Why I love Grzimek's Animal Life Encyclopedia

And I quote from the 2003 edition, vol. 13, p. 52:
". . . no reasonable person would ever risk crawling down a wombat burrow, but a 15 year old boy explored many burrows of the common wombat in 1960 and wrote up his observation in a now-famous article in his school magazine. . . "

The 1972 edition is far fuller of fascinating descriptive material than the 2003, but the 2003 edition has many more adorable photos of baby animals. (Aren't I shallow librarian?)

Grooming Tools-- Combs

I've been amusing myself looking up Combs in the Index of Christian Art. Among the items indexed with the term comb are of course depictions of Saint Blasius of Sebaste martyred with wool-combs, but also a goodly number of highly-decorated combs themselves. Some of those combs are 'Liturgical Combs', used in preparing the priest for Mass-- but some have general pictures or even ones from Roman mythology and so are suspect in my book.

Here's an example of a Liturgical Comb with a scene from a saint's life:
http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/ho/07/euwb/hod_1988.279.htm

The majority of these combs appear to be double-ended, with a fine and a wide toothed side. Earlier combs, especially the Coptic examples, tend to be longer in than they are wide, so that the non-toothed section is narrower-- perhaps these combs were used similarly to modern pick-combs. The depictions of combs in later (14th century and following) manuscripts show double-ended or double-sided combs, generally as wide as or wider than they are long, the user grasping the comb the long way, with the unused set of teeth in the palm of the hand. Surviving art combs are usually ivory or bone. Double-sided combs generally are either straight-sided, or have the comb teeth fanning out slightly from the body of the comb at one end, and narrowing at the other.

Karen Larsdatter points to an excellent selection of comb pictures here: http://www.larsdatter.com/combs.htm
These combs are ivory, bone, composite or wood. Some of these are single-sided, most double.

Idlenesse, from the Romance of the Rose, is depicted extensively with her comb and mirror, as are mermaids andsirens; numerous depictions of the personification of the astrological sign Virgo also show her with a comb.

A significant number of combs were found at various sites throughout the wreck of the Mary Rose, suggesting that many if not most of the men had their own comb. Examples: http://www.maryrose.org/lcity/barber/health2.htm

There were so many examples of combs found at Novgorod that there's a whole book on the industry:
Comb-Making in Medieval Novgorod (950-1450): An Industry in Transition. Examples of the combs are shown here: http://depts.washington.edu/silkroad/museums/gim/novogorod.html

A number of the pictish standing stones include items that the analyzers believe depict comb and mirror sets.

Medieval Cleanliness-related activities for kids part I

1. Make scented waters for washing in. There are a variety of different scents we know were used in washing water. The most commonly mentioned is Rosewater. You can buy rosewater at some drugstores and middle eastern groceries, and from SCA suppliers. To scent your water with it, just mix a teaspoon or so of rosewater (or, if you are using rosewater concentrate, a few drops) with a quart or so of water. For those who don't like rosewater, though, there are other choices. You can put a few drops of clove essential oil (look in a drugstore or the flavoring aisle of a grocery for this) into the water. Or take a handful of rosemary herb, or a mixture of dried sage and orange peels, and mix it with a quart or so of water in a non-aluminum pot; Bring the pot to a boil and cook for 5-10 minutes. Let the water cool and strain out the herbs. You can make this stronger by using more herbs and boiling longer; keep it in the refrigerator for a few days until you are ready to use it, then dilute it with more water