Thursday, August 22, 2019

The Lost Occupations of the 18th Century: a gust blog by Eleanor Kuhns

JULIA SPENCER-FLEMING: Eleanor Kuhns and I have several things in common, which is always nice when you meet a new person. We're both winners of the the St. Martin's/Malice Domestic Best First Traditional Mystery Award. (That never gets any shorter when typing it out,) I've published eight books, and Eleanor has just released her seventh, SIMPLY DEAD. (Since her first book, A SIMPLE MURDER, only came out in 2011, we can see she's made of sterner stuff than I am.) I live in Maine and write about upstate New York, Eleanor lives in upstate New York and writes about Maine. And both our series frequently features weather that can kill you.

There, we part ways, because weather conditions - and illness, and accidents, and childbirth - are so much more dangerous in "the Maine" in the 1790's, where Eleanor's excellent series featuring Will Rees, an itinerant weaver, is set.  I adore historical mysteries, and remain in awe of writers who put in the research time such work requires. One such area of research, as Eleanor explains today, is occupation: what did people do in the late 18th century, and how can a skilled author use them when spinning her tale?



In the Will Rees mystery series, I regularly use several recurring elements. The Shakers, or The United Society of Believers in Christ's Second Appearing, is one that I return to over and over. I also usually incorporate a disease; they were, of course, much more likely to be fatal in an era before antibiotics.

But the one feature I always include is an occupation from that time period, a different one for every book. People made things then; they had to. And while some of the professions are still around, (think bricklayer or blacksmith), many of the old trades have disappeared.



One of the trades I examine in Cradle to Grave, the third Will Rees mystery, is coopering. Coopering was truly a skilled craft and required a long apprenticeship. In the days before plastic or even metal bins, barrels carried everything. The staves were formed by hand tools and sweated together to make a water proof seal. Before iron bands were used, the hoops were made of wood. In Simply Dead I describe the tools and the process for hoop making.









In Death in Salem, where sailing (either on the merchant ships or on the whale ships) was the number one career, I devote a few paragraphs to rope making and sail making. To construct the thick ropes necessary for the sailing ships, for example, the strands of fiber – either cotton or hemp- were twisted together as the rope maker walked the length of the ropewalk. The building was at least 80 yards (240 feet) long but could be as long as 240 yards (720 feet). The rope maker or his apprentice walked this distance over and over, every day, to make the thick and heavy rope cables required by the ships. (They probably reached 10,000 steps in the first hour.) And the heavy canvas sails for these ships had to be hand sewn.

The kitchen crafts were no less complicated. Take butter. It seems simple enough. Most of us have an image in our minds of a butter churn. But this was not the end of the process. After the butter ‘came’, it was washed and a butter worker, a kind of wooden paddle, was rolled over and over the butter until all the buttermilk had been removed. If this step wasn’t done properly, the butter would quickly go rancid. The butter then had to be salted for storage and crammed into crocks. Besides the churn, at least five other pieces of equipment were required.

Cheese making was an even more demanding job. The milk is heated and when it has reached exactly the right temperature rennet is added. (Rennet is from a cow’s stomach.) Once the milk curdles, the curds are cut into cubes. When they reach the right level of acidity, the whey is poured off. Besides feeding the pigs, whey was used for paint and washing floors.

Every bowl, every strainer, every vat had to be scrupulously clean. To be considered an expert at butter or cheese making, as Rees’s wife is, would be high praise.

Rees himself has a career that was already disappearing. He is a traveling weaver. With the opening up of China and India, and the imported fabrics from the latter especially, women were abandoning spinning and weaving for purchased cloth. The opening of the textile factories in Lowell, Mass in 1816 sounded the death knell for weavers and spinners. Oh, in some parts of the country, particularly the south, hand weaving and spinning hung on. Although there are still weavers and spinners now, it is a hobby instead of a livelihood.

So far, all of the above professions are somewhat familiar to the modern person, even if individually we no longer practice them. But what about those occupations that are no longer practiced or even remembered? What is coppicing? (Answer: A method of woodland management that takes advantage of the tendency of a tree that, when cut, will send out new growth. Once allowed to grow to maturity, these new trunks are cut, and the process begins again.) Or a bodger? (Answer: A chair bodger would purchase a stand of trees, fell just the right ones, and use the wood for chair legs or braces.) Other recognized jobs involved making ladders, rakes, brooms. The Shakers are credited with inventing the modern flat broom, the sales of which became a major source of income because it was so much more effective than the round one.

