BOOK REVIEW:

Polish Customs, Traditions & Folklore . Sophie H. Knab. 2nd ed.
(New York, Hippocrene Books, 1992). ISBN: 0781805155. Price: $19.95.

Polish Herbs, Flowers & Folk Medicine. Sophie H. Knab.
(New York, Hippocrene Books, 1995). ISBN: 0781803195. Price: $19.95.

Review:

Sophie Knab, history/traditions editor for the magazine _Polish American
Journal_, has put together two works covering a good deal of ground in terms
of historical Polish customs. Though both works are aimed at Polish-Americans
wanting to research their heritage, there is a good deal of useful information
in them for the re-creationist.

The first work, _Polish Customs_, covers a wide variety of traditional customs,
including birth, wedding and funeral customs.  These are arranged in calendar
fashion, over the liturgical year, thus giving a picture of old Polish life.
The author does not give date information for all the customs  she describes,
so many may not be period, but there are a number of customs (such as coloring
eggs in the Spring) that she does document to SCA period.  She is careful,
also, to document the region from which each custom is documented.

In every case, Knap's descriptions are painstakingly detailed and descriptive.
To prepare and serve the traditional Christmas Eve meal, for instance, one
would simply follow her step-by-step, gesture by gesture instructions.
There are also explicit instructions for a traditional wedding, starting
 with the moment the girl
is marriageable, through the negotiations, the planning, the wedding, and the
final capping of the bride-- though who wants to drink that much vodka!? Other
features are the descriptions of harvest ceremonies, Easter customs, herb lore
and folk medicine (including the blessing of the herbs on August 15), and a
final section on children's games.

In _Polish Herbs_, it seems that Knab had more to work with (herbalism, unlike
ethnography, has much better documentation), and so she gives dates and other
documentation, presumably based on the period herbals she cites in her text
and bibliography. Not only does the work include an herbal with names
(English, botanical, and Polish), uses, folklore and recipes, for herbs and
other plant sources used medicinally, but it also includes chapters
on Polish herbalists, gardens, etc.  It is especially
useful that, for many herbs, Knab gives dates for documented introduction
and/or use in Poland.

I am inclined to think that _Polish Herbs_ is a reasonably reliable source.
The information given tallies with what I know of herbalism and folk medicine
in period from other sources, and the 'modern' (pre-1900) information agrees
with what my Great-Aunt Cecilia remembers from her family traditions.  There
is an impressive bibliography, of course, though most of is in Polish, of
course. The only failing I can find in this work is that it should be used in
conjunction with a reputable modern herbal, as many of the documented folk
medicine treatments are viewed differently now!

I would suggest that both these works are starting points only, to which we
would want to add more in-depth research about customs and folk medicine, both
from Knab's sources and other works, cross-referenced with what we know about
the cultures and customs of other Slavic nations. On the other hand, they are
excellently written and very useful starting points, and are probably worth
shelling out the $40 for both volumes if you are interested in things Polish.


Jadwiga Zajaczkowa.