According to the tradition in Georgia, every guest is considered as a gift from God: Unknown guest, passing by from another village, will be welcomed to stay at the house overnight, he will be offered dinner and wine--usually drunk from the horns. The host will try their best to make him feel at home. ThisTradition still exists in modern life in the mountains.In the high mountains in Caucasus Georgian villages, among Khevsur (the tribe) hospitality got deeper. They kept strict tradition, called Tsatsloba:The guests (male) were to pass the test: after the dinner, the host would send his own virgin daughter, sister or even wife to the guest's bedroom. They were allowed to lay together with the sword laying in between them. The sword was a border between a woman and a man, and between their corporal and spiritual filling. They could pass time having a conversation and embracing, but were not allowed to have sex.
Guest’s brevity test consequence was demonstrated in the morning: the female should help the guest to wash his face by pouring the water out of a jar. If she did so, it meant that they had only spiritual contact; otherwise, if they had corporal contact, the girl was not permitted to fulfill this ritual. In this casea guest was thrown out from the village, killed sometimes and the real punishment was for a woman – stoning. While the host would sacrifice his own daughter or sister, at the same time, it was a test for a Khevsur man’s manly features, such as strong will, etc. It was considered that a"real man"would be best examined in two cases: in the face of death and in the face of the opposite sex. In the former, he had to defeat the fear and in the latter, he had to overcome the passion. Respect for this traditionbecame the topic of many love stories and wasted young lives.Tsatsloba as the tradition gradually faded away and vanished altogether in the 2-nd half of the 20th century.
Among other thoughts and issues that occupy my mind, Tsatsloba migrated into my hallucinatory garden Alien Bloom.