The inclusion of these past occupations add color to the setting. But the most important reason I include them is to honor these craftspeople who built the world with their hands.

JULIA: Dear readers, what are the occupations long gone that fascinate you?  Would you be a carder, or a bookbinder, or a chandler? A coachman or a mantuamaker? And what do you think are the jobs of today that will disappear into the mists of time?


About SIMPLY DEAD: 1790s, Maine. In the depths of winter Hortense, a midwife, disappears after attending a birth in the woodlands. During the search Will Rees finds her struggling through the snow and woods without shoes or a coat. 

After two young men begin stalking the community in search of her – including targeting Rees’s own family – she is questioned further and claims she was kidnapped . . . but Rees and his wife Lydia are suspicious. It is agreed Hortense’s presence is endangering everyone’s safety and she needs to leave. As the arrangements are made she is hidden in Zion, the local Shaker community, only while there a Shaker Sister is murdered. Witnesses describe a man fitting Josiah Wooten’s description, a ferocious man living in the woods with two young sons.
 
What is the truth behind Hortense's disappearance, and who is responsible for the death of the Shaker Sister?

You can find out more about Eleanor Kuhns at her website, and read excerpts from the Will Rees series at Macmillan. You can friend Eleanor on Facebook and follow her on Twitter as @EleanorKuhns.















48 comments:

  1. The Will Rees mysteries sound great, Eleanor! It's hard to believe how everything was such a chore 200 years ago. As for occupations that are long gone, I've never really thought about it. I wouldn't have wanted most of the ones mentioned in your post though!

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    1. Marla, speaking of "such a chore," I remember reading an article in the Smithsonian magazine about the average calorie intake needed in colonial America just to keep people at a healthy weight. It was something like 4000 cal for men and 3000 for women. You probably expended more calories MAKING butter than eating it!

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    2. Wow, I never would have guessed living back then required so many calories, although it makes sense when I think about it. I am never going to take my store-bought butter for granted ever again!

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  2. I love the premise, Eleanor, and the research. I must check out the new book - I write a historical midwife protagonist. Strawbery Banke in Portsmouth has an annual fall fair where all kinds of artisans like the ones you describe are there in period costume making their wares, so I someone walking rope for the first time! And when I saw flax, I understood what the adjective flaxen really means! As for occupations disappearing now, it's awfully hard to find a shoe repair shop these days. Or someone to repair a radio, say. Sigh.

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    1. Edith, we've got a wonderful show repair shop in Portland, Roy's Shoes, that has been in business for almost a century. There's a "younger generation" in their late 40s-early 50s running the place, but I dread what will happen once those two are retired.

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  3. Congratulations on your newest book, Eleanor.

    Long-gone occupations? There are so many . . . no longer are there typesetters. Or elevator operators.
    What’s next to go? Perhaps delivering mail . . . or newspapers. Or maybe cashiers . . . .

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    1. Certainly a dwindling number of cashiers, Joan. My local Hanneford installed four self-serve checkouts, and now instead of customarily having three or four cashiers working, there will be one. And of course, since there's only one, more people will use the self-serve machines in order not to wait, so it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. It's a shame - for year, local high school kids have gotten their first jobs at that grocery store.

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  4. Oh boy! I can't wait to read these books!

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  5. Congratulations in the book, Eleanor, and kudos on all the fascinating research!

    I think it won't be long before a lot of jobs that we know today become extinct. Here's one close-to-home example. When my dad died, my mom had been a stay-at-home mother who had to go out and start working outside again. She got a job with a company that helped divvy up the cost of co-op advertising. I still remember that the account she worked on was Armstrong vinyl flooring. So she would get copies of newspaper ads from places like a flooring store or a hardware store or anyplace that sold Armstrong vinyl flooring. Her job was to hand measure the total ad and the portion of it devoted to the Armstrong product, calculate the percentage, and based on the percentage determine what Armstrong owed the merchant for their part of the ad. She was still doing this kind of work when she retired in the mid 1980's. It's almost hard to believe that was an actual job just 30 years ago!

