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small bowl-He appeared to be at peace.
    Mama Julie, I guess it was, began to sing. Other voices picked it up:
    Papa Legba, ouvn baye!
    Papa Legba, Attibon Legba, ouvn bayS pou pou posse!
    Papa Legba . . .
    This went on, and on and on. I began to feel drowsy. I drank more rum and felt thirstier and drank more rum.
    I 'm not sure how long we had been there when it happened. The dancers had been kissing the pole and singing and rattling gourds and pouring out waters, and a couple of the hounst were acting possessed and talking incoherently, and the meal-design on the floor was all blurred, and there was lots of smoke in the air, and I was leaning back against the wall and I guess my eyes had been closed for a minute or two-40 ROGER ZELAZNY
    The ^ound came from an unexpected quarter.
    Hasan screamed.
    It was a long, wailing thing that brought me forward, then dizzily off balance, then back to the wall again, with a thump.
    The drumming continued, not missing a single beat. Some of the dancers stopped, though, staring.
    Hasan had gotten to his feet. His teeth were bared and his eyes were slits, and his face bore the ridges and valleys of exertion beneath its sheen of sweat.
    His beard was a fireshot spearhead.
    His cloak, caught high against some wall decora-tion, was black wings.
    His hands, in a hypnosis of slow motion, were strangling a non-existent man.
    Animal sounds came from his throat.
    He continued to choke nobody.
    Finally, he chuckled and his hands sprang open.
    DOS Santos was at his side almost immediately, talking to him, but they inhabited two different worlds-One of the dancers began to moan softly. Another joined him-and others.
    Mama Julie detached herself from the circle and came toward me-just as Hasan started the whole thing over again, this time with more elaborate his-trionics.
    The drum continued its steady, earthdance pro-nouncement—
    Papa Joe did not even look up.
    "A bad sign," said Mama Julie. "What do you know of this man?"
    "Plenty," I said, forcing my head to clear by an act of will.
    THIS IMMORTAL 41
    "Angelsou," she said.
    "What?"
    "Angelsou," she repeated. "He is a dark god-one to be feared. Your friend is possessed by Angelsou-"
    "Explain, please."
    "He comes seldom to our hounfor. He is not wanted here. Those he possesses become murderers."
    "I think Hasan was trying a new pipe mixture-mutant ragweed or something."
    "Angelsou," she said again. "Your friend will become a killer, for Angelsou is a deathgod, and he only visits with his own."
    "Mama Julie," said I, "Hasan is a killer. If you had a piece of gum for every man he's killed and you tried to chew it all, you'd look like a chipmunk, He is a professional killer-within the limits of the law, usually. Since the Code Duello prevails on the Mainland, he does most of his work there. It has been rumored that he does an illegal killing on occasion, but this thing has never been proved.
    "So tell me," I finished, "is Angelsou the god of killers or the god of murderers? There should be a difference between the two, shouldn't there?"
    "Not to Angelsou," she said.
    DOS Santos then, trying to stop the show, seized both of Hasan *s wrists. He tried to pull his hands apart, but-well, try bending the bars of your cage sometime and you 11 get the picture.
    I crossed the room, as did several of the others.
    This proved fortunate, because Hasan had finally noticed that someone was standing in front of him, and dropped his hands, freeing them. Then he produced a long-bladed stiletto from under his cloak.

42 ROGER ZELAZNY
    Whether or not he would actually have used it on Don or anybody else is a moot point, because at that moment Myshtigo stoppered his Coke bottle with his thumb and hit him behind the ear with it.
    Hasan fell forward and Don caught him, and I pried the blade from between his fingers, and Myshtigo finished his Coke,
    "Interesting ceremony," observed the Vegan; "I would never have suspected that big fellow of harboring such strong religious