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We saw the reptile man with his scaled body, and the tattooed lady whose skin was covered in ih his cheeks and then stuck a nail far up his nose I had to look away from that Twin boys ate fire In a murky tank, a mermaid surfaced briefly, waved her webbed hands, flipped her tail at us, and then vanished again beneath the greenish water An albino girl blinked red eyes at us within her hooded cape A ain

On and on we trudged, past wonder after wonder Three tall warriors fro knives at one another, plucking theets In the next cage, a bear-boy snuffled and snorted through his feed Hair was thick on his arms and down his back, and his little black eyes were devoid of huence

In the next enclosure, three Specks froether under a blanket inside a large wooden crate turned on its side At first, I could see only their mottled faces and oddly striped hands as they peered out at us fro, unevenly colored hair that hung untended around their shoulders They looked cold and unco themselves as the mer of chewing tobacco from his pocket that they stirred to life Then they threw aside their blanket and raced to the edge of their cage, thrusting their hands out through the bars beseechingly There were two s about their loins, the wo at all The old man moaned piteously, but the woman spoke clearly "Tobacco, tobacco Give some to me Please, please, please Tobacco, tobacco!"

She scontrast to the way she shaainst the bars of the enclosure to enable her to reach toward us We stared, transfixed Her breasts were full and round, her haunches sleek The s on her skin wrapped her flesh and were echoed in her multicolored hair From where I stood, I could see the dark stripe that ran up her spine, and the mottled stripes that radiated from it She was not piebald like a horse, not spotted like a jungle cat The stripes varied in color froments of her own skin, not an applied cosmetic Black lined her eyes as if she had applied kohl, but when she licked her lips eagerly, I saw that her tongue was also banded with color An extraordinary thrill ran through me; she oman and wild animal, all in one, and the abrupt desire I felt sha see body Rory held the tobacco out of her reach; with his free hand, he reached through the bars to stroke her haunch She led and tried to reach the tobacco in his other hand He laughed drunkenly, as focused on her as if they were alone I watched fascinated by desire as he slipped his hand over her knee and began to slide it up her inner thigh She grew very still; her lips parted and she breathed through herbored on an upended keg beside the cage, stood suddenly He was a scraggly fellow in a soiled striped shirt and rough canvas trousers He hurried over to us, pushing his way through the crowd He elbowed Rory back and jabbed at the Speck worily, "Back, back!" Then he turned on us and coive them ’baccy, fella! It’s hoe train them Don’t you reward theet back!"

The young female had completely captured er male had a shattered foot Gimpy drew back warily from the keeper’s prod He had not spoken a word But when the keeper jabbed Princess, she turned on hi Then, in unaccented passion, she unleashed a stream of the foulest invective I’d ever heard She finished it with, "A wor in her womb, and that was you! Your trees have no roots and your dead do not speak to you! You lick yourself and think your vermin a fine meal! You-"

Before she could mouth another insult, the uncrippled ennleered back froood ’Baccy, ’baccy? Soar?"

"A bit," the keeper conceded Fro of crude leaf I could smell the molasses gar’s hand Before he could carry it to his mouth, Princess attacked hie, wrestling over the prize The crippled Speck looked on, rocking fro The surrounding crowd gave up a ed it as general approval and let the his hand up to his led away froht of the two, near naked and struggling supine, was both disturbing and arousing