It would be nice if some of these people worried about the very real possibility that their kids might NOT COME HOME FROM SCHOOL ALIVE with some fraction of the intensity that they worry about made up bullshit like this.
Scott McDonough
@sjmcdonough.bsky.social
1.2K followers 369 following 1.2K posts
Historian of the late ancient world: Sasanian Iran, the Caucasus, and the Eastern Roman Empire. Professor at William Paterson University. I like cats, photography, and sweet cabbage pierogi.
![From Thomas of Margā, The Book of Governors 48–9:
And it came to pass that once when he [the noble Basṭōhmagh] was passing over the bridge, he saw some sorceresses washing clothes by the Zab, and they were singing to each other the songs of devils, and everything which was round about them danced as they sang. Now as he drew near to them on his way a small fragment of one of the refrains which they were singing became fixed in his mind, and when he had gone a short distance from them, he began to meditate upon what he had heard. And straightway devils joined themselves to him openly, and required of him, saying, “Command us to do something which thou wishest us to do.” Now when Basṭōhmagh saw this, he feared greatly, and he acted craftily with them and said to them, “Gather together these stones, and pile them in a heap,”—now these stones are known to this day—“and follow me whither I am going.” And he drove the mule upon which he was riding quickly along until he came to the cell of the holy old man, and he said to the devils, “Take this mule, and watch him until I come out;” and he went in trembling, and revealed to Mar Jacob what had happened to him. And Rabban answered and said to him, “Repeat before me what thou hast heard,” and while Basṭōhmagh was repeating, Rabban wrote down upon the ground with his finger what he heard. And when he had finished it all Rabban made the sign of the cross over the writing, and said to Basṭōhmagh, “Repeat once more what thou hast already repeated;” and he said to him, “I know nothing of it whatever;” and Rabban answered, and said as he laughed, “Rise up, and look after thy mule, for the devils have loosed him and gone away.”](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:djy7i7upruyt3kzaczq6fs3p/bafkreibhla36v2hi72mc7vtsuyqyu7c7h7vwupv24xecrzb7lvdlvxnlke)
