Snakians

By Clement Masloff

These tales tell of human beings, the "Snakians”, who have snakes living and residing within their bodies and the
adventures these interior creatures compel them to experience. Such snakes appear in ancient Egypt, Phoenicia, and Italy, then later on in Istanbul, Athens, Salonika, Hungary, Serbia, Ireland

• Language: English
• Publisher: The Mulberry Books
• Release date: Nov 20, 2019
• ISBN: 9781951742041

Clement Masloff

The author has been involved with science fiction and speculative literature since teaching himself to read in 1941-1942. He served in the Army as a linguist and translator in four Balkan Slavic languages. For several decades, he taught sociology in Ohio after graduating research in Russian social history. In his retirement years, he has been writing science fiction, a return to dreams of the early 1940s.

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Copyright © 2019 by Clement Masloff.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the publisher and author, except by reviewers, who may quote brief passages in a review.

This publication contains the opinions and ideas of its author. It is intended to provide helpful and informative material on the subjects addressed in the publication. The author and publisher specifically disclaim all responsibility for any liability, loss, or risk, personal or otherwise, which is incurred as a consequence, directly or indirectly, of the use and application of any of the contents of this book.

ISBN: 978-1-951742-05-8 [Paperback Edition]

978-1-951742-04-1 [eBook Edition]

Printed and bound in The United States of America.

Published by

The Mulberry Books, LLC.

8330 E Quincy Avenue,

Denver CO 80237

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Teos, priest of Neith, was deeply troubled.

Everyone in the western delta city of Sais had heard of the unusual deaths occurring in recent days.

Perfectly healthy individuals, both men and women, had lost their lives in the darkest hours of night. There appeared to be no evident cause.

Teos worried over the strange contagion of death.

How long would it continue and whom would it strike down next?

Since his duties included providing medical care in the western district of the city, between the Temple of Neith and the banks of the Nile, he was now obliged to visit an ailing resident. A young boy had come to the clerical quarters requesting that a sick man named Iny be seen and treated. The priest became free to do that as a rosy dusk fell on the city and the river. The messenger led Teos through the dark streets to a low mudbrick cottage close to the bank of the Nile.

With caution the would-be healer entered what without question was a hovel. The interior was dimly lit by a single wax candle. There was no furniture about anywhere. The place reflected a life of total poverty.

Teos at once caught sight of a low pallet with a small figure lying upon it. From the pale ashen color of the face and the red curl of hair on the left side of the head, the priest recognized what sort of person he would have to deal with.

Sea blue eyes looked up at him as if imploring aid and protection. The desperation of this person was plainly visible in his haggard face.

Everything about the individual identified him as a descendent of migrants from west of Egypt, of Libyan invaders who came with feathers in their hair. This was a child of savages who came here from a distance as desperate raiders.

Teos smiled at the stranger. Greetings, good man. Am I correct that your name is Iny, and that you sent a boy to the Great Temple to ask that someone with medical knowledge come to you?

Yes, croaked the one on the pallet.

As the priest introduced himself, he stepped closer.

My examination will be quick, said Teos. Can you give me a description of how you feel? Do you sense pain anywhere? How extreme is it?

Words flowed weakly from the pale lips of the young man.

I have never had such sensations before in my life. It is hard to describe. I feel as if there is something foreign within me, as if I swallowed an object that is harmful and corrupting that I cannot eject or get rid of. Why this happened to me I cannot explain, not at all. But I am undergoing terrible torture inside me.

Allow me to look over all your organs, requested the priest.

This task took only a short time to complete.

Iny appeared undisturbed by the probing about his body. The priest had learned in years of treatment experiences how to carry out an examination with gentleness. Time had trained his hands and fingers.

At last, Teos straightened up and looked his patient directly in the face.

What is the matter with me, sir? begged Iny.

The priest did not give a direct answer. I have with me a pair of powders that will bring you sleep tonight. When will it be best that we meet again?

The young man told him he could return the following evening to see him again.

