The Black Hand

So, when I started this blog I thought twice a week would be easy enough to manage. . . NOT!

Where does time go?

Well I had an elightening experience last week. I had alway thought that the term "The Black Hand" originated in pre-Mafia times in Russia or Italy or somewhere! Well I am her to tell you that is not so. I have done some research of my own and here is the "Rest of the Story!".

Long ago in Russia, when people were downtrodden by the Tsar's and had nothing to live for, the peasants had to make do with what they had. The winters were so bleak, nothing grew in the frozen ground. What they did manage to grow during the good months was all taken away by the soldiers, to feed the masses in the cities.

Then one day, some village women were gathering up the fallen pecans from the native trees. They were still in their hulls. These hulls provided the much favored brown dye that the peasants used to dye their clothing. A nice rich brown was useful in these times where clothing was not washed often, and the color hid the dirt.

The only problem was that the pecans needed to be removed from the hulls so that they could be hidden and used for much needed nutrition in the village. It was the womens' job to take care of the hulling and making of the dye. This was a day long process of removing those hulls and even though the hulls were a pretty spring green color, they produced, as mentioned, a lovely brown hue when used in the dyeing process. This brown oozed from the hulls once cut open and consequently got all over the womens hands. The obviously caused their hands to turn a very dark brown, or even black color.

Now the idiots in the cities did not know at this time about pecans and their values. They had no idea that these village women were utilizing them for their uses. They saw these women with the black hands and thought that they were smitten with some deadly disease that was turning their bodies black.

Women, being women, used this to their advantage. During these times these peasants were terribly persecuted and never seemed to get the upper hand (pardon the pun) on their opressors. But these women were smart, they already knew that their men had banded together to form a partisan group against the upstarts. They knew that by keeping these persecutors undereducated on what they were doing, they could fool them into thinking other things.

You must remember that in these times no-one was exactly "educated" in our sense of the word.

So, when the persecutors came to get their usual rations from the village, the women with the black hands were there to hand them out. Well, of course when the soldiers saw these women's hands they did not want to take anything from them. They were afraid that they would get the same affliction from whatever they touched. They got back on their horses and rode off back to town.

The villagers were so happy. Their women had fooled the soldiers into thinking that they had the "curse of the Black Hand". They knew it would be a while before they even thought about venturing back into their village.

Meanwhile, the villagers held a celebration. They had rations to get them through the winter. They had pecan nuts to nourish them through the hard winter months. And, within a couple of weeks the womens' hands were back to their usual pink color.

So, this is where I believe the term "The Black Hand" originated. The upstarts were so impressed with the women's cunning that they felt it would be an apt title for their organization. After all, weren't they going to fool us into thinking things aren't as they appear?????

Moral to this story: Don't peel pecans without rubber gloves!!! (not that I would do anything like that!)