The Farmer's Thrifty Housewife Was Making Soap At The Time The Spoons Were Unearthed; And As They Were Much Discolored, "The Old Lead Things" Were Tossed Into The Kettle Of Lye, From Whence, To Her Amazement, They Came Out Gold, Or, At Least, Silver Washed With Gold.

These spoons, they say, were used in the service of the church; but it is more likely that they

Were the property of some family, and probable that they were dropped by their owners - then living beyond the present site of Annapolis - when, at the time of the banishment of the Acadians, they were hurried away to the ships on the Basin of Minas.

An apostle spoon was often a treasured heirloom in families of the better class, and at the advent of each scion of the family tree was suspended about the neck of the infant at baptism, being supposed to exert some beneficent influence. Especially in the East, about the seventh century, we find that a small vessel, or spoon, sometimes of gold, was used in the churches These were eucharistic utensils, by means of which communicants conveyed the sacred elements to the mouth; but this custom was forbidden and done away with, though probably the tradition of such usage suggested the spoon, which became general in Greek and most Oriental churches many years after. The supposition is, that in those churches, after the wafer had been put into the wine in the chalice, the spoon was used to dip out such portion as was to be reserved for administering the last sacrament to the dying, or to those who were too ill to attend the service in the church.

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