SC - don't cringe too bad....

[Philip & Susan Troy]

LrdRas at aol.com wrote:
> 
> Actually, they did eat without utensils other than a knife until relatively
> late in period. This is the reason why you only use your right hand to serve
> yourself food with (your left being used for personal cleansing).

Many cultures have such a taboo for various reasons. The Romans tended
to avoid eating with the left hand, but this may have to do with
expedience in dress (a perfectly draped toga is easy to mess up with
practical necessities like eating and, um, personal cleansing), but
mostly what comes down to us is that they considered exposing the left
hand undecorous. There may be some kinda spiritual significance, which
conceivably could have surivived into the Old-Timey Roman Catholic idea
that the left side was the spiritual side and the right was the worldly
side. For followers of Islam, I suspect that keeping track of Where Your
Left Hand has been may have had, originally, a lot to do with the
scarcity of wash water. 
 
> Since the truly rich had spoons (which were, in fact, sometimes distributed
> to guest but are almost never distributed at SCA feasts), I use only my knife
> at feast table and my fingers (although I did receive a period spoon as a
> gift from a very special artisan from the Barony of Blackstone which I use
> 'rarely').

I had a tablemate at the last event feast I was at, who I think was a
bit thrown by my eating macrows one at a time with my fingers. She
commented, "I always thought there was no way in the world to eat
spaghetti with your hands and make it look elegant." Of course I offered
to share my scented fingerbowl with her, as any gentleman ought
to...strange to say, she politely declined.
 
Adamantius
- -- 
Phil & Susan Troy

troy at asan.com