Svullrya Local Customs

The whip lying on this table is called "peis", which means ox ***, and that is exactly what it is. The tissue is strong and elastic, and makes a very good whip. I don't know whether the Finns brought the custom of making whips of ox penises, or whether it was known in Norway before the arrived. (Actualley, Finns have been living a lot longer in Norway than the forest Finns who settled down in Finnskogen in the 16-hundreds.) What I do know is that one of my ancestors who was a watchman in the rural area Markabygd in North Trøndelag, used one to chase tramps in the first half of the 19th century. They often put a lump of lead at the tip to make it hurt more when they whipped somebody!

(Hm, there is a funny kind of censorship here, the singular form of a word was replaced with three asterix', while the plural form was accepted! Anyway, why would the latin word for the anatomic part of an animal be censored? I would have understood it had I used a foul word!)