Lamekis

by Charles de Fieux

  101 A rod covered with a snake’s skin, topped off with a toad, a sign of the Council’s dignity.

  102 The way in which the King of the Amphicleocles was carried was very particular: only the priestesses had this magnificent right. They did it five at a time and took turns every hour if the trip was long. The King lay face down on the ground and the first priestess lifted him by his hair. The four others carried him by his arms and legs. Aristotle mentions that they carried the sovereign in this way with his face to the ground so that careless eyes not meet his by chance.

  103 This was an important event in the history of the Amphicleocles. Only the priestesses of Fulghane had the honor of carrying the King before this. Afterwards the Council of Seven held this right, as well as that of carrying the royal babouche.

  When the sovereign was on the move, the Bouch-chouk-chou announced it with a particular sound. Then, all the people had to get to the road and when the babouche came into view, they had to turn their backs in respect and spit in the air to cool it down. Heinsius, who said everything that could be said about ancient customs, pointed out that pneumonia came from this ceremony because the good people’s affection was so deep that, especially in hot weather, they spit so much and so hard when the king passed by that they usually ended up worn down by the procession. The same scholar definitely proved that we descend from these people, just like fathers who hand down their bad qualities to their children—these are facts that we cannot deny.

  104 When the King left his palace, the public criers, as I said before, announced it throughout the city. Afterwards none of his subjects were allowed to work and these outings became holidays for the Amphicleocles. Year after year they were announced and celebrated throughout the kingdom.

  105 The right that the priestesses had to carry the venerable body of the sovereign.

  106 The King could not enter the temple without the High Priestess’s permission, which she only gave four times a year.

  107 The highest throne in the temple where only the King could sit, which only happened in the most important matters of the state. But when the sovereign had his own reasons for asserting his authority and could persuade the high priestess and the assembly to let him ascend this throne, then his power was absolute. He could change the laws of the state or make new ones as he wished and his decrees were accepted with as much veneration as if Fulghane himself had given them.

  108 The device that they used to bring the King up to the high throne.

  109 Since no one of the subjects was allowed to look at the sovereign in the face, he dropped a brass ball when he had to give orders. Those who were to take charge of them, listened and passed them on to the respective officers.

  110 The custom in this country to ask for silence was to throw your cap at the nose of those you wanted to be quiet.

  111 The High Priestess only had to show this mark of respect to the divinity, but when the King presided she was forced to show him the same submission.

  112 The King performed the same rites before the statue as his subjects did before him.

  113 A brass ball on which was engraved the privilege accorded to the people by the king to breathe and look at him in the face, precious rights that they enjoyed only once during each reign, unless, as is said, some important reason made the sovereign bring it out. This right was so dear to them and they desired it so fervently that when the year began they greeted it with these words: “God protect our King for us and may he ascend the High Throne.” The benefits the people might enjoy were: the general amnesty of all their crimes, both spiritual and civil; the release of prisoners; the dismissal of debts of every kind; the right to renounce a wife and to contravene the normal rule of birthright on behalf of a favorite child; a woman’s permission to chose a successor to her bed among her husband’s family. But the most wonderful was that granted to the old men, at least 100 years old, to die in the small temples instead of in the sanctuary of Fulghane. Only the King, the High Priestess or the general states could honor a subject with this favor. It was a peculiarity of the kingdom.

  114 A hat made of sweetbread and golden spider silk that was ten feet high topped by a figure of the sun turning on a pivot. The sovereign only wore the cap on this most important occasion of ascending the High Throne.

  115 This word meant the King’s head when it was pronounced by the ruler and thus it was not obeyed. There was no hope of pardon for the guilty; death ensued and they were deleted from the register of immortality. The people had a big book in which every individual was registered. The king was its trustee and they superstitiously believed that the prince was born with the right to destroy them by erasing their name from the book.

  116 Before the King sat on the throne, he took the orders that he had to give written on bronze balls that were kept in the archives and recorded every 100 years to serve as rules for his successor.

  117 The place where the great bronze book was kept.

  118 When they opened the book of laws, the privilege of sight stopped and the people had to turn their backs like with the statue.

  119 State leaders who were in charge of guarding the book of laws. They could not accede to this honor unless they could prove that four of their ancestors had been in the great Council of Seven.

  120 Only the Foukhouourkou, the King and the High Priestess could see the great bronze book. Everyone else present at its opening had to be blindfolded.

  121 Hymn sung only during public celebrations. It began with the words “Thanks be to you, Fulghane,” etc.

  122 The grand reader, under the High Priestess, was the most important person in the kingdom.

  123 Crystal glasses with square, hollow lens in which there was a greenish liquid that magnified objects.

  124 A needle whose point guided the eyes over the characters.

  125 Spilghis or the first angel of light. Tradition claimed that the bronze book was brought from the heavens by this sacred intelligence and the laws within were written by his hand. The veneration they had for this book was so great that their most serious oaths were sworn on its covers. If someone was found to transgress these formidable oaths, they were handed over to the priestesses who put him to death by tickling—this was the greatest punishment among these people, which humanity later discarded.

