ADS-L Digest - 5 Feb 2006 to 6 Feb 2006 (#2006-38)

[Landau, James]

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Here's another WAG:  "stillwoman" would be a woman who tends a still,
not to make brandy but rather to steam essential oils and essences out
of plants to make medicines.  Hence she would be the village apothecary
and if you believe this interpretation the best translation would be
"herbwife".

I tend to doubt either "vigilkeeper over the dead" or "midwife" because
of the phrase "her villages wound [sic] and sickensses".  Dead people
are no longer sick, and would deliveries be considered "wounds and
sicknesses"?

     Jim Landau

>I am a portuguese translator (english to portuguese) and am now 
>puzzled before the correct meaning of stillwoman. I found it in a book 
>by Alma Alexander, I am translating.
>
>The sentence is:
>
>Yuet had a very clear sense of her future, and knew that she would 
>probably have graduated (...) to becoming the healer and stillwoman of 
>her village's wound and sicknesses, both animal and human.

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