WEBVTT - The Whistling, Part 3 0:00:03.040 --> 0:00:05.360 Welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind production of My 0:00:05.480 --> 0:00:14.920 Heart Radio. Hey, welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind. 0:00:15.040 --> 0:00:17.759 My name is Robert Manam and I'm Joe McCormick, and 0:00:17.760 --> 0:00:21.240 we're back with part three of our series on whistling. Now, 0:00:21.239 --> 0:00:23.040 if you haven't heard the first two parts, you might 0:00:23.040 --> 0:00:25.840 want to go check those out first. In the In 0:00:25.880 --> 0:00:29.240 the previous sections, we talked about the physics of what 0:00:29.280 --> 0:00:31.640 happens in the mouth when you whistle. We talked about 0:00:31.920 --> 0:00:36.360 whistling based languages or variants of languages, and we talked 0:00:36.400 --> 0:00:41.239 about the fascinating practice of Chinese transcendental whistling, as well 0:00:41.280 --> 0:00:46.760 as some various psychonautical beliefs about the world changing power 0:00:46.840 --> 0:00:50.040 of whistling. But today it might be interesting to turn 0:00:50.080 --> 0:00:53.080 our eyes to ancient history and say, did people whistle 0:00:53.159 --> 0:00:55.880 in the ancient world? And if so, how would we 0:00:55.880 --> 0:00:59.120 know about it. This is such a great question that 0:00:59.160 --> 0:01:01.040 I've never really thought about because I kind of took 0:01:01.040 --> 0:01:03.000 it for granted, like, this is a sound that the 0:01:03.080 --> 0:01:07.480 human body can make, Therefore people would have made this sound, 0:01:08.080 --> 0:01:10.040 and uh, you know, I think for the most part 0:01:10.080 --> 0:01:13.160 this is a a good way of looking at it. Things. 0:01:13.240 --> 0:01:15.680 But then the other side of the equation is all right, well, 0:01:15.760 --> 0:01:18.520 let's look at the evidence. What evidence do we have 0:01:18.800 --> 0:01:21.520 in the literature of the ancient world that people whistled? 0:01:21.520 --> 0:01:24.080 And then and then if they did whistle, well, what 0:01:24.160 --> 0:01:27.280 are the attitudes concerning whistling? Because one thing that I 0:01:27.280 --> 0:01:30.039 think we've already been able to distress in this series 0:01:30.120 --> 0:01:33.000 is that that whistling is fascinating as it is, it 0:01:33.120 --> 0:01:36.679 is not a a neutral thing. We end up having 0:01:36.720 --> 0:01:40.560 these various cultural and uh and as we'll discuss, superstitious 0:01:40.560 --> 0:01:43.760 weights attached to the practice of whistling. You know, I'm 0:01:43.800 --> 0:01:47.480 just generally fascinated by the idea of ancient music. I 0:01:47.520 --> 0:01:50.560 guess in part because for the most part, we don't 0:01:50.560 --> 0:01:53.240 know what it sounded like. And so when you find, 0:01:53.440 --> 0:01:57.320 for example, people who have tried to render into performances 0:01:57.400 --> 0:02:00.720 some of the oldest recorded like a written notation of 0:02:00.840 --> 0:02:04.000 music that we have, such as the the famous Hurrian 0:02:04.080 --> 0:02:07.120 songs or Hurryan hymns that are from the ancient city 0:02:07.160 --> 0:02:10.919 of Yugurit, which are these hymns to the goddess nicoll Uh. 0:02:11.240 --> 0:02:14.320 They're they're written on cune of form tablets, and people 0:02:14.360 --> 0:02:18.280 have tried to turn that music notation into performances that 0:02:18.360 --> 0:02:20.880 you can hear today, and it's very haunting. Uh. The 0:02:20.919 --> 0:02:24.160 same is true. I think there's an ancient Greek tombstone 0:02:24.720 --> 0:02:27.520 that has some music notation on it that has been 0:02:27.560 --> 0:02:30.840 translated into modern music. I think it's known as the 0:02:30.840 --> 0:02:35.239 sec Loss or sec Loss epitaph. And when you hear 0:02:35.320 --> 0:02:39.360 those sounds, they really do feel very alien. They're like 0:02:39.400 --> 0:02:42.640 they're from another world. Uh, And it just it opens 0:02:42.680 --> 0:02:45.560 the mind all these possibilities that the the ancient world 0:02:45.680 --> 0:02:49.120 was full of music that we will never know because 0:02:49.520 --> 0:02:52.000 it wasn't recorded, of course it couldn't be, and it 0:02:52.080 --> 0:02:54.880 also wasn't written down or notated in any way that 0:02:54.919 --> 0:02:59.000 we can understand today. Yeah. Yeah, all this is definitely 0:02:59.000 --> 0:03:01.040 worth thinking about and again and coming down to like 0:03:01.080 --> 0:03:05.600 why is whistling important enough to take note of? Uh? 0:03:05.639 --> 0:03:07.800 You know, this is a question that that remains on 0:03:07.800 --> 0:03:11.040 one's mind as we look at these these different examples. 