for toilet paper. Parasitical worms in the stool were ubiquitous.

Most of the simple people lived in villages of about 20 homes
circling a village green or lining a single winding lane. There
were only first names, and these were usually passed down family
lines. To grind their grain, the villagers used hand mills with
crank and gear, or a communal mill, usually built of oak, driven
by power transmitted through a solid oak shaft, banded with iron
as reinforcement, to internal gear wheels of elm. Almost every
village had a watermill. It might be run by water shooting over or
flowing under the wheel.

Clothing for men and women was made from coarse wool, silk, and
linen and was usually brown in color. Only the wealthy could
afford to wear linen or silk. Men also wore leather clothing, such
as neckpieces, breeches, ankle leathers, shoes, and boots. Boots
were worn when fighting. They carried knives or axes under metal
belts. They could carry items by tying leather pouches onto their
belts with their drawstrings. They wore leather gloves for warmth
and for heavy working with their hands.

People were as tall, strong and healthy as in the late 1900s, not
having yet endured the later malnourishment and overcrowding that
was its worst in the 1700s and 1800s. Their teeth were very
healthy. Most adults died in their 40s, after becoming arthritic
from hard labor. People in their 50s were deemed venerable. Boys
of twelve were considered old enough to swear an oath of
allegiance to the king. Girls married in their early teens, often
to men significantly older.

The lands of the large landholding lords were administered by
freemen. They had wheat, barley, oats, and rye fields, orchards,
vineyards for wine, and beekeeping areas for honey. On this land
lived not only farm laborers, cattle herders, shepherds,
goatherds, and pigherds, but craftsmen such as goldsmiths,
hawkkeepers, dogkeepers, horsekeepers, huntsmen, foresters,
builders, weaponsmiths, embroiders, bronze smiths, blacksmiths,
watermill wrights, wheelwrights, wagon wrights, iron nail makers,
potters, soap makers (made from wood ashes reacting chemically
with fats or oils), tailors, shoemakers, salters (made salt at
the "wyches", which later became towns ending with '-wich'),
bakers, cooks, and gardeners. Most men did carpentry work. Master
carpenters worked with ax, hammer, and saw to make houses, doors,
bridges, milk buckets, washtubs, and trunks. Blacksmiths made