The gift of cutlery at weddings was not always the prosaic thing it is nowadays, for the cases and even the knives were often accompanied by some sentimental rhyme or poetic inscription. Two knives, apparently the gift of bride and bridegroom to one another, now in the British Museum, are engraved with separate inscriptions. One reads:-- "My love is fixt I will not range, I like my choice I will not change"; while on the other is engraved:-- "Witt, wealth, and beauty all doe well But constant love doth fair excell. 1676." The early uses of knives in association with religious rites are interesting, as, for instance, the golden knife with which the old Druids cut the mistletoe with pomp and much mystic ceremony. The early Christians made use of the knife and symbolized the cross when feasting; indeed, the old country habit--which is now deemed a sign of vulgarity--of crossing the knife and fork after dining, took its origin in that act of devotion, for together they form the Greek cross. Browning refers to the custom when he says:-- "Knife and fork he never lays Crosswise, to my recollection, As I do in Jesu's praise." In Russia this custom of the peasantry was deep-rooted; and there they were careful to take up the knife and fork and lay them down on the plate crossed before commencing their often meagre meal. [Illustration: FIG. 20.--PAIR OF DECORATED SPOONS. (_In the Victoria and Albert Museum._)] Strange to say that although knives and forks have been crossed in reverence, to cross knives has been deemed unlucky, and to present a maiden with a pair of scissors--two crossed blades--has long been held by those who believe in such signs as unlucky. To give a knife is to "cut luck"--so the legend runs; hence so many when presenting a pocket knife will demand a penny (as the smallest coin when silver pennies were in circulation) in return. The Rev. Samuel Bishop, M.A., Master of the Merchant Taylors' School in 1795, wrote the following lines on the subject of presenting a knife to his wife:-- "A knife, dear girl, cuts love, they say-- Mere modish love perhaps it may: For any tool of any kind Can separate what was never join'd." Salt Cellars.