ideas between handcuffs and policemen does
not need very acute mental powers to grasp, but there is a further
connection, a philological one, which is only evident at first sight to
those who have made a small acquaintance with the science of words.

The word "handcuff" is a popular corruption of the Anglo-Saxon
"handcop," _i.e._, that which "cops" or "catches" the hands.

Now, one of the most common of the many slang expressions used by their
special enemies towards the police is "Copper"--_i.e._, he who cops the
offending member. Strange as it may seem, handcuffs are by no means the
invention of these times, which insist on making the life of a prisoner
so devoid of the picturesque and romantic.

We must go back, past the dark ages, past the stirring times of Greek
and Roman antiquity, till we come to those blissful mythological ages
when every tree and every stream was the home of some kindly god.

In those olden days there dwelt in the Carpathian Sea a wily old deity,
known by the name of Proteus, possessing the gift of prophecy, the
fruits of which he selfishly denied to mankind.

Even if those who wished to consult him were so fortunate as to find
him, all their efforts to force him to exert his gifts of prophecy were
useless, for he was endowed with the power of changing himself into all
things, and he eluded their grasp by becoming a flame of fire or a drop
of water. There was one thing, however, against which all the miracles
of Proteus were of no avail, and of this Aristaeus was aware.

So Aristaeus came, as Virgil tells us, from a distant land to consult the
famous prophet. He found him on the sea-shore among his seals, basking
in the afternoon sun. Quick as thought he fitted handcuffs on him, and
all struggles and devices were now of no avail. Such was then the
efficacy of handcuffs even on the persons of the immortal gods.

Having established this remote and honourable antiquity, we are not
surprised at the appearance of handcuffs in the fourth century B.C.,
when the soldiers of a conquering Greek army found among the baggage of
the routed Carthaginians several chariots full of handcuffs, which had
been held ready in confident anticipation of a great victory and a
multitude of prisoners.

The nearest approach to a mention that we find after that is in the Book
of Psalms: "To bind their kings in chains and their nobles in fetters of
iron." But in the Greek, the Latin, Wickliffe's, and Anglo-Saxon Bib