Stur calligraphy

I had a very difficult day today, so keep it simple for now with my attempts at calligraphy. This is all the same rubai, but here is its Roman transcription (classical Novostur vocalism) and translation:

har sabza ki bar-kanār-i jōy-ī rusta ast
gōyī, zi lab-i firišta-xway-ī rusta ast
pā bar sar-i sabza tā ba xwārī nanihī
k-ān zi xāk-i lāla rōy-ī rusta ast

The grass with which - look! - bordered
The ripples of a ringing stream are fragrant and gentle.
Don't trample her with contempt: perhaps
From the ashes of angelic beauty she arose.

𐎥𐎢𐎶𐎠𐎫

Cow fast.

I think you all know very well that in Tivia the cow is a sacred animal. This applies not only to them, but to the region as a whole: in Mazdaism, a cow/bull is also considered a very good and kind animal. Why is that? The answer is very simple: the cow gives milk. She is considered the voluntary nurse of the human race, and cow symbolism is ubiquitous throughout the Avesta.

Now let's switch to slightly abstract things. I once lived like this Gaumata, according to the official version, inscribed by Cyrus the Great on the Kamenyuk, is a magician (or priest), a Stoor liar, posing as Cambyses, the murdered younger brother of the ruling Bardiya at that time, who had just gone on a campaign. He organized a fairly large coup, took the throne himself, and ruled until Cyrus drove him out of there with pissing rags.

The official version has both supporters and opponents; the latter say that all this is lies and Gaumata was not a magician, but a real Cambyses - and Cyrus the Great is just a usurper. This version is considered partly marginal, primarily because the Bisutun inscription was carved at the very beginning of the reign of Cyrus himself, and even in three languages - it would be strange to commit such an outright lie when you have a whole country of eyewitnesses around you.

I will not say who is right and who is wrong, but I will draw your attention to one specific thing. Proponents of the theory that Gaumata was Cambyses generally argue that “Gaumata” is a nickname invented by Cyrus and the conspirators. And I categorically disagree with this.

Gaumāta (Old-Art. 𐎥𐎢𐎶𐎠𐎫) translated from ancient Turk as “mother cow” (gau-māta). Names with the element “cow” were quite rare, and in general were intended to testify to the piety of the wearer. Parallels can be traced in Tivyan names: there is, for example, the Vedic sage Manarishi Gautama, and there is a VERY major historical figure Siddhartha Gautama - I think he needs no introduction. In general, the trend is visible: usually positive characters bear cow names; It would be strange for Kira and his friends to call the usurper magician such a beautiful name.

The conclusion is: respect cows, drink milk. Amen.

Bows, bows

Shooting post.

Bows are different. Straight, block, recursive - but in addition to all this, sometimes you can notice very unusual designs that at first glance look like they are beautiful, but in fact it is not entirely clear whether they work.

One such bow design variation is the double shoulder bow, which I've seen in a number of games. Such a thing immediately caused natural skepticism in me, and I got into the network to understand whether it was possible to shoot from such a thing and whether it was necessary at all.

It turned out that quite yes! This design with different variations is used by some Indian peoples, and not only them. People claim that for the same amount of force, this helps stabilize the flight of the arrow and increase the range by 10-15% compared to a conventional recurve bow. Well, let's believe them!

Here is a video with a man who himself riveted a similar (and very working) bow:

Well, the photos below: the usual Penobscot bow (Penobscot bow), then its more beautiful variation from some online store, well, guess the last one yourself =D

Retract stabilization

I really want to sleep.

But instead, I will tell you why most modern gearts do not have three phalanges of fingers, as one might expect, but four.

In fact, the solution is quite simple, but usually no one really thinks about it. Let's take a look at the same cats and see how their paws are arranged. In short: they have two “working” phalanges in their fingers, and the third is curved at a slightly strange angle, and the claw is attached to it (image below). To release the claws, the cat simply bends the third phalanx separately from the rest of the finger - and voila! You can tear the hands of unwary owners.

