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  • From: Mjkoaktreecottag AT aol.com
  • To: homestead AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [Homestead] Life in the 1500's
  • Date: Sat, 25 Aug 2007 11:01:01 EDT

Interesting, but have heard some of these sayings before. Also, since the
parents bed were often put in the main (fire) rooms, sometimes the only room
in a cottage, where they were in view of everyone in the room, the
sidehangings and canopies were useful for keeping out drafts, but especially
needed for
privacy...
Thos. Costain wrote a novel, he called Below the Salt, because the salt was
kept in an open cellar (dish) on the center of the table, so the salt was
used to denote rank-- the "upper crust" sat above the salt and servants,
etc.
below. I have also read that in some houselods there were not enough
chairs,
benches, etc.
to seat everyone at the table so children, servants, etc, were served
afterwards in a second shift.
Speaking of shifts, for many centuries the most important article of
clothing for women was probably her
shift, because it served as her blouse/shirt under the top garments, her
underwear, and her nightgown. Wealthy women could afford several, but
cottagers
may have had to make do with just 1, so if you were too poor or too lazy to
process your flax into thread, weave it into linen, and cut and sew a shift,
then you were, of course, "shiftless". There are many terms we use today
without thinking of their derivation that are associated with flax
processing.
In my old storybooks, a blond is sometimes referred to as "flaxen-haired".
Still today a "tow head" has hair the color of tow (a valuable by-product of
the flax processing that was used for "tow 'rope"; clothing for the lowest
sort; "tow sacks" for grain and other bags; stuffing mattresses; and even
starting fires.) "Lint" was the finest grade of tow or fuzz from
straightening the
line fibers for spinning and was used for dressing wounds and to staunch the
blood flow. Also,during the process of removing the line fibers from their
outer casing, they are drawn thru a series of spiked wooden blocks called
hetchels, hackles, or often heckles, so to needle someone is to "heckle"
them
and the person doing it a "heckler". When my hubby was growing up on an
Amish
farm in Lanc. Co., he was told if he didn't behave, he'd get a good
"scutching", which is when the flax is put over a special board and beaten
with a
wooden knife before hetcheling. He thinks his father didn't know the origin
of
the term and he certainly didn't, so one Christmas I bought him a
"scutching"
knife. The past is full of many terms, sayings, etc. that I find
fascinating, so I have started collecting them.



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