0:03:11.080 --> 0:03:13.359 But what the main paper that I was looking at 0:03:13.440 --> 0:03:16.440 that was really getting into this was a two thousand 0:03:16.480 --> 0:03:22.360 paper by A. V. Van Stickellenberg titled Whistling in Antiquity, 0:03:22.400 --> 0:03:24.720 and the author dives into like the basic question of 0:03:24.800 --> 0:03:28.280 what evidence do we have that particularly the ancient Greeks 0:03:28.280 --> 0:03:31.760 and the ancient Romans whistled or didn't whistle. And again, 0:03:31.760 --> 0:03:33.680 on one hand, it's hard to believe that they didn't 0:03:33.800 --> 0:03:36.880 and uh and stick Ellenberg points out that we know 0:03:36.960 --> 0:03:40.040 the Romans, for instance, had many songs for different occasions, 0:03:40.360 --> 0:03:43.840 and yet whistling was would also probably have been considered 0:03:43.920 --> 0:03:46.600 vulgar and not something that a person of status would 0:03:46.600 --> 0:03:50.320 do compared to other sounds that one might make. Proper 0:03:50.400 --> 0:03:53.720 romans were not even supposed to sing, for example, I 0:03:53.760 --> 0:03:56.760 did not know that, not me neither uh and yet 0:03:57.040 --> 0:04:00.160 uh Stikellenberg writes, quote whistling a tune with there for 0:04:00.360 --> 0:04:03.160 not have been compatible with the characters of many, if 0:04:03.160 --> 0:04:07.480 not most, of the persona in ancient literature. Apart from that, however, 0:04:07.520 --> 0:04:10.440 it is a remarkable fact that we also never meet 0:04:10.480 --> 0:04:14.720 a slave, a fisherman, pimp, or soldier whistling a tune, 0:04:15.080 --> 0:04:18.800 not even in comedy. So whatt Callenberry is pointing out 0:04:18.800 --> 0:04:20.919 here is that, Okay, if if whistling is not the 0:04:20.960 --> 0:04:22.880 proper thing to do, it's not the thing that you're 0:04:23.120 --> 0:04:26.479 your heroes and your your your proper romans would would 0:04:26.520 --> 0:04:29.760 have done. Well, what about the the improper characters in 0:04:29.760 --> 0:04:33.440 your various writings. Surely somebody would come around, come along, 0:04:33.480 --> 0:04:37.280 and they would whistle, and by whistling, signify that they 0:04:37.279 --> 0:04:41.479 are an improper character and therefore deserving of ridicule or 0:04:41.520 --> 0:04:43.800 the villain of the piece, that sort of thing. Yeah, yeah, 0:04:43.960 --> 0:04:46.640 I mean not uh. When you look at what kind 0:04:46.640 --> 0:04:49.800 of Roman literature survives to us, it's not all uh 0:04:50.240 --> 0:04:53.799 lofty uh royal drama. You know, there are some really 0:04:54.000 --> 0:04:58.400 body satirical Roman literature that still exists today. And so 0:04:58.560 --> 0:05:00.800 you would expect the characters in this to engage in 0:05:00.880 --> 0:05:03.960 all manner of vulgarity that the Romans knew about. Yeah, 0:05:03.960 --> 0:05:08.680 like I think of our own cinematic history here and 0:05:08.720 --> 0:05:11.839 also this in the literature as well. Spitting, uh, spitting 0:05:11.920 --> 0:05:14.920 on the ground in front of you generally considered uncouth, 0:05:15.000 --> 0:05:17.800 but in most circles, and yet you definitely see it 0:05:17.839 --> 0:05:20.159 a lot in cinema because it's a great way to 0:05:20.279 --> 0:05:22.560 establish that, well, this character is a little rough around 0:05:22.560 --> 0:05:25.719 the edges. Um, and I think the Cowboy movies where 0:05:25.720 --> 0:05:29.240 they're spitting, or Corman McCarthy novels where there's a lot 0:05:29.240 --> 0:05:33.240 of spitting. So what Stikellenberg is saying, is that even 0:05:33.240 --> 0:05:37.040 though we have Roman literature that has lower class characters 0:05:37.040 --> 0:05:40.960 and characters who are understood as doing body and vulgar things, 0:05:41.120 --> 0:05:44.080 we never in the existing corpus see them whistling, or 0:05:44.120 --> 0:05:48.159 almost never seems to be the case, though Stikellenberg does 0:05:48.200 --> 0:05:51.600 point out a few areas where we're not entirely sure, 0:05:51.640 --> 0:05:55.040 and this is where we get into, uh, the the 0:05:55.080 --> 0:05:59.800 imprecise nature of language and translations um. They point to 0:05:59.839 --> 0:06:04.480 a part in Petronius satiricn from the first century CE 0:06:04.680 --> 0:06:07.320 that describes a person who quote put his hand to 0:06:07.400 --> 0:06:11.560 his mouth and whistled out some terrible stuff I couldn't identify. 0:06:11.600 --> 0:06:15.200 Afterwards he told us it was Greek air. Now, it's 0:06:15.240 --> 0:06:19.080 apparently an open question if the if the proper translation 0:06:19.240 --> 0:06:21.760 is whistling, and if it is whistling, what what what 0:06:22.080 --> 0:06:25.440 are we really talking about? Is it whistling like or 0:06:25.480 --> 0:06:27.560 is it finger whistling where you create, you know, the 0:06:27.600 --> 0:06:30.520 loud sound by blowing through your fingers, or is this 0:06:30.680 --> 0:06:33.920 just bad singing? The idea that uh, you know, some 0:06:34.000 --> 0:06:36.040 sounds are coming out of this person's mouth. They call 0:06:36.080 --> 0:06:39.159 it Greek air. It's just bad singing. Oh, I see 0:06:39.200 --> 0:06:42.000 so like, Uh, in order to be insulting, you might 0:06:42.040 --> 0:06:46.240 describe someone singing as wheezing or something. Yeah, that sort 0:06:46.240 --> 0:06:49.440 of thing. They point out that even today, a fictional 0:06:49.520 --> 0:06:52.640 character whistling often means that they're they're what like they 0:06:52.800 --> 0:06:55.080 think of a whistling character in a film you've seen. 0:06:55.400 --> 0:06:58.520 It often means they're care free, or they're happy, or 0:06:58.560 --> 0:07:01.200 there perhaps a bit of a doo fit. Uh. Sometimes 0:07:01.240 --> 0:07:03.040 the whistling is like, what's going to happen to this 0:07:03.080 --> 0:07:07.880 poor dope that's just whistling and a little uh um, 0:07:08.360 --> 0:07:12.440 unprepared for the circumstances ahead of them. Does Buster Scruggs whistle? 0:07:12.840 --> 0:07:15.760 I feel like he does. I think he does, if 0:07:15.760 --> 0:07:18.360 memory serves when you know and and the Cohen Brothers 0:07:18.400 --> 0:07:22.240 Buster scrugs the first bit in that anthology film. Yeah, 0:07:22.240 --> 0:07:26.360 he's this so this white suited cowboy who at first 0:07:26.400 --> 0:07:28.920 we think, yeah, he's just too he's just too much 0:07:28.920 --> 0:07:31.560 of a goody two shoes. He's just gonna be eat 0:07:31.640 --> 0:07:34.000 up by the world that he's writing into. And of 0:07:34.040 --> 0:07:35.880 course we find out that he's more than a match 0:07:36.480 --> 0:07:39.120 for the violence of the world. Yeah, I guess that 0:07:39.240 --> 0:07:42.120 is the joke that he's like the whistling, singing cowboy. 0:07:42.160 --> 0:07:46.000 But he's also a cold blooded killer. Yeah, that fabulous short. 0:07:46.040 --> 0:07:48.720 I love that. Um. But at any right, we we 0:07:48.800 --> 0:07:53.040 do see some variations on this. For instance, stickle Berg 0:07:53.080 --> 0:07:56.400 points out that in Western literature we see whistling associated 0:07:56.400 --> 0:08:00.680 with the Squire and the Canterbury Tales in the fourteenth century. Uh. 0:08:00.720 --> 0:08:04.080 And this is a quote here singing he was or 0:08:04.160 --> 0:08:07.480 fluting all the day. Uh. This is from the prologue. 0:08:07.920 --> 0:08:11.200 And I guess the fluting here is what might be whistling, 0:08:11.480 --> 0:08:13.920 fluting without a flute. That that's what I've always called 0:08:13.960 --> 0:08:18.400 whistling Stackallenburg points out that, okay, this character, though the Squire, 0:08:18.480 --> 0:08:22.080 is also a lusty lout, and we don't really see 0:08:22.120 --> 0:08:25.880 a precursor to this character type in Roman and Greek writing. 