Collection of Canes #2of2

The item on the right is a “flail” we purchased in Doksany, Czech Republic. The dictionary says: “Flail— A manual threshing device consisting of a long wooden handle or staff and a shorter, free-swinging stick attached to its end. Threshing — To beat the stems and husks of (grain or cereal plants) with a machine or flail to separate the grains or seeds from the straw.” This flail has a rusty metal hinge-attachment, and a rawhide thong connecting the long and the short piece. The flail we bought in Plzen, Czech Republic, has a bent-wooden hinge-attachment, and a rawhide thong between the long and the short piece.

We showed our flails to several elderly residents of the Czech Republic, and two elderly men near Rocamadour, France. They all assured us the flails were at least 100, and very likely 200 years old.

The other two items are Greek Shepherd Staffs — one we found in an antique store in Githio, the other I bought from a shepherd in Kótronas. The Shepherd staffs are called "glitsa,” an elaborate "sheep-stick" ending in a carved end-piece shaped so it can be used to hold a leg of a sheep. (If you know the story about the design of either staff, please contact me!) We were told they are available only to Greek shepherds, not a non-shepherd Greek, and certainly never available for a tourist.

During the early evening the central square in Metsovo was filled with people sitting, or standing around talking. I walked with my special shepherd’s staff, just to see the reaction. Maybe it was just my imagination, but I’m sure there were looks of surprise on the faces of some of the older men. But were they surprised to see a tourist with a shepherd staff, or surprised to see some dum-dum American trying to look like a Greek Shepherd?