Gate of Horn, Book of Silk
Page 15
But why would Quetzal still be hanging around? The Peace of Pas only takes a few minutes. More importantly, why attack the commanding officer rather than the murderer? It would make sense if the commander had ordered Eft to kill Moray, as part of the anti-clerical backlash response to the circular recognizing Silk as caldé.
Teasel is most difficult. She is preyed upon not for any action on her part, but only because she is young and poor. She is first named when Marble says “Teasel, you’re in charge of the class until I return” (I, chap. 1, 30). Crime scene (I, chap. 9, 215). What happened that day or the day before that draws vampiric attention? Well, Silk got enlightened. Pike got enlightened (or at least visited by Pas), too—coincidence or connection?
Notice how there is often a flurry of supernatural activity: Silk meets Mucor in her room, then just misses meeting Kypris in Hyacinth’s room; shortly after the Teasel vampire attack, Mucor shows up in Teasel’s dad, following Silk; following the Mucor exorcism from Orchid’s place, Kypris shows up in Orchid’s room; Mucor shows up at manse, a PHANTOM BLACK BIRD, perhaps actually a vampire, flies out, and the ghost of Pike appears; Echidna appears at Sun street, then Pas turns the fig tree into the burning bush; Echidna possesses Marble/Rose, Mucor possesses Cassava; etc.
viaggiatory term used by the sibyls for a ceremony held outside (II, chap. 2, 42). Coming from Italian, it is an obscure English word meaning “on the move; travelling around” (Mrs. Byrne’s Dictionary).
Villus “a small boy at Silk’s palaestra” (II, list), carried on Silk’s shoulder after Silk’s enlightenment (I, chap. 1, 11). After Echidna’s theophany, he scratches Marble’s face with Musk’s needler and is bitten by Echidna’s snakes (III, chap. 3, 99–102). Later still, as a refugee from the fighting he asks Mint to make his mother accept his coat against the bitter cold (IV, chap. 16, 357). In the end he is in the group heading for the lander (369).
Anatomy: (Latin for “a tuft of hair”) a slender hair-like process or minute projection forming one of a number closely set upon a surface. (But the term is also used in botany for a plant detail.)
Violet “a beautiful brunet at Orchid’s, a friend of Chenille’s” (III, list), and formerly possessed by Mucor (I, chap. 11, 289). The tallest at Orchid’s, she is sent to substitute for Chenille with Siyuf at Ermine’s. Taken prisoner by Sand, who calls her “Plutonium.”
Botany: a plant or flower of the genus Viola, especially V. odorata. The flowers are usually purplish blue, mauve, or white.
Viron name of the city Silk lives in. Its banner is bright green with Scylla in white, arms outreaching (II, chap. 7, 180). Viron fought against Urbs at some point in the past, as Hammerstone says, “Back in the second year against Urbs” (II, chap. 9, 233). Viron is strong with chem soldiers, which allows Remora to suppose that Viron will annex a neighbor, perhaps Palustria, in the next decade (II, chap. 7, 183–84).
Viron has a number of districts or quarters, including Brick Street, the market, the Palatine, and Sun Street. Limna is a separate town that is incorporated into Viron.
Spanish: a large dart.
Onomastics: the OED lists “viron” as an obsolete word meaning “circuit, compass; a circling course,” from Old French, still found in “environs.”
With punning wordplay, the “vir” might also be taken as Latin vir, meaning “man” in such words as “virile.” This would be opposite to the feminine “termagant” aspect of Trivigaunte.
Then there is “virid,” from Latin viridis, meaning “green.” Perhaps this is alluded to with the green color of Viron’s banner.
Lastly, the Random House Unabridged Dictionary declares that Viron is “a male given name.” Further research suggests that it is the Greek form of “Byron,” that English lord who became a national hero for his efforts in liberating Greece from the Trivigaunti—er, the Turks.
Vulpes “an advocate of Limna” (II, list; II, chap. 6, 146).
Zoology: fox.
W
Whorl, the the generation starship in which nearly all of the story takes place. It is shaped like a cylinder of unknown length, having a radius of perhaps three score leagues (180 miles), a figure from Silk’s dreamy vision of having a view from the Long Sun itself (I, chap. 6, 137).
At another point a Flier notes that, “the [weather] front was two hundred leagues off . . . and might never reach this parched and overheated region” (II, chap. 6, 142).
