BUTTER. 129 
retained by the Butter. Cabbages, and turnips are more subject 
to this imputation, but their unwelcome odours can be made to 
volatilize. 
The most useful varieties of Butter next to the English are 
Irish, Dutch, Holstein, Swiss, Norman, and that from the 
Channel Islands. Butter was first used as a food by the Hebrews. 
The early Greeks and Romans employed it as a medicine, or 
ointment. Perfumed Butter has been a recent fad in the 
refined ! homes of New York. Pats of Butter are wrapped 
in muslin, and laid in glass dishes on beds of roses, violets, and 
carnations, with other blossoms heaped over them, so that the 
Butter becomes impregnated with the various flower odours. 
The Mad Hatter, ‘‘ Alice in Wonderland,” took his watch out of 
his pocket on being asked by Alice what day of the month it 
was. ‘“ Two days wrong!” sighed the Hatter; “I told you 
Butter wouldn’t suit the works.’ ‘‘ But it was the best Butter,” 
meekly replied the March Hare. 
Again, thus sang the “ aged, aged man in a song of his own 
invention ” :— 
**T sometimes dig for buttered rolls, 
Or set limed twigs for crabs. 
I sometimes search the grassy knolls 
For wheels of hansom cabs. 
And that’s the way (he gave a wink) 
By which I get my wealth ; 
And very gladly will I drink 
Your honour’s noble health.” 
What is called by the cook “ clarified ” Butter, which is merely 
melted into a yellow, clear, oily liquid, such as is served at some 
tables with asparagus, will, more often than not, ferment in the 
stomach, especially if animal food be eaten therewith so as to 
stimulate a flow of acid gastric juice. Among the Jews an 
established rule obtains forbidding Butter to be eaten until 
some considerable time after a meal of animal food. Never- 
theless, in the grim kitchen of old Fagin, the Jew, buttered toast 
was greedily demanded by Noah Claypole at breakfast as part 
price for playing the spy upon Nancy (Oliver Twist, by Charles 
Dickens, 1838). It was Ebenezer Elliott, the Corn-law Rhymer, 
of Sheffield (1831)—(‘‘a voice” said Carlyle “from the deep 
Cyclopean forges ;”)—who in his early days “ had to rock the 
cradle, and stir the melted butter,” with the result that “ the 
poetry was spoilt, and the melted butter burnt.” 
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