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.As with the harvest, good weather was needed for this, andthe great washes were usually in the spring and autumn.The labours of the washerwomen, which in earlier times would take placeat a fountain or on the riverbank, had characteristics of a ritual.The womenformed a formidable team, with their own hierarchy and camaraderie.Aswell as official washerwomen who were paid for doing the laundry, manyhousewives took their regular weekly washing to the washing place, andshared in the general chatter and gossip, usually described disapprovinglyby male folklorists (Segalen 1983: 139).Men gave them a wide berth; muchof the chatter included abuse of the menfolk, and those who passed mightbe met with rude gestures and remarks.Those who washed the linen of theneighbourhood knew a good deal about what went on in people s intimatelives; changes in a family s monthly washing, for instance, might tell themwhen a baby was on the way, and they were great scandalmongers.136 Mistress of the Household As there were certain days in the year when spinning should not bedone, or the goddess would be angry (see p.104), so washing was forbiddenat various times, especially between Christmas and the New Year or in HolyWeek.To infringe this was said to wash away the life of someone in thehouse, to wash one s own winding-sheet, or to torment souls in Purgatory(Verdier 1976a: 116).The great washes in which many took part is something which goes backinto the far past.We have the unforgettable picture of Nausicaa, her friendand her maids in Book VI of Homer s Odyssey, setting off to the river wherethere was enough clear water always bubbling up and swirling to wash thedirtiest clothes (Rieu 1945) with a large wagon filled with the soiled clothesof the royal household.It may be noted that it is the goddess Athene herselfwho appears in the guise of a friend to prompt the daughter of the house tomake sure her clothes are in good condition for a possible marriage: Let usgo and do some washing together the first thing in the morning.I offer to gowith you and help, so that you can get yourself ready as soon as possible,for you certainly won t remain unmarried long (Rieu 1945).Homer s accountbears out Verdier s description of the long, slow work of washing, followedby an active, joyous time once the clothes were put out to dry (Verdier 1976a:113).After Nausicaa and the women had laid out the washing, they sang andplayed ball together, and are compared to Artemis and her Nymphs.Of particular interest in Verdier s account (1976a: 121ff.) is the link betweenthe washerwomen and the female spirits believed to haunt the springs andwells in the chalk country around Monat, where carvings of MotherGoddesses were set up in the Roman period.At one spring a brioche wasdipped in the water as an offering to a rather dangerous supernatural femalespirit called Greg, said to devour children until holy water was used to protectthem.There are stories that local spirits could still be seen washing in someof the springs, pale women with lowered heads and downcast eyes, kneelingbeside the water washing winding sheets.Sometimes there was a group ofthree, said to be lamenting over the past, present and future, and it wascounted best to avoid the area on calm nights.The Helpers who bore thename of Mother resembled these spirits in that they were by no means whollybenevolent figures; la mère Carré, for instance, was a very dubious character,but the villagers accepted this and still sought her aid.There is a link apparent between washing and destiny.Nausicaa swashing through the intervention of Athene was connected with the destinyof Odysseus, and also with that of the king s daughter, since it wasassociated with her coming marriage.The concept of the supernatural deathmessenger washing a shroud is found in Irish folklore, as Patricia Lysaghthas shown in her study of the Banshee (Lysaght 1986: 130ff.).Such washingis attributed to the war goddess in early Irish sources, and foretells slaughterin battle, but there are also local recorded legends of supernatural137 Mistress of the Household washerwomen, not necessarily connected with death, which may have beenmore widespread in earlier times.There are tales from Brittany, Spain, andLithuania of female beings washing and beating clothes with a beetle, andof White Ladies similarly employed in German tradition (Lysaght 1986:387, n.48).MacPhail (1898: 91) records such figures from the Hebrides;one was seen washing the clothes of a boat s crew due to be drowned thatyear.They could, however, be rendered powerless if a man caught sight ofone before she saw him, or seized her with his left hand, and in return forfreedom when caught , such beings could grant the gift of wealth or ofchildren.It appears that washing of clothes by supernatural female beings,like their spinning or weaving, might be seen as an omen of what was tocome, or even as a means of bringing this about.Yet another important use of water by the women was for brewing ale,the usual drink for all ages at a time when water was often suspect.Itsassociation with a goddess may be seen in Ancient Egypt, where beertransformed the goddess Hathor from a wild lioness about to destroyhumankind into a benevolent deity (Blecker 1973: 50).She is addressed in ahymn as Mistress of Both Lands, Mistress of Bread, who made beer withwhat her heart created and her hands prepared , and described as the Ladyof Drunkenness, rich in feasts (W.J.Darby et al.1977: 529).The effects offermented cereals may have been discovered accidentally by women bakingbread, and it was women who did the brewing in Ancient Egypt, as may beseen from tomb paintings.The Egyptian method was to work the malt into adough to convert the starch into maltose, and the women are shownkneading, sieving and brewing (W.J.Darby et al.1977: 531).Although therich drank wine, beer was the general drink in Egypt, and formed an essentialpart of offerings to the gods
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