(urth) Who's Right?

[Ryan Dunn]

On Dec 3, 2010, at 1:30 PM, Dan'l Danehy-Oakes wrote:

> Son of Witz wrote (03-12-2010 18:04):
>> Well, at the end of citadel Severian says that he knows Inire was with him
>> in the north, so we assume that we saw him and that Inire was the Uturuncu.
> 
> Ummm ... This could simply mean that Inire was in the north at the
> same time as Severian, could it not? And why would we assume that he
> was the Uturuncu?



"The old man had a staff as crooked as himself, topped with the dried head of a monkey.

"A covered palanquin whose place in the column was considerably more advanced than my own bore the Autarch, whom my leech gave me to understand was still alive; and one night when my guards were chattering among themselves and I sat crouched over our little fire, I saw the old guide (his bent figure and the impression of an immense head conferred by his mask were unmistakable) approach this palanquin and slip beneath it. Some time passed before he scuttled away. This old man was said to be an uturuncu, a shaman capable of assuming the form of a tiger."

. .

"Rudesind, we already know the answers to the question you think we are going to ask. We know your master is what the people call a cacogen, and that for whatever reason, he is one of those few who have chosen to cast their lots entirely with humanity, remaining on Urth as a human being. The Cumaean is another such, though perhaps you did not know that. We even know that your master was with us in the jungles of the north, where he tried until it was too late to rescue my predecessor."

. .

Is it still unclear from the text that Inire was disguised in the jungle? And how convenient he is disguised as a shape-shifting shaman.

...ryan