3. The Year
The first of their strange children born in a year is named & the year is given this same name. It is believed that the child & the year are one,
The first of their strange children born in a year is named & the year is given this same name. It is believed that the child & the year are one,
4. A Month
so each month there is a celebration & a new honor is given to her. Even the old women come to her on their knees & whisper requests. But when the last month comes, & winter begins to set on them, they stone the child, ending the year. Then prepare for the next.
11. What The Mean by a Vulture
These women have fashioned their own spears & thus have no need for men. There are stories of them descending from their city for a week every year & engaging in great orgies. But those stories are not true. When these women wish to fill their wombs, they open themselves to the North Wind & are covered by him for five days. During this time they take neither food nor drink, their only hunger being for conception.
They do not nurse their daughters on milk. Rather they make deep cuts in their thigh upon which the children are allowed to give suck. For this reason their daughters are fearless: that blood is warm.
This tribe has warred with the armies of Alexander, with the people of Cathay, against even the hordes of demon-men to the West; they littered the hills with the bodies of those giants. There are stories of the women using the dead for pleasure. These stories are not true, but the women do return to the battlefield; they bend over those still moaning. They are quick with their knives. They are the very opposite of pity.
These women have fashioned their own spears & thus have no need for men. There are stories of them descending from their city for a week every year & engaging in great orgies. But those stories are not true. When these women wish to fill their wombs, they open themselves to the North Wind & are covered by him for five days. During this time they take neither food nor drink, their only hunger being for conception.
They do not nurse their daughters on milk. Rather they make deep cuts in their thigh upon which the children are allowed to give suck. For this reason their daughters are fearless: that blood is warm.
This tribe has warred with the armies of Alexander, with the people of Cathay, against even the hordes of demon-men to the West; they littered the hills with the bodies of those giants. There are stories of the women using the dead for pleasure. These stories are not true, but the women do return to the battlefield; they bend over those still moaning. They are quick with their knives. They are the very opposite of pity.
27. Speech
Hephaistus in his old age, after he had been driven from our cities in disgrace, went to the jungles of the East & there became a Prophet. One morning, when Hephaistus was making his body pure, a baboon appeared before him. Being perhaps mad, the old man began to reveal the secrets to the mute baboon. At the end of the first year, the baboon repeated back one word to the old teacher. & so Hephaistus taught the baboon for four more years until he had revealed to his student the greatest mystery. The baboon then went among his kind & taught them how to make these words & so it happened that the great mystery was not lost.
When Hephaistus died the first baboon waited the five days of morning & then descended into the cities of man & was captured. The baboon was taunted & kept in a cage & people paid to look at him, but the baboon did not utter a sound. Until one day, a Priest walked by & saw how the beast was treated. Moved to sympathy, the Priest purchased the baboon. Later that night, the mystery was revealed for the first time in a generation of men. & so the temples were built.
Hephaistus in his old age, after he had been driven from our cities in disgrace, went to the jungles of the East & there became a Prophet. One morning, when Hephaistus was making his body pure, a baboon appeared before him. Being perhaps mad, the old man began to reveal the secrets to the mute baboon. At the end of the first year, the baboon repeated back one word to the old teacher. & so Hephaistus taught the baboon for four more years until he had revealed to his student the greatest mystery. The baboon then went among his kind & taught them how to make these words & so it happened that the great mystery was not lost.
When Hephaistus died the first baboon waited the five days of morning & then descended into the cities of man & was captured. The baboon was taunted & kept in a cage & people paid to look at him, but the baboon did not utter a sound. Until one day, a Priest walked by & saw how the beast was treated. Moved to sympathy, the Priest purchased the baboon. Later that night, the mystery was revealed for the first time in a generation of men. & so the temples were built.
45. The Mouth
It is said that God, with the mercy only known to the powerful, offered salvation even to the bastards of Gog. That he said to them:
You who are the progeny of Semjaza, whose birth was a blasphemy, you I will give navels & teach the proper way of making flesh. If you call me father I will extend to you this covenant: I will clean your hands that you might make temples. I will correct your disfigured faces that I should be pleased to look on you. & if you will chase the beasts from the sacred places I will teach you to make altars & prayers. I will move the tongue of one of your sons that you may learn my laws.
To this the bastards of Gog replied with the murder of the men of Kay, with the desecration of their temples, the rape of their wives, & the theft of their sons. War is the language of the Gog. Their spears are their tongues & the wounds they inflict their hundred mouths.
It is said that God, with the mercy only known to the powerful, offered salvation even to the bastards of Gog. That he said to them:
You who are the progeny of Semjaza, whose birth was a blasphemy, you I will give navels & teach the proper way of making flesh. If you call me father I will extend to you this covenant: I will clean your hands that you might make temples. I will correct your disfigured faces that I should be pleased to look on you. & if you will chase the beasts from the sacred places I will teach you to make altars & prayers. I will move the tongue of one of your sons that you may learn my laws.
To this the bastards of Gog replied with the murder of the men of Kay, with the desecration of their temples, the rape of their wives, & the theft of their sons. War is the language of the Gog. Their spears are their tongues & the wounds they inflict their hundred mouths.
