I should know better

The account of the esoteric practice of henwrapping seems to have aroused some interest. I`d better come clean and admit that I was never admitted to the inner circles of this sisterhood, and have actually never attempted to wrap a live hen in newspaper. I`ve just seen so many, always carried under the arm and clearly the essential accessory for the voluminous black clothes women of a cetain age used to wear in rural Greece. Only the head was visible, and looked alert and interested- a bird Going Somewhere....

But where? Where were all these hens (I never saw a male bird wrapped for travel) going? Why were they criscrossing the country on rural buses and trains? They looked used to it, as if they did this often - "Come on, Henny Penny, jump into this sports page and we`ll go for a jaunt to Stasanopolis, see the sights, do a bit of shopping, maybe hit a few bars....."

As to how - well it takes at least three broadsheet pages, and I would suggest that the hen has to Really Want It...

Which brings me back to why.

I wonder if it was a talismanic thing. Maybe a rickety old train or bus chugging up a mountain road simply seemed to run better with a wrapped hen on board- perhaps the rural Greek equivalent of 70s furry dice.

My friend who lived years in Kenya tells me that something similar happened there. No bus was complete without the appropriate animal - in this case a goat on a piece of string.

She reckons that in terms of being able to breathe in a hot airless confined vehicle she`d have the hen every time, with or without wrapping.