0:08:26.000 --> 0:08:29.320 But but here we have an early example of the 0:08:29.440 --> 0:08:34.079 lusty lout who is also potentially whistling stick. Gallenburg also 0:08:34.400 --> 0:08:38.120 raises the question of uh, perhaps humming was more common 0:08:38.120 --> 0:08:41.719 than whistling. But the problem there is we also don't 0:08:41.760 --> 0:08:44.839 know much about humming in antiquity either the right quote. 0:08:44.840 --> 0:08:48.440 Whatever the case, whistling apparently formed no part of the 0:08:48.559 --> 0:08:52.000 paral linguistic stock used by Greek and Roman authors. This 0:08:52.040 --> 0:08:55.040 stock was considerable, as recent studies show, and a few 0:08:55.080 --> 0:08:58.720 studies are cited from UH from the ninety nineties and 0:08:58.800 --> 0:09:02.840 include such emotional indicators as jumping for joy and nail biting. 0:09:03.360 --> 0:09:06.000 So saying here that, okay, if you're gonna have characters 0:09:06.040 --> 0:09:09.720 do things to indicate, um, you know, what's going on 0:09:09.840 --> 0:09:11.760 in their heads are kind of emotions they're supposed to 0:09:11.800 --> 0:09:14.959 be emoting on the stage or on the on the page, 0:09:15.040 --> 0:09:17.640 whatever the case may be. Uh, you're gonna have things 0:09:17.640 --> 0:09:20.160 that are being used like jumping for joy, like nail biting, 0:09:20.280 --> 0:09:23.040 and yet there's no whistling. Now, they also get into 0:09:23.080 --> 0:09:25.520 this concept of whistling in the dark a bit, which 0:09:25.600 --> 0:09:28.480 of course is a well worn turn of phrase for us, 0:09:28.760 --> 0:09:31.800 in which one whistles to stave off fear. One of 0:09:31.880 --> 0:09:33.720 my favorite examples of this, or at least one that 0:09:33.800 --> 0:09:35.839 I think I encountered the earliest and therefore I always 0:09:35.880 --> 0:09:40.000 think about this is the Ichabod Crane and Headless Horseman 0:09:40.040 --> 0:09:44.200 cartoon from Disney. This was in the Adventures of Ichabod 0:09:44.280 --> 0:09:47.600 and Mr Toad, though this would have been This was 0:09:47.640 --> 0:09:50.720 also a segment that was often aired on Disney TV 0:09:50.880 --> 0:09:54.839 Halloween specials, So there's definitely some whistling in the dark 0:09:54.920 --> 0:09:57.000 in that one, and of course it doesn't really work 0:09:57.559 --> 0:10:00.720 um Ultimately, the things in the aren't come out to 0:10:00.800 --> 0:10:04.360 chase about crane around. Now, Rob, maybe we will get 0:10:04.400 --> 0:10:06.840 more into this in a subsequent part when we talk 0:10:06.920 --> 0:10:10.320 about some psychology. I'm I'm not sure, but maybe. But anyway, 0:10:10.679 --> 0:10:14.680 I wonder what you think of the function of whistling 0:10:15.240 --> 0:10:18.160 in this type of scenario where you're afraid. Maybe you're 0:10:18.200 --> 0:10:22.040 wandering by yourself past a graveyard or wandering by yourself 0:10:22.040 --> 0:10:24.360 in the dark, and there's a breeze blowing through the 0:10:24.360 --> 0:10:28.000 trees and you're a little bit apprehensive, so you start 0:10:28.040 --> 0:10:31.640 to whistle. Now, I think the phrase like whistling past 0:10:31.679 --> 0:10:35.520 the graveyard or whistling in the dark is supposed to 0:10:35.640 --> 0:10:39.400 denote like somebody showing bravado. You know, they're saying they're 0:10:39.440 --> 0:10:42.600 like trying to show off that they're not afraid, when 0:10:42.640 --> 0:10:45.440 in fact they are. But what I noticed, and that 0:10:45.480 --> 0:10:47.280 comes up in the example I just mentioned, is that 0:10:47.320 --> 0:10:50.199 people often do this when they're alone, when there's nobody 0:10:50.200 --> 0:10:53.280 there to see them, nobody to show off too. So 0:10:53.840 --> 0:10:57.280 if whistling is to show off that you're not afraid. 