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What people used for wiping before toilet paper
posted by dennisn on March 14th, 2020 at 11:46PM

Rich people often used hemp, lace, or wool;   poor people would often simply shit in rivers and clean off with water, rags, wood shavings, leaves, hay, rocks, sand, moss, sea weed, apple husks, seashells, ferns, and pretty much whatever else was at hand and cheap or free.

America’s favorite wiping item tended to be things like corn cobs and other such plant items, and, later, the pages of Sears and Roebucks, Farmers Almanac, and other catalogs.

For seaman, the common thing was to use old frayed anchor cables, a bit of seawater for rinsing.

The Inuit’s and other peoples living in frigid regions tended to go with clumps of snow to wipe with.
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