"strike" on the lead weight [Digest urth.v028.n042]

Apparently this was actual practice in Classic times: herewith a quote from a reference http://omega.cohums.ohio-state.edu/hyper-lists/bmcr-l/1991/02.06.16.html : The section on slogans inscribed on lead bullets (e. g., "take that," "[this one's] for you," "ouch," "get pregnant with this") is particularly intriguing (45-46). : I looked around the web, but couldn't refind the sling page with photos of such sling-bullets. See also http://www.pbm.com/~lindahl/rialto/slings-msg.text Further proof that Mr Wolfe has a strong background in Classic studies! -John Bishop

One wrinkle is that we don't know how much human physiology has changed between Severian's time and ours (or between ours and Severians, depending on how you want to think about the chronology). -Rostrum

Perfectly reasonable --- she was, after all, already dead when she was weighted down with lead shot. (Well --- I hope so.) If the Claw brought her back to life, presumably a bit of lead poisoning isn't going to be much of a problem. To put it another way, I don't suppose the other corpses lie around thinking `Ugh, this lead shot's not doing me any good'. Before this becomes serious fan fiction... corncrake