8 3 2 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



table or held in the hands of any of the guests — except that, in a 

 single picture in a manuscript of Herrad of Landsberg (since de- 

 stroyed by fire), an instrument resembling a fork, but more like a 

 double-edged knife split in the direction of its length, was lying 

 on the table. 



The fork is likewise not mentioned in any of the numerous de- 

 scriptions of feasts by the chroniclers of the middle ages ; not in 

 Alienor de Poitiers's account of the ceremonies and table usages of 

 the Burgundian court ; nor in the account of the setting of the 

 table given in the " Mdnagier de Paris " ; nor in that of the great 

 feast given by the Duke of Burgundy to the English ambassadors 

 in 1462. But it does appear from these stories that the guests took 

 the meat and other viands which the carver prepared for them, 

 and carried it to their mouths in their fingers. In some distin- 

 guished houses they took the pieces out of the common dish, or 

 cut them themselves to eat them by the aid of their fingers. The 

 guests did not even receive separate knives, and it was the custom 

 in England in the sixteenth century for each to bring his own knife 

 and sharpen it upon a common steel that hung upon the wall. 



The absence of forks explains the careful attention that was 

 paid to washing the hands before and after meals. Servants were 

 all the time going around with basins and pitchers, and a towel 

 slung over their shoulders, and pouring water on the hands of the 

 guests, and the napkins were frequently changed. Sometimes the 

 water was perfumed ; and every pains was taken to remedy the 

 soiling of the fingers that inevitably took place, and make it as 

 little unpleasant as possible. 



It seems clear enough, in the light of this negative evidence, 

 that the few forks included in the silver-ware of the middle ages 

 were not used as forks are used to-day. Since kitchen-forks 

 served as spits and for holding roasts, it is probable that the 

 high-born lords and ladies of those times, who only appear to have 

 possessed these implements, used their silver forks for toasting 

 their bread at the breakfast-room fire. There is some direct evi- 

 dence that they were employed to hold substances particularly dis- 

 agreeable or inconvenient to handle, as toasted cheese, which would 

 leave an unpleasant smell ; or sticky sugared dainties ; or soft 

 fruits, the juice of which would stain the fingers. 



Only one incident is related of the use of the fork in the nine- 

 teenth-century fashion. This was by a noble lady of Byzantium 

 who had married a Doge of Venice, and continued in that city to 

 eat after her own custom, cutting her meat very finely up and con- 

 veying it to her mouth with a two-pronged fork. The act was re- 

 garded in Venice, according to Pietrus Damianus, as a sign of ex- 

 cessive luxury and extreme effeminacy. It suggests a probability 

 that the fashion of eating with forks originated at the imperial 