  126 This signal for the Karveder to know that the king wanted to speak with him.

  127 All scholars have disagreed over this passage. All the authors who mentioned it have explained it differently. The most serious say that the distance is measured by the length of an arm; others say that it was six feet, the average height of the Amphicleocles. As the subject remains undecided today, I prefer not to have the final word. What I can say to explain this is that the way people fought was to knock their heads together and hit each other until one of the fighters was conquered. Scaliger claimed that this way of fighting only took place among the nobles.

  128 When a minister of the Council of Seven got the death penalty, all members suffered the same punishment.

  129 For the Amphicleocles this prayer was so powerful that they believed the slightest concealment of truth was revealed by a clap of thunder. These people were so blind that all mysterious or sudden deaths were blamed on it.

  130 The High Priestess preceded her speech by yelling in order that the people fall silent and be twice as attentive and respectful.

  131 The High Priestess, like the King, had the right to give this permission.

  132 A kind of collar of four rows made of the teeth of those who were granted the right to die in the temple.

  133 Only the Karveder had the right to open his eyes in the temple.

  134 Before being presented to Fulghane, the newborn prince or princess was passed three times through the flames of a furnace, which was called the purification.

  135 The High Priestess, like the King, was not allowed to the see the crown heirs. They were raised in a separate set of rooms.

  136 It was expressly forbidden by law to t
ell the crown heirs about their parents, although a writer of the ancient celebrations has proven through an historian of the Amphicleocles that a queen of the realm, jealous of being made to observe the laws, argued in the general assembly that the law in question had been forgotten for a long time and for proof of her accusation of the priestesses disclosures she declared that when the children under their watch were 10 years old they were told the secret of their birth and whether they had a brother or sister shut up in the temple. And she added that when she learned through the same channel about the cruel law that made them kill a crown heir at birth, she was so horrified and so scared of having lost a brother or sister that she resorted to supernatural means in order to have no children.

  137 This council was made up of all the priestesses whom various changes had separated from one another. Those of the temple of Kaiocles, although inferior to those of Fulghane, presided and had two votes each.

  138 This is one of the most remarkable incidents in the history of the Amphicleocles. To really understand it we must remember that they only gave the name of crown successor to a prince or princess when the Queen had no more children. If the king happened to die before the legally stipulated number was filled, his widow was taken to the temple of Kaiocles the day after the funeral to choose a second husband among the Kails, who were kept in the temple until their death for this very purpose. It is also necessary to mention that the council of seven, at the birth of the King’s second or third child, stamped the seal of their number, e.g., the third was marked on the head with three stamps. In his description of the overthrow of the empire of the Amphicleocles, Scaliger failed or forgot to mention these important points. If he were aware of them, he would not have suggested in his description of the civil war between the princesses Cleannes and Nasilaë that the latter, in spite of her incontestable right proven by the mysterious mark, was forced to yield the throne to her sister, who was excluded by law. Heinsius, better informed of the matter, has shed light on the incident in saying that when the armies were ready to fight, Princess Nasilaë, who was not very bloodthirsty, urged King Motacoa, her husband, to convene the Council of Seven, part of which was in the army, and in the presence of both party leaders to check both sisters’ heads and respect the decision of the reunited council, which worked, as we will see in the course of this important story. I have to admit, in passing, that I owe this solemn author, whom I just cited, for some of the information I have provided to elucidate the difficult passages in the adventures of the Princess of the Amphicleocles.

  139 The High Priestess’s authority was so broad that she called and dismissed the council as she wished. She held the power of life and death not only in the temple, but also throughout the kingdom. The King alone could grant a pardon, which her rights did not allow, but he could also not condemn one of his subjects to death without her approval while the High Priestess needed only that of the Council of Seven, which was never refused.

  140 Madame Dacier explains the ceremony as follows: When the High Priestess deemed it necessary to call the sacred vigil, every virgin prepared herself by cutting her hair and performing the ablution in the officially sanctioned fountain where they all jumped in together. After the bath they went back to their cells where they had to drink a certain amount of wine (about four pints—the older ones could drink six). After this holy preparation they went to the temple with the same amount of “spirits of wine,” or grain alcohol, and all the medicinal herbs they could stand. Then they surrounded the statue and sang a simple hymn. After the hymn the virgins danced around the idol and to prove their submission and respect they sprinkled the feet with the rest of mysterious liquor that they got drunk on. The same scholar says that whichever drunk virgin fell down first was recorded among those aspiring to be High Priestess. It was an incontestable right to become so when there was no other candidate thus honored.

