View source for Fewmets



==Overview==
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'''Fewmets''' is the droppings of an animal, by which the [[hunter]] identifies it. It is mentioned in books like ''[[The Sword in the Stone]]'' by [[T. H. White]]. More specifically, it is the dropping of a [[dragon]].  (Reference [[Madeleine L'Engle]]'s ''A Wind in the Door'', and others.) Dragon fewmets are often the source of gunpowder in fantasy novels and [[role playing games]], allowing [[black powder]] weapons into the fantasy genre.

Fewmets is a [[Medieval English]] hunting term, referring to the spoor of a game animal being stalked.  The term is derived from the [[Old English]] ''feawa'' ("scant", hence "few") and ''metan'' ("encounter", hence "meet"), with the intimation that these droppings are the only hint of the animal's presence; that the creature itself has yet to be seen.  

According to T.H. White's novel, the Medieval huntmaster would wrap in leaves the spoor of the animal he was stalking, carrying this package stored in his [[hunting horn]].  This part of his job served two vital purposes. 

Firstly, even if the noble sponsor of the hunt and his equally exalted guests were sufficiently skilled huntsmen to keep up with the hounds, it would have been beneath his dignity to dismount and examine the condition of the [[spoor]] to ascertain how close the hunted animal was.  He would be shown the excrement, to ascertain from its condition how close the prey might be; but the physical task of retrieving the droppings would be left to the huntmaster—a skilled functionary, but also a [[commoner]]. 

Secondly, in the event that the patron was not knowledgable about woodcraft, the fewmets served as the huntmaster's ''bona fide''.  They were physical evidence that there was in fact an animal out there to be caught—and that the sponsor of the event and his noble friends were not being led in a merry and altogether pointless chase around the woods by a malicious or ignorant [[bumpkin]].



[[Category:Feces]]

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