Fig. 624. Folding Spoon of carved box-wood.
Spoon, Chr. In early times, especially among the Greeks, Syrians, and Copts, the sacrament in one kind only was administered with a small gold or silver spoon, into which a few drops of the consecrated wine were poured. In the Middle Ages spoons were frequently ornamented with figures, some carved in ivory or wood, and others of metal. Apostle Spoons had figures of the Apostles on the handles. (See Labis and Cochlear.)
Sporta, R. A broad plaited basket made of wood and usually furnished with two handles. Diminutives of this term are sportella and sportula.
Springers, Arch. The lowest stones of an arch resting on a column, pilaster, or cluster of small columns.
Spurs with rowels appear first in the 13th century; in early times and in antiquity they were merely sharp goads fixed to the heel. In the middle of the 15th century spurs were of extravagant length. In Heraldry, the knightly spur had a single point, up to about 1320, and was known as the “pryck-spur;” the later form is called the “rouelle-spur.”
Spurn, O. E. A piece of stone or wood protecting a corner house or gate-post from wheels. One end is fixed in the ground, and the other attached at an angle to the post or wall.
Squinch, Arch. Small arches built across angles of towers to support projecting masonry above.
Stadium, Gr. (στάδιον). The course for the foot-race at Olympia, which measured exactly one stadium (606¾ feet). The stadium was the principal Greek measure for distance, and equalled the eighth of a Roman mile.
Stag (cervus). Representations of the stag occur in many Christian bas-reliefs and paintings. It is the emblem of many dissimilar moral ideas, but more especially of a longing desire for baptism, from an application of the text in the 42nd Psalm, “Like as the hart,” &c. (See Hart.)