From "Unspoken Water," Wikipedia, clicked on from "Religion and Water," Wikipedia, which I was reading to pursue some ideas that occurred to me as I was listening to the song "Drifting Too Far From the Shore," which Meade has been playing — in various versions — all morning. (The Dylan song with virtually the same title is different, but influenced by this old song.)
The Scottish meaning of "unspoken" is "Without having spoken" — according to the OED, which quotes an 1825 Scottish dictionary: "Unspoken water, water..brought..to the house of a sick person, without the bearer's speaking either in going or returning."
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Sorry to say that at my age, it’s sometimes a lengthy chore to “make water”. So at night, before bed, it may take a few minutes of silently standing in front of the terlet to get that flow going.
My wife’s entreaties go unspoken, but her giggling is audible.
Sounds like Scotch and water made in total silence. Got to try that.
Perhaps water should be spoken of more.
Water is a truly an unusual substance for something so commonplace. It has the second highest surface tension of any known liquid (pure mercury has the highest). It has a very high heat of vaporization. Water is also exceptionally cohesive and fairly viscous compared to similar liquids. It is also an excellent solvent due to its polarity which make it critical for all the various biochemical reactions necessary for life as we know it. If it weren't for all of water's odd properties we wouldn't even exist.
The water that dare not speak its name.
The Scots say that you should never drink whisky without water or water without whisky.
Jerry Garcia/David Grisman/Tony Rice did a great version on the "Pizza Tapes" in '93
Jesus walked on water, was baptized with water, turned water into wine, called disciples away from the water, and likened himself to water ("If you are thirsty come to me and drink!").
It all sounds very 'Theodoric of York.'
But I really like the whole ancient and mysterious nature of this ritual.
I suppose Unspoken Water is the Scottish equivalent of chicken soup...it can't hurt!
Water is a truly an unusual substance
Less dense when solid than liquid is another strange and important characteristic.
If the water is procured specifically for a particular person, would it be bespoke unspoken water?
Here's one--from Lajos Zilahy's epic "Century in Scarlet":
One morning Frau Obergelderkaempfer [ranking Imperial midwife] had very bad news for [main character] Endre.
"I am extremely sorry," she said, "to report to Your Excellency that the child will be a girl."
"Are you sure, Madame?" Endre asked mournfully.
"There can be no doubt. For three days I have mixed seven drops of Her Excellency's urine in the drinking water of Pookie, my male dachshund. Each time he has refused to drink it."
Narr
OK, not water exactly
Tolkien references this idea in the Lay of Leithian. Luthien's magic requires water from the River Esgalduin brought at midnight in a silver bowl by someone who does not speak coming or going.
Probably a residual Norse belief. It echoes one of Odin's 18 spells, where he could commune with a corpse hanging in a tree.
There's a similar element of the shaman being below the corpse (ie, between the corpse and the underworld). In addition, there's a bridge and a shore -- both joining points between two worlds.
Norse magic was very strongly gendered -- I wonder if the ritual had to be carried out by a woman.
Whiskey ...Irish Gaelic "usquebaugh" meaning Water of Life
Sláinte and Happy New Year to all.
That's a lovely old custom. It has a dignified mystery about it. I can see how it could be powerful in the hour of need.
"My wife’s entreaties go unspoken, but her giggling is audible."
I'm guessing that isn't helping?
Water is amazing stuff - miraculous if I may be so bold. It's physical properties are quite different from other substances. I recall being fascinated and amazed when I learned in Boy Scouts that you could boil water in a paper cup over an open flame and the cup wouldn't burn.
It nourishes us, sustains life, was used to power the machines that made life easier and simpler (extending our lives), is used to make beer and spirits, and all the other stuff you folks upthread had mentioned.
Slàinte Mhath and a Happy Hogmanay.
If you can say, "It's a braw bricht moonlicht nicht",
Then yer a'richt, ye ken.
Marvelous lore. A poem in two words: unspoken water, evoking everything.
Speaking of poems, here is one:
Moon Season
What my wife says
The full moon wants
Is a dish of water
Left out all night
As though a cat
Might come to drink
And seeing itself
Would pause amazed
And while it stared in
The water would drink
Because water
Drinks everything
My wife went on
When the water is full
Bring it indoors
Before morning
Then with our best
Old silver knife
Skim it straight off
Into clear jars
There it can rest
In the cool dark
Used sparingly
It lasts for years
I'd prefer an unspoken sammich.
The sacrament of baptism is meant to remind the faithful of the passage of the Hebrew tribes between the walls of Red Sea water in their flight from Egypt and pharaoh's pursuing chariots. Thus understood, it is an especially powerful metaphor for the salvific nature of water and, by extension, of God's grace as manifested through the life and death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
A wouldnae mind a wee deoch an doris o thon drink now.
@ Owen
Wonderful. Who wrote it?
Bespoke water costs more but works better.
Bob Boyd @ 12:59. Thanks. I did.
Don't encourage me...
Wow! I'm impressed, Owen. Like it a lot.
How about another one?
Thanks for that reminder of a favorite song, Meade. Just listened again to the Ricky Skaggs version - thank you again.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V_M7agcMXbU
Compare and contrast with Tom Sawyer's wart cure:
"You got to go all by yourself, to the middle of the woods, where you know there's a spunk-water stump, and just as it's midnight you back up against the stump and jam your hand in and say:
'Barley-corn, barley-corn, injun-meal shorts,
Spunk-water, spunk-water, swaller these warts,'
and then walk away quick, eleven steps, with your eyes shut, and then turn around three times and walk home without speaking to anybody. Because if you speak the charm's busted."
The living pass, and the "burdens" and profitable are sequestered, cannibalized, respectively. Religion (e.g. "ethics"), yes. Superstition, no. A clear and progressive condition.
Reminds me of the well of the seven heads, where some McDonalds were killed by other McDonalds after returning to home. Seven of them were killed by sympathetic McDonalds for revenge. The heads were taken to the well to be cleaned before being presented to the McDonald himself, for his edification.
I visited the well on the banks of Loch Oich north of Ft. William. The well is a tunnel drift into the short limestone cliff by the Loch. I went into the tunnel until it got too low, I will neigh crawl for no man. I had to go so I peed into the well itself. A fitting tribute to my Scots heritage.
Bob Boyd @ 2:23: “How about another one?” Awww. *blushes*
OK, just one. Another moon poem:
Full Moon
Smoking the sky like a cigarette
The questioner’s face is full of scar.
It taught a little subtlety to her.
She circles her suspects with a stare,
Uses silence and the hard cold light
To make them feed upon their fear
Until they break and sign the sheet
Of empty snow on which their fate
Plays out while she is jotting down
The cryptic litter of fur and bone:
Not fast enough. Careless. Tried a con.
Or: Thought too much. She loves that one.
I wanted to use italics around “Not fast enough...Thought too much.” but am too HTML-unschooled. Close enough for now
When there is no water, there is no moon in the water
And likewise when there is no moon
But when the moon rises
The water does not wait to receive its image
And when the tiniest drop of water is poured out
The moon does not wait to cast its reflection
For the moon does not intend to cast its reflection, and the water does not receive its image on purpose. The event is caused as much by the water as by the moon, and as the water manifests the brightness of the moon, the moon manifests the clarity of the water.
- Alan W. Watts
I guess I get it now: Scotland = Robert Burns = Auld Lang Syne = Happy New Year.
'Unspoken water.'
Evocative for many reasons. This is a gem.
Nonapod said...
Perhaps water should be spoken of more.
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highest specific heat capacity >>> in all phases
faux climate scientists don't seem to know that.
Can’t beat Vince Gill!
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