Belarusian peasant yard

In the Belarusian village, three types of estates predominated: a wreath, a uniform and a courtyard with unrelated buildings. With the later fragmentation of families, the number of households became much larger. In general, cowardice was characteristic of a Belarusian village until the end of the 19th century.

Peasant estates were quite wide, an average of 60-70 meters. The size of the estate (including the garden and vegetable garden) depended on the size of the plot: from half a hectare to two. The gardens were small: about 10 apple trees , 5-6 pear trees, several currant bushes, gooseberries . The garden was not looked after, it grew by itself.

The rich peasant's yard consisted of a residential building - a hut , a crate, a barn , a stable , a threshing floor , hayloft, adryns, baths . But there were few such yards. By the beginning of the 20th century patriarchalism of the family has weakened, the authority of the elder has become not so unquestioned. Families of two generations appeared. Another family had up to ten horses, three cows, twenty sheep, five pigs, many chickens, geese. Most have one horse, a cow, two sheep, a pig, several chickens.

The peasant's yard was divided into two parts: on one side of the house there was a clean yard, on the other a cattle with barns. But always the house was set to the street. Thus, the peasant's courtyard consisted of separate buildings attached to each other or located at some distance. Such a group formed a kind of pictorial composition, an architectural ensemble, parts of which were closely connected. Not far from the hut, they often dug a cellar where potatoes , sauerkraut, and onions were stored. In some places in Belarus, the cellar was made in the entrance hall. In the corner of the courtyard stood a threshing floor (clown, fish) - a log house for drying sheaves and threshing. Threshed with iron flails. The threshing floor usually stood in the corner of the yard. The logs in it were fitted loosely so that "air would go." A steep four-pitched thatched roof descended low. In the middle of the threshing floor is an adobe current for threshing with a flail, on both sides of the current there are notches where sheaves and hay were stacked. In Polesie threshing floor called clowns.

Sushna (evnya) was intended for drying grain in sheaves : it was made directly in the middle of the threshing floor or next to it. She usually had two tiers. On the lower was a stove, on the upper were unfrozen sheaves.

In the peasant's yard stood a source (brew) - a log-house, where they stored potatoes and vegetables in winter, prepared livestock feed. Here stood barrels of sauerkraut and cucumbers, jugs of milk. They heated it with a stove-heater or “heat”: in the middle was a hearth-brazier, where they poured hot coal. The source was attached to the canopy or placed opposite the hut.

Not a single peasant's yard did without a crib . From what kind of cattle were kept there, the stable was called either a barn or a pigsty. All living creatures - cows, pigs, calves - hibernated in a stable, in the same place or near it they put up household equipment: plows, wheels, flails, harrows, rakes, shovels. It was a wooden structure with a thatched roof. The manure that accumulated there in the winter remained in the same room as the animals. He protected animals from the cold, because manure fermentation generated heat. In the spring, manure was transported to the fields. The cow, the horses were, as it were, part of the peasant's family. Therefore, proverbs and beliefs were created about the crib in the people. Cows, geese, ducks, chickens, pigs and dogs needed to be fed, lined with removable straw in the barn and house, and poured water into drinking bowls. Each cattle relied on separate dishes for watering.

The horses were, of course, hardworking. They did not pay attention to them. Their task is to plow, carry, and not gallop. The family kept, depending on wealth, from three to six mares. They fed them hay, clover, less often oats. Pigs are kept in the Belarusian peasant farm now. A Belarusian peasant family without a boar is unthinkable. And before they were kept with a dozen. This fat and meat, and sausages, and fat. Two-year-old wild boars began to be fed in the summer, giving him chopped weeds with oatmeal and mashed potatoes. By autumn, he was again fed with mashed potatoes with oat flour and milk whey. The boar was rapidly gaining weight. The last two weeks he was treated to a delicacy - steamed rye. The boar weighed more than 10 pounds. At the end of October-November he was beaten. There were 5-6 cows on the farm, not counting calves. Milk was considered almost the main product on the peasant table. In the summer, the cows grazed, in the winter they were fed with a mixture of straw and oat straw with hay and chaff with boiled potatoes. In the summer from cows received 4-5 liters of milk, in the fall of 2-3 liters. Sheep were kept in pieces 5. Unlike the Caucasus, they did not go for food, their wool was consumed, from which they spun cloth. In winter they were fed potatoes, hay. There were no goats in the Belarusian economy, they were considered unclean. They kept chickens.

