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"Necromancy in Naat" by Clark Ashton Smith
Dead longing, sundered evermore from pain:
How dim and sweet the shadow-hearted love,
The happiness that perished lovers prove
In Naat, far beyond the sable main.
Song of the Galley-Slaves.
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How to pronounce "Naat"? It's a name that has to be said frequently, and it's completely non-obvious how it should be said. Ugh. Upon reflection, I probably should have done more of an 'ah' sound to it, but oh well. That would be more consistent with words like aardvark or Baal or Afrikaans. If that's what Smith wanted, he should have explicitly indicated it somehow. After all, we have words like Isaac or Aaron or Canaanites that don't use that 'ah' sound for the double 'a', so there is variability with it. It's a bad spelling to use if you aren't going to provide any sort of pronunciation guide with your text.
shelfy: in this context, most likely meaning: full of sandbanks or dangerous shallows
sanies: a thin blood-tinged seropurulent discharge from ulcers or infected wounds. Seropurulent? Consisting of a mixture of serum and pus.
fell: as a noun, a hill or stretch of high moorland, especially in northern England
Stoat, a.k.a. Eurasian ermine, a type of mustelid, which looks rather similar to the weasel
anthropophagi: cannibals
poltroonery: cowardice; lack of spirit; pusillanimity
I wonder if that mirror of clairvoyance could be the same one used by Gaspard du Nord in "The Colossus of Ylourgne", which somehow survived all the ages of the world until its very ending? Hmmm...
besom: a broom made of twigs tied around a stick
The picture used is an illustration by Virgil Finlay for the story from Weird Tales.
To follow along: http://www.eldritchdark.com/writings/short-stories/151/necromancy-in-naat
We don't often get stories about the mundane everyday life of run-of-the-mill necromancers...
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