Re: Polution and silliness

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Posted by Shanon Lavender on August 20, 1999 at 13:45:15:

In Reply to: Bulgarian Gypsy Henna, and henna as an anti-pollution device posted by Catherine Cartwright Jones on August 18, 1999 at 17:17:58:


Here I've been sitting with the power to polute men for several years and me not even knowing it.

Do we have to wave a sanitary product at them or is it sufficient just to be at that phase of the
month. I have a male manager I am very interested in poluting to the maximun of my ability without actually marrying him. If you have any info let me know. Our other method for dealing with him involved an office collection, a trip to New Orleans, a voodoo queen, and a very persistent case of hemmoroidal suffering. Suggestions would be greatly appreciated.


8956
: This is quoted from "Bury Me Standing, The Gypsies and Their
Journey"
: by Isabel Fonseca, Vintage Books, New York, 1995

: "....Emilia lit up at talk of her "Ceiz" (night of the henna). "I
sat
: there with all my new things for the whole day, right there in the
: middle of the bed." It was easy to imagine Emilia as a homecoming
: queen on her float (the bed in her current flat was a draped,
: four-poster barge of diaphanous lilac fluff). From her wedding
album
: Emilia gave me a picture of herself in all her finery, fronting her
: game-show haul of brightly colored alternately furry and lusterous
: gifts. She wore a white dress and stiff matching hat that
resembled
: an upended bowl. with flowered tassels hanging down from it like
: stringed popcorn.
: ""What is that on your hands?" I asked, doubtful that the leathery
: taloned fingers in the photograph could be those of a
: thirteen-year-old. It was henna - which was used intermittantly to
: "clean" the bride during the week-long ritual of dances and naps
and
: switched of clothes and, finally an all-girl "baptism" down at the
: municipal baths.
: ""The longer the henna stays on your hands, the longer your man
will
: love you." Emilia shrugged. "That's what they say." The stained
: hands were echoes of the bloodstained sheet, which had already been
: made into a flag and waved through the quarter by a younger sister
of
: Plamen, proud owner of one certified virgin-bride. "

: "...It wasn't marriage per se that did them [women] in [made them
: unclean, and thus in need of "cleaning" by henna]; it was the onset
of
: menstruation (though the two usually coincided), from which point
on,
: women had the power to pollute men. "

: !!!!

:
: The photograph of Emilia in this book shows fingertip dip henna,
and
: patterning on the front and back of her hands. I'll hit the
library
: today and see what I can work with to make a sheet of Bulgarian
Gypsy
: patterns for henna artists......email me if you want a .gif sent to
: you......

: Thanks to Dawn for bringing me "Bury Me Standing", as she knows I'm
a
: hopeless addict of henna history and traditions!!!!! Anyone who
: can...READ THIS BOOK!




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