0:10:57.760 --> 0:11:00.280 It seems like the showing off must either or be 0:11:00.440 --> 0:11:05.040 to yourself somehow, or to like the scary creature that 0:11:05.120 --> 0:11:08.480 you imagine is watching you. Yeah, it would have to 0:11:08.520 --> 0:11:10.320 be one or the other. But I guess in some 0:11:10.360 --> 0:11:13.080 of these cases, and especially when you think about graveyards, 0:11:13.559 --> 0:11:16.400 there's definitely an imagined other out there. And it might 0:11:16.440 --> 0:11:18.439 not be an imagined other that you give a lot 0:11:18.480 --> 0:11:21.000 of weight most of the time, but at least right 0:11:21.040 --> 0:11:25.000 now it's on your mind. So we're gonna get into 0:11:25.120 --> 0:11:29.920 several different examples of whistling as a potential means of 0:11:29.960 --> 0:11:33.480 summoning or accidentally summoning or drawing the attention of things 0:11:33.520 --> 0:11:38.079 that that should not be drawn in uh to your vicinity. 0:11:38.200 --> 0:11:41.360 So on one level, yeah, it seems a bit a 0:11:41.440 --> 0:11:45.920 bit um uh dangerous if you're gonna actually fall in 0:11:45.920 --> 0:11:48.440 along with some of these supernatural beliefs, like I don't 0:11:48.440 --> 0:11:50.960 want to to summon the devil if I'm afraid of 0:11:50.960 --> 0:11:53.520 the devil coming out of the graveyard at me. But 0:11:53.640 --> 0:11:55.679 maybe part of it is like proving like not only 0:11:55.720 --> 0:11:57.920 am I not afraid of the devil in the graveyard, 0:11:58.160 --> 0:11:59.839 I'll go ahead and summon him. If he's here, he 0:12:00.080 --> 0:12:01.679 come on out, and we'll go ahead and do this. 0:12:02.080 --> 0:12:04.640 But I'm done with just being afraid of the devil 0:12:05.040 --> 0:12:07.680 somewhere hiding in the graveyard. Okay, But I guess the 0:12:07.760 --> 0:12:11.280 question is whether it's actually whistling or whether it's just 0:12:11.360 --> 0:12:14.960 singing or humming some version of this idea singing when 0:12:15.000 --> 0:12:18.079 you're afraid or singing through the graveyard. Does this come 0:12:18.160 --> 0:12:20.120 up in ancient history as well? Do we have any 0:12:20.160 --> 0:12:23.120 evidence of this from thousands of years ago? It seems 0:12:23.120 --> 0:12:26.600 like we might. Uh's to Calenberg brings up another example 0:12:26.640 --> 0:12:29.800 again from Petronius, and this is again from the satiricn 0:12:30.520 --> 0:12:33.800 and it also concerns a werewolf. Did you know that 0:12:33.840 --> 0:12:38.280 there were ancient Roman stories about werewolves? There absolutely are, Yeah, 0:12:38.400 --> 0:12:41.199 and it's a This one's a pretty good one. Um 0:12:41.240 --> 0:12:43.760 this is I'm gonna read part of it at least. 0:12:44.000 --> 0:12:50.560 This is from a um Hesseltine translation. Quote. I seized 0:12:50.600 --> 0:12:53.160 my opportunity and persuaded a guest in our house to 0:12:53.240 --> 0:12:55.920 come with me as far as the fifth Milestone. He 0:12:56.040 --> 0:12:58.679 was a soldier and as brave as hell, so we 0:12:58.760 --> 0:13:03.240 trotted off about cockrow, the moon shone like high noon. 0:13:03.840 --> 0:13:06.640 We got among the tombstones. My man went aside to 0:13:06.720 --> 0:13:09.880 look at the epitaphs. I sat down with my heart 0:13:09.880 --> 0:13:13.360 full of song, and began to count the graves. M 0:13:14.559 --> 0:13:18.000 So sta Kellenberg writes the following on this, how tempting 0:13:18.040 --> 0:13:22.040 to interpret this scene as a clever application of psychological 0:13:22.080 --> 0:13:26.560 paral language, which has a superstitious and frightened slave indulged 0:13:26.600 --> 0:13:29.000 in an ancient equivalent of our whistling in the dark. 0:13:29.800 --> 0:13:34.160 Since the kntar represents many forms of musical expressions, we 0:13:34.280 --> 0:13:39.160 would even be justified in translating it here with whistling. Unfortunately, 0:13:39.160 --> 0:13:42.360 there is no straightforward indication that Petroni has had this 0:13:42.440 --> 0:13:45.920 in mind. Okay, so, despite the fact that our expression 0:13:46.000 --> 0:13:48.760 is often like whistling past the graveyard or whistling in 0:13:48.800 --> 0:13:53.160 the graveyard, Um, this is a word cantare, which, in 0:13:53.240 --> 0:13:56.000 whatever its Latin form is, could have meant whistling, but 0:13:56.040 --> 0:13:59.400 could also just mean singing. Right. Yeah, So again we 0:13:59.480 --> 0:14:02.520 get into the the imprecise nature of language, which continues 0:14:02.559 --> 0:14:04.880 to be a theme with trying to figure out whistling 0:14:04.960 --> 0:14:08.680 or not whistling, or making other sounds and various old texts. 