Flight of the Heron read-along: Part I chapters 5-6

[regshoe]

What is right and what is wrang, a short sword and a lang, a weak arm and a strang for to draw...

Welcome back to the read-along! This week's chapters are getting a bit more serious, historically and for our characters...

Next week we'll read the first two chapters of Part II.

Comments

[luzula]

did they have changes of underclothes, at least?

They are not wearing any underwear. : D I mean, obviously Ewen has nothing on underneath his kilt, but Keith doesn't have underwear in the modern sense, either.

That is, they have quite long and billowy shirts which they tuck round the groin under the breeches, and that function sort of as underwear. This video shows an 18th century gentleman getting dressed, and Keith's uniform is on the same basic pattern.

And women are also not wearing any underwear. I tried to do research on what they did when they got their period, and the answer is apparently mostly "bleed on their shifts"? They had lots of skirt layers. But I suppose most of the population was kind of underfed and thus bled less?

[tei]

D: I wonder if they used some kind of tampon-like idea, and just didn't write/talk much about it? Apparently the general idea was present in ancient Egypt, and... it's a fairly intuitive thing to do, I would think, if you don't have underwear?

[luzula]

Here is an article I found about it. It seems that mostly upper-class women used menstrual clouts that they fastened by girdles around their waists? But lower-class women probably often bled on their shifts. Also apparently it was considered very unhealthy to stop the flow of blood, so the author thinks tampons were not used? Except that it seems there is evidence that sometimes prostitutes used them so that men would not notice they were having their period (menstrual blood was considered dangerous)?

Also, what a quote: "Thy righteousness is but a menstrual clout!"

[tei]

Ooh, thank you for that! THY RIGHTEOUSNESS.