The Essential Salts

Linen strips of mummification are removed And the skull and bones liquefied And boiled until all water is gone What remains in the bottom Is a white crystalline substance That may be carried in the palms of two hands This white powder contains the essential salts Of the man whose corpse was boiled It is from this powder that the living body may be reconstituted And made to serve as a house for the soul Which is called back into its former flesh by words of power It is a great shock to the soul To tear it back from its resting place and reanimate it The resurrected are often insane and scream ceaselessly or dash themselves into walls If the salts are contaminated with the essence of other living beings When the mummy has been the breeding place of vermin The revitalization of the salts produces something That is part man and part whatever gnawed his corpse These horrors lack the faculty of speech Or their speech is crazed and bestial And must be immediately slain For though the memory of the man may remain intact The verminous parts of his reanimated nature Inhibit his human expression Those who have served their purpose are killed By strangulation with a cord around the neck And their bodies burned Their ashes gathered and cast into the Nile Where the currents carry them to sea [solo: Karl] [solo: Dallas]