lls. Maple-wood has been used and esteemed by
many nations for cups and bowls. The old English and German vessel known
as a mazer was made of maple-wood, often bound and tipped with silver.
Spenser speaks in his _Shepheard's Calendar_ of "a mazer yrought of the
maple wood." A well-known specimen in England bears the legend in Gothic
text:--

"In the Name of the Trinitie
Fille the kup and drinke to me."

Sometimes a specially skilful Yankee would rival the Indians in shaping
and whittling out these bowls. I have seen two really beautiful ones
carved with double initials, and one with a Scriptural reference, said
to be the work of a lover for his bride. Another token of affection and
skill from the whittler were carved busks, which were the broad and
strong strips of wood placed in corsets or stays to help to form and
preserve the long-waisted, stiff figure then fashionable. One carved
busk bears initials and an appropriately sentimental design of arrows
and hearts.

On the rim of spinning-wheels, on shuttles, swifts, and on niddy-noddys
or hand-reels I have seen lettering by the hands of rustic lovers. A
finely carved legend on a hand-reel reads:--

"POLLY GREENE, HER REEL.
Count your threads right
If you reel in the night
When I am far away.
June, 1777."

Perhaps some Revolutionary soldier gave this as a parting gift to his
sweetheart on the eve of battle.

On his powder-horn the rustic carver bestowed his best and daintiest
work. Emblem both of war and of sport, it seemed worthy of being shaped
into the highest expression of his artistic longing. A chapter, even a
book, might be filled with the romantic history and representations of
American powder-horns; patriotism, sentiment, and adventure shed equal
halos over them. Months of the patient work of every spare moment was
spent in beautifying them, and their quaintness, variety, and
individuality are a never-ceasing delight to the antiquary. Maps, plans,
legends, verses, portraits, landscapes, family history, crests, dates of
births, marriages, and deaths, lists of battles, patriotic and religious
sentiments, all may be found on powder-horns. They have in many cases
proved valuable historical records, and have sometimes been the only
records of events. Mr. Rufus A. Grider, of Canajoharie, has made colored
drawings of about five hundred of these powder-horns, and of canteens or
drinking-horns. It is unfor