They stopped singing and watched three sunburnt faces appear, followed by three T-shirted chests, and six chinoed legs.

The Meroic Script indigenized the Egyptian hieroglyphic writing and invented an alphabet of 23 letters, containing details of correspondence between the central government and provinces, trade and administrative matters.

Sianfu is a noble and great city in the province of Mangi, and hath twelve rich and great cities under her juriſdiction.

So that over and above the public components – holidays, tourist attractions – there are private meanderings, linked to the climate as if this spell were a stretto passage in the year’s fugue: haphazard weather, aimless loves, unpredicted commitments…