In each yard there was a well 5-6 meters deep. Well logs were made of oak, alder or larch. Crane got water. The bathhouse was far from every peasant's yard. In the past, a bathhouse was made of thin logs with a gable roof and two windows in the wall. The ceiling of poles, croaker. Along the wall of the bench, by the stove shelves. The stove, with stones at the top for steam, was without a chimney. Since the beginning of the XX century. a bathhouse is already being made with a chimney; water boilers are built into the furnace. They usually attached a dressing room (broomstick) to the bathhouse.

Hay for cattle was usually stored in an abarog: a mobile, thatched or shingled roof on four high posts. Sometimes below the abarog was fenced. This design saved the hay from mice and dampness. For the storage of unfrozen bread, straw and equipment, the Adryn was intended, which was usually placed during the threshing floor; in some areas of Belarus, the adryn was called punya. To dry the sheaves, hay, and potato tops, azyarod was made: a construction in the sun from pillars and horizontal poles. Logs, firewood, planks, wood chips, chippings were stacked away from buildings, laid with slats for ventilation, covered before rains and for the winter.

A well-to-do Belarusian or nobleman could have a wagon: light traveling sleds. Their runners were bent, with a shackle, the body with the seat was trellised, sheathed with boards.

The word hut is found in most Slavic languages: Ukrainian, Belarusian, Russian, Polish , Czech and Slovak . In Russian, the use of this word meant a bad hut. The word itself has repeatedly raised the question of its origin. Some scholars associate it with the word yata , which is found in some Slavic languages ​​in the sense of a crate, a pantry .

As a type of dwelling, the hut historically developed from a dugout (half dugout). In Belarus from the 1st – 2nd centuries It is known single-chamber housing with a stove without a chimney (chicken house) and narrow windows with bolts. From the 19th century the chicken house began to be replaced by the so-called white house (stove with chimney ), and the single-chamber layout was two-chamber and three-chamber.

The bookmark of the hut is often furnished with some solemnity, mystery, and is still not without superstition. Earlier, constructing a residential building, the Belarusian peasant unknowingly felt that power dominated over him, in the power of which lies all his well-being, his life. This force requires sacrifice, spells. And now, in the Grodno province , coins are laid at the outer corners of the standing house, in Minsk district, coins are laid in the “right edge”, that is, in the red corner; a piece of bread is put together with coins, while the richer bottle has “living silver,” that is, mercury ; moreover, the bookmark is done with some solemnity, in the presence of guests, in the evening of the first day of construction. It is interesting to note that this and similar rites preceded church consecration , which was resorted to no earlier than at the end of construction.

Before construction, they often consulted in the Slutsk district with a fortuneteller who determined the time convenient for construction. In some places in Belarus, when laying the first crown, grasses collected on the eve of Ivan Kupala and consecrated that day were laid in the notch between the logs. After knocking down the crown, the hostess brought in a table and placed it in the middle of the crown; a snack was placed on the table, workers were invited. The priest was called up after the construction was completed.

In some places they did not move into a new house until they let a rooster into it for the night. In the Minsk province, roosters were tied in a red corner, with this was connected the hope of wealth. Very often, the transition to a new hut was arranged like this: they took a pot of coals from the old hut and carried it to the new hut. The hut was not placed in the corner of the road, in the place where the bathhouse used to be, such places were considered filthy. Usually the peasant hut went out on its narrow side to the street. On this side, without distinguishing the number of windows in it, the front door never fit. She was always on the long side of the hut and looked out into the courtyard.

The main material for building a peasant hut, of course, is wood. According to statistics from the 70s. XIX century in six Belarusian provinces of 890 102 peasant houses were only 166 stone and 412 clay. They built a house of pine and ate. In some places, the lower half of the house was made of pine, and the upper of spruce . If there was no pine and spruce forest near the village, they took aspen , occasionally alder . The general rule was that outbuildings were constructed from worse material than a residential building. If the latter belonged to a prosperous peasant, counting on the strength of the building, then the lower logs could be oak. The scaffold was prepared at the end of winter or early spring, when the juices had not yet gained strength. Then they removed the bark and cut it from all sides. The lower logs that withstand the heaviness of the whole house were the simplest foundation and were called padruba. They lay directly on the ground, were subject to dampness, and the peasant's concern for their special strength is understandable. The foundation was also thick decks, breaking into three quarters of the earth. Such decks in different places were called differently: stamps, chairs, shkandars, shkandarts. Further development of the foundation consisted in the fact that under the hollows, usually at four angles, large stones were laid that serve as the foundation, largely freeing the hollows from the harmful effects of the soil. Less commonly did a solid stone foundation. In this case, the stone either folded without cement, or was soldered with clay, lime. For this, uncouth cobblestones were taken. If the stone foundation was made of clay or lime, then it was very low. The stone foundation was called padmurk, and in some places, for example, in Pruzhany district, and the foundation.

