On Monday, February 15, 2016 at 8:44:20 PM UTC-5, Julie Bove wrote:
>
> These are things from fictional books.

And it would be pretty baffling, even in a work of fiction, to make up
etiquette rules that no one ever heard of...right? The only reason,
presumably, that they sound strange to us now is that the books are more
than a century old.

Of course, Beatrix Potter's books were fantasies, but there was plenty of
realism in them as well.

BTW, the first rule I mentioned reminded me, in a way, of a scene in Chapter
3 from "The Light in the Forest," which takes place in the mid-18th century
(this has to do with the social rules of the Lenni Lenape tribe):

"When at last (Half Arrow) came cautiously out of the timber onto the
trace, True Son looked with interest at the pack on his back, although
it wasn't polite to acknowledge its existence."

That is, as True Son suspected, the pack turned out to have presents in it
for True Son.

And here's another bit about old rules on hospitality (long thread):

https://groups.google.com/forum/#!ms...U/8u2TXK84xzMJ

Excerpt from an early part of the thread:

....up until the late 19th century or so - and this probably still happens
in Third World countries - is was common decency for people to offer
strangers their homes to spend the night, maybe because of a shortage of
inns - or travelers' inability to pay for them. Stories that reflect
this include those of Baucis and Philemon, Jason and Aeetes, Hercules
and Admetus (OK, so they were friends), True Son's tribe in "The Light in
the Forest" (chapter 11), fables by Tolstoy, and the true(?) stories as
told by Laura Ingalls Wilder in "By the Shores of Silver Lake."...

This is followed by even more fascinating etiquette details from the stories
of Aeetes and Admetus.


Lenona.