This one's sheer curiosity, and somewhat unseemly curiosity, at that.
Still, I imagine it'll catch someone's fancy.
I read in _Montaillou_, an account of life in a 14th-century French
village at the time of the Inquisition, that it was part of the social
and interpersonal culture of the day for people to delouse one
another. I imagine they needed it! Family members, friends in a
social circle, even lovers in bed might spend some intimate time
together helping rid one another of bothersome vermin.
Now, when Jane Goodall's baboons of Gombe groom one another, they, um,
eat the pickings. I remember seeing this cozy and nutritious activity
depicted numerous times on various PBS programs.
So what I want to know, of course, is, what did our relatively modern
human ancestors, those folks of the 14th-century and later, do with
the specimens they picked off one another? Don't you wonder too?
Thank you,
Archae0pteryx
Hi Tryx
Thanks!
It was surprisingly entertaining combing through literary sources for
references to cracking lice. Swift's pastoral vision was my favourite
find.
Before I copy my original comment here, I'll add one further extract
from Montaigne -
". . . the tale of that woman which by no threats or stripes would
leave to call her husband pricke-lowse, and being cast into a pond and
duckt under water, lifted up her hands and joyning her two thumb-nails
in act to kill lice above her head, seemed to call him lousie still"
http://www.uoregon.edu/%7Erbear/montaigne/2xxxii.htm
- and invite you to take a look at the charming domestic scene in
Rimbaud's "Seekers of Lice":
http://www.tonykline.co.uk/Browsepages/French/Rimbaud1.htm#_Toc90289046
"Crack a louse" is a useful search phrase.
Cracking with the teeth was frowned on by Ibn Fadlan in the 10th century -
http://www.radioislam.org/historia/13tribe.htm
- and by a 17th century clergyman in New England.
"If any shall crack lice between their teeth, they shall pay five shillings."
http://www.nativetech.org/Nipmuc/praytown.html
It was more polite to "crack the nits between the thumb-nails".
http://www.pa-roots.com/~jefferson/history/chapter21.html
In his 16th century essay on "Custom", Montaigne discusses the
reversal of normal etiquette in a place "where they crack lice with
their teeth like monkeys, and abhor to see them killed with one`s
nails".
http://www.underthesun.cc/Classics/Montaigne/Essays/Essays1.html
Nails were used in the trenches.
http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/FWWlice.htm
In 1728, Swift wrote:
"When you saw Tady at long bullets play,
You sate and loused him all a sunshine day:
How could you, Sheelah, listen to his tales,
Or crack such lice as his between your nails?"
http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/3/6/2/13621/13621.txt
John Donne refers to this method in an intimate poem to his beloved,
hoping she has not "purpled" her nail with the blood of one particular
flea. (c.1600)
http://www.incompetech.com/authors/donne/flea.html
James Joyce uses similar imagery:
"Her shapely fingernails reddened by the blood of squashed lice from
the children's shirts."
http://www.web-books.com/Classics/Fiction/Other/Joyce_Ulysses/Ulysses_01_2.htm
Hope the "convincingly rich detail" wasn't too much for you.
Best wishes - Leli
Search strategy:
Took a look at some first world war accounts of lice in the trenches
which reminded me I had heard the phrase "crack a louse" somewhere
before.
Then searches like:
"crack OR cracked OR cracking lice"
and:
Donne flea
Jonathan Swift crack louse OR lice
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