Teos said farewell and departed, leaving behind two glass vials of powder for the stranger to swallow with water.

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A blanket of blackness, thick and unbroken, filled the streets of Sais.

It was the lowest nadir of the night. The curtain of stars was too distant to provide much illumunation. Dark shadows reigned. No sound rose anywhere.

The only pedestrians were a few police guards assigned to one-man patrols in the otherwise deserted streets of the sleeping town.

One such protector of the silent peace moved slowly through the area near the river. His knowledge of the pathways and turns came from years of experience on this job. Habit directed his careful steps through the unlighted gloom where it was impossible to make out anything.

All at once, the preserver of order felt an unseen presence close to him.

There was no time to act, only to come to an instant halt.

Something wet and slimy touched him on the throat. It seemed to be a tongue.

In less than a second, the thing broke the skin and entered his windpipe.

The policeman had a sensation of being bitten by a dangerous reptile that he could not see.

How could this be? was his final thought as he fell down in unconsciousness.

If he had been awake, the victim might have heard sounds of slurping and swallowing. The strange noise was that of the draining off of crystalline fluid out of his thyroid. The attacker had a specific objective it was after, knowing precisely what it wanted.

Ages in the future, the substance would be labelled an amino acid, thyroxine. In the early ages of Egypt, it had no specific name or identification. No one could have defined or described it.

Lying inertly in the street, the dead guard waited to be discovered by someone in the dim light of a foggy dawn.

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The ancient temple at the center of Sais was dedicated to Neith, the primeval giver of birth, the mother of the supreme diety of the sun, holy Re.

This goddess, the initiator of the birth process at the beginning of time, when no one at all whether mortal or divine had yet been born, was the protectress of all Egyptians and the foe of all foreigners. She had never once befriended or helped migrants from other lands. Aliens had never learned to worship her. She was exclusively dedicated to Egypt and its original inhabitants.

Neith only cared for the natives of the Nile, its oldest population.

Teos was truly surprised that his new patient was descended from invaders out of the West.

Curious about such people, the priest went next day to the scriptorium of the Great Temple to see what he could learn about the migrant population.

One of the copiers found an old historical manuscript for him to read.

Teos took it to his living quarters and delved into it with feverish interest, absorbing every word and sentence.

He read of the attacks on the Nile Delta by the People of the Sea, a large confederation  of diverse peoples from several different lands. They had come into the Nile from different directions. Their purpose was to raid and take what they could.

The light-skinned Tjehayu, the leaders of this invading alliance, came from Libya.

From the west of them, came the warlike Meshwesh, a fierce and unfriendly people. They were to cause enormous amounts of death and destruction.

A group called the Sherden originated on the large island of Sardinia. They were related to the Tyrsenoi, from Etruria on the Italian peninsula.

These confederated groups aspired to move into and put down roots in the rich land of the delta. Though often defeated on the battlefield, they slowly infiltrated Lower Egypt. As war prisoners, they became slave cultivators of the Pharaoh.

Teos recalled the white skin, red hair, and blue eyes of his patient with the unidentified illness.

He had no doubt that he was treating a non-Egyptian outsider, a person unlike himself. One of the newer populations of the Pharaoh’s great kingdom.

What secrets might he learn from him? wondered the priest of Neith. What might the man be able to reveal about the sickness afflicting him?

When he visited the patient that evening, Teos found him in a state of recovery.

Iny sat on a small stool, dressed in a bright yellow kilt. A new spirit of vitality and energy seemed to have enlivened him since the previous night.

I am in your debt for what your powders have accomplished, sir, joyfully said the young man. My body is, to a great degree, restored to its former health and vigor.

A radiant smile glowed on the alabaster face of Iny.

It is good to hear that, responded the priest. What a surprise! I did not expect such a rapid effect. Tell me this: did anything else influence your quick restoration? Did you experience any kind of dream, for instance?

All of a sudden, the young man’s smile vanished. For a time, no answer came from him.

It is strange, but I believe that I had a horrible nightmare that awakened me.