An indispensable accessory of the Belarusian hut is a flood , or a Belarusian destiny. Its purpose is to protect a residential building from cold and damp. Usually this is a mound around the hut, 30-40 cm high, held by boards and stakes driven into the ground. The walls were laid from logs cut from the bark or trimmed, sometimes from logs - logs split into 2-4 blocks.

Until the 19th century, Belarusians built a hut “in shula”: using vertical logs with grooves. Ways of cutting corners: in a simple angle (“into the bowl”, “into a simple lock”), a clean corner (“into the paw”, “into the canoe”). The second option has been practiced since the 20th century. The roof ( belor. Fear , dah ) was usually made gable, with reinforced concrete, on risers, in the 19th century. on the rafters . Zakot is an old construction of a peasant hut, when the logs of the end wall at the level of the upper crown of the log house were gradually shortened, taking the form of a stepped triangle. Poles were laid on the ledges, which served as the basis of the roof. Sometimes the top of the roof was decorated with a ridge - a carved bird, double heads of horses. Covered the hut with straw , reeds , shingles , spruce shingle, tiles, from the XX century. tin appears. Straw was taken only threshed, large and rye. A layer of straw, about 15 cm thick, turned around the roof and was pressed by a long rail. Then the rail was tied with a straw tourniquet to the rafters. A triangle of poles held the straw from the wind. The straw roof had to be watched especially, to look after its safety, laying, in time to repair, to fill bald spots.

The threshold ( belorussian hanak ) in the hut is high, and the doors are low so that the heat does not go away in vain. The doors were single-leaf, with iron bolts. Until the end of the 19th century, the floor in the hut was earthen or adobe (“current”), which replaced the wooden floor on logs made of planed boards. In utility rooms, the floor was adobe for a long time. They did it this way: raw clay was poured onto flat ground and beaten with sharp points of wooden hammers on it, while I holes were smoothed out with blunt ends. This has been done repeatedly. Then the sand was tampered with a deck, and later with a clothes roll. The floor became like concrete. In the chicken huts, the ceiling was made of vaulted logs, later flat of planks (first on a longitudinal thick beam, then on transverse beams and combined). It was laid out from trimmed boards, covered with clay and covered with moss, leaves, sand or earth. They insulated the hut, caulking with moss . Over time, the huts were playful. No one, unlike Ukraine , painted anything on the hut.

The Belarusian hut, of course, did not differ in a special stop or decoration. It had a table, usually on goats, a uslon, a saddle, a trestle bed, chests or chests for storing clothes and other things, a cradle , lava, shelves, patches , collapsible chairs . Each thing had its own place, determined by centuries-old traditions. Uslon was a small portable bench made of a thick board with legs, often from a chopped piece of wood with four evenly sawn branches, they were legs. Zadlik is a type of bench made of rhizome or lump of a tree with 3-4 branch legs and a round or square seat. Topchan is also known in Russia. This is a wide wooden bench with legs or goats, on which they sat or slept. The cradle (cradle) on the rope was hung from the ceiling. A baby was sleeping in it. Weaved a cradle of vines, rakita or made of boards, slats. At the end of the XIX century. there was a cradle with legs with arched bars. A massive long wide board, mounted on blocks or legs, was called lava. The hut was usually two fixed lavas along the walls, converging in the red corner . There often stood a bowl with bread. Since the second half of the XIX century. a canapa appeared - a wide wooden seat up to two meters long, on four legs, with armrests and a back, often decorated with carvings. Kanapu with a chest seat, where they put things, called a slab.

For the dishes, a shelf served - a board attached to the wall with a side wall, sometimes several tiers along the wall from the corner to the doors. In Polesie it was called a conic (the side walls were sawn out in the form of a horse's head).

Polati are known to many in Russian life. This is the flooring from the boards on which they slept. They were fastened near the stove at the level of the bed on a horizontal rail nailed to the wall of the hut and to two slats suspended from the beam. Old people loved to sleep on the stove. In the summer, the newlyweds were given a chamber, and in the summer, shelves or a hayloft.