Gearts' claws have not been retractable since time immemorial, and are simply attached to a fully functional third phalanx - like the nails of humans and the like, but longer and sharper. Convenient for climbing trees and scratching enemies, but a little interferes with various delicate work. Let's just say that you definitely won't play a guitar with such claws.

Therefore, somewhere in the tenth century, they began to carry out operations to retractabilize the claws - in this case, the shape of the third phalanx is magically somewhat modified, and an extended fourth phalanx with a claw is added to it. It's almost invisible behind the fur - but I don't have hair, so my fingers look strange at first glance, to say the least. But at least it’s convenient.

If anything, modification of the third phalanx does not affect the functionality of the fingers in any way if the operation is performed at an early age. Later, it takes a long time to get used to the new sensations and operating mechanism.

Sewage problems

Now I, dear friends, will tell you how difficult it is to live with a clogged sewer.

Last night there were no signs of trouble: a hurricane wind blew calmly and poured rain all around, the trees swayed back and forth, and in general it was very pleasant not to leave the house. In between the rain squalls, I decided to go out to stretch my legs a little and suddenly heard a suspicious noise coming from the boiler room (the ventilation window was open). Berenice had just finished washing, I waited for her, and we decided to see what was happening there.

The end of the world took place there. It was all filled with water. Just EVERYTHING - and it was not even clear where it came from. But then one of our guys upstairs opened the tap, and we were able to see with our own eyes the miracle of the flow of sewer water.

I won’t draw a sewer diagram, of course; I’ll explain briefly: at the very bottom of the pipe, already behind the house, a blockage formed, because there was water in it - and as soon as the column exceeded a certain level, it began to flow out of the adjacent pipe located in the boiler room. Then began the rags, buckets, even more rags and the discharge of natural needs exclusively on the street.

This morning the repairman came and cleared the blockage - and we all breathed a sigh of relief. Comforts in the home, after all, are a great thing.

Stur copybooks

Tell me, which one of you hated writing copybooks at school? And we brought you the Srednestursky ones! They are made on a piece of tanned leather called “post” - in fact, almost the same as Hellenic parchment, but a slightly different technology.

From top to bottom there are a bunch of rows - these are the letters of the Srednestur consonantal writing, and below the word is written six times pstly, that is, “variegated” (PR *pьstrъjь). And again a character known to us - if you have forgotten who he is, read the previous posts.

PS It’s all written a little unevenly in the original, but I also added my own crookedness, excuse me.

wtf

The following is an educational post that shows what not to do. A power line was laid through the skull of an English woman buried in a previously undiscovered sixth-century burial site. The proof, unfortunately, is only in the form of a link to reddit, but at least it’s something.

Storm

Training post: when you see something like this on the horizon and it’s quickly approaching you, you need to immediately take care of covering all your not very waterproof equipment.

But I don’t care, because I’m not at the excavation site right now =D

Fravahr

If you are asked now what the most famous symbol of Mazdaism looks like, you will think a little, right? It’s a little sad that of the once great and beautiful religions, perhaps only Ohrmazd and Ahriman are now heard of.

But this was a lyrical digression, don’t pay attention. The most famous symbol of Mazdaism is the so-called. fravahr/faravahar, which initially looked simply like a winged sun, and later a human image was added to it. Why am I doing this, you ask? We found a cute little thing - a leather bracelet, and on it there was a gold insert with fravachrome. These were in use among the Mazdayasnians right up until Mazdaism was defeated by Islam in the seventh century. It’s clear that not everyone could afford gold, so they were usually made entirely of leather - or even with a silver insert.

I would love to sketch it now, but I got drunk on some strange milk and can only lie on my side and writhe from the pain in my stomach. Therefore, now I will show you the first couple of photographs I came across from Google, which are at least somehow similar to our find.