0:14:08.960 --> 0:14:10.240 You know, this is kind of a tangent, But I 0:14:10.280 --> 0:14:12.280 feel like, since we're on the werewolf story, it would 0:14:12.280 --> 0:14:14.640 be kind of a shame not to tell the werewolf story. 0:14:14.640 --> 0:14:18.200 What happens in this story by Paternius here, okay, I can. 0:14:18.280 --> 0:14:20.000 I can read the next little bit, which I think 0:14:20.040 --> 0:14:22.560 brings it to a nice closure. Then when I looked 0:14:22.640 --> 0:14:25.080 round at my friend, he stripped himself and put all 0:14:25.120 --> 0:14:28.200 his clothes by the roadside. My heart was in my mouth, 0:14:28.320 --> 0:14:30.360 but I stood like a dead man. He made a 0:14:30.440 --> 0:14:33.800 ring of water around his clothes and suddenly turned into 0:14:33.880 --> 0:14:36.760 a wolf. Please do not think I am joking. I 0:14:36.800 --> 0:14:39.640 would not lie about this for any fortune in the world. 0:14:39.960 --> 0:14:41.800 But as I was saying, after he had turned into 0:14:41.880 --> 0:14:44.240 a wolf, he began to howl and ran off into 0:14:44.280 --> 0:14:46.960 the woods. At first I hardly knew where I was. 0:14:47.040 --> 0:14:49.080 Then I went up to take his clothes, and they 0:14:49.080 --> 0:14:51.440 had all turned to stone. No one could be near 0:14:51.600 --> 0:14:54.440 dead with terror than I was. But I drew my 0:14:54.480 --> 0:14:57.240 sword and went slaying shadows all the way till I 0:14:57.280 --> 0:14:59.920 came to my love's house. I went in like a corpse, 0:15:00.240 --> 0:15:03.120 nearly gave up the ghost. The sweat ran down my legs, 0:15:03.160 --> 0:15:06.160 my eyes were dull. I could hardly be revived my beer. 0:15:06.280 --> 0:15:09.160 Melissa was surprised at my state, at my being out 0:15:09.200 --> 0:15:11.880 so late, and said, if you had come earlier, you 0:15:11.960 --> 0:15:14.000 might at least have helped us. A wolf got into 0:15:14.040 --> 0:15:16.640 the house and worried all our sheep and let their 0:15:16.680 --> 0:15:19.360 blood like a butcher. But he did not make fools 0:15:19.360 --> 0:15:21.640 of us, even though he got off for our slave 0:15:21.680 --> 0:15:24.160 made a hole in his neck with a spear. When 0:15:24.160 --> 0:15:26.040 I heard this, I could not keep my eyes shut 0:15:26.080 --> 0:15:28.360 any longer. But at break of day I rushed back 0:15:28.360 --> 0:15:32.440 to my master giuss house like a defrauded publican. And 0:15:32.480 --> 0:15:34.560 when I came to the place where the clothes were 0:15:34.600 --> 0:15:37.440 turned into stone, I found nothing but a pool of blood. 0:15:37.880 --> 0:15:40.640 But when I reached home, my soldier was lying in 0:15:40.720 --> 0:15:43.800 bed like an ox, with a doctor looking after his neck. 0:15:43.840 --> 0:15:46.880 I realized that he was a werewolf, and I never 0:15:46.960 --> 0:15:49.600 could sit down to a meal with him afterwards, not 0:15:49.800 --> 0:15:52.600 if you had killed me first. Other people may think 0:15:52.600 --> 0:15:55.840 what they like about this, but may all your guardian 0:15:55.920 --> 0:15:59.520 angels punish me if I am lying. Wow, that's pretty 0:15:59.520 --> 0:16:03.000 fun and pretty staple werewolf sort of story. There. It's 0:16:03.040 --> 0:16:06.200 a great werewolf story. But my biggest question is do 0:16:06.280 --> 0:16:09.240 oxes normally lie in human beds? What does he mean 0:16:09.440 --> 0:16:12.600 I was lying in my bed like an ox? Oh no, no, 0:16:12.640 --> 0:16:15.120 not him. My soldier was lying in bed like an ox. 0:16:16.080 --> 0:16:18.560 I don't know. I'm not sure about that. I feel 0:16:18.600 --> 0:16:22.000 like we're we're