[Sca-cooks] a worrisome quote from Le Menagier

[Robin Carroll-Mann]

On 12 Jan 2004, at 21:46, Daniel Myers wrote:

> 
> 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.)

> 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.

The 1694 dictionary of the Academie Francaise defines "pertius" as "trou" 
[hole] or "ouverture" [opening], and adds that it is an old word.

The 1762 edition adds some geographical definitions
1. a narrow strait between an island an the mainland
2. a narrow pas between mountains


Brighid ni Chiarain *** mka Robin Carroll-Mann
Barony of Settmour Swamp, East Kingdom
rcmann4 at earthlink.net