See previous list descriptions (scroll down).
Traffic into the Stygian capital, Luxur:
foot
cart
litter
chariot
horse
ox
donkey
camel
loinclothed labourers
ragged-tunic-clad drovers
robed desert nomads
colourfully garbed merchants
gossamer-clad courtesans
soldiers
hawkers
strolling performers
housewives
children
foreigners
They:
crowd
jostle
chatter
quarrel
scream curses
yelp laughter
importune
haggle
intrigue
shout
wail
croon
Dirty, littered, cobbled streets smell of:
smoke
grease
dung
roast meat
oils
perfumes
drugs
humanity
beasts
This is all in Poul Anderson's continuous prose. I have merely extracted lists of nouns and verbs.
3 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
These lists give good descriptions of what real cities were/are like. The Stygian setting made me think of one of the greatest cities of Pharaonic Egypt, No-Amon (Thebes), often the capital of Egypt and the seat of many dynasties. The real Thebes must have almost exactly matched these lists.
The Book of Nahum gives us a good example of the shock felt thru out the ancient Near East when the Assyrians of the merciless King Esarhaddon plundered and sacked No-Amon.
Ad astra! Sean
Preindustrial cities all stank. They were also demographic sinkholes. The first large city that -didn't- have natural decrease was, IIRC, Edo in Japan -- and that was sort of a by-product of the fact that all 'night soil' was recycled as fertilizer. In Shakespeare's time, there were five burials for every baptism in London.
Moving to a city (which 10% of each generation in England did) was a desperate gamble with your life, and even more with your childrens' lives.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
I agree, before about 1850-1860 American and European cities were death traps.
And the relative cleanliness of Edo was only possible because the Tokugawa shoguns harshly enforced the laws needed to make that cleanliness a reality.
Ad astra! Sean
Post a Comment