missing some kind of historical context there. Yeah, 0:16:22.120 --> 0:16:24.200 I mean maybe it's like he's light, his body is 0:16:24.240 --> 0:16:26.920 like that of an ox. I don't know. I don't 0:16:27.160 --> 0:16:29.480 nothing comes to mind when I try and picture an 0:16:29.520 --> 0:16:32.520 ox laying down. But yeah, it's really funny. Okay, So 0:16:32.560 --> 0:16:35.920 this is the satir con by Petronius is first century 0:16:36.040 --> 0:16:39.520 uh CE, so it's like two thousand years later, and 0:16:39.800 --> 0:16:42.840 werewolf movies are still using the exact same trope where 0:16:42.840 --> 0:16:45.760 somebody figures out it's a werewolf because they see the 0:16:45.760 --> 0:16:48.320 monster get wounded on a certain part of the body, 0:16:48.400 --> 0:16:50.920 and then later they see a human wounded on the 0:16:50.960 --> 0:16:53.160 same part of the body. That's in like half the 0:16:53.200 --> 0:16:55.880 werewolf movies they make Yeah, if it ain't broke, don't 0:16:55.880 --> 0:16:58.200 fix it, right. And I think if I've seen this 0:16:58.280 --> 0:17:02.200 in other animal transform and myths and stories before, like 0:17:02.320 --> 0:17:05.359 perhaps some were tigers stories from China and so forth, 0:17:05.760 --> 0:17:15.199 I agree it still works than alright. So for the 0:17:15.240 --> 0:17:18.120 next bit, that's the Kellenberg gets into is is that 0:17:18.200 --> 0:17:20.240 they break down a couple of things we've kind of 0:17:20.280 --> 0:17:22.840 we've at least touched on, if not already to discuss 0:17:22.880 --> 0:17:24.600 and when they break these out further later on. But 0:17:24.960 --> 0:17:27.480 we have a semaphoric whistling or whistling as a form 0:17:27.520 --> 0:17:30.040 of signaling, and this has been around for a very 0:17:30.119 --> 0:17:31.800 long time. This is something that goes back to our 0:17:31.840 --> 0:17:37.639 KaiC humans. Citing Peter f Otswald, they share quote, whistles 0:17:37.680 --> 0:17:40.679 are easier to hear than words because they concentrate sound 0:17:40.800 --> 0:17:44.320 energy into a narrow segment of the frequency spectrum instead 0:17:44.320 --> 0:17:47.480 of spreading it. Generally, they occur in the frequency range 0:17:47.480 --> 0:17:50.320 of one thousand and four thousand cycles per second, to 0:17:50.400 --> 0:17:53.000 which the human era is most sensitive. Oh yeah, so 0:17:53.040 --> 0:17:55.960 this is the same fact that was cited in slightly 0:17:56.000 --> 0:17:58.960 different terms in that linguistics paper that we looked at 0:17:58.960 --> 0:18:03.240 in the previous section. Myer, that was about how whistling 0:18:03.280 --> 0:18:07.320 tends to be a good medium for transmitting information because 0:18:07.440 --> 0:18:10.520 it's in that frequency range of one to four killerherts, 0:18:10.560 --> 0:18:12.679 which is a good place to concentrate energy if you 0:18:12.680 --> 0:18:15.440 wanted to travel the forest and be audible, uh and 0:18:15.760 --> 0:18:19.640 carry distinct information the longest distance, because that's like, that's 0:18:19.680 --> 0:18:21.679 that's sort of the bull's eye for what our ears 0:18:21.720 --> 0:18:25.320 can detect and separate out from ambient noise. Now, the 0:18:25.400 --> 0:18:29.360 next part here is where things get very biblical, because 0:18:29.640 --> 0:18:32.960 Sticklenberg points out that the oldest reference to semaphoric use 0:18:33.000 --> 0:18:36.720 of whistling can be found in the Book of Isaiah five, 0:18:37.359 --> 0:18:42.320 where the Lord whistles to summon people. He uh quote, 0:18:42.359 --> 0:18:45.280 he will raise a signal for a nation afar off 0:18:45.320 --> 0:18:47.320 and whistle for it from the ends of the earth, 0:18:47.359 --> 0:18:51.560 and low, swiftly, speedily it comes. So I started off 0:18:51.600 --> 0:18:54.240 looking into this just by checking it in my Oxford 0:18:54.240 --> 0:18:57.200 in RSV to see if the translation was different in 0:18:57.240 --> 0:19:00.240 any significant way. And it's not that translations almost exactly 0:19:00.240 --> 0:19:03.840 the same as what Stickellenberg has