Status Updates From The Dragon of the Ishtar Gate

Some day our beloved Myron will be trampled by one of these great African monsters. And when somebody runs for help, crying: ‘A hippopotamus is killing Myron!’ he will look up, and his dying words will be: ‘You err, my dear fellow. This is not a hippopotamus; it is a rhinoceros!’

LOL

As far as oddly specific oaths go, “By Ashtarth’s pubic zone” is a new favorite.

“Men make promises according to their hopes and keep them according to their fears.”

“We Kushites have raid the savage tribes of the south for slaves until now these dirty dogs attack us on sight. With your pale skins, they maybe take you for gods and let you pass.”

Wow. Just... wow. People were really unabashedly enamored of that “primitives will automatically recognize white men as gods” trope in the ‘50s.

It is very strange to me that, despite our far more atheistic age, we take religion a lot more seriously than they did in the ‘50s. Is it because we’re less religious? Does that let us accept other faiths easier? Or, conversely, have threatened religions become more dogmatic? Is it because we’ve loss faith in rationalism? Have people merely turned from organized religion to vague spiritualism?

Myron added: “The only sure defense against reproach, sir, is obscurity.”

That moment when a character swears by Azi Dahaka, and all you can think are the Invoke Patron results from DCC RPG . . .

Chapter 1: In which Mr. de Camp proves that there is such a thing as too much historical detail.