HOW DID IT BEGIN?
Do you ever wonder why people do, or wear, or say certain things? Why
they shake hands when they meet, or why they wear wigs or trousers? Did you ever say that
someone was “as mad as a hatter” and then wonder how this saying comes to mean what it
does? Many things you say and do could have reasons that date back thousands of years. How
did some of these customs begin?
It is very strange to think that shaking hands – a friendly
custom today – was originally a means of keeping a stranger’s weapon hand where it
could do no harm.
In primitive times, when man was constantly threatened by beasts and
other men, he never went about without some weapon of defense – usually a club. Any
stranger was suspect, and upon meeting one, a man could either stand and fight, turn away
before discovering if the stranger was a friend or foe, or greet the stranger and possibly
become friends.
But how could he be sure the stranger would be friendly – and how
could the stranger trust him in return? There was only one way to show friendly
intentions, and that was for both men to lay down their weapons and hold out their empty
palms.
For added insurance, each would reach for the other’s right hand. As
long as both men’s weapon hands were safely clasped, neither could harm the other.
Therefore, a handshake originally was a means of self-defense.
As for wigs, first of all one has to remember that for thousands
of years both men and women considered long hair to be a source of strength, the very
source, in fact, of the spirit of life. They therefore believed that long hair frightened
enemies and, of course, that it made people more attractive. Warriors, especially, let
their hair grow long; they thought that losing their hair meant losing their strength –
and thereby inviting defeat.
An abudance of hair was so desirable that people bought wigs to add to
whatever hair they already had. Wigs have been used for many purposes through the
centuries. Actors, spies, and fugitives have all used them to disguise themselves. Statues
of Greek actors from as far back as the fifth century B.C. show elaborate wigs and
headpieces, and it is thought that comic servants in Greek plays were easily identified by
their bright red or orange wigs.
In Europe wigs were not popular until the seventeenth century, when
Louis XIII of France became bald. He started using false hair, and his courtiers followed
suit. Soon the common people copied the nobility. By the middle of the eighteenth century,
there were almost forty different types of wigs with names like “the staircase”,
“the artichoke”, “the pigeon’s wig”, etc.
Just before the French Revolution of 1789, wigs up to three feet in
height were worn, with blond being the most stylish colour.
The craze for wigs and the demand for natural hair to make these wigs
created some interesting problems. Corpses were shorn of their hair, women and children
had to be protected from hair robbers, and poor people made money by selling their hair to
the highest bidders. In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, most educated men had
their own hair cut off and made into wigs. They considered this more sanitary than using
hair bought from another person – or a corpse.
Trousers were probably invented by the Scythian nomads of Central Asia
almost three thousand years ago. These warriors found that it wasn’t very comfortable
riding horseback with a loose piece of animal skin draped around their bodies, and so they
began wearing fitter leather riding pants that tucked into their boots. Therefore, when
the nomads went out to battle, they were more agile then their enemies. They could get on
and off their horses quickly and easily. Their enemies took note and began wearing
trousers, too.
By the sixth century B.C., the Persians began wearing trousers. Darius,
an early Persian ruler, wore brightly coloured, embroidered silk trousers tucked into his
riding boots. Soon trousers were worn by the Chinese, the Indians and finally, by northern
Europeans. These first trousers were wide and puffy and often embroidered.
When Julius Caesar invaded Britain in 55 B.C., he was impressed by the
colourful trousers worn by people he considered barbarians. At first the Romans thought
trousers were fit only for slaves, but it wasn’t long before more and more people began
wearing them.
Long trousers were popular for several centuries, but then went out of
fashion again. They came back into style at the end of the eighteenth century, replacing
silk stockings and short breeches. Still, not everyone accepted the change. In England,
during the early 1800s, the clergy were not allowed to wear trousers in the pulpit – not
under any circumstances. And in 1814, the Duke of Wellington was refused entrance to his
club because he wore trousers.
Despite such opposition, trousers gained popularity. In England, rich
men suffering from gout took to wearing what they considered barbarian attire, because
they thought the loose trousers would help ease the pain of their swollen legs. And during
the French Revolution in the late eighteenth century, the blue linen pants of French
workmen became the symbol of the equality of man. To escape the guillotine, many French
noblemen quickly donned pants, hoping to be taken for working men.
Today, of course, pants are worn by men, women, and children around the
world, and it’s hard to imagine a time when they were not popular.
The phrase “mad as a hatter” is explained by two quite
different stories. The first explanation is that the word “hatter” is really
“atter”, the Anglo-Saxon word for an adder, or viper, the poisonous snake. The phrase
originally spoke of a person being as “venomous as an adder”.
The second explanation is more interesting. Hatters, the people who
made hats for a living before the Industrial Revolution of the eighteenth century, often
worked with beaver and rabbit furs. Mercury – a very poisonous substance – was used to
process these furs, and the hatters did not realize the dangers of handling mercury. They
did not know that it was slowly absorbed into the system, poisoning their bodies. Many
hatters became ill. The first symptom of this illness was the “shakes”; then a kind of
madness followed. Eventually, “mad as a hatter” became a commonly used expression.
These are explanations for just a few of the things we say and do every
day. Many other good stories about the origins of English and American customs and sayings
are still waiting to be discovered.
By Natalia Predtechenskaya |