Why do we say it?

Southland Times, Issue 21088, 21 May 1930, Page 6

Why do we say it?

“A Feather in Your Cap.” Surely no one over thirty can have forgotten the awe with which in childhood he contemplated the Red Indian “braves” of the old “Cowboy and Indian” type of wild-west cinema film. There is now growing up a generation which has not known that delight. But we who grow old, and begin to mutter in our beards, can remember the thrills which we derived from the wild exploits of those savage people in their much befeathered headgear. For every enemy he slew, a Red Indian warrior added a feather to his head-dress, and, judging by the gentlemen who were exhibited at the old “White City” Exhibition, they must have pretty well exterminated each other. In places where men shoot wildfowl it is still customary for the man who makes the first kill to pluck a feather and stick it in his hatband, or behind his ear, according to taste and social circumstances. In one form or another this practice is almost universal. The phrase “a feather in your cap” is used metaphorically as a congratulatory expression to someone who has done something particularly brave or clever in any walk of life.