"Kon-chuk" - ? Russian/Ukr. for horse whip ?

[Deborah Hoffman]

Ah, then there is the charming beitsch (sp?) (if you'll excuse my non-YIVO pronunciation).  The Carpathians must have been short on horses and the simple switch had to do the trick in cheder.
   
   
   
  >Date:    Mon, 3 Jul 2006 18:47:29 -0400
>From:    "Robert A. Rothstein" <rar at SLAVIC.UMASS.EDU>
>Subject: Re: "Kon-chuk" - ? Russian/Ukr. for horse whip ?
>
>George Hawrysch wrote:
>>
>> Use of the kanchuk is attested in
>> kozak times, in the abuse of serfs, and into the 20th century.  I 
have 
>> not
>> heard of it being applied to children, and cannot imagine such a 
thing.
>>
>       I don't know about the object itself, but some version thereof 
>was apparently used as an instrument of discipline in the traditional 
>Jewish religious school (_kheyder_) in Poland. In a song by the Krakow 
>folk poet Mordkhe Gebirtig (1877-1942) called "Moyshele, mayn fraynd" 
>the singer reminisces about the days when he and his friend Moyshele 
>studied together in _kheyder_:
>          Ot shteyt far mir der rebe nokh,           
>         der kantshik in zayn hant .
>
>         I can still see the teacher standing before me,
>          The ferule in his hand.
>
>I've translated Yiddish _kantshik_ (stressed on the first syllable) 
>with 
>the rather obscure English (and French) word "ferule," which refers to 
>an instrument, such as a cane or stick or ruler, used to punish 
>schoolchildren; that seems to be the meaning of the Yiddish term, at 
>least in this context. The Yiddish word probably derives from Polish 
>_kanczug_ or _kanczuk_ (with an acute accent on the "n"), which refers 
>to a braided leather whip with a short wooden handle and which is 
>attested in Polish since the mid-17th century.
>
>Bob Rothstein

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