Grossology

I heard about this new field of study just a couple of months ago. It is the study of all sorts of gross and disgusting things and things generally not spoken about in polite company. So if you are not into gross things, I would advise you to read no further - just skip down to the next post!

One very interesting cultural tidbit I picked up several years ago while living in a remote village was about farts. Farting is a universal phenomenon but is handled differently in different societies. Among the No people, farting is of course unavoidable but one must avoid farting near other people. You may be walking along with a group or even with just one other person and they will suddenly stop and leave you continuing down the trail by yourself – even in the midst of an exciting tale. If you notice and ask what the problem is, they will say they are farting.

Although it is considered somewhat of a social taboo to do it, they certainly have no trouble talking about it. In fact there are several different words for fart in the No language. The generic word is otu. This word is a noun but can be made into a verb, or even an adjective. You can add a prefix to the verb to make it mean ‘cause to fart’. You can add a different prefix to the adjective which comes out meaning ‘excessively farty’ (or something like that.) There even are a couple of idioms. One is to ‘eat other people’s farts’ which means to eat what’s left of a meal after everybody else has already eaten. Another is ‘fart on his words’ which means to dis what somebody said.

Then we have the word pudi. Now pudi is for quiet little high-pitched involuntary farts. Especially ones that squeeze out when you are trying very hard not to let them escape. I was told a folktale about a girl who did some pudi where it might have been overheard by a suitor. She was so embarassed and humiliated that she ended up killing herself. (I doubt that she was a No person, though.)

There is also the word poge. This is an explosively loud reverberating fart. One that absolutely cannot be hidden or blamed on the dog. You can’t do this one without loud protests from everybody in hearing range.

Now all these words can be combined with other verbs and adjectives to make very picturesque and graphic descriptions. For example, there is an adjective busi that usually means ‘very loud and startling and ground-shaking’ and is used to describe deafening noises such as a coconut suddenly whamming into a tin roof after falling from a tall tree, or something huge (like a giant tree) crashing to earth.

Well, one day the third grade class was left unsupervised while the teacher went up to his house to take care of something. While he was gone, the boys decided to have a farting contest. Of course each boy wanted to out fart the last one so things quickly ratcheted up. They began to cause-to-busi their farts. In other words, they put their hearts and souls into it. Jemy, forgetting that he had been having problems with diarrhea lately - yes, you can see where this one’s going. To hurry on with the story, Jemy ended up having to go home real early that day.

Poor Jemy. I will never forget the sight of him standing by the well while his 23 year-old uncle filled buckets of water to throw at him to get him cleaned up. Unfortunately his uncle was laughing so hard he could barely stand let alone pump coherently so the whole process took quite a while. Meanwhile his mother and aunts were pacing around spitting in disgust and muttering about kids who busiraka otu!

When they run out of the usual words, they can get very descriptive. (Now this next bit may get really gross – so I’m warning you to stop while you can!) For awhile I stayed in a very small house with several others. There was a bathroom off the kitchen with only a curtain for a door. One day someone was in there and obviously was having some major gas and stomach problems. He let out a tremendous and lengthy passage of gas and then made a loud remark about somebody revving up their motorcycle. I was in the next room trying to keep quiet but I noticed that everybody else dropped what they were doing and fled. When he finally came out there was nobody to be seen.