Wherever a firefly is where a firefly should not be.
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Listening to Adze
Adze
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Adze
The adze flies as a firefly.
In that form it can pass through a closed door, a shuttered window, the wall of a room where a child is sleeping. It drinks blood, palm oil and coconut water. Children are its usual victims, and a child who sickens without explanation may be said to have been visited.
Caught, it takes human shape, and in that shape it can be dealt with. A person possessed by an adze — or who is one — is said to be identifiable and is the source of the accusation.
The rule that everyone knows: do not kill a firefly that has come into the house at night. Not because it is sacred. Because if it is an adze, killing the insect does nothing to the spirit, and it will know who tried.
If you visit Ghana. Wherever a firefly is where a firefly should not be.
In that form it can pass through a closed door, a shuttered window, the wall of a room where a child is sleeping. It drinks blood, palm oil and coconut water. Children are its usual victims, and a child who sickens without explanation may be said to have been visited.
Caught, it takes human shape, and in that shape it can be dealt with. A person possessed by an adze — or who is one — is said to be identifiable and is the source of the accusation.
The rule that everyone knows: do not kill a firefly that has come into the house at night. Not because it is sacred. Because if it is an adze, killing the insect does nothing to the spirit, and it will know who tried.