no, no - Horn must be the one who is moved

There is one problem with Babbie being the one whose soul is transported into the narrator - there is no mechanism. When Horn goes into Silk, there is a vanished person right there. When Horn goes into Babbie, there is a vanished God right there - "A tree like there is on green". There is nothing to transmit Babbie through that distance. There has to be something at the senders end - and we have direct textual evidence of that tree above Horn as he sleeps. (Whenever Silk undergoes astral travel, he always has his branch staff made from a tree vine with him, and it becomes very important that he look for it every time he goes or it is taken away). I really don't understand how you can say that Babbie going into Horn makes any more sense than Horn going into Babbie, when it is QUITE clear that the narrators of On Blue's Waters and In Green's Jungles have a very, very different outlook on life, and one deals with the past, while one deals with the present and tells the past sometimes in the third person, indicating that it happened to someone who seems to be a different person. What good is Babbie except as a receptacle for both Mucor when she wants to get away and Horn when he needs a place for his soul? Remember the couch in the dream of Horn's son - there is a couch with eight legs and ten, and someone hiding underneath - this is Babbie, with Horn or Mucor hiding with it (8+2 legs, eh?) Babbie is a receptacle, not a paradigm of courage. Oh well. I think you should believe what you think fits the text the best for you. At least I know what to believe. Marc Aramini

Absolutely! I like Horn-into-Babbie, but I think Babbie-into-Horn fits better.

But you could say the same thing for Mucor's possessions, Mora/Fava's possessions ...

I feel compelled to come to Babbie's defence here. He can (almost) talk, he can man the sweeps, he's undoubtedly brave. SilkHorn says of him: "He was stronger than I, and a great deal braver; and we were there to support each other, not to boast of our superiorities." This is just a little before the calling episode, and may be one of Wolfe's little hints.