Book description
Crossing continents and centuries Stephen Arnott brings us invaluable
information about all kinds of bizarre regional customs - from sexual
practices to the received wisdom on cannibalism - that could save you
from embarrassing local faux pas while travelling.
Did you know that amongst the Tartars, relations of the bride and
bridegroom would traditionally divide into two groups and fight each
other until some had suffered bleeding wounds? It was thought that
causing blood to flow in this way would ensure the couple had strong
sons; or that in Hungary, a cure for infertility was to beat a barren
woman with a stick? The stick having previously been used to separate
mating dogs; or that amongst some Aboriginal tribes of New South Wales
that men who had any contact with their mothers-in-law would suffer
terrible hard luck? The threat was so great that married men even
avoided looking in their mother-in-law's general direction.
Stephen Arnott is the author of
Now Wash Your Hands!
a cultural history of the toilet, and
The Languid Goat is Always Thin,
a collection of the world's strangest proverbs and
Sex: A User's Guide
. Born in Jamaica, he currently lives in South London with his partner
and daughter.
