Dear Marion, As you may infer from the tidbits of knowledge (?facts) which I've been forwarding to your e-mail box, your letters have me "all shook up" about animal sacrifice, as they would say in Konnarock; it's not my emotions, but the smattering of intellect that remains, which has been turned loose. To discuss the issues in order: 1) Your explanation of Albert as chameleon is a very compelling thought which I intend to plagiarize. Its significance derives from the circumstance that you offer an antithesis to my hagiographic legend of Saint Albert of Bankhead. As every woman needs a man, so every thesis needs an antithesis in order to produce a synthesis, a crowning glory, its offspring. I'll try to see that this gets done. 2) Your very apposite questions about animal sacrifice persuaded me, after I had installed a computer for Margrit in her room, to peruse Wikipedia to inform myself about animal sacrifice. My memory being moth-eaten, I've forgotten what I've read, but I'm left with the impression that I was on the right track when I proposed that Albert's death at the claws of a she-bear should be interpreted as an expiation for the crimes that he had witnessed. In the spirit of Shakespeare King. Now Hamlet, where's Polonius? Ham. At Supper King. At Supper? Where? Ham. Not where he eats, but where he is eaten, a certaine conuocation of wormes are e'ne at him. Your worm is your onely Emperor for diet. We fat all creatures else to fat vs, and we fat our selfe for Magots. Your fat King, and your leane Begger is but variable seruice to dishes, but to one Table that's the end King. What dost thou meane by this? Ham. Nothing but to shew you how a King may go a Progresse through the guts of a Begger King. Where is Polonius Ham. In heauen, send thither to see. If your Messenger finde him not there, seeke him i'th other place your selfe: but indeed, if you finde him not this moneth, you shall nose him as you go vp the staires into the Lobby King. Go seeke him there Ham. He will stay till ye come Albert's flesh would go "a Progresse through the guts of a Begger" or rather of a bear, and his ultimate metamorphosis into bear droppings deposited on a frequented tourist's trail would, by warning Albert's fellow humans of the bear's proximity, serve at least temporarily to save them from death. 3) More generally, it occurs to me that the crucial element of sacrifice is the killing, the deliberate provocation of death, as if by witnessing its destruction, one might reveal the meaning of life, much as a biologist kills a frog in order to demonstrate what made the frog croak or what made the frog jump. I consider hunting "for sport" as opposed to hunting for sustenance, to be, so far as the hunter is concerned, a very primitive but nonetheless very compelling confirmation of the his vitality. The hunter kills to prove himself to be alive, to demonstrate his prowess to himself - and to the world to which he shows his trophy. Rilke endorsed the hunter's purpose in a dialectical manner, pointing out that while the hunter deems himself the victor in the conflict with death, in celebrating the demise of his quarry, he is implicitly anticipating his own. Rilke, Sonette an Orpheus, Zweiter Teil XI Manche, des Todes, entstand ruhig geordnete Regel, weiterbezwingender Mensch, seit du im Jagen beharrst; mehr doch als Falle und Netz, weiss ich dich, Streifen von Segel, den man hinuntergehaengt in den hoehligen Karst. Leise liess man dich ein, als waerst du ein Zeichen, Frieden zu feiern. Doch dann: rang dich am Rande der Knecht, und, aus den Hoehlen, die Nacht warf eine Handvoll von bleichen taumelnden Tauben ins Licht. Aber auch das ist im Recht. Fern von dem Schauenden sei jeglicher Hauch des Bedauerns, nicht nur vom Jaeger allein, der, was sich zeitig erweist, wachsam und handelnd vollzieht. Toeten ist eine Gestalt unseres wandernden Trauerns. Rein ist im heiteren Geist, was an uns selber geschieht. Manche, des Todes, entstand ruhig geordnete Regel, Many a silently ordered arrangement of death, weiterbezwingender Mensch, seit du im Jagen beharrst; allconquering man, since you began to hunt, mehr doch als Falle und Netz, weiss ich dich, Streifen von Segel, more than the trap and the net, I see you, strip of white cloth. den man hinuntergehaengt in den hoehligen Karst. which one suspends into the carvernous earth. Leise liess man dich ein, als waerst du ein Zeichen, Quiet the introduction, a sign of peace as it were, Frieden zu feiern. Doch dann: rang dich am Rande der Knecht, But then, at the edge, you were pulled tight in the twist, und, aus den Hoehlen, die Nacht warf eine Handvoll von bleichen and from the depths, night cast a pale handful of tumbling taumelnden Tauben ins Licht. Aber auch das ist im Recht. doves to the light. But that is also all right. Fern von dem Schauenden sei jeglicher Hauch des Bedauerns, Far from the spectator be any breath of contrition, nicht nur vom Jaeger allein, der, was sich zeitig erweist, Far from the hunter himself, who, what occasion demands, wachsam und handelnd vollzieht. with vigilant action completes. Toeten ist eine Gestalt unseres wandernden Trauerns. Killing is peripatetic contrition. Rein ist im heiteren Geist, Pure in serenest spirit, was an uns selber geschieht. when it's our own condition. That's not much of a translation, and maybe you don't need it at all; but the poem is a difficult one, even when one knows all the words and can construe the syntax of every sentence. "Toeten ist eine Gestalt unseres wandernden Trauerns. Rein ist im heiteren Geist, was an uns selber geschieht." is an epitaph for suicide which has haunted me for years. =========================== It there's anything more on this topic I intended to write at this time, it's escaped my moth-eaten memory. So it's time to stop. Margrit seems well satisfied and content. Her diarrhea has subsided, and her wounds have stopped draining. Thank your for speaking with her, writing to her, and urging her to move to the Boston area. I anticipate that she won't take your advice, but that what remains of her life will be a sequence of heroic exploits punctuated by catastrophes from which I will do my best to rescue her. Last month that was possible only by the skin of my teeth, - and my teeth also are dropping out one by one, and when no teeth are left, skin of the teeth rescues will no longer be possible. I see Margrit as an heroic figure. Her antics remind me of Schiller's "Und setzet ihr nicht das Leben ein, nie wird Euch das Leben gewonnen sein." (Wallenstein's Lager) But it's not always easy to be the bystander; and its impossible to know what to do. Jochen