Sailor's Lexicon, Chatham House Publishers, 1899

Sailor's Lexicon, Chatham House Publishers, 1899

"Shine your curlies" - usages ''"Don't shine your curlies at me." "You're shining your curlies." "Your curlies are shining." "My curlies don't shine." ''Usually denoting untrustworthiness or malicious intent. The phrase originates with Tsalal prostitutes in places such as Tierra del Fuego, Santiago, Buenos Aires, Cape Town, who at night would go naked with luminiscent insects woven into their pubic hair to entice sailors, and distract them from disease or danger. The Tsalal were by rumour notorious cannibals and so associating with prostitutes of the southern race was considered a risky undertaking indeed. Rumours also persisted of extraordinary sexual proclivities, so there is a secondary meaning for the ventures of extraordinary risk and reward.

--

The genital glowbugs are a bit weird, but reasonable. the Lexicon entry is awesome.

I was actually going for nasty, scary and vile. But thanks.

-

The people of Antarctica are descended from four (five if either of the women were pregnant by the obnoxious warrior) people - all from Australia/Tasmania. Combined with the huge percentage of deaths among their descendants that very limited gene pool has been under tremendous selective pressure.

Among the selective pressures will be the extreme seasonal changes, the poor and seasonally scarce food supply, and the extreme societal stresses (semi-to-fully normalized cannibalism for example). There are bound to be some significant (if unanticipated) effects on what 'being human' is to an Antarctican. All of it a thoroughly mixed up complexity of biology and culture.

Cheese is spoiled milk. Bread is baked moldy porridge. I wonder what sorts of dishes the Antarcticans have made with penguin regurgitation....I'm sure they worked out how to preserve it....I wonder if they have a sausage...

-

What do the Australian Aborigines think of their 'long-lost cousins'? Somehow I suspect that their opinion is not very high....

Well, it is mentioned that when James Cook discovers them, the Tsalal are at a similar level of technology to Europeans, and they have naval prowess...so the Aborigines may have had a very close personal encounter with the Tsalal.

I would be fearing that the Aborigines would become the Mori-ori to the Tsalal's Maori; but I think there was a reference to a scholar from "Koala Press" with an Aboriginal sounding name at one point.