Buying something without seeing it first. A Poke was another way of saying, "bag" and the origin began at country fairs in England.

It seems that years ago, dishonest men would put a cat in a burlap bag and try to sell it as a young pig. Pigs were worth money. Cats, well, not so much unless you have a really bad mouse problem.

If a suspicious buyer wanted to see the pig, the seller would be forced to "let the cat out of the bag" (another idiom, meaning "to expose a secret").

Unlike the devious schemers at English fairs, these three little piggies by CDHM Artisan Mariella Vitale are too cute to pass up.

This saying goes all the way back to the King James Version of the bible: "Can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his spots? Then may ye also do good, that are accustomed to do evil."

It means that an animal or person is what it is, and does not deviate from its nature. This is a fortunate circumstance for us, as CDHM artisan and IGMA Fellow Kerri Pajutee has captured the essence of this magnificent animal in 1/6 scale. Would you want him to change?

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