Re: how many bastards are there, anyway?

Ian A. York (iayork@panix.com)
17 Sep 1996 09:03:03 -0400

In article <323DF791.6D5D@sprynet.com>,
Dave Wilton <dwilton@sprynet.com> wrote:
>
>(Germania XXIX, 59) to the practice formerly prevalent of planting
>or engrafting the spurs of a castrated cock on the root of the
>excised comb, where they grew and became horns, sometimes of
>several inches long. He shows that Ger[man] 'hahureh' or 'hahurei'

I've heard of this practice several times before, always in explanations
for the meaning of "cuckold". Does it sound completely bizarre to anyone
but me? I mean, why stick spurs on something's head? Just for fun? If
so, why just castrated cocks - why not the standard variety? Anyone seen
this done? (I know there aren't all that many capons running around these
days, but if this practice was really so prevalent for so long, it must
have persisted somewhere.)

Ian 

-- 

      Ian York   (iayork@panix.com)  <http://www.panix.com/~iayork/>

      "-but as he was a York, I am rather inclined to suppose him a

       very respectable Man." -Jane Austen, The History of England