LITMIR.BIZ

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but good to those he favors, and he is absolute, uncompromising, and always right. He is the first day of the week.

      Another of the major deities is NOSHABKENNING, god of Space. He is conventionally represented as a typical old spaceman. Whenever a new ship is built, it is dedicated to him, and each time a ship leaves port, NOSABKENNING’s blessing is asked. This god is tolerant of minor faults in spacemen, but is mercilessly vengeful of those, creatures or demons, who would attempt to sabotage or damage a spaceship. He is otherwise generally regarded as being kindly and looks with favor on those hardy souls who dare to defy interstellar space in their rickety crafts. He also has an important part in running Shultz’s Beer Parlor. Indeed, it is suspected by some that NOSHABKENNING may be an alter ego of Shultz, but this has never been proven. NOSHABKENNING is referred to in all matters pertaining to travel, fighting, and the drinking of Varnish. The seventh day of the week is sacred to him and is the day of observing proper ceremonies to him.

      LAD is another major deity. He is the god of Time, and regulates all time travel. He also dictates the general policy of the Fates, who have charge of destiny — and are honored on the sixth day of the week. LAD is represented as an abstract entity rather than any type of creature. The Martian ideogram in figure 1.8 is his name in the Middle Martian writing system.

      Figure 1.8: LAD

      The fourth, and last, of the Chief deities is ONISBAR, the god of Knowledge. He is the patron saint of scientists and Artificers. His is the last day of the week.

      Only slightly lowers in the hierarchy are those quasi-deities who have the task of caring for The Scroll of Eternity — the FAAS. Very little is known about them, except that they must truthfully reply to the requests of the higher deities, and, they are on equal terms with the other demi-gods, and in no way bound to them. Lower creatures only receive information from them when they so desire to give it.

      There are also other quasi-deities (or FERNZ) who oversee the affairs of the different planets. Except on a few planets where KLONO is unknown, they rule wisely under the observance of KLONO.

      The quasi-deity on Mars who fulfills this duty is feminine in form and is named ARLIMINI. ARLIMINI is thus known as the “goddess” of Mars — although it is the personality that is feminine, and no actual female function is referred to by the term. Thus, although ARLIMINI is naturally the patron of Martian women, she also represents Martian men on the council of the gods. She is also concerned with cases involving love, honor, or the destiny of Mars. Hers is the second day of the week.

      The other planets of the Solar system have their own gods.

      Among other quasi-deities are the spacial demons, of whom the best and greatest known is VERI. There is also less than savory quasi-deities who inhabit the spaceways and these are kept in check by NOSHABKENNING.

      Each god has his or her own select circle of followers. These are especially active in their support off their particular god and, of course, receive special consideration from their god. Thus most spacemen are followers of NOSHABKENNING, and Martians are partial to ARLIMINI (the goddess of Mars) as well.

      [Then there was James’ favorite character of all, and that was Veri. James liked Veri so much that he even wrote a couple of songs and a symphony for him. He called him CVC Veri and to this day we are not sure what CVC actually means in regards to Veri. According to James Veri was a quite friendly and loveable creature, but he did have a set of very sharp teeth. James gave him one eye which could represent that Veri was also a spiritual being.

      Below on the left is a rendering of James’ Veri, back in 1940, and beside it is our sister Celeste’s later rendering of Veri in 2000. As you can see, each has an appeal of its own for Veri.

      CVC VERI by James Streiff, 1940’s

      CVC VERI by Celeste Streiff, Hammond, 2000

      4: Shultz’s Beer Parlor

      Shultz’s Beer Parlor (see Figure 1.10) deserves special mention in this chapter, as it is the Valhalla of Martian heroes (and dragons) and is available only to them. This Valhalla however, is for the living, rather than the dead. The Varnish at the entrance, it is said, would dissolve any lower forms of life, even if they should stumble onto the place. It is a magnificent establishment, or so say those have been there. The main barroom is presided over by Shultz himself. And there are other rooms for “every conceivable purpose.” There are for example, special private rooms for brawls, and there are game rooms for N-Dimensional Chess. Only those Martians who have completed some particularly difficult or useful or heroic task are rated to enter Shultz’s. The dragons, which are similar to Martians in mentality — but come from a different region of the Universe, can play a mean game of N-Dimensional Chess, being intelligent and rational creatures.

      Figure 1.10: a Night at Shultz’s

      And speaking of Varnish, according to an official document dated April 5^th, 1942 in The Files, the “Government standard” for the production of Varnish was:

      Sodium Arsenate----------------15%

      Nitric acid------------------------15%

      Carbon disulfide----------------- 5%

      White Phosphorus---------------12%

      Sodium Phosphide----------------3%

      Absolute alcohol (methanol)--50%

      Shultz’s was the place to be. In a letter from Bob Parks, dated September 4, 1944 he mentions an evening spent there:

      […] As for the strange creatures, I’ve noticed quite an aggregation of them on the Arcturus bound streetcar that goes by Mars at 25:30 (Martian time). You know the one — we always use to distort the space around there and send the fated Streetcar bound for Earth. That was only a few thousand years ago too. Do you remember those Earthlings, Hannibal and Caesar and also Nero who go t blamed the day the streetcar lit near Rome and you asked for a match from that Robot from X19Z ∫ce ∞Dzn an he said he’d find one for you an burnt the joint down?

      Anyway the point is there seems to be entirely too many strange, unidentified creatures going toward Arcturus. I mentioned it to Moscovitch last night down at Shultz’s Beer Parlor, but he merely laughed and pulled my hat down over my eyes while I kicked three of his teeth out with a well place shot thrust of my foot. I took him aside later and asked if he was really earnest and thought there was no danger from these creatures. He replied to the negative and to top the whole thing off Kimball Kinnison joined in with such an emphatic “Hell No!,” that three of his babes fell off of his lap.

      I can’t understand it myself. This is the first time since I can remember that I’ve ever had a break with The Mighty Moscovitch. That he can’t see what is about to happen or at least that something is indeed in the wind is incomprehensible to me. As for Kimball K. — The Gray Lensman — he is a jughaid and hasn’t been able to see the light about anything for months now.

      It rather seems to me that since the war with the 2^nd galaxy things haven’t been going quite right in the world. Control over the interstellar Pirates, whot were an almost non-entity for such a long time, has steadily become less and less ridged. Persons on Mars are again becoming greedier and greedier

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