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    1. Susan, that's a fascinating example, and a job I've never heard of until right now. Imagine all the human work hours spent in a task I'm sure computers do now in seconds - if they even have co-op ads anmore.

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  6. Congratulations on your new release! So interesting to learn about obsolete professions.

    Shoe repair and alterations places are in short supply, have a backlog of several weeks, and charge a fortune. Resew a half inch leather strap on a purse? $20 in advance and a three week wait.

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    1. I've noticed the same thing, Margaret. I suspect leather workers and cobblers aren't victims so much of technological obsolescence, but the change into a throwaway consumer economy. Instead of buying a few high quality goods and getting them repaired, we buy a lot of cheap stuff and toss it out. I can't help the old was was better for everyone except large, multinational manufacturers.

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  7. I'm fascinated by old occupations and I'm looking forward to reading your series, Eleanor!

    My grandfather (born in 1894) was a blacksmith. In the 60s he worked at Flint Wrought Iron Works and until a decade or so ago some of his ornamental gates were still in the area. My brother has the stairway handrail Papa made. I sure wish I photos of him working at his forge.

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    1. Cathy, there are still blacksmiths and farriers out there, making one-off ornamental iron fixtures and shoeing horses. The son of a friend of mine apprenticed with a smith who specialized in iron work for architect-built houses.

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    2. Julia, I've seen farriers around but the only ornamental blacksmiths I've seen are at Renaissance Fairs. I'm glad there are still some blacksmiths around to keep the craft alive.

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  8. THOSE COVERS! Are amazing. And I am standing and cheering for your research. Remember when there were 24-hour photo developers? And certainly bank tellers are vanishing. And the fax machine repair guy. LOVE this! Congratulations on carving out a gorgeous niche--that's your special craft!

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    1. OMG, the 24 hour photo place. And the big debate - one print or two? Matte or glossy? And did we really need them fast, or can we pay less for the place that takes a week or two to return the photos. This is one former business I can't say I miss.

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  9. Wondering... did coopers make cradles and coffins as well as barrels? The new book sounds great - welcome, Eleanor!
    So many professions gone... My husband had an uncle who was a typesetter. My son-in-law's dad used to run the gigantic presses (that are no more) at the Boston Globe. Gas jockeys! Though I love my local gas station where it's all full serve. And... always packed.

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    1. Growing up in a town that contained a distillery, I knew a few coopers. They only made barrels, oak barrels, for aging good bourbon. I suppose they had other carpentry skills, but their trade was coopering. Now I have a grandson named Cooper. I highly doubt that either of his parents understand what his name means! And tuck Mason on the end for even a more well rounded tradesman.

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    2. Interestingly enough, a brand new cooperage opened in my town a few years ago. The cooper started by making barrels from old-growth wood that had been preserved underwater (talk about a narrow niche!) His work gained popularity with distillers, and the new small-batch, regional distillery boom gave him enough business to build his own facility. He makes barrels by hand, charred and aged in different ways for the distillers specifications. I love how a change in consumer habits has brought about the return of an ancient profession in our area.

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  10. My father was a sign painter. He painted them by hand with a paintbrush. The world has changed so dramatically. I hope we always leave a space for the people who work with their hands.

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    1. My father-in-law was a sign painter, too! Painted signs for movie theatres. Markets. A lost art.

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  11. Congratulations on the new book, Eleanor!

    I find handcrafts fascinating. Definitely more of a hobby than necessity, but I'm glad they are still around.

    But with our disposable society, finding someone to repair a radio or a TV? Forget it. It's often cheaper to buy a new one.

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    1. Today's TVs are solid state, with virtually no replaceable parts.

      I still have the radio I was given as a Christmas present in 1967, and it still works!

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    2. Karen, I still have the clock radio I got when I was in college. Both the clock and the radio still work, although the manufacturer is long gone.

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    3. My husband still has his first tiny transistor radio from the 60s. He knows how to repair all those things, too, but I can't imagine the next generation having the same skills.

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  12. My dad was a telegrapher for the railroad, two different ones, actually, the Pennsylvania, and the Baltimore & Ohio (B&O). Telegraphers rode the trains, messaging ahead to the next station about timetables, and also if there were obstructions on the rails, etc. Daddy did this until about 1968.