Most families lived in a hut with one room, with an attached canopy. Only around the 1930s. the situation began to change. Here is what the peasant of those years recalls:

“In our family there were three brothers and I, one girl. The new room had a bed on which I slept. I myself covered her with a bedspread in the morning. On weekdays - smart, checkered, colorful festive. The pillows were round, linen pillowcases, white, decorated with embroidery. In the old, or as it was also called, back room, everyone else was sleeping. Brothers - on the lava. Parents are in the dark. ”

Entering the Belarusian hut of the 19th century, immediately on the left or on the right you could see an clay hen furnace without a pipe. Such a furnace did not have a chimney, and when it was lit, the smoke went straight into the hut. It was necessary to open the door so as not to burn. But along with the smoke, heat also left, so some owners in the wall separating the hut from the canopy made a hole. Sometimes a hole was in the ceiling, it was covered with burlap. Huts with “white” stoves, that is, with a chimney, began to get along everywhere at the beginning of the 20th century.

The furnace was placed on a mantle - a brick foundation (it was preceded by a clay, log and base base - "shtandars"). The space inside the mantle is called the subheap; they kept chickens there in winter. The slit-like recess under the underside — the underside — served as kitchen utensils. The guardianship was covered with dies, a layer of clay with sand and stone was laid on top and lined with burnt bricks. The front part of the hearth (from the edge to the mouth - “Chaolesniki”) is a hearth; on the side on the sixth stove ("hole"), where the heat was raked. The vaulted interior of the furnace ("palate") was folded along a wooden formwork ("mares"). The upper part of the furnace is a flat adobe platform (a stove bench, a “charm”), on which clothes, grain, and a chimney are resting, drying. To preserve heat, the mouth of the furnace was closed with a damper, and the chimney was blocked with a damper (view), which also served as a draft regulator.Often a coarse chimney connected to the stove with a common chimney : a small quadrangular stove for heating, which was laid out from burnt brick (formerly from raw), the surface was coated with clay, whitened or tiled. To make the coarse heat better, the chimney is made with turns. At first, the coarse had a common chimney with a furnace, later it was separate. Things were drying on the perch under the ceiling by the stove. Since the end of the XIX century. на Беларуси распространилась печь со встроенными в шесток плитами. Современная печь — меньших размеров, из обожжённого кирпича, обмазанная глиной или облицованная кафелем. У печи издавна, да и теперь тоже, стоят кочерга, ухват, чепела (ухват для сковороды). Напротив печи, по другую сторону входа, стояла кадушка с водой и деревянным ковшом и рядом на лаве — деревянные ведра, ведро для дойки (доенка), круглое корыто и пр. Под лавой — бадья для помоев. На гвозде у входа висела верхняя одежда — по сезону.

Деревенская хата освещалась плохо. Вместо полноценных окон долгое время на Беларуси просекали в стене дыры, примерно 35х35, в которых вместо стекла был бычий пузырь. Зимой эти дыры просто затыкали тряпкой или закрывали ставней. На исходе крепостного права встречались хаты, где окон вообще не было. Исчезли они совсем только к началу XX в. Тогда уже не могла встретиться хата с бычьим пузырём вместо окон. Окна стали стеклянными, впрочем, совсем небольшими, и хата с сумерками освещалась лучником — вертикально вставленной в подставку (крестовину, полено, колодку) палочку с расщеплённым концом или с особым железным приспособлением для крепления лучины. Известен и подвесной лучник — из дымохода, капора и металлической решётки, на которой жгли лучину. Под лучник ставили посудину с водой для углей.

В красном углу — по диагонали от печи — висела икона , убранная вышитыми красными рушниками . В традиционном жилище красный угол (покуть), противоположный печному, служил как бы домашним алтарём. В этом месте совершались ритуальные действия обрядов календарных и жизненного цикла. Здесь, на полочке под иконой, хранили атрибуты этих обрядов. Под божницу в углу помешали последний дожинальный сноп, принесённый с поля, свадебный каравай, «бабину кашу» — ритуальную пищу из зерна, приготовлявшуюся во время родинных обрядов. У иконы хранили пасхальные крашенные яйца, просвирки, ветки вербы, освящённые в Вербное воскресенье , за неделю до Пасхи , свечи. Накануне больших праздников, и особенно, перед Пасхой божницу и иконы мыли, снимали прошлогоднее убранство, обновляя его, а перед Троицей красный угол украшали свежими ветками. Стол обычно застилали вышитой скатертью. Часто на нём лежал хлеб, покрытый рушником.

