(urth) Human sacrifice

[James Wynn]

>> I'm rereading Long Lake, and in Exodus Remora informs Mint that child
>> sacrifice used to be practiced in manteions in the Whorl. So this is plainly a
>> concern of Wolfe's, just as it is to Christians in general (Abraham). (I
>> would guess the slang term "abram"=crazy comes from this practice.)
> Jerry Friedman wrote:
> As everyone here but me probably knows already, an "Abraham man" or
> "Abram man" was a beggar, later also a petty criminal, who pretended to
> be insane.
>
> The OED says, "The original reason for the association
> of Abraham with madness is unclear; the parable of the beggar Lazarus
> being ‘carried by the angels into Abraham's bosom’ (Luke 16:22, A.V.)
> may be relevant, and the story of Abraham's departure from his own
> country (Genesis 12)may perhaps have led to an association with
> vagrancy. Evidence to support the assertion (see e.g.  J. Timbs Things Not Generally Known
> (1856) 127,  J. C. Hotten Slang Dict. (new ed., 1864    ) 65) that there
> was an ‘Abraham ward’ in the Hospital of St. Mary of Bethlehem is
> lacking."

Human sacrifice is practiced elsewhere. It is the best way to summon a 
god to a sacred window--especially child sacrifice. When Echidna 
possessed Marble at Rose's funeral, she demanded a sacrifice to herself 
of dozens of children. So presumably they still do that in Trivigaunte 
where she is still worshiped as the only god.

Prolocutor Quetzal ended human sacrifice particularly in order to 
prevent the appearance of a god at the manteons. He claims he did it to 
prevent people from finding out that Pas had been murdered. But it is 
more likely that he doesn't want to be around when a god appears lest 
they see through his disguise. But he could have more than one reason.

You know, I don't want to disparage the writers of the OED but reviewing 
it casually the connection seems obvious:

1) Abram/Abraham twice attempted to con people by passing his wife off 
as his sister.

2) The term "Abraham man" became a term for sham artist or con man. 
Eventually, the term "abram" settled onto a particular type of sham 
artist: beggars who pretended to be mad in order to illicit sympathy. 
And that is the connection between "abram" and madness.

I can't find anywhere that "abram" is ACTUALLY defined as being mad (as 
it means in Viron), rather than pretending to be mad. Having nothing to 
do with anything, the Universal Etymological English Dictionary [1737] 
defines "abram" as being naked or nearly naked.

("Apocalypto" is among the best action films ever made. I can understand 
Jerry's personal aversion to Gibson, but he is not overrated as a film 
maker.)
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