Finlandish Bath/Sauna (1802); Mjod (1901); Shashlik (1902)

[Bruce Levak]

Mjod or mjöd is to my knowledge a predecessor to beer. In the Viking
times it was/is an beverage with alcoholic content and a rather
dangerous drink when chilled. I first partook of it when visiting a
replica of a Viking village in Visby on the island of Gotland.

If sauna isn't used in the text, the word "bastu" might be. Bastu is the
Swedish word for sauna and if the guide through Sweden and Finland were
Swedish this might account for it not being used.



-----Original Message-----
From: Bapopik at AOL.COM [mailto:Bapopik at AOL.COM]
Sent: Saturday, February 02, 2002 7:27 PM
Subject: Finlandish Bath/Sauna (1802); Mjod (1901); Shashlik (1902)

FINLANDISH BATH/SAUNA

TRAVELS THROUGH SWEDEN, FINLAND, AND LAPLAND, TO THE NORTH CAPE IN THE
YEARS 1798 and 1799
by Joseph Acerbi
1802

VOLUME ONE
Pg. 47:  *Boston is the name of a game of cards not unlike that of
casino.
Pg. 198:  They make use of the flesh of seals, and prepare a dish called
skalkroppe composed of collops of the flesh mixed up with flour and
lard, and this they reckon excellent.
Illustration Opposite Pg. 297:
   A FINLANDISH BATH.
(A "sauna" is described in detail.  Unfortunately, the word "sauna"
isn't here.  OED has 1881--ed.)



--------------------------------------------------------
MJOD

FINLAND AS IT IS
by Harry de Windt
London: John Murray
1901

Pg. 33:
   "Mjod" is a local product--a kind of effervescing cider--which, when
iced, forms a refreshing and harmless summer drink.

(Mentioned several times in this book.  OED has "mjod" under "mead," but
possibly could expand the entry--ed.)

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PUKKAS (KNIVES)

VIGNETTES FROM FINLAND,
OR TWELVE MONTHS IN STRAWBERRY LAND
by A. M. C. Clive-Bayley
London: Sampson Low, Marston and Company
1895

Pg. 14:  The bed-straw is called "our lady's straw," and the ox-eyed
daisies "priests' collars," the wild everlastings, with their soft dawny
heads, "cats'-paws."
Pg. 15:  "Two is always best," says the Finnish proverb; "two fish in
the sea, two birds in the air, two pairs of shoes under the bench, and
two stakes in the fence."
Pg. 37:  ...the Finnish proverb--"a crane in a tree soon breaks its
leg."
Pg. 198:  ...we had only _pukkas_ (knives) with us....

--------------------------------------------------------
ALL THE RUSSIAS
by Henry Norman
Charles Scribner's Sons, NY
1902

Pg. 193:  ...the national plat of _shashlik_--the delicious caucasion
mutton, cooked _a la broche_ over a wood fire.  We wait in happy
impatience for its arrival, stemming our hunger with a _zakushka_ of raw
herring.
("National" is the Republic of Georgia...OED & M-W have about 1925 for
"shashlik"--ed.)

Pg. 237:  ...Khirghiz _kibitkas_....
(I've seen this in several books.  So how come, while I was in
Kyrgyzstan recently, my tour guide used the Mongolian name,
_yurt_?--ed.)

Pg. 367:  I must allude for a moment to the only way in which these
remarkable and impressive figures are directly attached, namely, by a
charge that they are not honest--that the Russian budget, in a word, is
"cooked."
(Cooked the books?--ed.)