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"Except that several nights later, an evil spirit came to us, one which we called A danced about the clearing before our cave trying to get Mekare and ht soon need his help

"We were long used to the blandishments of evil spirits; it made them furious that ould not talk to theht But we knew these entities to be untrustworthy and uncontrollable and we had never been teht that we never would

"This Alect' of hiain that he was 'Amel, the powerful,' and 'Amel, the invincible,' and we should show hireat need of hiine, for trouble was co our way

"At this point, our mother came out of the cave and demanded of this spirit as this trouble that he saw

"This shocked us because we had always been forbidden by her to speak to evil spirits; and when she had spoken to them it was always to curse them or drive them away; or to confuse thery, felt stupid, and gave up

"A-whatever he called hireat trouble was co and we should pay hied of all the evil he had worked for the wizards of Nineveh That he could torment people, bedevil thenats! He could draw blood from humans, he declared; and he liked the taste of it; and he would draw blood for us

"My ?' she demanded 'You are a spirit; you have no body; you can taste nothing!' she said And this is the sort of language which always made spirits furious, for they envy us the flesh, as I've said

"Well, this spirit, to deale; and iht hi, but when it had died away and Auardian spirits,that there were tiny pricks upon our mother's hand Amel, the evil one, had drawn blood fronats had tormented her with little bites

"My ood spirits went mad to see her treated with such disrespect, but she told the, how it could be possible, and how this spirit ht taste the blood that he had drawn

"And it was then that Mekare explained her vision that these spirits had infinitesireat invisible bodies, and it was possibly through this core that the spirit tasted the blood I within a flaht absorb blood And so it ith the spirit who appeared to be all flame but had that tiny wick in it

"OurShe said ironically that the world was full of wonders enough without evil spirits with a taste for blood 'Be gone, Amel,' she said, and laid curses on him, that he was trivial, uniht as well bloay In other words the things she always said to get rid of pesty spirits-the things which priests say even now in slightly different form when they seek to exorcise children who are possessed

"But orried our , that evil was co our way It deepened the distress she had felt when she took hold of the Egyptian tablet Yet she did not ask the good spirits for comfort or advice Maybe she knew better than to ask them But this I can never know Whatever was the case, ourto happen, and clearly she felt powerless to prevent it Perhaps she understood that sometimes, e seek to prevent disaster, we play into its hands

"Whatever was the truth of it, she grew sick in the days that followed, then weak, and then unable to speak

"For ht and day and sang to her We brought flowers to her and we tried to read her thoughts The spirits were in a terrible state of agitation as they loved her And they made the wind blow on the mountain; they tore the leaves from the trees

"All the village was in sorrow Then one ain; but they were frags she'd known in childhood; and then only brilliant colors and little more