  141 Tradition said that Kirkirkantal was the first King of the Amphicleocles and they owed their peaceful government to him.

  142 The oldest according to these people’s way of speaking, and so the youngest.

  143 Human sacrifice was in use among the Amphicleocles and the people believed that it was so pleasing to the gods that when it was demanded of them or when they were afflicted with a plague, they sacrificed the best of their people on the altars of the gods. On this pretext the King and the High Priestess, when they got along together, got rid of enemies who threatened them. This superstition lasted until the reign of Motacoa who became so powerful that he abolished not only these horrible practices, but also all the laws opposed to common sense and reason.

  144 The people did not have the right to enter the temple except when the King was on the High Throne. Outside of this ceremony, the doors stayed shut. The people remained in a big forecourt with their bellies on the ground until the doors were opened. Then they got up and turned their backs until the temple criers told them to leave. (The criers were eunuchs and appointed to guard the sanctuary). When the priestess gave an oracle, it was engraved on a brass ball that was thrown in the air and whoever was the most agile and caught it had the glorious honor of announcing what it said. Another honor attached to the first to catch the ball was that he was given the first vacant public office. But on the contrary, if a subject dropped the ball, he was straightaway punished with death. These two motives produced much skill at catching and many years often passed without the unfortunate event of dropping the ball happening. The ball was thrown only three times in the air. The fourth time it was sent to the temple where it was deposited in a big chest, which was used as the archives of Fulghane’s ceremonies.

  145 The king was such a holy personage that only the priestesses were allowed to touch him and everything that he used was handmade by these virgins. Ménage, in his work on ancient banquets, observed that the King of the Amphicleocles always ate alone and his food was prepared in the temple.

  146 They took a census of the kingdom’s subjects in the capital every year. The record contained the dates of birth, names and positions. When a man passed the normal age, they put his name in a special record and he was maintained at the expense of the state. All the elderly lived in the temple and made up a kind of council to resolve any problems concerning tradition, though the real reason for them being there was as a breeding ground, so to speak, for the Council of Seven. When a member of this venerable body died, they took all of those who had lived for four generations and locked them in a special room surrounded by guards to prevent any ploys or tricks in the official election. Before entering the election room, they were purified by fire and then had to swallow an awful drink that cleansed their bodies of the previous night’s food. After this wise precaution they were locked up and left for six days and nights without any food. Before sunrise of the seventh day all the ministers of the state came to the election room, opened it very carefully, with much ado, and whoever had survived the famine would fill the vacant seat. If more than one old man happened to be alive, they locked them up again until only one survived. We have to mention the way the ministers greeted the old men on the seventh day. The chief minister at the head of the others entered the room on the left and when he found an old man stretched out, he grabbed the beard, lifted his head off the ground and said, “Molbok,” i.e. sleep. He repeated it three times, letting the head fall back each time. When it was thus proven that the old man was dead, all the ministers cried out, “Molboken,” which meant he sleeps. This went on until they found a survivor who had to line up the bodies and then put himself in the back row of the dead. To mark his election they adorned him with a strap from which hung all the heads of those who aspired to this eminent position. Then they led him to the temple with all the people cheering and there the high priestess got the choice approved by Fulghane by cutting off one of his ears, which she wore around her neck when they sang the hymn Tulkoë.

  After this sacrifice, they led the old chosen one to the palace of the King, who knew about it and appeared on a balcony to
ratify the election by spitting on the forehead of the old man, who was thus cleansed of any impurities that might have remained.

  When these duties were done, the cavalcade started from the palace. The new councilor got up on a chariot to which were attached all the corpses whose heads he wore and that served as proof of his worthiness; and the chariot was pulled by the group of old men he had left.

  147 When the priestesses of Kaiocles were told that the princess had to be taken to their temple, they gathered all the males who would be used in the marriage competition and to test who was old enough to get married and who could face the trials they brought them into a long hall and there each of the men got a bow and lined up. They drew the string at the first signal and shot an arrow with their name carved in it. The target was a double-bottom drum stretched so that if an arrow just touched it, it would stick. After the signal and after the competitors let their arrows fly, they were taken back to their cells and the drum was examined. They recorded the names of the arrows that were found and from this the priestesses told them their fates.

  148 A way of making honorable amends among the Amphicleocles. Far from being subject to shame and insult, it was glorious among these people because they claimed that one of the great deeds of man was to admit one’s errors and gratify those who were offended.

  149 Fire among the Amphicleocles purified all imperfections. It was so venerated that it was used as the seal of all public acts. The way of stamping a paper was to burn it in the corner.

  150 The last resort to recall the people to their duty when they had strayed and the way of abdicating the kingdom—it was a tacit approval when the people picked up the crown, but when they turned their back on it, it was a sign that the abdication was not acceptable and then the sovereign had to take it back and continue his reign.