The Travels of Anadrasata Nearabhigan: Day 28 Commentary
I was interested in the research policies of the House of Historical Artifacts and Other Curiosities that Anadrasata visited in Day 28, and so I wrote this little piece.
It runs to 1,707 words and I hope that you enjoy it.
Index Page.
Onnaday, 13 Seib, 1893 C.E.
"Professor Ghailain Saighairhain of the Imperial University of Sighairiel to see the Curator," that gentleman told the staff member on the front information desk in Akatoil's House of Historical Artifacts and Other Curiosities. "I have an appointment."
The young man, well he was young compared to Professor Saighairhain's fifty-two years, consulted something out of sight behind the counter that lay between him and the professor. He looked up and smiled. "Yes, sir. You and your assistant, Mr Mhainghair, are expected. I'll get one of our guards to take you up to his office." He pressed a button. "It will just take a few minutes for one of them to come up from their tearoom. Would you like to take a seat on one of the benches while you wait for him, or is there something else I can do for you in the meantime?"
Professor Saighairhain turned and surveyed the leather upholstered padded benches that let visitors sit and regard the skeletons and taxidermied specimens of the largest animals of the western provinces in comfort. As it happened, he had no particular interest in animals, so he said, "I understand that you have printed copies of the House's study policies. May I have one, please?"
"Certainly, sir," the young man passed over a printed pamphlet, the pages the size of a standard sheet of writing paper. "Would you like a copy for Mr Mhainghair too, Professor?"
"Yes, thank you." Professor Saighairhain took the second copy and passed it over to his assistant, then the two men took their seats on the benches to await their escort to the Curator's office.
The wait for the guard had been less than five minutes, but it had been a comfortable and instructive five minutes. The route to the Curator's office spanned two separate staircases and three floors of the building, and the Professor was not certain that he would be able to retrace their path on his own. When they reached their destination, the guard handed them over to the Curator's secretary, a young man in both his early twenties and a fashionable waistcoat in an oak leaf pattern, dark green on a mid-brown ground, under a dark blue coat. That young man had risen and bowed when they entered the outer office that he occupied and then busied himself taking their hats. He also asked how they took their tea, made a note on his desk blotter of their answer, and asked them to take a seat in the visitors' armchairs arranged around a low table near the window until the Curator was ready to see them.
When the clock standing against an inner corner of the office chimed the hour, the secretary put his pen on its rest beside the ink well, rose and then knocked on the door of the inner office. After hearing a faint response from the inner room, he opened the door and went in, closing it behind him. After a few moments he reemerged and, holding the door open, said, "Doctor L'hairsart is ready to see you now gentlemen. Please come in."
The professor and his assistant rose and were ushered into the office where a middle aged man approaching stoutness rose from behind his desk and walked around it. "Professor Saighairhain and Mr Mhainghair! What a pleasure to meet you again! You may not recall it, but we were introduced at the Bone and Skeleton Conference of '82 in Amnestri. I was still one of Professor Doctor dh'Ghaistrair's assistants at the time."
Professor Saighairhain said apologetically, "I'm sorry, the Professor Doctor had so many assistants...."
"I know," acknowledged the Curator. "He felt his consequence was owed it, and he was an excellent teacher - teamwork, delegation, and running a large organisation were all things I took away from my time with him."
"I remember you," added Mr Mhainghair. "You were the one keeping his notes in order, and he kept handing you things. It can't have been easy."
"It had its moments," admitted the Curator, then he gestured at the armchairs with side tables clustered around a low table in front of the empty fireplace and near the window. "Please, gentlemen, take a seat and make yourselves comfortable." He turned to his secretary, "Vhaisair, could you please bring us in a tea tray? Thank you."
The younger man bowed and left the room, closing the door behind him.
When all three men were settled, Doctor L'hairsart said, "Professor Saighairhain, in your letter you said that you were interested in examining some of our human skeleton collection. Which particular individuals are you interested in?"