The Whorl contains a couple hundred cities (II, chap. 9, 223), each seemingly separated from the next by around 50 leagues (150 miles). See PALUSTRIA in this regard. Each city is dedicated to a major god, and there are nine major gods, so each god seems to have around 20 cities. Each city is a separate culture.
Onomastics: the OED has many definitions for this word, the most appropriate being “a convolution, coil, curl, ‘wreath’ (especially something whirling, or suggesting a whirling movement).”
Commentary: spinning wheels turn raw material into thread.
Wick a foreign city where there are an estimated 3,500 chem soldiers (II, chap. 9, 228). One of the cities, along with Urbs, where the rebel gods have boasted of killing Pas (III, chap. 4, 156).
Willet “the floater driver who brought Hyacinth to Ermine’s to meet Silk” (IV, list; III, chap. 7, 279). Also known as Hossaan. Hy says Silk looks like he has just “seen a ghost” after he recognizes Willet (III, chap. 9, 311–12). Hyacinth pretends not to know Willet (IV, chap. 11, 211). Silk brings it up (211), and Willet says, “I’m a spy . . . you’ve known it since you spotted me on the boat” (218).
Zoology: a North American bird of the snipe family, Symphemia semipalmata.
Wood, Maytera “the oldest sibyl at Jerboa’s manteion” (IV, list) on Brick Street (III, chap. 5, 179).
Botany: the substance of which the roots, trunks, and branches of trees and shrubs consist.
Wool “one of Mint’s lieutenants” (III, list), he is in charge of the oxen used to pull down the corn exchange (III, chap. 9, 332). Later he dies in the fighting.
Zoology: of sheep and llamas.
X
Xiphias, Master “a one-legged fencing teacher” (III, list); “Silk’s self-appointed bodyguard” (IV, list). Auk introduces Silk to Master Xiphias as a new student (I, chap. 13, 324). Having lost a leg to treachery, Xiphias now has a removable prosthetic made up of pieces from five others. (See NUMEROLOGY.) He thinks Silk is left-handed and has studied under another sword master. (On the other hand, Silk’s right arm had been injured in his night at Blood’s mansion, which might cast doubt upon Xiphias’s professional opinion in spotting a wound, or the behavior compensating for a wound, as well as gauging sword-fighting ability.)
During the revolution of Viron, Xiphias participates in the battle of Cage Street and kills five troopers (III, chap. 6, 229).
Zoology: a genus of fishes comprising the common swordfish.
Y
Yapok “a stableman, one of Mint’s volunteers” (III, list) at the big charge (III, chap. 5, 162). See BABIROUSA, GIB, GORAL, KINGCUP, MARMOT, and SCLERODERMA.
Zoology: the South American water-opossum, Chironectes variegatus, having webbed toes.
yataghan one of Xiphias’s swords (III, chap. 6, 232). A type of Turkish sword used from the mid-16th through the late 19th centuries. The single-edge blade, measuring 60 to 80 cm (24 to 32 inches), curves forward like the Iberian falcata or the Greek kopis.
Z
Zoril “a cabinetmaker, one of Mint’s lieutenants” (III, list). He sees Echidna’s theophany (III, chap. 3, 94).
Zoology: an animal of the African genus Zorilla, allied to the skunks; also applied to some Central or South American skunks, as the conepatl.
Appendix 1: Languages of the Whorl
A largely complete listing of the thieves’ cant and other slangs and foreign languages in The Book of the Long Sun.
TYPES
Archaic
Cant (Thieves’ slang, as verified by a dictionary)
Colloquial
&nbs
p; Dialect
Fictitious
Flier (Irish Gaelic)
Obsolete
Slang
Soldier (chemical person in military)
Spanish
Standard
Tick (see section Tick Talk)
Trivigaunti (Arabic)
Unknown
Sense = the gist of the term or phrase within the context.
Meaning = the definition according to a dictionary.
“’Tis no Disparagement to understand the Canting Terms: It may chance to save your Throat from being cut, or, (at least) your Pocket from being pick’d.”
Elisha Coles (1676)
A
Abram (I, chap. 11, 280).
Type: Slang
Meaning: mad, insane (Prt1).
Ag’in (III, chap. 3, 103).
Type: Dialect
Meaning: “again” (OED).
B
Bad bit’s difference (I, chap. 1, 23).
