People Ask For Help Identifying The Weird Objects They Found, And Some Of The Answers Are Startling

Answered by u/REDDlTLURKER:

This is a perfume ring which holds solid perfume. Ladies wore them way back in the day when there was more rotten stuff decomposing around towns, gutters, & in the street. They would hold the ring to their nose when passing a stinky area.

Some folks call them poison rings and there are locket rings, but I’m pretty sure this is a perfume ring.

Answered by a Redditor:

Do you want ghosts? Because this is how you get ghosts.

Answered by u/silversatire:

These are figural grave markers or funerary idols. Your grandmother should contact the groundskeeper or property owner from where they were taken and explain what happened and return them. Keeping them is incredibly disrespectful.

Answered by u/anotherj*nkie:

Sorry, but I’m going to hijack your top comment with an answer since I’m here a bit late:

OP, I’m pretty sure those are from the Gullah Geechee people that have/had communities around the Carolinas (yes, for people my age, the Gullah Gullah Island people!). It’s a bad photo, but this is how many older/less wealthy graveyards looked. Note the carved, lightly carved, and uncarved sticks used to mark graves.

The Gullah/Geechee have a rich, African-influenced carving tradition and often used carved wooden monuments to mark graves, ranging from very small to very ornate. The Gullah also have a tradition of placing small trinkets, often carved, both in and on gravesites. Gullah also have strong roots in hoodoo, and you see the same style of carving as you show here in south-Louisiana’s – an unwanted stop for many Gullah – hoodoo carvings. The intersection is really neat.

Unfortunately, there isn’t a lot of photography or good records on the practices. You can see a similar style head used on one of their more modern-style markers here.

I can’t say for certain, but the style, location, use, and time period all seem to lean toward Gullah/Geechee. They are rapidly vanishing, though, so you’ll need to reach out to a historical society sooner rather than later to confirm – and even then the traditions were so varied, they may not be able to tell you for sure. You could also try university-affiliated researchers who work on Gullah history (or slave tribe history in general).

If your grandmother really doesn’t know exactly where they came from, and if you can’t find a Gullah/Geechee historical society that wants them, I’m all but certain that the Smithsonian would be interested (if they are truly Gullah). They are pieces of history that we shouldn’t lose.

Answered by u/ilmouz:

I didn’t know the word in English, but as others said, it’s a “lash egg.” So, do not eat this. It usually happens when the chicken is sick*.

If you value your chickens, I’d call a vet and check their health. You might want to separate them from each other just to prevent the infection from spreading to others.

(*) chances are high that the infected chicken has some kind of oviduct inflammation, and the prognosis will most likely be negative.

Answered by u/Hug_The_NSA:

That looks like a really bad Lash Egg…

Answered by u/MetalIzanagi:

If it’s infected with a virus or bacteria, hell yes it’s dangerous to eat the chicken or anything that came out of it. Unless it’s a treatable infection that has no chance of spreading to the other animals, the unfortunate truth is that the most humane thing would be to have the chicken killed and its remains burned.

In some older homes with limited rooms on the second floor, folks “close off” the upstairs in the winter so they aren’t paying to heat it.

Likely, there was a door in that door frame. These shelves would allow the stairs to essentially function as a closet for those months.

House I grew up in had a servants’ stairway off the kitchen that was converted to a pantry in a similar way, except my dad had screwed the shelves into the steps. As kids it was the super secret stairway we used when playing hide and seek.