    Another occupation that is no longer is pinsetter for bowling alleys. When I was a kid in the 1960's, my dad was the assistant governor, and later governor, of the local Moose Lodge. In addition to the bar for members only, "the Moose" also had a bingo hall, where dances and wedding receptions were held, and a bowling alley. Lots of teenage boys had part-time jobs jumping down into the alley lanes to reset the pins.

    Our next-door neighbor grew up in Quebec, in what was the country back then, in a family of 12 children. She is close to 80 now, but she said when she was a child the family would host a traveling seamstress once a year for several weeks. This woman was usually a spinster with no family, and she would spend her time in their home measuring every family member, then stitching up their wardrobes for the coming year. That would have been in the 1930's and 40's. I've always wondered if there were women who did this same thing in the US, as well.

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    1. Karen, a traveling seamstress who takes up residence at a different house every couple of months would make a terrific protagonist for an historical mystery series!

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  13. Congratulations on your new book, Eleanor.

    My grandfather was a barber who drew water from a well and heated it for shaving gents. He used dozens of white huck towels every week, and my grandmother, also drawing water from a well and heating it on a wood stove, washed everyone of them. I can remember, as a very small child, helping her lay these towels out on the grass to dry and bleach in the sun. They were then folded in thirds and carried by hand back to the barber shop.

    My grandmother churned butter, baked bread, milked the cow, ironed every single article of clothing worn, and bathed me in a wash tub. Just the way she had done with her five children. Life wasn't all that good in the good old days.

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    1. Ann, you remind me of my experience during the Great ice Storm of '98, when I was stuck in a powerless house with two small children for nine days. Tending fires round the clock, cooking on iron skillets atop the wood stove, keeping the children safe from candles and vice versa, melting snow and ice for flushing water - I didn't have to hand-launder clothes or milk a cow, but the experience was enough to cure me of any desire to actually live in the olden days.

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  14. And quilting! Yes, I know many of you quilt today, but how many do it all by hand? I recall my grandfather setting up the quilting frame and my grandmother and her friends spending an afternoon working first on piecing one together and later months quilting by hand, never a sewing machine in the picture although they all had one in some back bedroom, the treadle variety.

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    1. And of course, back in the day quilts were made with cut-down pieces of cloth taken from old clothing, sheets, etc., not coordinated fabric bought specifically for quilt-making.

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    2. Ann, our friend Gigi Norwood quilts by hand, and makes gorgeous quilts, too. But she uses quilting software to design them!

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  15. I love the cover for Death of a Dyer. Coppicing - thank you, I think redwoods do that. Or maybe the sprouting from the burls of living trees is what I'm thinking of. Occupations disappearing.... Store clerks - who goes shopping in stores with self check out? Is stenography still taught in school? Probably not since I just taught my Kindle the word. Toll takers have been replaced with cameras on the Golden Gate Bridge.

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    1. Deana, I remain comfortable assured by the fact computers haven't been able to write good novels - yet!

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  16. Eleanor, welcome to Jungle Reds! Your books are new to me and I want to read them. I will look for them at my library.
    Will you attend Left Coast Crime or Malice Domestic?

    Wonderful post today! I was reminded of when I visited Colonial Williamsburg. I remember when I was a kid that our teacher taught us how to make candles. A long time ago when I was a kid, I remember we had the milkman deliver milk daily! Yes, I remember the 24 hour photo developing service. And until recently, we had a video/ DVD rental shop. Now the only place you can get DVDs are when you borrow DVDs from the library.

    Although many careers are outdated now, I have seen some people continue the traditions of quilting, knitting, building furniture, and other crafts.

    We still have shoe repair places, thank goodness.

    Regarding cheese making, I think there are villages in Europe that continue that tradition.

    Diana

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    1. Diana, maybe we've gotten to a good place after all - the fulfilling hand crafts are still practiced by a few well-paid artisans, but the majority of back-breaking, unpleasant labor has been mechanized.

      My daughter works for a manufacturer here in Maine that make specialty rope for mountain climbing, rescue work, and arborists. So there are still rope makers in Maine - they just have machines to help instead of having to walk miles every day twisting fibers by hand.

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    2. Julia, thanks for reminding me. Now I remember that they use machines more in the USA, including Maine.