Type: Standard
Sense: “Makes no difference.” From “bit,” the small coin worth 12.5 cents (i.e. one eighth of a dollar), survives in phrase “two bit” meaning cheap, not worth much. A “bad bit” is a counterfeit one, so worth even less than a genuine small coin.
Beat the hoof (I, chap. 11, 279).
Type: Slang/Colloquial
Sense: “beat it,” “hoofed it,” ran, departed, made a sharp exit.
Beggar’s root (I, chap. 6, 157).
Type: Fictitious
Meaning: an aphrodisiac in Viron. Hyacinth says it makes a user beg for sex.
Bet the basket (II, chap. 5, 129).
Type: Colloquial
Sense: bet the lot, bet your bottom dollar.
Betifham ’arabi (IV, chap. 5, 85).
Type: Trivigaunti
Arabic: phrase “Do you understand Arabic?”
Big my glims (IV, chap. 6, 112).
Type: Unknown
Sense: “surprise me,” i.e., make my eyes grow large.
Bing (IV, chap. 12, 259).
Type: Slang
Sense: “go,” “hurry.”
Meaning: (slang, possibly Gypsy) to go (OED).
Bob cull (III, chap. 7, 264).
Type: Cant
Meaning: a “good fellow,” pleasant companion (Prt2). See CULL.
Boilin’ (I, chap. 2, 38).
Type: Unknown
Sense: hot, i.e. stolen.
Books; “planted books” (IV, chap. 6, 110).
Type: Unknown
Sense: a deck of marked cards.
Boraz a word used as a Trivigaunti password (IV, chap. 11, 220). The guard who receives it without comment somehow thereby reveals she does not speak the high language (Arabic/Hindi/Turkish), i.e., there is something startling about it.
Type: Trivigaunti
Arabic: a word for “excrement” (noun) or “to out do” (verb).
Brick “treat him brick and he treats you stone” (II, chap. 5, 123).
Type: Unknown
Sense: like for like; deal fairly with him and he’ll deal fairly with you.
Bufe (III, chap. 3, 111).
Type: Cant
Sense: cant term for watchdog.
Meaning: dog (OED).
Buy him rope “Hoppy’ll grab the glory while we buy him rope” (II, chap. 5, 133).
Type: Unknown
Sense: “buy him rope for his own later hanging.”
C
Candy “’cause if this is just some candy, I got to tell you to go to a real augur” (I, chap. 3, 84).
Type: Unknown
Sense: “easy to accomplish feat,” i.e., as easy as taking candy from a baby.
Cank (IV, chap. 2, 44).
Type: Dialect/Slang/Obsolete
Sense: crazy. “Now I scavy you’re cank” (IV, chap. 12, 257) means “I understand you’re crazy.”
Meaning: dumb (OED).
Canna (IV, chap. 12, 244).
Type: Flier
Sense: “the least revealing name for a PM propulsion module.”
Irish: can (as in “container”) or vessel (container); variant of “caunna” = moth.
Cant (I, chap. 2, 42).
Type: Cant
Meaning: the slang of thieves and those who imitate them. See KINK TALK.
Cap (III, chap. 3, 118; IV, chap. 6, 110).
Type: Cant
Sense: “to vouch for.”
Meaning: to swear; to take one’s oath (Prt1).
Card in a cart (I, chap. 12, 246).
Type: Fictitious
Sense: “a sweet deal,” or “money in the bank” for what is literally “twelve monthly free visits to the prostitute of your choice at the brothel.” “Card” as in Whorl currency, where the fee for one of Orchid’s prostitutes is a card.
Cargo “to consider the teeming Cargo below relevant” (IV, chap. 3, 70).
Type: Flier
Sense: the passengers of the Whorl.
Meaning: in maritime law, “The entire load of a ship or other vessel. This term is usually applied to goods only, and does not include human beings. But in a more extensive and less technical sense, it includes persons; thus we say a cargo of emigrants” (BLD).
Chill (IV, chap. 12, 256).
Type: Unknown
Sense: “to kill.”
Chit (I, chap. 11, 273).
Type: Standard
Meaning: applied, more or less contemptuously, to a child . . . a brat; or a person considered no better than a child . . . mostly of a girl or young woman (OED).
Chops “down on the chops” (II, chap. 7, 181).
Type: Standard
Meaning: jaws, sides of the face (OED).
