Wipe
A swab consists of a bundle of straw that is attached to a 1 m high lath or a wooden stick. The straw swab is placed on the field or meadow. The field owner thus indicates to the shepherd , especially the travel shepherd , that the field may not be grazed.
The straw swab was also used as a warning symbol, for example to mark paths that were not accessible or houses affected by disease. It was a legally binding symbol until the 20th century and was written into the field police regulations.
Today, the straw wipe is also used to mark areas that should not be entered for reasons of nature conservation .
literature
- Ruth Schmidt-Wiegand : Studies on historical legal word geography. The straw wipe as a sign of ban and prohibition. Names and functions . (Münstersche Mittelalter-Schriften 18) Munich 1978. ISBN 3770509978 , scan of the Munich digitization center