ORIGIN OF OLD SAYINGS.

Waikato Times, Volume XXIII, Issue 1886, 7 August 1884, Page 4

ORIGIN OF OLD SAYINGS.

The majority of these proverbial sayings are, I suppose, of old date, and come down to us from our English or Dutch forefathers. Here is the origin of the expression " tick " or credit, which 1 have always taken to be quite modern slang. It seems on the contrary, that it is as old as the seventeenth century, and is corrupted from ticket, as a tradesman's bill was commonly called. On tick was on ticket. " Humble pie,', refers to the day when the English forests were stocked with deer, the venision pastry was commonly seen on the tables oi the wealthy. The inferior and refuse portions of the deer, termed the " umbles," was generally appropriated to the poor, who made them into a pie ; hence " umble-pie because 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 the 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 mentiou 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 slain enemys, by the number of feathers 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 hims>elf following at his leisure. The agent chiaiised the Persian and Turkibh merchants in England of four thousand pounds, and fled before Sir Robert arrived. A " bakei's dozen " was originally the devil's dozen, thirteen being the number of witches supposed to sit down together at their great meetings or sabbaths. Hence the supeistition about sitting thirteen at table. The baker was an unpopular chaiacter, and became substitute for the devil. (Query. Why was the baker unpopular?) The explanation of the pioverbial saying about " Hobson's choice " is given by Steele in the Spectator, No. 509. Hobson kept a livery stable, his stalls being ranged one bthind another, counting from the door, each customer Mas obliged to take the hcrse which happened to be in the stall nearest the door, this chance fashion of serving being thought to secure perfect impartiality. — December Atlantic,

Ix the United States the number of Sunday-school teacheis is 932, 253, and of scholars 6,820,635. It requires £400,000, a year to meet the expenses of the Vatican, which are paid by Peter's pence and interest on the capital left by Pius IX. Is suicide ever justifiable? A Pittsburgh paper states that a melancholy case of self-murder occurred on Sunday, near Titusville, Pennsylvania. The following schedule of misfortunes was found in the victim's left boot: — "I married a widow who had a grown up daughter. My father visited our house very often, fell in love with my stepdaughter, and married her. So my father became my son-in-law, and my stepdaughter my mother, because she was my father's wife. Some time afterwards my wife had a son — he was my father's brother-in-law and my uncle, for he was the brother of my step-mother. My father's wite— i.e., my step-daughter — had also a son ; he was, of course, my brother, and in the meantime my grandchild, for he was the son of my daughter ; my wife was my grandmother, because she was my mother's mother. I was my wife's husband and grandchild at the same time ; and a* the husband of a person's grandmother is his grandfather, I was my own grandfather." Thk Secretary of the Wellington Chamber of Commerce has received an application for contributions to the Waghorn Memorial Committee, who are erecting a statute to the late Lieut. Waejhorn in his native town (Chatham) ; and' also to provide for his aged sisters now living in ' Melbourne. Lieutenant' Waghorn was the originator of the scheme for taking the English mails from tbe?East overland through Egypt, and „ himself carried the scheme into effect > with 'indomitable energy, and took i charge of the mails amidst very great 1; Uiffic^lties, reducing the time of, com-! „ munitatioh very largely by his personal " efforts. It' is thought probable that' , Baron, de Lesseps received his first hint ,*of. the c6jisj;ruption of the Suez Cafriaj 1 , 'from the l Success 'of Waghorn, with whom -be- waa ! well! acqiiamtedi iri opening; up, the overland route. Like so >'i maby/' other onfeidiitors^ poor- Wajhorn ■•;.wa* allowed to did in- poverty,; ami one of his.«istera -literally died' in the*workhouse «lso.