"I am working on a hypothesis concerning the existing relationships between the peoples that survived the Age of Cataclysms," replied Professor Saighairhain. "A family tree of our race, if you will. You have specimens that are missing from our collection in Sighairiel, notably from the native peoples of the Kerafin Isles and the western seaboard provinces. Also," he leaned forward and dropped his voice conspiratorially, "you have those two skeletons that were found in that tunnel system that turned out to be a pre-Cataclysm mine. I would love to see where they fit into the picture I am developing."
"They, like our other skeletons and human remains, do not leave this facility, Professor Saighairhain," replied the Curator. Just then, there was a knock on the door, and their discussion was paused while Vhaisair brought in the tea tray, poured the first cups of tea, handed around the plate of shortbread biscuits and then left the room. The Curator then said, "We don't loan elements of our human remains collection out because several of my predecessors did so, to reputable members of prestigious faculties, and said skeletons were not returned. Twice bitten, etc."
"I noticed your charges for accessing elements of your collection," Professor Sighairhain held his tea in front of him as he spoke, "and they seem quite high. Many facilities make no charge for accessing their collections for scientific purposes."
The Curator finished his mouthful of biscuit and washed it down with tea. "Our human remains are all stored in a consecrated vault. The fees for accessing them cover payments for a priest to conduct the disinterment, for professional mourners to hold vigil over the remains while they are not being examined, and for a priest to reinter the remains once your examination has been completed."
"That seems very...all encompassing," replied Professor Sighairhain diplomatically.
"Well, they are human remains," replied the Curator. "There is no reason we shouldn't give then the respect we would the body of a family member. Also, some of the collection's elements were remitted to us because in life they committed crimes so dreadful that their home towns or villages don't want them buried there. Some of the skeletons you have expressed an interest in fall into that category." He drank some more tea. "Those communities wanted assurances that those individuals were not going to reanimate their own corpses."
Still being diplomatic, Professor Sighairhain murmured, "I think I'm as religious as the next man, but isn't that taking things to an extreme?"
The Curator sighed. "Most of the time I think so, and then I have to go into the vault and go past the shrunken heads, the real ones not fakes like the one we've got on display in the first exhibits gallery, and I remember just how much I want to be reassured that those things are not going to get out of there on their own." He shuddered. "The professional mourners are the largest part of the cost, but we can help you cut down on the time they're needed by supplying you with one to one scale etchings of scientific drawings of each skeleton, weight and volume measurements for each bone, and the results of any chemical analyses that have been conducted on that specimen. Some of them even have death masks and drawings of the individual from life. Not all of that information will be relevant to your interests, but it should help you plan your work before you even see the skeleton in question."
Mr Mhainghair leaned forward and said, "Excuse me, Doctor, am I correct in understanding that all the test samples we take have to be returned with the remains to the vault?"
"Oh, yes, and the raw data you get from that testing," confirmed the Curator. "That means if someone else has already taken and prepared a sample from a skeleton that you are interested in, then it and the relevant data are available for you to use. Your conclusions remain your own. The tested samples are also returned, partly because they could be useful in the future and partly because, as I said before, some donors really don't want the animated dead coming to them in any way, shape, or form."
"So, there could be less laboratory work to be done than we expect," mused Professor Sighairhain, "and it could even be only a matter of data analysis, depending on what tests have already been conducted. How good are these scientific drawings?"
"Oh, excellent," replied the Curator. "We sell the prints to the general public as well. There are several sets in particular that are popular with medical and other students of anatomy. The one of Mr Ahraivhold Lhais' skeleton is particularly popular - he had a large number of fractures that healed when he was alive, and his skeleton shows all the bone remodelling that was involved in the healing. Almost all the common fractures and in the one skeleton, I'm told." He drank some more tea and added, "The etchings of some of our unreturned specimens are also popular."
"Oh yes," replied Professor Sighairhain, "Which ones?" He took a bite of the very good shortbread biscuit in his hand.
"The M'hainghair Lady comes to mind," replied the Curator. "It was loaned to Professor Aildus Ghulhaign of the Imperial University of Sighairiel in '45. One of your predecessors I believe. He and the Imperial University refused to return it because 'it was too fragile to withstand the return journey.' Of course, it will have no effect on your research request, Professor, but we do want the Lady back."