Re: OT: Corpses, etc. (was: Re: Gender in conlangs (was: Re: Umlauts (was Re: Elves and Ill Bethisad)))

--- Isidora Zamora <isidora@...> wrote:
> >:) Note the capital M! I was going to ask how
> the
> >Cw and Tr differ, but you answered that. What
> I
> >meant was that you probably couldn't
> distinguish
> >a Cwendaso and a Trehel who are wearing cloaks
> in
> >a darkling alley. A Daine's wings will stick
> out,
> >making him quite obvious. In the light of day,
> I
> >guess they'd be equally obvious!
>
> No, in extemely low light conditions you
> wouldn't be able to tell any of
> the three races apart, as long as they didn't
> speak.  The accent would give
> them away, the only exception being that there
> are some Nidirino who speak
> perfect Tehelish with nothing more than a
> regional dialect.
Ah. Is it uncommon, then, for people to learn
other people's languages? A Daine at that time
would be mistaken for the worst kind of
streetlife, if you could only hear him speak and
not see him. It wouldn't be immediately apparent
that he's not human. The more a Daine talks,
though, the more convinced an upper class human
would be that he's no more than some Eastsider.
On the other hand, the more a Daine talks, the
more convinced a LOWER class human would be that
he is actually a Daine. They can tell because,
though the accent is kosher, the lexicon is more
varied. Daine still carry (apart from a few
native words) lots of 500 year old slang.
Naturally, an educated human wouldn't pick up on
that.

> In daylight,
> you can't fail to know which race someone
> belongs to.  In strong enough
> moonlight, you would still be able to tell
> which race someone belonged to
> by how light or dark their skin and hair are
> and by the facial
> features.  There are certain types of facial
> features strongly associated
> with each of the three races.  Cwendaso, for
> instance, tend to have round
> faces, and Nidirino faces tend to be long and
> often oval.
Hm.

> >Do they worship things other than Sun or Moon?
>
> They also worship whichever of the planets are
> visible to the naked
> eye.  (Can anyone tell me which those are?
> I've seen Mars and Venus
> myself, but I don't know if any others are
> visible without a
> telescope.)
Mercury, Juppiter and Saturn round out the seven.

> >What do they think of the Trehelish penchant
> >for
> >worshiping deities rather than realities?
>
> They disapprove.  The Nidirino won't worship
> anything they can't see.  That
> does not mean that there is no abstract element
> to their worship.  To the
> Nidirino, the Sun (and he is male, while the
> Trehelish have a sun goddess)
> represents life.  The change in the length of
> the day throughout the year
> represents the Sun's power waxing and waning as
> he battles with Death for
> mastery over the world.  (And they do not
> believe that the Sun can ever be conquered.)
Ah, Sol Invictus.

> >For reasons not entirely clear, copying by
> >hand
> >doesn't have this side effect.
>
> My world doesn't have that sort of problem.
Lucky bastards!

> > > The other
> > > great usefulness of it, in their eyes, is
> that
> > > you can print a book with a
> > > lot of illustrations, such as _The_Herbal_,
> > > which is the standard medical
> > > reference book, very large, very heavy,
> very
> > > expensive, very indispensible.
> >
> >Oh, well, illustrations are entirely possible
> in
> >hand copied books. It is not uncommon for a
> >scriptery to create woodblocks, print them on
> >paper and then write out the text surrounding
> the
> >pictures. Many books are copied out using hand
> >rendered illustrations.
>
> Hand rendered illustrations are a last resort
> for a Trehel.  That's why you
> print books.  Professional copyists will do
> that sort of thing, but the
> preference is not to have to duplicate all the
> illustrations by hand.
It makes perfect sense, for there is no
inhibiting factor to the practice.

> Trehelish books are not exactly cheap, but they
> are affordable.  A lot of
> individuals or families own small or large
> private libraries.
What sort of books are in their libraries? How do
they categorise books? Libraries in the World are
largely confined to monestaries and schools. Very
few individuals own books, and those that do are
doctors or other highly educated persons.

