Scribal Terror

The night owl is curious

About pranks and hijinks,
musings and mutterings.

And the door is open all night.

The funeral cart of St. Arigius

This wall painting from the Chapel Saint-Erige, located in the south of France, depicts the saint (also known as Arigius) being borne in procession by an ox yoked with a bear. The paintings in Saint-Erige are dated October 1451. Saint Arigius himself lived in the sixth century. He was a bishop who was acquainted with Gregory the Great. According to the chapel website:

As bishop of Gap, Erige was coming back from Rome where he had met pope Gregory the Great, when he was attacked by bandits in a place called "Colla Longa" on the other side of the Tinée.

The legend says his horse miraculously cleared the five hundred metres deep valley at one bound and found itself on the plateau of Auron, at the very spot where the chapel has been built.

Bored in church, 1667

"More Peepees!" just for you MC:

[August 18, 1667] . . . but being weary, turned into St Dunstan's church, where I hear an able sermon of the minister of the place. And stood by a pretty, modest maid, whom I did labour to take by the hand and the body; but she would not, but got further and further from me, and at last I could perceive her to take pins out of her pocket to prick me if I should touch her again, which seeing, I did forbear, and was glad I did espy her design. And then I fell to gaze upon another pretty maid in a pew close to me, and she on me; and I did go about to take her by the hand, which she suffered a little and then withdrew.

--From the Diary of Samuel Pepys [pronounced "peeps"], a man with some serious issues

The only true Lesbians?

Ananova reports:

Residents of the Greek island of Lesbos have launched a legal action to demand the exclusive right to call themselves Lesbians.

The inhabitants of the island are attempting to ban the Greek Gay and Lesbian Union from bearing the name "lesbian".

Residents of Lesbos now suffer "psychological and moral rape" from the "seizure" of their island's name by gays, according to the complaint by Dimitris Lambrou, a local activist.

Next up: Carefree people file amicus brief.

The door is open . . .

Come on in and talk.  Or drop off one of your random bursts of verbal energy -- poem, limerick, story, top ten list, clerihew, essay, alliterative poem, rant, Surrealist or or Dadaist poem, parody, cento, dirty joke, amusing  syllepsis, haiku, dirty haiku . . . to share.   

The night owl is curious

About pranks and hijinks,
musings and mutterings.

And the door is open all night.

On the cause and prevention of the plague

ORB: The Online Reference Book for Medieval Studies offers an interesting insight into the supposed etiology and preventative measures suggested at the time of the Great Mortality (The Black Death):

The pope sent to Paris to obtain the opinions of the medical faculty there in 1348. They studied the problem for a time and returned a report.  The good professors opined that the disaster was caused by a particularly unfortunate conjunction of Saturn, Jupiter and Mars in the sign of Aquarius that had occurred in 1345.  This conjunction cause hot, moist conditions, which cause the earth to exhale poisonous vapors.

The report went on to recommend steps to keep safe from the disease.  This, in part, was their prescription:

No poultry should be eaten, no waterfowl, no pig, no old beef, altogether no fat meat. . . .  It is injurious to sleep during the daytime. . . .  Fish should not be eaten, too much exercise may be injurious . . . and nothing should be cooked in rainwater. Olive oil with food is deadly. . . .  Bathing is dangerous. . . .

In time, other writings appeared from the pens of educated men on the best ways to avoid the plague.  From Italy came this advice:

  In the first instance, no man should think of death. . . .  Nothing should distress him, but all his thoughts should be directed to pleasing, agreeable and delicious things. . . .  Beautiful landscapes, fine gardens should be visited, particularly when aromatic plants are flowering. . . .  Listening to beautiful, melodious songs is wholesome. . . .  The contemplating of gold and silver and other precious stones is comforting to the heart.

Ancient relations

The Globe and Mail reports:

Scientists have found a direct link between the frozen remains of a man found in a glacier in northern B.C. and 17 people living in B.C., Yukon and Alaska.

The news came at a symposium in Victoria this past weekend, focusing on Kwaday Dan Ts'inchi', an aboriginal man whose remains were found in 1999 by hunters in Tatshenshini-Alsek Park, which is in the traditional territory of the Champagne and Aishihik First Nations.

"The connection to the people," said Al Mackie, an archaeologist on the project, "how they know his clan, how they know who his relatives are, that's amazing. You just don't get that in archaeology. It never happens."

Kwaday Dan Ts'inchi' means Long Ago Person Found, and he's believed to have died some time between the years 1670 and 1850. His remains were revealed after a glacier started to recede.

The thing I find most astonishing about this is that the DNA testing managed to confirm the man's clan -- he was a Wolf, like his modern relatives --  proof that clan structure has survived intact for centuries and probably milennia.

John Deere walking tractor

Via Accelerating Future

It works

Olivier Vietti-Teppa has tried out a parachute based on Leonardo Da Vinci's 500-year-old design, and  by golly it works. He safely chuted 2000 feet -- although he had a backup chute just in case Da Vinci was wrong. Video at the BBC. Via Geeks Are Sexy