Teos moved closer. What was it you saw? I am interested in finding out what may have come to you in sleep vision.

When he replied, the voice of Iny was tremulant.

There, in front of my face, was the head of a yellow green serpent. I could not tell whether it was an aspis or a viper. For a time, my dream was one of looking into the burning red eyes of this creature as if under an enchantment. Because of the thick horny lids over these flaming eyes, I concluded that the serpent was a kneph. What else could it be? It was a long, gigantic snake.

It frightened you? asked the priest.

The other nodded yes. Like a kneph does, it grew larger and larger. I grew terrified that the thing was preparing to attack me. It appeared to be moving toward my mouth with the aim of entering into me.  At that point I forced myself to awaken. It had become impossible for me to continue such a horrible vision. My fear was that the serpent wished to take away my life.

I can understand your reluctance, said Teos with a sigh. There exist many varieties of poisonous serpents. The valley of the Nile is full of such enemies of humans. They can never be completely extirpated. We shall always have them to plague us. They are our eternal curse.

But the effect of the snake in the dream was miraculous, because the result was that I recovered. I have my conscious thoughts to thank for that. They have clarified for me the true nature of the nightmare that I had.

Teos peered into the rapturous eyes where whiteness mingled with the blue.

It is best that I return after a few days to observe your progress back to health. Is that alright with you?

Of course, sir.

Teos soon left, his thoughts in a state of confusion over what he had witnessed.

What was the cause of this speedy restoration? he kept asking himself. What was its connection to the dream with the serpent at its center?

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In three days, total reversal occurred. The young patient again lay on his pallet. A renewed plea for alleviation of pain reached the ears of  the priest.

I cannot understand what is happening to me, sir. My previous condition is back in full force. Will there ever be escape from illness for me? It appears that my illness is returning with full force.

Teos felt a spinning in his heart, the organ the Egyptians saw as the seat of thought and emotion, the center of one’s conscious existence.

I will provide you with stronger powders. But that will have to be tomorrow, for I did not bring anything like that with me. How could I have foreseen such an unexpected turn? You shall have to suffer until I find what is needed and prepare it for you. Can you wait for my return, Iny?

I must do so then, moaned the young man.

The priest excused himself and left the cottage as fast as he could.

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In the dead of night, a lone figure traversed the sleepy alleys of Sais close to the Nile waters. It happened to be a tiny young woman wrapped in a body sheet of white linen. What was she doing outdoors at such an empty, silent hour? What was her purpose or destination? Why did she challenge the perils of night?

No one was ever to know her reason for walking through the darkness.

She had no sense of the approaching climactic turn in store for her.

Without the least warning, a forked tongue stretched forth from the black void and touched the front of her delicate throat.

Before she could register surprise her defeat was completed. In an incredibly short time the attacking foe obtained the desired prize, the crystalized fluid in the thyroid.

The victim fell to the ground, all but a corpse. The snake crawled off in silence, having satisfied its strange, uncanny hunger.

Only with the return of the sun in early morning did a pedestrian discover the lifeless form laying in the street.

A small group quickly congregated about the disturbing sight of death.

One man thought to go and summon the city guard to do something about the lifeless body that would never move again.

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Teos, on his way to his new patient with medicinal powder, came upon the crowd in the middle of the street. He went among them to ask questions and learn what had brought them there.

A young woman died right here.

When did it happen?

It must have been in the night. She was found at dawn.

Who is she?

An orphan who lived alone. She was destitute, buried in poverty.

She had no relatives?

None whatever.

Teos, reaching the fallen body, stared down at it. An urge to solve the riddle of the deaths in the darkness seized strong hold of him. What was causing this outbreak of unexplainable extinction?

The cleric lowered himself till he was stooped beside the dead shape.

Something within him commanded that he lift the head and examine it. While doing so, his eyes caught sight of minute punctures about the middle of the throat.

A feeling of significant discovery came upon him. Here was something to provide him a way forward. It appeared to be a meaningful clue.

He reached out with his right hand and touched the skin about the larynx, stretching out the flesh in