Conan is currently with a woman called Belit whose parents, husband and son are dead because of a Stygian raid led by Ramwas. The men were killed. The mother killed herself and Belit killed her young son to save him from slavery. She and her brother were enslaved but she has escaped. She must have revenge so that her dead will have slaves in the hereafter. While she is telling Conan about this, there is a characteristic Andersonian interruption:
"'...I must use my wits, so that Hoiakim, Shaapi, Aliel, and Kedron may have many slaves to attend them.'
"A flaw of wind made the ship lurch and the sail crack.
"'Ramwas had business in Khemi...'" (p. 26)
At the mention of slavery in the hereafter, the ship lurches and the sail cracks because of the wind. It seems to be automatic for Anderson to use the wind to emphasize dramatic moments in the dialogue. By now, regular blog readers have become very familiar with this motif.
3 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
That bit about deceased persons having slaves in the afterlife reminded me of how Egyptian kings of the late pre-Dynastic/and at least the First Dynasty would have slaves, servants, and courtiers killed and buried with them, to serve the king in the afterlife. A barbaric custom mercifully abandoned, I think, by the time of the Third Dynasty.
Ad astra! Sean
Sean: that's a common belief in warlike pagan cultures.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
I agree, and some Scandinavian chiefs and kings had similar customs, before their conversion to Catholic Christianity.
Ad astra! Sean
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