherever it goes. Woman, with her unerring instinct for makeshift meals, loves the family picnic which can be stuffed into any old basket and travel contentedly on Tom’s push-bike; she wants neither dinner-party trimmings nor complicated fitments, but just a meal in the open and no dishes to wash. FEAST OF THE DOLLS To the Japanese girl the Feast of Dolls is the most important day of any. For more than a thousand years this day has been set aside by the nation as the clay on which the “ flapper ” of Japan may assert her independence and appreciate her own importance. With the gradual spread of emancipation among women in the Orient the “Hina Matsuri,” takes place during the first week in March, grows in importance year by year in its place in the long calendar of national holidays. During this week the _ unmarried girl will deck herself out in her gayest kimono, and with a sprig of newly-blossomed cherry in her hair, she will pray at the shrine of her dolls for a good and faithful husband (says a writer in the London ‘ Evening News’). On the first of these fetes that follows the birth of a baby girl the parents present their newly-born child with a doll, which, after fifteen subsequent additions, she takes with her to her husband’s home on her wedding day as a portion of her dowry. In the home these dolls have a place of honour on the five shelves specially prepared for them Tlie highest shelf arrayed in gorgeous apparel of the choicest silk contains the two Imperial dolls, representing the Emperor and Empress, and as one year succeeds another the lower tiers are gradually filled with dolls of lesser degree. On the actual day of the beast of Dolls a multitude of ceremonial observances has to be fulfilled, for, should one iota of the customary rites be overlooked, bad luck and ill-health will most assuredly follow for a whole year. During the day sweetmeats and delicacies must be avoided by the little worshippers and offered to her dolls. POT POURRI (OR ROSEJAR) Gather a quantity of rose leaves «n a dry, sunny day and after the dew has dried on the blossoms. Spread the leaves out on a tray to dry, tree from dust or draught, and turn them over frequently until no trace of moisture remains. While the leaves are drying prepare this mixture: —llb of common salt, Jib bay salt, about haif-teaspoonfuT of cloves, Joss storax, two or three touquise bean, a vanilla pod, and some powered orrix root (these four items can be got at any chemist’s). You also require some dried orange peel, some cinnamon, and mace. Put a layer of rose leaves into your jar, then add a layer of the mixture, more rose leaves, and so on until you have used up all the rose leaves. Now add some lavender, some bay leaves (dried), and clove carnations. If you can get them, a few leaves of lemon-scented verbena may be added, and also some geranium leaves. All must be perfectly dry before being added to the jar. Close up the jar and leave it untouched for a day or two; (hen gently stir the contents and cover again. The way to “ use ” pot pourri is to uncover the jar for a few minutes* every day until the room is filled with a sweet but faint perfume—then cover the jar again.