"MEGA BIBLION, MEGA KAKON"
[A Big Book is a Big Nuisance]
Before I became a wizard my
work was as the master of opposites, with
the full title of: "Librarian of
Juxtapositions In All Their Degrees".
I and I alone was responsible for the
tracking and recording of extremes.
I was chosen because of my
ability to withstand the stress of
contradictions.
Walking up and down the lanes with bark
and pen, I solicited contributions from
everyone I met. hot/cold, benign/lethal,
inside/outside. The Tribe's reverence for
words as sacred symbols affected every
aspect of our culture.
Any issue that presented itself in a state of
perfect mirroring was subsequently rendered
as an epic by our literators.
As to language and its relationship with jurisprudence:
Troubled by the fact that words could be
false, judicial procedures were conducted
entirely in mime.
This included the reenactment of crimes for
those who were judging, as well as the
offering of plaintiffs to implicate othe r
people as a barter for reducing punishment.
Use of the spoken word for conducting
justice was unthinkable.
There were many written laws about the
word as spoken: one such law, roughly
translated, said that "trouble begins when a
quality is applied to the name of a color".
The occurrence of an attributed characteristic
to a color was discussed at length in council, i.e.:
"Was the characteristic a true
qualifier of the color, or a separate
quality deserving of its own name as a color?"
In rulings on these distinctions, we were fierce.
