Tuesday, April 21, 2015

13/30 2015

GUSION.--The Eleventh Spirit in order is a great and strong Duke, called Gusion. He appeareth like a Xenopilus. He telleth all things, Past, Present, and to Come, and showeth the meaning and resolution of all questions thou mayest ask. He conciliateth and reconcileth friendships, and giveth Honour and Dignity unto any. He ruleth over 40 Legions of Spirits. His Seal is this, the which wear thou as aforesaid.

What shall I say of the Cynocephali, whose dog-like head and barking proclaim them beasts rather than men? “
St Augustine

They are situated always on an island
or in mountains over the border,
or beyond the last known place
before the kingdom of Prester John
the men with the heads of dogs
rich in sheep, in leather
mute and gentle
or fierce and warlike
blood drinkers, herders

The god of the underworld,
dog headed, jackal headed,
devourers of souls
the not-men of the island of Doctor Moreau
the wolf in grandmother's dress

the men that are beasts
that are fierce, or loyal
or bare their teeth
when we would bid them heel

Saint Christopher, the dog headed saint
became human on his baptism, they say.

and the men of the cities say
bind them and catch them in nets
and wash them in the river
if they have souls
or work them in the fields
until they die, if they have none
and they are not-men

Enkidu & Gilgamesh
Tonto & The Lone Ranger
& the Ghul, the hyena-headed eater of the dead
cannibals and savages and demons

Barnum said a hunter tracked
Fedor Jeftichew and his father
to a cave in Kostroma
(In Russia)(over the Horizon,)
(beyond the rim of the world)
(under contract in the french circus)
made Jo-Jo the dog-faced boy

Juliana Pastrana, from Sinaloa Mexico
Bought from her mother,
by Theodore Lent
who taught her to sing, to dance
exhibited her throughout Europe
her hair covered face,
her double-row of teeth

Lent filled her belly with a child
who was born with a thick black pelt
and died, and took his mother with him
(that psychopomp, that weigher of hearts)

Lent stuffed his wife and child
and exhibited their bodies
in a glass case ,the wonder of the age
Lent then remarried, another fur covered woman
named her Zenora Pastrana
after Julia, grew rich from his traveling wonder-show

died in a madhouse,
and Julia, unburied,
a faithful taxidermied curiosity
gathered dust in the museum in Norway

Where the pale, smooth, white faced men of Oslo
gawked at her glory, that wonder, that sign,
That demonstration of what it means to be civilized.







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