Feelings
Manners make the man! Or the woman?
By Emmanuelle
It is not mere old folks’ talk. Written records from the earliest centuries had been dug up by anthropologists to give credence to the proposition that people as far back as even before the Middle Ages believed strongly in this popular saying.
There were ceremonies for every public occasion, and there were social behaviors expected to be observed. The standard that a person maintained in the observance of these social behaviors determined his standing or reputation in the eyes of the community. One’s standard can be as loose as the common tart or one can be as strict as the tightest-assed royals.
For example, the 14th century Boke of Curtasye was a manual of etiquette that provided helpful guidance in courtesy. Children were instructed to be polite all the time, to be rarely seen or almost never heard. Young ladies were to walk rather than run, to look down rather than gaze directly into people’s eyes, especially those of personable young men. They were also told to keep their knees tightly together when sitting down, to fold their hands demurely on top of the other, not to show a glimmer of their teeth, and to cover their lips when smiling, especially when they were in the company of personable young men.
Some expectations may have changed over the centuries, but not all. It seems the above paragraph was quoted directly into Jose Rizal’s Noli Me Tangere, don’t you think? On how the Maria Claras of the time were given instructions on good manners and tight conduct. Right?
The Boke of Curtasye warned the young ladies that they must think upon the lesson on proper sitting behavior or they are fully lewd if they must not. In this case, I must think that the personable young men will turn out to be not so personable young men at all if the young ladies sat with knees unconsciously apart, hands dropped lazily along their sides, lips uncovered, teeth a-showing. Laughing at some joke, or snoring-off a mid-afternoon nap.
I could imagine there were also other written instructions on how to make slaves and how to free them. But first, before one made slaves, one had to pick-out the slaves. How? Line them up. Ask them to open their mouth wide. Knock on the teeth, pull the tongue out, sniff the presence of disease. Look down the throat, sniff the presence of disease. Make the slave bend. Look down the holes on the extreme opposite end. No kidding! Sniff the effulgence coming from within. No disease? You are the one diseased or near-deceased.
Pull the hair. If the strands stay connected to the skull, you are lucky. No falling hair to sweep under the rug. Count the lice. Few is okay; many is catastrophe. While you are at it, count also the fingers and the toes. Normal number is good; more than normal is an abomination. Send him to your most vexing mother-in-law. Let the abomination be theirs.
Put your index finger before the slave’s eyes. If his eyes follow your finger, the slave is not blind. He will not be a good slave; he will see where you hide the King’s gold under the rug.
Shout directly into the cave of one ear. If he continues politely to stare ahead, he is not polite. He is deaf. He will make a good slave if you are the type who ceaselessly mumbles to yourself obscenities against your King. Just don’t let him see you hide the King’s gold under the rug. He may not hear your obscene talk against the King, but he can talk. And point. To the King’s soldiers where you hid His Majesty’s gold.
How to free the slaves? Not to worry. That rarely happened. It was either they starved to death anyway, or the master stared helplessly as they desert the laundry to follow another exodus across a sea that kept constantly parting in half.
(To continue next week.)
(For past columns, click http://sundaypunch.prepys.com/archives/category/opinion/feelings/)
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