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500-Year-Old Manners Book Advises Kids To 'Pyke Notte Thy Nostrellys'

posted by Fnord666 on Tuesday March 03 2020, @02:57AM   Printer-friendly
from the sage-advice dept.

Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:

Take heart, all ye parents weary of reminding your kids not to pick their noses and burp loudly. Fifteenth-century moms and dads faced the same battles to keep their tykes well-mannered.  

Just take a look at the 500-year-old Lytille Childrenes Lytil Boke, which taught proper etiquette to children of families aspiring to life among English royals or nobles. It's been digitized for the first time by a new British Library site. 

The Little Children's Little Book manuscript, from around 1480, is written in Middle English, so there are lots of thines, thous and thys. But screens, cars and vaccines aside, kids will be kids. They dug out their boogers then and they dig out their boogers now. 

"Pyke notte thyne errys nothyr thy nostrellys," reads one rule. (Don't pick your ears or nose.) "Spette not ovyr thy tabylle," reads another. (Don't spit over your table.) "Bulle not as a bene were in thi throote." (Don't burp as if you had a bean in your throat.)

This kind of a behavioral guide, known as a courtesy book, was common in parts of Europe between the 13th and 18th centuries. The author of The Lytille Childrenes Lytil Boke links manners not only to social rank but to religion, saying courtesy comes straight from heaven.

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  • (Score: 3, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 03 2020, @05:06AM (11 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 03 2020, @05:06AM (#965858)

    Alright, if you don't pick your nose, how the hell do you get all the gunk out of it? Blowing your nose doesn't get the dried stuff out all the time. Or is that just me?

    I haven't run across any specialized tools made to clean your nostrils. Maybe I haven't searched Amazon with the right phrase. Perhaps everyone uses tools made by Buddhist monks in a secret lair deep in the Peruvian mountains, and no one has ever told me about it because I'm not one of the cool kids.

    Perhaps what they really mean by "don't pick your nose" is "don't pick your nose in front of other people". Which is completely sensible, yet does not carry an expectation that people die rather than ever remove the boulders lodged in their snout.

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  • (Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 03 2020, @05:16AM (4 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 03 2020, @05:16AM (#965862)

    Press one nostril closed with your thumb from the side, take a deep breath, and force the air out of your other nostril fast and hard. Then switch. Do it over a sink. If that doesn't work, eat some spicy foods.

    • (Score: 2, Informative) by khallow on Tuesday March 03 2020, @02:48PM (2 children)

      by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Tuesday March 03 2020, @02:48PM (#965992) Journal
      Ear canals are another route for that air to go. Picking one's nose is preferable to ear infections IMHO.

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 03 2020, @03:07PM (1 child)

        by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 03 2020, @03:07PM (#965999)

        It doesn't go through the ear. Try it. It's like breathing out through your nose, just faster.

    • (Score: 3, Informative) by Snotnose on Tuesday March 03 2020, @06:24PM

      by Snotnose (1623) on Tuesday March 03 2020, @06:24PM (#966070)

      Don't see the point to the sink, the nostril boulder is going to end up on the front of your shirt anyway.

      Hopefully you'll notice it before going out in public....

      --
      My ducks are not in a row. I don't know where some of them are, and I'm pretty sure one of them is a turkey.

  • (Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 03 2020, @07:35AM (1 child)

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 03 2020, @07:35AM (#965896)

    Wash with sterile saline solution? https://www.healthline.com/health/sinus-flush [healthline.com]
    IMPORTANT: MUST be a sterile solution.

    • (Score: 4, Funny) by Bot on Tuesday March 03 2020, @07:46AM

      by Bot (3902) on Tuesday March 03 2020, @07:46AM (#965899) Journal

      >must be sterile
      >the 15th century anglo barbarians

      and this is how you get the black death.

      --
      Account abandoned.

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 03 2020, @09:44AM (1 child)

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 03 2020, @09:44AM (#965920)

    I noticed you're using your Anonymous Coward registered alias for this question.
    also you may find this Seinfeld extract informative: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DmGRJWxLqiE [youtube.com]

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 03 2020, @12:52PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 03 2020, @12:52PM (#965949)

      I mean who can blame him? Most people pick their noses, but few will admit it. But yeah, not in front of others.

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 03 2020, @02:41PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 03 2020, @02:41PM (#965991)

    Evolve a longer tongue and lick that shit out. Works for cats and dogs - hell they even lick their arseholes. Then you.

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 03 2020, @02:55PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 03 2020, @02:55PM (#965994)

    Try C-4