“Dear gods!”

Tugging on C.C.’s sleeve, Enerie adds, “What did everyone do when Zig disappeared?”

Startled as much by the Vestal’s gesture as her concern, the teenager replies, “Many didn’t seem to notice, and some who did seemed to think he’d found a secret entrance to the baths, so they left the line to try and follow him – only to have their places in line taken by others, so they weren’t happy bathers.”

“What did jojo do?”

“Well, Ceres, as I said, he immediately made plans to search for his friend.”

Blushing at her cousin’s reminder of his previous explanation, the Vestal says, “I thank you for telling us of jojo’s plans – but what did he do when Zig disappeared into the aether?”

“First he mumbled something about an onion …”

“An onion – as in the vegetable?”

“Yup. He later explained about that so that’s how I knew that’s what he was mumbling about.”

“Huh?”

“Like I said, he mumbled stuff about an onion, and when I asked him, much as you’d asked me, if he was talking about the vegetable, he explained that few people recognize the Babylonian sin of stepping in somebody else’s bath-water.”

“But you said that Zig and jojo never actually got into the baths!”

“Aye. But jojo seemed to think that since they were going to the thermae, there could be some connection to some punishment sent by the gods…”

“Babylonian gods punish people for bathing?”

Sighing softly at Ceres continued questions (and interruptions!) C.C. explains, “jojo said that there’s a commonly held belief that a disease, no matter what the direct cause, was, above all else, a punishment sent by the gods. If someone broke a taboo, it could bring on such a punishment. There were a number of taboos including certain foods, lying, causing a family split, entering a neighbor's house, having sex with a neighbor's wife, and stepping in water someone else had bathed in.

“jojo hinted that as if it wasn’t bad enough that they’d spoken to II Vestals of Rome, they’d then gone to the public baths to … well, bathe! He was clearly concerned that approaching the Priestesses would have been among the Babylonian taboos if the Babylonians had had Vestal Virgins to taboo-about – and he was wondering out-loud if any of the Ancient Incantations meant to offset the violations of taboos might help absolve them, and return Zig to him.”

“Did he share the incantations with you, C.C.?”

“Yup. I don’t recall all of it, but some of it went something like: ’Like this onion he peels and throws into the fire - and fire consumes it entirely - which will not be grown in a plant bed,...whose roots will not take hold in the soil, whose shoot will not sprout, (so) may the pain of my hardship, sin, transgression, crime, error, the sickness that is in my body, my flesh, my veins be peeled off like this onion.’

“Other chants mentioned wool and matting that are unraveled and burned, and grain that is burned – and jojo said that a verbal confession was often involved …”