Day 307

Some phrases have long been separated from their origins.
And often with good reason.

Phrases like "you are what you eat" which comes from an old Pictish tradition.
They would symbolically eat representatives of their deceased as a form of remembrance.
Some took this literally as gnawed remains have shown.
One body that stands out particularly is one found in the remnants of a Pictish settlement.
From the position of the corpse we can tell that the young boy was trying to run.
Teeth marks were found all along his legs and torso.

Other phrases like "I'm all ears" also stemmed from ancient practices.
Roman records detailed a Gaulish punishment for lying.
Their ears were cut off and nailed to the older trees in the forest.
There were plenty of images to join the vivid description, it seems to have been quite common.
Apparently the stench of the decaying flesh could be smelt for miles.

"Paying through the nose" is another surprisingly dark idiom.
So made as those who were unable to repay a debt were slit from nose to brow.
A similar thing occurred when taking "an eye for an eye"during harvest season.
The collective noun for potatoes has always been "an eye" and so if the crop was low, payment
was still received, albeit in a more visceral form.

One final phrase, "it's hard to keep awake".
Coming from the old days of holding a "wake" for the deceased so as to ensure they were dead.
Keeping a wake was difficult due to impatient grave-robbers, wildlife and other creatures.
Bodies were wanted, their flesh was hungered for by many.
The belief at the time was that the soul took the entire night to fully depart and couldn't be disturbed.
Disturbing the flesh meant that their soul would be stuck wherever their body lay.

Like all things, these phrases were warped and bastardised to their current form.
The traditions behind them still continue and the beliefs hold steady.