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Beefeaters all vegetarians now
26/01/2001 09:22 - (SA)
London - When John Keohane says he's a beefeater it could be taken as the confession of an incorrigible carnivore.
The man in the red and black uniform is only talking about his job, though, since Keohane is a beefeater, one of the yeoman warders who still wear a Tudor uniform and live within the precincts of the Tower of London, fortress and famous landmark.
For years these soldiers were proud of their honorary name, which
harks back to their substantial diet of yore. Now they prefer to be called just warders.
So many tourists keep asking Keohane about BSE or mad cow disease
that he sometimes longs for the days when talking to visitors would have had him hauled before a disciplinary hearing. Back then the beefeaters were supposed to stand to attention the whole time like tin soldiers.
"There were days when hordes of girls stood in front of me and made fun of me. But I didn't even smile at them. I didn't have to," said Keohane.
"We guard a queen and that's a serious job. You mustn? allow
yourself to get distracted and you're trained for that."
When tourists ask about BSE and whether the name beefeater is still politically correct John and his colleagues have a ready answer. "We don't care, we're all vegetarians here."
Asked about the origin of the odd beefeater name, John said it
probably dates back to the days when the queen's guards consumed
the leftover meat from the high table at royal banquets.
"Beef was still very special in those days. People looked up to you if you had beef on the table. And so the people said: Those are the guys who eat beef," said the beefeater.
In 2001 only the famous Tower ravens with their clipped wings get a pound of flesh. Only the best is good enough for these birds since legend has it that if they flee the Tower the state of England will fall.
The Tower was a royal residence until the 17th century and in the
Middle Ages the Tower became a prison and place of execution for
politically related crimes.
A military garrison is maintained within the Tower and a governor, is in charge of the yeoman warders. Their tasks include guiding tours for the two to three million visitors annually.
Appropriately, a beefeater's equipment includes a pike, which might be mistaken for an oversized butcher's knife. It has a legal significance and was not intended for slicing steaks.
"At court cases the blade of the axe was always turned away from
defendants, but if found guilty, the axe was turned towards them
and death would almost certainly follow," said the beefeater.
It seems the old beefeaters were a dab hand with a pike and noted
for clean cuts. One disgraced aristocrat muttered a prayer just
before he was beheaded and his lips were still moving when his head rolled into the basket.
BSE or not, Beefeaters try to keep a clear head in these trying
times. "It has nothing to do with us actually," said John,
recalling instead one of the odder questions of tourists stumped
for anything sensible to ask a uniformed yeoman. "One lady wanted
to know how often our ravens die. 'Just once,' I told her." - Sapa-DPA
- SAPA
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