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Rugs and mats?

Thomas got it. The "hump" is the equivalent of what a low large water tank would be in irrigation. Cars and wagons waiting to be sorted into sidings or platforms are raised there by motive power, then allowed to coast down to their destinations under mild braking when called. The idea is to save...

I thought you guessed pottery. Here's something in reverse. I'll tell you the profession, you just to have to describe exactly what it entails. Hump master in a Chicago & North Western railroad yard operating a signal switch system which extends the length of the hump track.

My boarding skool Latin tells me it's boarding skool Greek. Maybe something about liking trees...

I do. Had forgotten that you were a local. You'd be surprised at the number of older English folk who love that porcelain. I don't have any but can tell it a mile away. West German era pottery's very distinctive too, but it often looks like something that should be issued to NATO. UK...

An easy one! 20,000 years from corded ware to Meissen. Not an easy craft though. The things I made at school were so bad my mother threw them out as soon as I left home.

Usually one or the other, though talent and apprenticeship may apply. Millennia.

Good question. I have no experience of German traditions at all. Reading a bit of Mann and Grass didn't help, so I just imagine that you have a fairly formal Lutheran way of doing it. [when I don't know and havent bothered to look properly I just fill in the gaps]. In the Anglo-Irishsphere a...

A trade or profession.

I just didn't think it was strange! Mind you when I came to Oz long ago people though Robert Helpmann and pink vanilla slices were suss. I'll pop back tonight after a think. Hope you had a good weekend Richie.

Pickled Peppers [it's from a nursery rhyme Thomas] oh dear, Q again.

That makes sense

A mosquito!

Exists... is it something that isn't "made"?

Macaroni N

Elimination list: It cannot be a hired mourner because everyone in the group would know - only makes sense during public ceremonies. It can't be the grieving spouse throwing herself onto the funeral pyre - that stopped almost a century ago [though it certainly qualifies as strange]. Chinese burn...

Correctamundo!

OK the item can be improvised effortlessly, indoors or out. It should not be rough, oily, or particularly brittle. It is used to save time.

Heh an auntie gave me a silver one. This is getting interesting. A birth's a private gathering too, isn't it. I think Thomas deserves a shot at this, so I'll have another glass of red!

Weddings, Wakes... No Baby Showers in 5th dynasty Egypt I think. So, [Indian term] Pandit: somebody hired to make sure nobody offends the gods at a wake. I note the 3 example nations you gave us were all polytheist.