Naglan Hospitality

When a guest is greeted in a Naglan house, the guest will be given a cup of water and a piece of bread. The bread will have a “smairz” on it. Smairz is butter mixed with cheese, fat, herbs, oil, spices and salt, sometimes nuts, honey or kukjan.
The taste of the smairz is very important, it gives away the sentiments of the tribe. The mixture of smairz is different when a guest is welcome or not, when the tribe is content or sad. There are smairz for birth or death in the tribe, for a positive answer to a marriage proposal, and a range of other events.
The bread with smairz is given immediately when a guest crosses the threshold of a house. A guest should never reject the offer. At least one bite should be taken. By tasting the smairz the guest will know how to behave among the inhabitants of the house. Knowing the codes of taste are obligatory among the Naglani. Other people have to learn this if they want to act properly in Naglani lands.

As a general rule, when the smairz is sweetened with honey the mood in the house is good and the visitor is more than welcome to have his share of it. If the visitor comes to negotiate a marriage, the answer will be positive if the smairz is sweet. When there is kukjan in the smairz, the visitor can expect a romantic stay.
When the smairz is mainly fat and mixed with Aelçim, the visitor is not welcome in the house. The visitor will be allowed to stay and will have some food and a bed, but he should not interfere in the household or the family.
With salt, it is indicated that the visitor is welcome but that the mood in the family is a bit tense. Salt and Tym indicate there is serious illness in the house, Tym alone means that someone in the family has died recently.

Smairz is made in a mortar with a pestle. These items are a gift to a family that is going to live on its own. The family of one of the partners will give the mortar, the family of the other partner the pestle. Without a mortar and pestle, a Naglan cannot live on his own, because he won’t be able to have guests. The items can be very expensive, made with silver plate or richly decorated wood.

Related topics:

Home