Screamers, spitters, forge and other professions forgotten today, popular in Russia

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

In Russia, there were professions that may seem ridiculous to a modern person. People earned their livelihoods by crying for various reasons, picking through the garbage, spitting grain into the ground, or selling wolf's tails. Forge, tar, pastiller, crochet - who are these specialists, and what did they do?

Wailing mourners

Representatives of these professions received monetary rewards for the fact that they could cry loudly, piercingly and for a long time and lament mournfully. For the first time mourners appeared in ancient times. In Greece and Rome, sorrowful rituals could not do without them.

In Russia, their professional duties were broad. At the funeral, mourners created a mournful atmosphere. And although relatives, as a rule, already grieved for the deceased, the presence of professional mourners was mandatory.

Not a single wedding took place without screams. According to the traditions of that time, the bride, leaving the parental home, had to grieve. But not always the newly-made wife could do it sincerely. Here mourners came to the rescue, dragged on their mournful parables, and almost everyone had tears in their eyes.

It is interesting that this profession had its own subtleties. For example, the most received was the one who could yell in different ways, had an acting talent, knew how to put together parables right off the bat, focusing on the situation. Such a specialist was offered additional rewards for the fact that it was she who was present at ritual events.

Forge

In Russia, the knots were of particular importance. People believed that all the intricacies - tangled hair, horse manes, household ropes, threads of yarn - were the machinations of evil spirits. In contrast to them, the forge worked. They created knots of different sizes and shapes, each with a special meaning.

Knots were intertwined to attract good luck, wealth, healing from terrible ailments, a love spell for a loved one, and strengthening the family. There were also options that people used to take revenge on their enemies - forges could take away luck or bring death.

For special orders, amulets were knitted using various frightening elements - bones, needles, claws, feathers and body parts of small animals. Each forge earned a reputation and popularity for herself. The more amulets created by the craftswoman coped with their task, the more popular rumor made it in demand.

Spitters

Representatives of this profession in Russia were held in high esteem. Their task was to sow turnips by spitting out the seeds. The seed was very small, when planting by hand, the grains were lost, or fell into the ground in a bunch in one place.

This work was not so easy. The spitter needed to learn how to control the force of spitting, to calculate the optimal amount of seeds for a given area of land. Professionals had decent earnings and for a separate fee taught the secrets of the craft to everyone. In the midst of the sowing season, rich farmers fought for the best spitters, promising good money for working in their field.

Degtekura and tar

Degtekurs in Russia met quite often. Their task was to extract tar from birch bark. Tar in those days was very popular, it was used to lubricate mechanisms, impregnate building materials, and was used to care for clothes and shoes. The most popular use of tar was the production of a special kind of leather - black yuft. It was used to make high-quality, durable harness, footwear, and workwear. Tars worked in special pits, the whole process of distilling birch bark into tar was done manually.

Tarts often worked side by side with tar. They extracted resin from coniferous trees by distillation. It was used to protect against moisture and decay, and ropes and ropes were tarred to give them strength. Resin used in the work of special ovens or covered pits. It was in them that coniferous wood was burned, which, at certain temperatures and without air access, released resin.

Shepherds

For this profession, girls were selected strong, strong and enduring. The process of creating a popular sweets was divided into stages. First, two shepherds beat the apples until smooth, which took them two days. Then the applesauce was placed in a thin layer on special paper. An indicator of professionalism was considered the ability to apply raw materials as thinly as possible, without violating the integrity of the coating. The pastille hardened for several days and only after that was cut into even strips of a certain size. A bonus for the peasant women was the opportunity to gorge themselves on marshmallow scraps.

Leech catchers and tail sellers

Leech catchers have been in demand due to the popularity of hirudotherapy. In ancient times, medicine men and healers treated dozens of diseases with the help of bloodsucking. It was customary to "bleed badly" for any ailment - from a hangover to diseases of bones and joints.

Leech catchers worked in the swamps. They banged with sticks on the surface, forcing the leeches to get out to the surface. It's all about instincts - blood-sucking perceived any vibration of the water as an entrance into the water of potential victims and rushed to the place of vibration. The method of "fishing with live bait" was popular. The volunteer entered the water and, as soon as the required number of leeches was collected, went out and moved them into special containers. The work had its own nuances - leeches of a certain size and caught in certain periods were used for therapeutic and prophylactic purposes.

The profession of a "tailor salesman" arose thanks to the cunning of the people. Particularly enterprising people created a whole business. Its meaning was that during periods of fierce winters due to the attack of wolves on people, the government announced good rewards for the capture of predators. Proof of the work done was the wolf's tail provided. People liked getting paid for it so much that when the wolves were overfished, they began to make wolf tails from scrap materials - wolf skins, dog skins, and even hemp. Thus, until the trick was recognized, many were able to get good money.

Rag pickers and crochet hookers

Representatives of these professions can be considered the founders of technologies for the recycling of various raw materials. They walked the streets and collected unnecessary rags, cans, pieces of iron, unnecessary paper trash. People gave them old household items, and in return they could get sweets and small trifles.

There was a whole business, and even a kind of hierarchy. The crochet hook was considered the lowest. The name of the profession came from the tool - he worked with a stick, at the end of which there was an iron hook. With the help of it, the worker stirred up heaps of garbage. All finds were handed over to the rag aces, and they already gave the raw materials to the owners or sent them directly to large enterprises.

In Russia, there were two types of workers in this sphere - some went to the yards and bought raw materials, the second mined it for free in garbage heaps and in garbage pits. This business was very profitable and in demand, but gradually came to naught.

Continuing the conversation about the professions of the past, we publish 27 retro photographs of the 19th century depicting Russian citizens of different professions.

Author: Yuri Arbuzov