Lintad Pu

General Introduction

The Mdûlûn of Erana live in city states around the Grey Sea. Although the respective states are often competing or even at war with each other, they nonetheless share a common culture and cherish their cultural heritage. This shows – among other things – also in their clothing, especially their festive and ceremonial clothes. The Lintad Pu is a traditional wedding accessory and a married womans constant companion on all more official ventures outside the house or the general vicinity. It is a special scarf and likewise musical instrument, that is inherited down from generation to generation.

Description

Lintad Pu are the most striking feature of Mdûlûn women's fashion. They are dyed in beautiful and manifold colours, can be sewn of different types of fabric or be decorated with embroidey or lace, braided or crocheted.

It is difficult to give a detailled description of the scarf, but in general it can be said, that it is a rectangular piece of cloth, about 1.5 times as long as the wearer is tall. As the cloth can be repaired, modified or replaced with every transmission from mother to daughter, it is difficult to say, what ancient Lintad Pu looked like. There are no rules and some families like to restore one and the same look from generation to generation, others modify it according to their daughter's complexion or body shape or to auspicious readings they got for their daughters when they were born or regarding the marriage. Sometimes a Lintad Pu is in excellent condition and the mother gives it to her daughter as it is or only adds some embroidery.

The unchanging heart piece of a Lintad Pu, though, is a little case called olisu. It is made of thin gold sheets, braided of gold wire or made of openwork gold plates. Inside there are some little bells or tiny cymbals hanging from a thin wire. With every step these small appliances jingle and tinkle. This is to evoke the singing of birds, especially the Salur. Also the name of the scarf refers to this special attachment, as Lintad Pu means 'Bird's scarf'. The olisu may be plain gold, decorated with repoussé and embossing, but in rare cases also contains inlays of precious stones creating sharp contrasts with the gold.

The history and meaning of the Lintad Pu

Although the Mdûlûn are a literate culture, the Lintad Pu has only relatively recently been mentioned in modern poetry like the distichic Yehûnad Lolu, which was introduced by Kedê Ärpisima around the year 1260 EE. Though this kind of poem was first used for political and social commentary, it soon got applied to other areas of daily life, especially romantic poetry. The first known appearance of the Lintad Pu was in Sagra Injôksu's Yehûnad Lolu Kahiji mogo (Lintad Puva) which translates roughly to 'Oh why are you already (wearing a Lintad Pu)?'

Kahiji mogo
Lintad Puva sammiler
An hu ûmmiler
As kê genin k'dillede
Saji'ma mono ya ko?


Oh why are you already
wearing a Lintad Pu?
Don't you know
I wanted to be the reason for that?
What am I supposed to do now?

- Sagra Injôksu

Even with Lintad Pu only showing up recently in Mdûlûn literature, they can be traced back further in Mdûlûn art, for example frescoes or vase paintings. Being hereditary, some Lintad Pu themselves can be traced back to times even before the Era of the Earth, as evidenced by makers marks left on the gold parts of the scarf.

The scarf is worn to cover head and shoulders of the woman. It is not meant to be put over the face. The primary and very pragmatic use of the Lintad Pu is to avoid skin exposure to the sun, as fair skin is preferred over tanned skin. It also keeps the skin off of the public eye and offers protection from dust and dirt. To prevent the face from tanning – which is likewise frowned upon – the Lintad Pu is accompanied by a cap called Karjê during the summer months.

Girls and young, unengaged women wear a scarf as well, which is only made of cloth. It serves the same basic function as the Lintud Pu and is called Sumpu Pu. While Sumpu Pu are plain in colour, Lintud Pu are dyed and decorated in marvellous colours and decors.

When a Mdûlûn woman gets engaged, her mother prepares to transition from mother to crone. She either repairs or replaces the cloth parts of the Lintad Pu and stops wearing it entirely. During the wedding ceremony the bestowal of the Lintad Pu from the mother to her daughter is the final step into adulthood.

Also, even though the decoration of the cloth part of the scarf is quite flexible, there are several artistic devices which show up in scarfs of certain families. This may be decorations alluding to the family's name, like the Svalokni family in which the puffin is a recurring motive, either as the main decoration or somewhere hidden in the details. This is because the latter part of the name 'lokni' sounds similar to 'lonni', which is the puffins name in the Mdûlûn language. This may even go as far as to extend to certain stitching techniques, which are in some cases exclusive to a certain family and are handed down from generation to generation. Also Lintad Pu often show either an assortment of scenes or of different motives which are divided by decorative belts with geometric patterns, which may also in some cases be a certain family's characteristic Lintad Pu decor.

The Lintad Pu as a musical instrument

As indicated, the Lintad Pu's olisu evokes the singing of songbirds, especially the Salur, which might be real or a mythological bird. This special property has inspirated performance arts relying on the jingling sounds.

Wangerang sedva - 'Conversation with the bowl(s)'

This musical performance is practised by having delicate pottery bowls filled with different amounts of water so they resonate at different tones when struck with a light wooden stick. This special kind of idiophone is used to play a melody meant to emulate certain seasons, weather phenomena or describing wandering through the wilderness, while the olisu reflects the birds reaction to it's surroundings. In seldom cases other idiophones are used, mostly made of wood because of it's softer sound. The olisu is sounded by nodding or shaking the head.

Salurvudai

This dance, which is plainly called 'the Salur dance' in the Mdûlûn language is mainly performed between women as a form of friendly banter. Everyone may invent a choreography to their liking, mostly made of simple step patterns and accompanied by more complicated hand and facial gestures. While the olisu will involuntarily sound with every movement, this performance is rather non-musical compared with the first. The women involved will show some moves, first one, then the other, then the first again, taking turns several times. Other friends may join the action by making whimsical comments. The whole matter is played for fun and often ends with everyone bursting out in laughter over the sillyness. Nonetheless it is also quite competetive and the choreographies can be highly artistic.

Häkon lolu

The wedding song (häkon lolu) is an important part of the Mdûlûn wedding ceremony. It is the incantation of a poem, which is meant as a goodbye to the family and as a greeting to the husband, whom she will be founding her own family with. The song is sung in a proud and composed manner and is accompanied by tapping the olisu, for pacing as well as to insert special effects at certain places of the text.

Passing the Lintad Pu to the next generation

As explained, the Lintad Pu gets passed from a mother to her daughter when she gets married. Still some families have two or more daughters. In that case a copy of the olisu is crafted as well as a new headscarf. The original Lintad Pu is passed to the oldest daughter and the mother wears the copy, which is then passed to the next sister when she is getting married. This process is repeated until all daughters are married. This point in time marks the transition from mother to crone in the life of a mother of many daughters.

It is seen as shameful, when a woman does not have a daughter and can not pass on her Lintad Pu. In this case, women at a certain age discontinue wearing the Lintad Pu. It is later placed in their grave as a funerary object and marks the end of the family's genealogy as the Mdûlûn society, in spite of the harsh discrimination of women, is strictly matrilinear.

Item type

Clothing / Accessory