Orient

To Answer Before Osiris

“I have not dammed a flowing stream,
I have not quenched a needed fire.
I have not neglected the days of meat offerings,
I have not detained cattle belonging to the god,
I have not stopped a god in his procession.
I am pure, I am pure, I am pure, I am pure!” […]

Human Affairs

Ritual for Infanticide

“Using the light they had brought with them, they lit two candies, each an inch long, one on each side of the child’s head and fixed them in -the trunk above it. Then they withdrew until the candles had burnt out.” […]

Supernatural

Speaker with the Dead

“Next Thrandur instructed a blazing fire be made in the fire-house, and he had four metal grates placed in a square, and Thrandur himself scored nine furrows in the earthen floor, making nine concentric circles around the square, and he sat down on a stool between the fire and the grated pen. He asked his men not to speak to him, and they stood silently by.” […]

Human Affairs

A Dead Man With a Message

“he way in which the emissary was dispatched was as follow: certain of them held a number of sharp spears pointing upwards, and others, seizing the hands and feet of the man who was fated to be sent, threw him on top of them.” […]