Неотъемлемой вещью каждой хаты были кросны — станок для домашнего ткачества. Он включал в себя «ставы» — деревянный каркас, на котором собирают важнейшие узлы станка; «навои» — два деревянных вала, на один из которых навивают нити основы, а на другой наматывают полотно; «ниты», — надетые рядами два параллельных прутка (верхний и нижний) нитяные петли, сквозь которые протягивают нити основы (от количества нитов зависит узор ткани); «бёрда» — приспособление для прибивания уточной нити, состоящее из тонких узких пластинок наподобие гребешка с двумя спинками и вкладывающееся в «набилицы». Поножи, колесца, чепёлки — рычаги для приведения в движение нитов. При нажатии на поножи, привязанные к ним ниты расходятся и образуют в основе зев, через который пробрасывают челнок с навитым на цевку утком. При завершении ткачества (чтобы полнее использовать основу) употребляют «стыкальник» — деревянный брусок с привязанными на концах верёвками. Концы основы крепят к стыкальнику, а его — верёвками к навою. Зимой хата превращалась в маленькую мастерскую, ведь летних ежедневных работ уже не было, оставалось только глядеть за скотиной. Поэтому здесь и ткали холсты , и, при свете лучины или каганца , шили одежду, вышивали, вязали.

Но встречались в белорусской деревне хаты и получше. И не только у помещиков. Белорусский классик Якуб Колас в одном из своих романов описывает быт сельского писаря: «Просторная и светлая зала убрана чистенько и аккуратно на мещанский лад. Столы и столики были застланы чистыми скатертями. Кресла стояли в порядке. На стенах висели красивые рисунки в рамочках. По углам залы стояли круглые столики под белым кружевом: на столиках лежали альбомы для фотографий…».

В начале XX в. практически во всех крестьянских хатах был деревянный пол. Кроме лав появились табуреты, стулья. Исчезали полати, появлялись кровати, кухонные шкафчики. Снаружи перед входной дверью стали пристраивать крыльцо, веранду. Со второй пол. XIX century преобладало открытое крыльцо: помост с 1- или 2-скатной крышей на двух или четырёх опорных столбиках. Позже стало чаще встречаться полузакрытое крыльцо. Английским словом веранда называлась лёгкая пристройка вдоль стены хаты со стороны входных дверей. Нижняя часть каркаса веранды обшивается досками или выкладывается кирпичом, верхняя — застеклённая. Появилась веранда в конце XIX в. сначала в зажиточных усадьбах.

К началу второго десятилетия XX в. типичная белорусская хата выглядела так: жилая половина, бывшая одновременно и кухней, «чистая» половина", сени и кладовка. «Чистая» половина, как правило, была пристроена позже. Там стояли стол и лавы, у наиболее зажиточных в XX в. — никелированная кровать с покрывалом и пышными подушками. Там ночевал гость, — впрочем, они бывали нечасто. Там же стоял сундук с дочерним приданым, комод.

Сени служили для утепления жилья, там лежали кой-какие хозяйственные мелочи. Из сеней дверь вела в клеть-кладовку, где хранилось зерно, продукты, одежда. Клеть делалась из тонких брёвен, без окон. Крышу делали закотом. Стлали пол, отгораживали закрома для ржи, овса, ячменя; на жердях развешивали кожухи, овчины. Здесь же стояли скрыни — большие дощатые или плетёные ящики для картофеля и овощей, бочонки с салом, квасом. Под потолком подвешивались колбасы, куски копчёного мяса — кумпяки. Зачастую здесь же стоял сундук с железными ручками, где хранились ткани, разная одежда. Иногда встречался и топчан, где летом спали молодые члены семьи.

Хозяйство белорусского крестьянина не могло обойтись без необходимых бытовых вещей. Теперь они в деревнях практически не встречаются, заменены на современные, магазинные. Многие предметы домашнего обихода делались самими крестьянами или покупались на рынках у ремесленников. Это прежде всего посуда, создаваемая частично из дерева, частично из глины, орудия труда и другие изделия, необходимые в хозяйстве. Среди этих предметов часто встречались художественные изделия.

Повсеместное распространение в Беларуси в XIX в. получили сундуки (куфры, скрыни) для складывания белья. Важную роль сундук играл в свадебном обряде. Ещё задолго до свадьбы девушка приобретала себе сундук и собирала в нём своё приданое: постилки, полотенца, скатерти, сорочки, андараки и другие домашние изделия. Во время свадьбы при переезде невесты в дом жениха сундук с восседаемым на нём шафером торжественно перевозился в качестве приданого вслед за новобрачными. Естественно, что на украшение сундука обращалось большое внимание. Как правило, его крышка, лицевая и торцовые стороны расписывались растительным или геометрическим орнаментом.

