a cutter of figures or other devices in wood. Carvers answer to what the Romans called sculptores, who were different from celatores, or engravers, as the latter wrought in metal.

**CARVER** is also an officer of the table, whose business it is to cut up the meat, and distribute it to the guests. The word is formed from the Latin carptor, which signifies the same thing. The Romans also called him carpus, sometimes scissor, secundendi magister, and structor. In the great fami- lies at Rome the carver was an officer of some consequence; and there were masters to teach them the art regularly, by means of figures of animals cut in wood. The Greeks had also their carvers, called barbes, or distributors. In the primitive times the master of the feast carved for all his guests. Thus, in Homer, when Agamemnon's ambas- sadors were entertained at Achilles's table, the hero himself carved the meat. In later times the same office was on solemn occasions executed by some of the chief men of Sparta. There are persons who derive the custom of dis- tributing to every guest his portion, from those early ages when the Greeks first left off feeding on acorns, and learned the use of corn. The new diet was so great a delicacy that, to prevent the guests from quarrelling about it, it was found necessary to make a fair distribution.