A Dirge for Prester John

Do you have any dark secrets or crimes in your past? They are our favorite, tell us immediately.

What is an England?

Are you immune to any common poisons or weak against fire or perhaps lightning?

Do you have any peculiar talents?

What can your body do?

Do you think it is as moral to destroy things as to create them?

Are you lonely here?

Do you know how to fertilize an egg? It’s easy; it can be taught.

How long will you stay?

Will you sing us a bawdy song of your country?

Is everyone in your country named John?

Is everyone in your country a liar?

What will you tell your people about us?

Will you remember how green and pretty my skin was?

Will you tell them we are good or that we are wicked?

Have you ever come back from the dead?

What did your father do?

How long will you stay?

Do you think the earth goes around the sun or do you think the sun goes around the earth?

Are any of your countrymen blood-drinkers or eaters of offal?

Have you ever fallen asleep and woken up a hundred years later?

Have you ever had three daughters, two of whom were wicked, one of whom was fair and good?

How did you punish the fair one?

Have you been to see the Wall?

Do you think your soul is sufficient to approach it?

How long will you stay?

How long will you stay?

How long will you stay?

8. Some Answers I Gave

Inasmuch as a man from England is an Englishman and the son of a thatcher is also a thatcher, I am a Christian man. By which I mean I was born so and not consulted on the matter, and therefore not as hardworking or dedicated a thatcher as I might have been if I had my choice of a dozen or so professions.