[Sca-cooks] hand cleansing with dry, powdery stuff

Stefan li Rous StefanliRous at austin.rr.com
Fri Mar 2 16:04:30 PST 2012


Urtatim said:
<<< We will start with hand-cleansing as recommended in Ibn Sayyar al- 
Warraq - with dry powdery stuff. Hand washing was the autocrat's idea.  
I pointed out ISAW has two chapters on hand cleansing compounds, and  
the autocrat quite liked the idea. This should be fun and, well,  
different. >>>

We've had a few discussions on medieval hand-cleansing before, but I  
it was usually with a scented water, not dry powdery stuff. Probably a  
difference between a non-desert and a desert environment.

Handwashing-art   (22K)  2/24/02  "Scented Handwaters For Feasts and
                                      Dayboards" by Jadwiga Zajaczkowa
http://www.florilegium.org/files/FEASTS/Handwashing-art.html

For a while this seemed to be an up and coming fad at SCA feasts, but  
I haven't heard much of it lately. I don't think it ever caught on in  
Ansteorra.

Urtatim, could you give us some more details and/or recipes from Ibn  
Sayyar al-Warraq? Or course, an article similar to Mistess Jadwiga's  
on this different type of hand cleansing that I could add to the  
Florilegium would be much appreciated.

How do you keep this sprinkling of dry powder from being a problem  
inside a feast hall, as opposed to being outside? Use of a bowl held  
by another servant?

Thanks,
   Stefan

--------
THLord Stefan li Rous    Barony of Bryn Gwlad    Kingdom of Ansteorra
    Mark S. Harris           Austin, Texas          StefanliRous at austin.rr.com
http://www.linkedin.com/in/marksharris
**** See Stefan's Florilegium files at:  http://www.florilegium.org ****









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