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  17. Fascinating topic! Gone occupations? Milk man. Popsicle truck man. Too many communities banned them as being "dangerous." Watch repair people. I saw an article recently begging for young people to apply for a fully paid apprenticeship. Which reminds me. I had a wellness check up yesterday with certain things required by Medicare. One required me to draw a clock and make it show a certain time. First grade stuff. I laughed when the nurse said some of the twenty somethings couldn't do it. Do they still have door to door Fuller Brush salesmen? Both of my grandfathers were jack of all trades. One lived out in the country and farmed, raised animals, did some blacksmithing, small engine repair, you name it. The other lived in the city, after emigrating from Sweden. He attended medical school but did not finish; worked as a policeman in corrupt Kansas City, and no doubt had other professions. He wound up owning his own little grocery store. We still have shoe repair shops but they are not cheap! And there are small engine repair shops particularly where there are lawn mowers and boats. Trains got rid of cabooses so there's no one to wave at.

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  18. Eleanor, I am fascinated by your books! I don't know how I've missed them until now, but am going to remedy that immediately. And you've sent me down the research rabbit hole this morning. I had no idea that since the 70s, most commercial cheese has been made using a genetically modified enzyme that mimics rennet, so that it's no longer necessary to literally kill the calf to make cheese.

    I see from your website that your background is in library science, and I was wondering what sparked your interest in this historical period.

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  19. I love Eleanor's Will Rees books, so atmospheric, and good mysteries. I've toured several Shaker communities, and they were actually leaders in mechanization. Another religious sect the Amish still do a lot of work by hand (or foot) and consume the calories to match. One popular side dish combines noodles and mashed potatoes. But I think the average Amish housewife buys her butter and cheese. Most will make the family's clothes, but from fabric from the same looms that make the fabric the rest of us use. An Amish quilt shop will often still have the quilt frame set up, and hand quilting going on.

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  20. When I think about how impatient I get at red lights, your post gives me pause to consider how we rush, rush, rush. I am a native New Englander and I love reading about the history of the area. As a crafter, I love that you keep their occupational history alive. Coincidentally, I've signed up to take a weaving class at my local yarn shop. What made you decide to give Will the occupation of traveling weaver? Looking forward to reading SIMPLY DEAD.

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  21. I loved this blog and the ensuing discussion. Thank you. it is really fascinating to understand how things were made. Those of us who read ( and re-read) the Little House books remember some of those lost skills and if your parents took you to historic villages you saw more demonstrated. Fascinating to see glass blown, wool spun and butter churned. On the other hand, I doubt that anyone misses rugs beaten by hand to get them clean? Or taking the dirty clothes down to the creek? I remember the chapter where Ma Ingalls acquired a sewing machine, and she was quite happy about it!I have the greatest respect for crafts, but they're more fun as a hobby than when clothing your family depends on your skill with a needle.I do remember my mother hanging wet clothes on an outdoor line in winter (a chore) and getting fresh milk delivered daily (good)

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  22. Having milk delivered was great, until the heat spoiled it, or it froze. I was only two or three, but I have a clear memory of when the milk bottles froze, the milk rose up out of the popped open lid, and the glass fractured. And my mother cried, the most shocking thing of all. Which is probably why I remember the visuals.

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  23. I love to read about past professions, the ones taking great skill. It sounds like you do a brilliant job of covering those, Eleanor. And, I love your book covers. You are definitely going on my TBR list. My father, who was in real estate, had another skill that he actually used, that of water witching or dowsing. In the boot/trunk of his car was always a forked branch or stick that he used. I had to include "boot" because it is something that not many people remember now either (although I guess that do in the UK). I grew up saying boot of the car, not trunk.

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  24. Clerical work is not gone but going. I had over 25 years changing names and addresses at a bank before our jobs went in a merger. When I retired from the State, my job was just farmed out to people in my department or the remaining clericals.

    On another note, my grandmother made her own sauerkraut, which I hated so that wasn't a plus for me. I do remember the crock on the side porch.

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  25. Eleanor is offline, somewhere in the wilds doing research for the next book this week. I know she'll be delighted to read all these comments when she gets back!

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  26. This sound very fascinating. I love the way the old is being kept alive via mysteries.

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