Cit (II, chap. 5, 133).
Type: Archaic
Meaning: short for citizen; usually applied, more or less contemptuously, to a townsman or “cockney” as distinguished from a countryman, or to a tradesman or shopkeeper as distinguished from a gentleman (OED).
Crank “as crank as the boat or solid as a potato” (III, chap. 3, 89).
Type: Standard
Sense: a quality of a boat.
Meaning: (Nautical) liable to capsize; weak, shaky (OED).
Cull (I, chap. 10, 251).
Type: Cant
Sense: a man, a target of a trick.
Meaning: (perhaps abbreviated from cully) a dupe, silly fellow, simpleton, fool; a man, fellow, chap (OED).
Cully “not interested in seein’ any cully bird” (I, chap. 2, 39).
Type: Cant
Meaning: one who is cheated or imposed upon (OED). Historically the same as cull, but here used as an adjective, hence the cully bird is a “stupid bird.”
Cut bene widdes (IV, chap. 6, 112).
Type: Cant
Meaning: (verb) to speak civilly; to speak ingratiatingly (Prt1).
D
Dandy “that’s the Dandy” (III, chap. 3, 113).
Type: Slang/Colloquial
Meaning: anything superlatively fine, neat, or dainty; “the correct thing,” “the ticket” (OED).
Darkee (III, chap. 3, 119).
Type: Slang
Meaning: a dark lantern: a lantern with a slide or arrangement by which the light can be concealed (OED).
Dell (I, chap. 11, 280).
Type: Cant
Meaning: a young girl (of the vagrant class); a wench (OED).
Dilly (II, chap. 5, 133).
Type: Standard
Meaning: (abbreviation of Diligence, the public stage coach of former days) a kind of vehicle, private or plying for hire (OED).
Dimber “they’re dimber hands for that” (I, chap. 2, 40).
Type: Cant
Sense: skilled, cunning
Dimberdamber (II, chap. 5, 132).
Type: Cant
Meaning: a captain of thieves or vagrants (OED); a Cockney adjective for “smart, active, adroit” (Prt2).
Dimberdamber nanny nipper (III, chap. 5, 182).
Type: Cant
Sense:
king of thieves?
Meaning: not known; see DIMBERDAMBER and NANNY NIPPER.
Do for (III, chap. 6, 216).
Type: Colloquial
Meaning: to ruin, damage, or injure fatally, destroy, wear out entirely (OED).
Dog’s right “it’s going to put me out by a dog’s right” (I, chap. 3, 87); “Only your Silk’s no better, is he? Not a dog’s right better” (III, chap. 10, 343).
Type: Unknown
Sense: “a whole lot,” a large amount.
Done for the lot (II, chap. 3, 56).
Type: Colloquial
Meaning: killed (see DO FOR).
Dosses (IV, chap. 2, 44).
Type: Slang
Meaning: sleeps, from “doss,” to sleep; especially to sleep at a common lodging house or “doss house” (OED).
E
Egg cup “in a egg cup” (IV, chap. 6, 110).
Type: Unknown
Sense: “in a nutshell.”
F
Feague (IV, chap. 6, 115).
Type: Obsolete
Meaning: to beat, whip; to “do for,” “settle the business of” (OED). See DO FOR.
Flash “flash grown men and not no sprats” (I, chap. 2, 37); “flash buck” (I, chap. 4, 99); “flash cull” (I, chap. 2, 42).
Type: Slang
Meaning: knowing, wide-awake, “smart,” “fly” (OED).
Flat (I, chap. 10, 267).
Type: Slang
Meaning: (U.S. slang) penniless (OED).
Flicker (IV, chap. 6, 111).
Type: Slang
Meaning: a drinking glass (OED).
Flipper (I, chap. 12, 306).
Type: Standard
Meaning: hand.
Flue “up your flue” (II, chap. 8, 206).
Type: Slang
Meaning: the rectum or anal passage, in sense of “Up yours!” (Prt8).
Flush his fussock (I, chap. 4, 99).
Type: Unknown
Sense: drive out the bird from the brush, or most directly, wake up his wife.
Fly (IV, chap. 8, 158).
Type: Slang
Sense: find out. “One came fly” (IV, chap. 6, 110), meaning “one [spy] found out.”
Meaning: “knowing, wide awake” (OED), aware.