Word: rituals
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...looted from them, and they were right. Hundreds of ancient swords, including 42 documented National Treasures made between the 12th and 15th centuries, vanished as souvenirs and have never reappeared. The Americans thought they were guarding against insurgency, and they were wrong. The Nippon-tō-"art swords"-were ritual and aesthetic objects, the core symbols of Shintoism, and would not have been used in combat...
...native kings. Malaria felled the adventurers in wholesale lots. The curative properties of quinine had been known for two centuries, but the drug had been brought from Peru by Jesuits and thus was thought unfit for Protestants. At least one explorer, Richard Lander, was forced to drink poison. This ritual proved his good faith when he survived it, and he was permitted to watch human sacrifices. "The head is severed from the trunk with an ax," he wrote blandly, "and the smoking blood gurgles into a calabash...
...been too good, too real, I won't get mushy. Let's get 'em" LaZebnik said, hugging in a semicircle, the actors chanting their ritual send-off; behinds wriggling, they sang "pop, pop, pop, pop you all night." Some exchanged lipstick-red carnations. Randy Howze, who played the whining Ronald, kissed the producer leaving a sticky red mouth on her cheek. "Are we ready to go--let's get this show off the road--this is the last time--I'm getting so sad" and they filed backstage to the dark cramped wings. A nightly Hulaballoo frug to the overture...
...battery of physical and psychological tests. Only when qualified doctors cannot find a medical reason for the symptoms will an exorcist be called in to expel the spirit. Martin describes the procedure and ceremony carefully, even to the point of printing the text spoken by attending priests, the Roman Ritual of Exorcism, as an appendix...
...Hostage to the Devil is not convincing, or satisfying about the nature of possession, Martin does sound a currently pervasive message, a call for a return to certain Christian doctrines. There has been an increased interest in the supernatural among organized churches. The Anglicans have published a new exorcism ritual. Pope Paul VI announced in November 1972 that one of the greatest needs of the Catholic Church "is defense from that evil which is called the devil." After reading Hostage to the Devil, Harvey Cox of the Harvard Divinity School wrote: "It did make me realize that as the currently...