[Sca-cooks] a worrisome quote from Le Menagier

[Daniel Myers]

On Monday, January 12, 2004, at 08:10  PM, Phil Troy/ G. Tacitus 
Adamantius wrote:

> Also sprach Daniel Myers:
>> "Item, you can tell the age of a hare from the number of openings 
>> under its tail, for there will be as many openings as years."
>> Le Menagier de Paris (Janet Hinson, trans.)
>
> This is actually an interesting point. Does someone who knows more 
> about lagomorphs than I do (which is probably almost everyone), know 
> what is being referred to? I assume we're not talking about the most 
> obvious opening that Doc so amusingly implies ;-).
>
> Maybe some kind of musk glands? Empty hair follicles? (I had to pull 
> the most enormous quill stumps from the butt of a chicken I cooked 
> this evening, and those left holes behind. In the behind... um... you 
> know what I mean...)
>
> Or, is this perhaps a little practical joke, a la Margaret Meade, 
> played on Le Menagier by a poulterer?

I found the passage in question in the French version:

"Item, l'en cognoist l'aage d'un lièvre au nombre des pertuis qui sont 
dessoubs la queue, car pour tant de pertuis, tant d'ans."
Le Ménagier de Paris (ed. by Jérome Pichon) [from 
http://www.pbm.com/~lindahl/menagier/ ]

My high-school French is very rusty - and the odd spelling doesn't help 
- but I'd read this as:

"Item, one can know the age of a hare from the number of the /pertuis/ 
that are below the tail, because for each /pertuis/, then of a year."

Babelfish translates "pertuis" as "sluice" - a funny word for this 
context.

I'm leaning towards the practical joke theory - this is just too 
bizarre.

- Doc


-- 
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
  Edouard Halidai  (Daniel Myers)
  http://www.medievalcookery.com/
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-