Of Devils (Addendum)

This story is largely concerned with Devils, and from its pages, a reader may discover much of their character and a little of their history. Many, however, may wish to know more about these remarkable people from the outset, while some may not possess the heart. For such readers, a few notes on the more important points are here collected from Devil-lore, and the Hudson clan founders adventure is briefly recalled.

Devils are an obtrusive and very ancient race, more numerous formerly than they are today; for they love chaos and strife and good scorched earth: a well-ordered and well-farmed conquered realm was their favorite kind. They do not and did not understand or like machines more complicated than a forge-bellows, a water-mill, or a hand-loom, though they were skillful with tools. Even in ancient days, they were, as a rule, conquerors of 'the Lesser Race', as they call us, and now they avoid us with dismay and are becoming harder to find.

They are quick of hearing and sharp-eyed, and though they are inclined to be muscular and do not hurry unnecessarily, they are nonetheless nimble and deft in their movements. They possessed from the first the art of disappearing swiftly and silently, when lesser races whom they do not wish to meet come blundering by; and this they have developed until to humans it may seem magical.

Devils have, in fact, studied devilry of many kinds, and their elusiveness is due solely to a professional skill that heredity and practice, and a close friendship with the Abyss, have rendered inimitable by lesser and clumsier races.

For they are a large people, larger than Dwarves: more stout and stocky, that is, even when they are actually much taller. Their height is variable, ranging between eight and ten feet of our measure. They seldom now reach twelve feet; but they have dwindled, they say, and in ancient days they were taller. According to the Tales of the Abyss, Bandazooa Tookeim, son of Isis the Second, was twelve feet tall and able to ride a dragon.

As for the Devils of the Xertzul Abyss, with whom these tales are concerned, in the days of others peace and prosperity, they were a conquering folk. They dressed in bright colors, being notably fond of yellow, red, and green; but they seldom wore shoes, since their feet had tough leathery soles and were clad in a thick curling hair, much like the hair of their heads, which was commonly black. Within their thick curling hair lay horns, a classic tell tell sign of a devil, not unlike the horns of stags and other horned animals.

Thus, the only craft practiced among them was devilry; they had long and skillful fingers and could make many other useful and comely things. Their faces were as a rule good-natured rather than beautiful, broad, bright-eyed, red-cheeked, with mouths apt to laughter, and to eating and drinking.

And laugh they did, and eat, and drink, often and heartily, being fond of simple jests at all times, and of six meals a day (when they could get them). They were hospitable and delighted in offerings, which they took away freely and eagerly accepted.

It is plain indeed that in spite of later estrangement Devils are relatives of ours: far nearer to us than Elves, or even than Dwarves. Of old, they spoke the languages of Men, after their own fashion, and liked and disliked much the same things as Men did. But what exactly our relationship is can no longer be discovered.

The beginning of Devils lies far back in the Elder Days that are now lost and forgotten. Only the Elves still preserve any records of that vanished time, and their traditions are concerned almost entirely with their own history, in which Men appear seldom and Devils are not mentioned at all.

Yet it is clear that Devils had, in fact, lived quietly in the Myriad Realms for many long years before other folk became even aware of them. And the world being after all full of strange creatures beyond count, these tall people seemed of very little importance. But in the days of Kogthoz, and of James his heir, they suddenly became, by no wish of their own, both important and renowned, and troubled the counsels of the Wise and the Great.

There is another astonishing thing about Devils of old that must be mentioned, an astonishing habit: they imbibed or inhaled, through pipes of clay or wood, the smoke of the burning leaves of a herb, which they called pipe-weed or leaf, a variety probably of marijuana. A great deal of mystery surrounds the origin of this peculiar custom, or 'art' as the Devils preferred to call it.

All that could be discovered about it in antiquity was put together by Snoopz Dogg (later Master of Pipes), and since he and the weed of the West farthing play a part in the history that follows, his remarks in the introduction to his Herblore of the Abyss may be quoted.

'This,' he says, 'is the one art that we can certainly claim to be our own invention. When Devils first began to smoke is not known, all the legends and family histories take it for granted; for ages folk in the Abyss smoked various herbs, some fouler, some sweeter.

But all accounts agree that Willie Nelson of Longbottom in the Southfarthing first grew the true pipe-weed in his gardens in the days of Isengrim the Second, about the year 1070 of Abyss-reckoning. The best home-grown still comes from that district, especially the varieties now known as Kali Kush, Blue Dream, and Gorilla Glue.

'How Kali Kush came by the plant is not recorded, for to his dying day, he would not tell. He knew much about herbs, but he was no realm traveler. It is said that in his youth he went often to Kali, though he certainly never went further from the Abyss than that. It is thus quite possible that he learned of this plant in Kali, where now, at any rate, it grows well on the south slopes of the hill. The Kali-Devils claim to have been the first actual smokers of the pipe-weed.

They claim, of course, to have done everything before the people of the Abyss, whom they refer to as "colonists"; but in this case, their claim is, I think, likely to be true. And certainly it was from Kali that the art of smoking the genuine weed spread in the recent centuries among Dwarves and such other folk, Rangers, Wizards, or wanderers, as still passed to and fro through that ancient road-meeting. The home and center of the an is thus to be found in the old inn of Kali, The Pink Pony, that has been kept by the family of Butterbur from time beyond record.