LL-L "Folklore" 2003.05.05 (03) [E]

[Lowlands-L]

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L O W L A N D S - L * 05.May.2003 (03) * ISSN 189-5582 * LCSN 96-4226
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A=Afrikaans Ap=Appalachian B=Brabantish D=Dutch E=English F=Frisian
L=Limburgish LS=Lowlands Saxon (Low German) N=Northumbrian
S=Scots Sh=Shetlandic V=(West)Flemish Z=Zeelandic (Zeêuws)
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From: R. F. Hahn <sassisch at yahoo.com>
Subject: Folklore

Thanks for sharing the story about your great-grandmother, Elsie:

> Talking of the weird and wonderful: My maternal great-grandmother,
> Maria Botha, kept her
> cut hair in her coffin-in-waiting in the cellar next to the dried
> peaches and figs, so as
> to prevent the hair becoming instruments of witchcraft. The idea was to
> bury the hair with
> her, but as it goes, the hair was forgotten and could only be buried
> three weeks after the
> funeral, and by special permit to open the grave. Brrr!
>
> Groete,
> Elsie Zinsser
>
> > From: "thomas byro" <thbyro at earthlink.net>
> > Subject: LL-L "Folklore" 2003.04.28 (08) [E]
>
> > I recall that we ate horsemeat in my area.  common in all the lowlands areas?
>
> > In walking to a friends house, I used to pass a thatch roofed farm
> > house(with the usual horse heads on top).  The old woman who lived there
> had pigtails that virtually swept the ground.  It was said that she had
> > never cuther hair in her life.

This brings up the question -- at least in *my* mind -- if in the case
of Elsie's ancestor (in South Africa) we are dealing with a European or
African folkloristic feature, or with both perhaps, one reinforced by
the other.  I know that hair plays a role in charms and spells in
traditional African belief systems (surviving also in slave-derived
cultures of the Americas).  However, I seem to vaguely remember that
during the European witch hunts (a.k.a. the "Holocaust of Women,"
although a small percentage of the exterminated were male) there were
accusations of hexes by way of the victims' hair and belongings.
Perhaps this is a global feature.  Can anyone think of anything related
in Lowlands cultures, especially in those of the Netherlands and
Belgium?

Regards,
Reinhard/Ron

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