here. But in reading 0:19:03.840 --> 0:19:07.000 it this passage, I thought I should explain more about 0:19:07.000 --> 0:19:10.560 the context because it makes that quote especially interesting and 0:19:10.600 --> 0:19:13.440 even scary. This is one of the most I think 0:19:13.480 --> 0:19:16.199 one of the most powerful and chilling passages in the 0:19:16.240 --> 0:19:19.800 Hebrew Bible. Uh. So what's going on here? Well, this 0:19:19.920 --> 0:19:24.119 is actually a prophecy of doom. In this part of 0:19:24.160 --> 0:19:27.360 the Book of Isaiah, the author is pronouncing a verdict 0:19:27.400 --> 0:19:31.560 of divine judgment and punishment against the people of Israel 0:19:31.600 --> 0:19:35.400 and Judah, because he says they have ignored God's instructions 0:19:35.760 --> 0:19:38.760 and chosen to live in wickedness. And so there's a 0:19:38.800 --> 0:19:41.320 section before this where he's just talking about the evil 0:19:41.400 --> 0:19:44.280 they do, and you might recognize some lines from this 0:19:44.320 --> 0:19:47.920 because they're pretty famous. The prophet says, ah, you who 0:19:48.000 --> 0:19:51.600 call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for 0:19:51.720 --> 0:19:54.640 light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet 0:19:54.680 --> 0:19:57.480 and sweet for bitter, You who are wise in your 0:19:57.480 --> 0:20:00.639 own eyes and shrewd in your own sight, Ah you, 0:20:00.720 --> 0:20:04.480 who are heroes in drinking wine and valiant at mixing drink, 0:20:04.800 --> 0:20:07.840 who acquit the guilty for a bribe and deprived the 0:20:07.880 --> 0:20:11.119 innocent of their rights. Oh man, God coming out strong 0:20:11.160 --> 0:20:15.040 against nixed drinks here, Yeah, against mixed drinks and against bribing, 0:20:15.080 --> 0:20:18.399 so that the guilty win in court. But then it 0:20:18.440 --> 0:20:21.880 starts getting with the really like scary expressive metaphors. From 0:20:21.880 --> 0:20:25.040 here it goes into Therefore, as the tongue of fire 0:20:25.240 --> 0:20:28.800 devours the stubble, and as dry grass sinks down in 0:20:28.840 --> 0:20:32.120 the flame, so their root will become rotten, and their 0:20:32.160 --> 0:20:35.200 blossom go up like the dust. For they have rejected 0:20:35.200 --> 0:20:38.480 the instruction of the Lord of Hosts, and have despised 0:20:38.520 --> 0:20:41.520 the word of the Holy One of Israel. Therefore the 0:20:41.560 --> 0:20:44.199 anger of the Lord was kindled against his people, and 0:20:44.200 --> 0:20:47.160 he stretched out his hand against them and struck them. 0:20:47.200 --> 0:20:50.520 The mountains quaked, and their corpses were like refuse in 0:20:50.560 --> 0:20:53.960 the streets. For all this his anger has not turned away, 0:20:54.000 --> 0:20:57.919 and his hand is stretched out still. Then comes the 0:20:57.960 --> 0:21:01.520 line about God whistling. From that it goes straight into 0:21:02.000 --> 0:21:04.600 He will raise a signal for a nation far away, 0:21:04.960 --> 0:21:07.160 and whistle for a people at the ends of the earth. 0:21:07.400 --> 0:21:12.280 Here they come swiftly, speedily, And in this line the 0:21:12.359 --> 0:21:15.560 people being referenced there, who are they? These are the 0:21:15.680 --> 0:21:18.840 armies of the Assyrian Empire, and described in the following 0:21:18.840 --> 0:21:23.600 passages in terrifying detail. The prophet says, they march without rest. 0:21:23.880 --> 0:21:27.080 Their arrows are sharp, their horses hoofs are like flint, 0:21:27.320 --> 0:21:31.160 their wheels like a whirlwind. They roar like lions. They 0:21:31.280 --> 0:21:34.120 roar like the sea. And at in saying, the light 0:21:34.200 --> 0:21:37.959 grows dark with clouds, And so the prophet is saying 0:21:38.000 --> 0:21:41.720 here that the Lord will whistle to summon an invading 0:21:41.920 --> 0:21:45.000 army to slaughter his people because they have done evil 0:21:45.080 --> 0:21:48.120 and turned away from him. Wow. So first he does 0:21:48.160 --> 0:21:52.960 recks and de stabilizes everything uh in this sinful nation, 0:21:53.119 --> 0:21:57.040