I like hands as a motif in art, that’s why I stumbled upon these. Hand clappers were the precursors of castanets — an instrument I should be more familiar with, given where I was born. This makes me think of the role of sound in rituals, even when we’re talking about something as simple as a clap.

The Dog Days of Summer are here, apparently (though in the UK you can hardly tell). In Spanish we still use the word “canícula” to refer to a period of really intense heat, but I had never considered its etymology. It turns out it comes from canis, the Latin word for dog, and this is why:

Some of my favourite folklore is related to sailors and fishermen. Here’s some from the North Sea: