Short Story 110: The Cat

Gwern Branwen · 27 Aug 2014, 15:22 · from 2014-August.txt.gz

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From: gwern at gwern.net (Gwern Branwen)
Date: Wed, 27 Aug 2014 11:22:26 -0400
Subject: (urth) Short Story 110: The Cat
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On Wed, Aug 27, 2014 at 10:13 AM, Gerry Quinn <gerry at bindweed.com> wrote:
> One other thing: in old age Sancha developed a disagreeable odour, which she
> countered by burning sandalwood.  Any significance?

Hard to say. It could be a reflection of her age and old-person smell:
sandalwood is an old perfume and scented smoke source, but it also has
some medicinal uses including as a fumigant, but it also has a lot of
religious connotations (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sandalwood#Uses)
with neopaganism apparently considering it good for exorcism &
purification. So it *could* be there to block the cat spirit,
explaining why the cat doesn't seem to make itself known during the
second stay at the House Absolute.

-- 
gwern
http://www.gwern.net

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