Fingers before Forks

“This Vulcan was a smith, they tell us,

That first invented tongs and bellows;

For breath and fingers did their works

(Weʹd fingers long before weʹd forks).”

King Art of Love.

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Entry taken from Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, edited by the Rev. E. Cobham Brewer, LL.D. and revised in 1895.