Day 320 - Recovery

 Recovery

Matthew Ryan Fischer

 

From the Journal of Sir Phineas Arthur Alexander, Explorer. 8^th of July, 1893.

 

 

…and so, we were invited to the temple to watch the ceremony. Not wanting to offend, we accepted of course. Later, I deeply regret having seen what I saw, and in retrospect wished there was some way to have politely declined.

The slathered the body with blood. We were not warned or told what to expect, only that we would be witnessing a miracle. Elderly female, carried out on a platform by two men and placed upon the alter. The blood was most likely animal, although we were not informed on this either. There had been goat and pig and the feast beforehand. So likely the blood had been gathered during food preparations.

I was of course, familiar with certain blood rituals I had witnessed on my travels. Some even drank blood of another in some futile belief they could gain their strength or stamina. I watched a marriage ceremony where the loving couple cut their hands and bound their palms to share their blood and life, symbolic or otherwise, as a way to ensure a union and successful future together. Many of my predecessors wrote of native customs, blood of enemies and that sort of thing. Some island cultures sacrificed animals in an attempt to cast a spell or placate some deity of nature.

This was something altogether different.

The woman was dead. I swear. But they smeared the blood and then something happened. Something I’m not sure was real. Something I can not forget, even if it was imagined or a dream.

The woman rose. She wore the blood like a new skin and she rose.

My companions were unsettled to say the least. These people, this society, seemingly did the unimaginable, the IMPOSSIBLE!

The woman rose and walked and then they drank. They poured wine over her shoulders and down her body and they drank it as it fell from her. This was repeated until the blood was basically washed from her naked body, now stained with wine, but clearly nude. They seemed to believe they would gain some life force from her, now that the blood had been used and she had been resurrected.

Our host had promised an unbelievable evening, and we were not disappointed.

Later, amongst ourselves, we debated if what we had witnessed was theater or chicanery of some sort. No one wanted to believe what they had seen. There are of course certain plants and roots that can be used to create illusions of the mind and momentary lapses into hysteria. But none of us reported feeling anything out of the ordinary, that is until the ceremony began.

I can not help but wonder if what I saw was true, and if so, what other wonders this world has yet to present to me. Even if this is the final miracle I witness, my time dedicated to exploration has been nothing but a success.