Apparently, there was a vast public library in
the Hoopelle of very ancient times. It was
discovered by looters about two centuries ago.

> > > So I take it that there is slavery, based
> on
> > > your comment above?
> >
> >Yes. Humans can sell themselves into debt
> slavery
> >(they have considerable rights, mind);
>
> I think that the Trehelish may have something
> similar to debt slavery, but
> I really don't know the details.  I really
> don't know how they deal with debt.
In Auntimoanye, a debt slave and his master would
have to sign a contract stating the terms of the
slavery. An educated slave might be set to
bookkeeping or tutoring; or if he has a trade,
might be set at that. The contract specifies the
length of time to be served as well.

> Your mention of body hair reminds me of a
> question...I remember from the
> portion of your webpage that I had time to read
> that Daine men often do not
> wear clothing above the waist (and I can
> understand why not with the
> wings.)  Does the same go for Daine women?
Yes.

> And how do Men take that?
They take it very happily, thank you! ;)

Female Daine aren't particularly "well endowed",
and that particular visual cue isn't very
important to them. I won't say that Daine men
don't like looking at breasts; but I will say
that they prefer watching other aspects of
womanly form.

> >Hm. We haven't talked about actual corpses for
> >a while.
>
> Well, we do need to make an effort to keep
> threads on topic, even OT ones :)
Yes. We might get booted otherwise!

> >  One of the funeral preparations amongst
> >all Daine is combing out the feathers and the
> >hair. A hair comb is called _tamack_. A
> > corpse's
> >wings are arranged in a natural pose, rigor
> >granting, and the hair is often plaited and
> >twined with flowers or pretty vines.
>
> Practically the only funeral preparation for
> the Cwendaso is rebraiding the
> hair.  The dead person's hair is unbraided,
> combed out, then rebraided into
> a special braid.  The Cwendaso, both men and
> women, always wear their hair
> elaborately braided - we would call it
> French-braided or cornrowed, the
> sort of braiding style that you see so many
> Blacks wearing today.
Yeah. Very nice. Daine favour small braids
(though not what I think of as cornrolling) and
binding small locks of hair with decorative bits
of feather or cloth or beads.

> The
> braid for a dead person starts out with many
> small braids that begin at the
> edges of the scalp and at the midline, moving
> toward each other
> (perpendicular to the midline of the scalp.)
> Where the braids meet, along
> each side of the head, they are grafted into a
> braid that runs along the
> side of the head from front to back.    When
> the neck is reached, the rest
> of the hair is just braided normally and tied
> at the end.  This leaves two
> free braids hanging down in back.  When the
> dead person is laid out, the
> free ends of the braids are brought forward
> over the shoulders and run down
> the chest.
Oo. Interesting!

> The widow or widower has their hair braided in
> small braids starting at the
> edges of the scalp which converge in the center
> and are braided into a
> larger braid that runs down the midline of the
> scalp from front to back,
> leaving a single braid running down the back.
> If the man or woman intends
> never to marry again, then he or she will tie
> off the braid at the nape of
> the neck and cut off the braid below the tie.
> The cut-off braid is then
> placed in the dead spouse's hands.  Cwendaso
> women never cut their hair
> otherwise, and the men only cut the ends of
> their hair periodically to keep
> it from getting too long.  Appropriate hair
> length for men is about the
> bottom of the shoulderblades.
Daine almost never cut their hair, though some
will shave off the front or the sides. Usually
for spiritual purposes.

They do sometimes cut off a braided lock from a
fallen enemy; and lovers will often exhange locks
of hair with each other.

Padraic.


=====
fas peryn omen c' yng ach h-yst yn caleor peryn ndia;
enffoge yn omen ach h-yst yn caleor per la gouitha.
   [T. Pratchett]

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