Campanophobia

Bells are very Beaker. The original Beaker Folk used to tie pebbles with holes in them into coconut shells, and rattle them to scare off evil spirits. Some people think the awful noise this made was what gave them the incentive to invent Bronze - just so they could have a bell that sounded a bit nicer. And with the invention about the same time as bronze of beer, the hobby of bell-ringing came into existence. Three weeks after the first "Steadman Triple" rang out from a Beaker Moot House, the archdruid and the bell-ringers fell out over the fees for ringing at hand-fastings - the bell-ringers wanted three Beads - there was a walk-out and the ground rules were in place for the next 4,000 years.

Well. obviously we don't have bell ropes in our Moot House. Where would we hang them from? The roof slides back so we can see the skies on days that are clear but quite windy so we don't want to go outside.

But it was quite a nice idea of Gilgelf to suggest we use hand-bells. Doesn't call attention to the ceremony starting of course - but still nice to hear bells, I thought. Except the job-lot she bought in the Covered Market weren't actually tuned in any way. And we had no music. And nobody knew how to sort out who played when.

So basically every Beaker Person just ran around the place, jumping about and shaking their handbells. For an hour. I tell you what, if that doesn't scare off the local evil spirits then they're braver than I am. I'm going to have a sit down now. I seem to have a ringing in my ears.