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.