Aristocracy · Observations · Ethnography · Humour

Head of the Miklukho-Maklai Foundation descends from the traveller's brothers, not from him

Saw a rather diverting advertisement for coconut condensed milk at an acquaintance's, the proceeds of which will support an expedition to the shores of Papua New Guinea. FURTHER IN THE TEXT: "organised by the descendants of the great Russian traveller Nikolay Miklukho-Maklay". The Miklukho-Maklay

Park with a flower bed, a trimmed hedge and lamp posts in front of tall trees.

NB! · Observations · Nature · Ethnography

European superstition about straight-trimmed bushes as a path for witches

In Europe there was a superstition that shrubs clipped in a straight line serve as a pathway for witches, and so a hedge must take some other shape. But I am not afraid of witches and I enjoy the beauty of the park

Museums · Observations · Ethnography

The existing nábrók is probably a modern reconstruction, with little evidence for the original

Returning to the nábrók, NB: the surviving specimen is most likely a modern fabrication, merely reconstructing the legend. They are kept in a private museum, and since it is thanks to them that we learnt of it at all, they evidently do their work tolerably well. Evidence for the trousers

Museums · Ethnography · Humour

Magic trousers of human skin called naubrouki, and the rules for making and passing them on

In Iceland, at least until the seventeenth century, a man eager to grow rich could make himself a pair of magic trousers for the purpose. First, one had to ask a man for permission to make trousers from his skin. When he died, one had to dig up his corpse,

NB! · Faith · Museums · Ethnography

This alarming exhibit from the Museum of Icelandic Sorcery and Witchcraft is a nábrók, ritual underwear made from the skin of a corpse, worn to attract great wealth

Books · Observations · Mores · Ethnography

In the 11th and 12th centuries a struggle unfolded in Rus' between two types of matrimonial norm: the exogamous (forbidding marriage within a family, clan, tribe or other group) and the endogamous (permitting it)

In the 11th and 12th centuries a struggle unfolded in Rus' between two types of matrimonial norm: the exogamous (forbidding marriage within a family, clan, tribe or other group) and the endogamous (permitting it). Strange as it may seem, this confrontation is reflected in the bylina of Ilya Muromets,

NB! · Archaeology · Faith · Mores · Ethnography · Humour

In medieval Sweden, unmarried women were buried with a mirror, so that they might set their hair straight at the resurrection at the end of time and look a little better

In medieval Sweden, unmarried women were buried with a mirror, so that they might set their hair straight at the resurrection at the end of time and look a little better. Even at the Last Judgement, one is received by one's dress

The East · Books · Nature · Ethnography

The Myth of the Baranets in European Literature and Its Possible Origin in Cotton

From the Middle Ages onwards, European literature mentions a mythical plant-animal known as the Baranets, sometimes called the Boranets or Boramets. It is also known as the Tartar lamb or the Scythian lamb. The first mentions of the Baranets appear in the notes of medieval travellers; in time the

Archaeology · Ethnography

Burial of a 2nd-century infant with a deformed skull found at the Kyz-Aul necropolis in Crimea

A burial of an infant of the 2nd century AD has been found in the Kyz-Aul necropolis in Crimea. What makes it unusual is that, in keeping with a barbarian tradition, the skull of the deceased had been severely deformed. The burial was at once dubbed the “alien'

Art · Books · Observations · Ethnography

Relief with a male and a female water being and the origin of the rusalka

A curious carving of two aquatic creatures: one male, one female. One should be careful with the term "rusalka", since it is purely Slavic. For clarification one ought to read about life beneath the waters and the harem of the vodyanoy: here one thinks of Barbara Frischmuth'

A dark child's shoe with an embroidered cat face: large round eyes, lashes, ears and a tassel for whiskers.

NB! · The East · Observations · Ethnography

Chinese child's shoe of 1926 with a cat face as a charm against evil spirits

A child's shoe from China, 1926. The cat fooled evil spirits and kept the child safe. It brings a lump to the throat: my grandmother sewed me just such shoes when I was little, as her own grandmother had sewn them for her in her day

Medieval miniature of a reaper with a sickle standing beside a sheaf against a blue sky, in a frame with foliate ornament.

NB! · Faith · Observations · Ethnography · Humour

Omen linking a sunny St Raoul's Day to the start of the harvest

I read somewhere that if St Raoul's Day is sunny, the harvest will soon be ready for gathering. St Raoul's Day (the feast of the English martyr Ralph Milner) was yesterday, and it seems we are still a very long way from any harvest