*

… “What are you talking about?”

“A question of questions, young Wendolina, the answer to which may serve as a stunning proof of our original assertion.”

“Your original assertion, which was posed as a question anyway. And I’m older than you are.”

“Yes, yes, dearest Wendlebury. There was a need for the razor ban, in order, to achieve assimilation. The original model for Samson wasn’t Gilgamesh at all, it was his ‘alter-ego’, the wild-man, Enkidu, who in the words of birds-feet etched into tablets of baked-clay over four thousand years ago, possessed long hair like a woman and an excessively hairy body.”

“In that case the ‘jaw-bone’ may well be a form of boomerang…” muses Wen, and then, “Birds Feet?”

“Cuneiform.”

“If I wasn’t so confused, I’d be tempted to jump up and down,” says Wen.

“Two-thirds animal, one-third man.”

“Ah,” says Wen, the light of comprehension settling down to roost in her visage, “I knew the British Museum would be a good idea.”

“Rule Britannia!”

“Are we allowed to be rational for a moment?”

“We would not expect you to be anything else.”

“If we consider Enkidu who is two-thirds animal, one-third man, together with Gilgamesh, who is two-thirds divine, one-third man, and treat them as one whole man, we get a ruler who is one-third animal, one-third divine, and one third man.”

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