by Dr. Hobart Watson
"About twelve years ago, my cousin Aman took with us for the first time my cousin Kurhora, a lad of about fourteen. He was mounted on a newly-painted skimmer, and Hursooka, an adopted son of Aman's, was given charge of him. We met five electronics salesmen traveling to a convention, and offered to ride with them 'to pass the journey more pleasantly'. As we came to a convenient place, Hursooka was told to take Kurhora over a little hill, to keep him out of sight and hearing. The lad grew restless, and suddenly decided to race his skimmer over the hill; Hursooka trailing behind him, calling to him to stop. Kurhora dropped into sight over the hill just as our leader gave the Jhirnee (signal to strangle). He heard the salesmen scream, and saw them all strangled. He began to tremble, fell from his skimmer, and became delirious. He was terrified at the sight of the rumals, and of the bodies of the murdered men. Whenever anyone touched or spoke to him he talked about the murders and screamed like someone helpless in a bad dream. We couldn't get Kurhora to move, even after we buried the bodies. Hursooka, Aman and I went and sat by him while the gang went on. We were very fond of him, and we tried all we knew to calm him, but he never recovered. He would not eat nor sleep. By the end of the week he had something resembling a stroke and died, it seemed of terror. Hursooka took his death very much to heart. He left us and became a monk." When I asked the same informant, "Do your children still love and reverence their Phransigar parents, as children in other families do, even after they know about your trade?", I was answered, Of course they do. My love for my father never wavered." Phransigars The Strangler Cult
Tragedy: Phransigar Style Ramasee: The Secret Language Origin of the Phransigar Tuponee: The Ritual of Sacrifice Back to BattleTechnology 7 Table of Contents Back to BattleTechnology List of Issues Back to MagWeb Magazine List © Copyright 1988 by Pacific Rim Publishing. This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other military history articles and gaming articles are available at http://www.magweb.com |