- A feather in your cap
The term "a feather in your cap" is an English
idiom atic phrase believed to have derived from the general custom in some cultures, of a warrior adding a new feather to their head-gear for every enemy slain,cite web | url = http://www.bartleby.com/81/6297.html| title = Feather in your cap | publisher = Bartleby.com | accessdate = 2007-04-25 ] cite web | url = http://bulfinch.englishatheist.org/dic/f.html| title = Dictionary of Phrase & Fable| publisher = Bullfinch’s Mythology | accessdate = 2007-04-25 ] or in other cases from the custom of establishing the success of a hunter as being the first to bag a game bird by the plucking of the feathers of thatprey and placing them in the hat band.cite web | url = http://myweb.tiscali.co.uk/the80sjukebox/cliches.htm| title = Cliché Origins | publisher = Tiscal Services | accessdate = 2007-04-25 ] The phrase today has altered to a more peacefulallusion , where it is used to refer to any laudable success or achievement by an individual that may help that person in the future.cite web | url = http://www.usingenglish.com/reference/idioms/feather+in+your+cap.html
title = Feather in your cap | publisher = Using English.com | accessdate = 2007-04-25]Traditions involving feathers in headdress
Examples of the use of feathers related to the killing of enemy combatants can be found in the traditional cultures of the Meunitarris of
Alberta ; and theMandan people (present-day North andSouth Dakota ) both of whom wore feathers in their headdress: and also the Caufirs ofCabul who are said to have stuck a feather in their turban for every enemy slain.Similar customs are thought to have been practiced by the Incas; Caciques; Abyssinians; Tur’comans;
Hungarians ; and the ancient Lycians.Examples of the use of feathers related to hunting can be found in the cultures of highland peoples in
Scotland andWales where it is still customary for the hunter who kills the firstwoodcock to pluck out a feather and stick it in his cap.Other examples of feathers in caps which appear to be related to hunters and warriors can be found in mythological stories of historical figures such as theAustria n bailiff of Altdorf,Albrecht Gessler an aggressor who made Swiss national heroWilliam Tell shoot an apple from the head of his son. Indeed theTyrolean hat of today, worn in the AustrianAlps has a cord wrapped around the base of the crown and a feather or brush on the side as trim.References and notes
ee also
*
War bonnet
*Fedora
*White feather External links
* [http://www.panteek.com/Bodmer/pages/bd38-241.htm Scalp Dance of the Meunitarris]
* [http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/homegarden/2003580864_gardenwildlife21.html?syndication=rss Why it may be against the law to make your own feathered headdress in the USA]
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.