Tell the Bees
by Samantha ~ March 5th, 2009. Filed under: adventures.While Tim was visiting, we went on an adventure to The Museum of Jurassic Technology. It was my first experience there, and I highly recommend a visit.
It was by far the strangest and most surreal place I have ever experienced. Each time you think you have fully explored it, you discover a hidden room with even stranger and more bizarre artifacts. I left feeling incredibly disorientated, as if I had walked through a strange dream for an hour and a half. Each room is darkly lit, mostly throwing sepia toned hues over each piece on display, and filled with incredibly strange ambient sounds and music. I have yet to properly articulate the overall feel of the place, despite having tried to explain it a number of times by now.
Not only was it truly surreal and bizarre, but educational. One exhibit, titled “Tell the Bees…” was a collection of Belief, Knowledge, and Hypersymbolic Cognition practices and observations, also known as “vulgar knowledge”.A few of my favorite practices and beliefs*:
Breaking Eggshells : “Eggshells should be broken after boiled eggs have been eaten or uncanny forces will go to sea in them, and sink good ships.”
Crying Back or ‘Wishing the Dying’ : The dying are held back from their repose by the love that will not give them up. A body cannot get their time over with ease to themselves if there is a person in the room who will not give them up. It will be better for all such who cannot bring themselves to part with those they love to withdraw from the room so that death may enter and claim his rights. If a person is withheld from dying by being cried or wished back, the person called back will “die hard” and be deprived of one or more faculties as a punishment to the parent or other relation who would not acquiesce in the Divine will.
Infants, Children and Clothing of the Opposite Sex : “Before the birth I always had a boy’s nightshirt and a girl’s nightgown (quite) ready. If it was a boy I put on a girl’s nightgown and if it was a girl I put on a boy’s night shirt. and this is the reason. In all cases the child would then be protected from harm and what’s more the boy when he grew up would fascinate all girls, and a girl who had had a nightshirt put on her would have young men buzzing round her till she married.”
Mouse Cures : Bed wetting or general incontinence of urine can be controlled by eating mice on toast, fur and all. Mouse Pie, when eaten regularly, serves as a remedy for children who stammer.
Owls :Who looks into the nest of an owl will become morose and melancholy for the rest of life. The hooting of a churchyard owl is a positive sign that an unmarried girl of the town has surrendered her chastity.
Sheeted Mirrors : “They entice young virgins and boys by means of mirrors and their reflections seen in fingernails and lure them on in a the belief that they love chastity whereas they hate it.” Mirrors should be sheeted or draped during thunder or lightning storms and photographs should be turned to face the wall. Similarly mirrors should be shrouded in the sickroom or in the presence of death. It is ill advised to look through a mirror at dusk or twilight and infants should never be allowed to see their reflection before their first birthday.
Sin Eating : “During that period that the corpse lays on the Bier, a loaf of bread is brought out and delivered to the sin-eater after having been passed over the corpse, as also a cup of beer or ale, which he then consumes, both bread and ale. In addition a small token of money is passed over the corpse in consideration whereof the sin-eater takes upon himself (ipso facto) all of the sins of the defunct and frees him (or her) of such sins that he (or she) may have committed during his or her life. Having thus been absolved of his or her sins, the deceased may then pass on untrammeled.”
*The photos throughout the post do not correlate with the descriptions I have listed, as The Tell the Bees exhibit was too dark for me to get any useable photos, but all were taken within the museum. Please visit my set on flickr for more!
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March 5th, 2009 at 2:40 AM
fantastic post – thanks
March 5th, 2009 at 7:06 AM
I am still uneasy. Let’s go back! :D
March 5th, 2009 at 6:23 PM
Wow. That sounds like such a fascinating place. I wish I was feesibly near there, not several thousand miles away. 8-(
The “mirrors” thing about infants is interesting. Generally, infants can not even recognise their own reflection until at least two years of age (the scientific community generally agrees).
I’ve heard about the old (I believe it’s medieval, but I may be wrong) wives’ tale (as it were) about crying during or just after someone’s death. I think that’s why there is a tradition for people to cry most during the funeral. It is interesting to me that you should mention it because it is (subtly) woven into my first novel which I just got the advance copies of today. I mean the general idea that a loved one can not move on until they are let go. I’ve been banging on about the book on Twitter for a while, so look there for more info.
Keep up the adventures!
March 8th, 2009 at 5:14 PM
Mmmm, mouse samiches
March 29th, 2009 at 4:22 PM
Hello :) Great job. I did not expect this on a Wednesday. This is cool. Thanks!