Без баклаги — двудонного бочонка, в котором носили воду, в хозяйстве не обходились. Белорусы делали их из дубовых или еловых клепок (их длина в 1,5-2 раза меньше диаметра дна). В одной из клепок было отверстие с затычкой. Баклага обычно висела в хате на гвозде. Еду во время жатвы или сенокоса носили в спарышах — глиняной посуде из двух либо трёх горшков с крышками, скреплённых ручкой. Барилка — двудонная бочка на 5-10 литров. В ней обычно носили воду на сенокос. Зачастую в ней держали брагу , самогон . Делали барилку из дубовых или еловых клепок, более длинных, чем диаметр дна. Посредине одной клёпки было отверстие с затычкой. Кадка для готовки хлебного теста звалась дежей. Сверху она была немного сужена, её высота равна диаметру крышки, сделанной из досок, скреплённых лубяным обручем. Блинное тесто растворяли в небольших дежах. Выпуклый сосуд с узким горлом, плоским дном, с одним или двумя ушками, и в Белоруссии, и на Украине называется гляк. Одни были совсем маленькими, другие доходили до 10 литров. В гляке носили воду в поле, настаивали лекарственные травы, хранили растительное масло. Немного отличался от гляка жбан — высокий сосуд с выпуклыми боками, несколько суженым горлышком, с носиком и ручкой. В жбан входило от полулитра до восьми литров жидкости. Пражельник служил в хозяйстве для печения, сушки грибов и ягод. Это было гончарное изделие, похожее на сковороду, с плоским дном и невысокими краями. Широкая кадка, высотой до метра, на трёх ножках, с отверстием в днище, которое закрывалось деревянной пробкой, называлась жлукта. В ней замачивали (жлуктили) и стирали белье. Ещё была кадка, которая называлась кадолбь — выдолбленная из липы или ольхи . В ней держали зерно , крупу, муку. В больших ночвах -корытах секли капусту, мясо на колбасы, стирали, купали детей, в меньших (опалушках) провеивали зерно, в маленьких (толчанках) толкли для приправы сало, мак. Деревянный сосуд с ручкой для воды или кваса назывался карец. Макотёр был схож с глубокой миской. Предназначался он для растирания пестиком льняного или конопляного семени, варёного картофеля и пр. Внутреннюю поверхность макотёра делали шершавой, на ней наносили насечки или в глину подмешивали мелкий гравий.

Маслобойка широко была известна и в России, и на Украине. Это обычно высокий, суженый кверху бочонок, в крышке отверстие для колотовки (била), к нижнему концу которой (ударная часть) крепили кружок с отверстиями или крестовину. Доёнка (подойник), как видно по названию, служила для молока и вмещала 8-10 литров. Одна удлинённая клёпка была в ней ручкой; в противоположной клёпке делали литок. Для стирки служила балея: широкая низкая лохань, иногда с ушками. Хозяйство белоруса не обходилось без такого простого домашнего предмета, как валёк, известного с XI в.: плоского деревянного бруска с ручкой, которым колотили белье при стирке. Им же обмолачивали лён, просо.

Кубел делался из дерева, в нём хранили одежду и полотно. В небольших кубелах — кубельчиках — держали сало и мясо. Кубел накрывался крышкой, прижимавшейся засовом, продетым сквозь ушки в двух выступающих противоположных клепках. Был специальный кубел и для невестиного приданого, потом его перевозили в дом жениха. Впоследствии кубел заменился сундуком, и вовсе исчез из белорусского обихода.

Долго в Беларуси пользовались безменом : ручными рычажными весами с металлическим или деревянным стержнем с гирей на одном конце и крючком или чашей на для удержания груза на другом. На стержне находилась шкала отсчёта и подвижная опора — обойма или проволочная петля.

• Белорусы

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• Этнаграфія беларусаў.— Мн.,1985.
• Этнаграфія Беларусi.— Мн., 1989.

• Белорусская деревня: быт, хозяйство и традиционная культура
• В. Носевич. Традиционная белорусская деревня в европейской перспективе
• Folk traditional-historical types of manor buildings
• A. I. Lokotko Types of traditional building of a peasant's yard in Belarus (XIX - the middle of the XX century)
• Strochitsa. Museum of Folk Architecture