Thank you, Fred -- I think :) -- your information is very interesting -- what a different world we evolved from. Who would have thought! The record page shows another death "by koltun," but it was listed "na koltun" -- the tangles (noun). Now I will be checking other death records for "death by hair." (What a great title for a mystery novel!) I really appreciate all your effort in answering my post. Again, thank you. Karen > > Karen Carpenter wrote: > >> I hope this isn't a repeat question. (I'm new to the list.) My >> gggrandfather's death record lists his cause of death as koltuny which >> translates to tangles. What does that mean? > > The reference books tell you _koltun_ means "trichoma" or "plica > polonica," > an illness connected with matted hair. I didn't know till just now that > English has a term for it: "Polish plait." See here: > > http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polish_plait > > I found this by going to the Polish Wikipedia site and searching for > _koltun_ (with a slash through the L). Here's the Polish page: > > http://pl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ko%C5%82tun > > At the left are links to similar pages on the Wikipedia sites for other > languages, one of which is English. And that led me to the article on > "Polish plait." > > This is always worth trying if you're looking for an unfamiliar term. The > Polish Wikipedia may not have anything on it; or if it does, there may be > no > corresponding page in English, or the connection between the two may be > erroneous. Also, you have to get the Polish spelling of the word right, > including the diacritical marks. But a search of the Polish Wikipedia can > prove very helpful. Sometimes, a Google search will lead you to a Polish > Wikipedia page, and that may enable you to bypass the need for inputting > Polish characters with diacriticals. > > I must admit, I've never quite understood how a hairstyle or even a > disease > of the hair could be fatal. But I guess anything that allows inflammation > or > infection can lead to death. Often, these causes of death are not very > scientific. The person filling out the record frequently had no medical > training. He just wrote down whatever was the most prominent symptom, even > if it was only indirectly related to the cause of death -- or, in some > cases, had nothing to do with the death. But if an otherwise > healthy-looking > person died, and the only thing you could find wrong was a massive tangle > of > hair with infection, I guess _koltun_ or the Latin word, _plica_, could > seem > like the right thing to record. I do know from my experience, you run into > _koltun_ and _plica_ as causes of death far more often than you'd expect. > > Anyway, I hope that clarifies things for you! > > Fred Hoffman > Co-Author, _In Their Words ... Vol. 1: Polish_ > www.fredhoff.com