Annotated Interlude 2 Page 8
“Szczyrzyc” sounds like one of those parody place-names you use to joke about a vowel-challenged language, but no, it’s a real town in Poland.
“Babcia” is Polish for “grandmother.”
There’s a Hebrew word (גָּלְמִ֤י), used in Psalm 139:16, that can mean “embryo”. Other translations include “unfinished vessel” or “unformed substance.” So, a fair synonym for “raw material” or “unshaped Being.”
The last attested auroch died in Poland in 1627.
In recent years, we’ve been trying to back-breed something similar. But any animal we develop today will be a descendant of cows, not a resurrected ancestor. Selective breeding is not Homestuck.
198x, Szczyrzyc, Poland.
Cow 1: . . .
Tiger: . . .
Cow 2: . . .
Tiger: How long have there been two of you?!
Polish man: <Long as I’ve been alive.>
Cow 1: <Were there always two of us?>
Cow 2: <I think one of us used to be different.>
Translator: He says, as long as he’s been alive…
Polish man: <Babcia, also, used to say they never changed. But the word she called their kind was “embryos.”>
Translator: <Embryos? Of what?>
Polish man: <Just — her favorite term for their kind was “embryos.” Of what, she never said.>
Cow 1: <Were you the different one?>
Cow 2: <I don’t remember ever being different . . .>
Walker (thinking): The wolf and the “domestic wolf” are distinctive Beings. As is the domestic cat. Although that cat could get very wild-looking when it wanted. And cattle are domesticated as well . . .
Walker: Tell me about the wild counterparts of cattle.
Researcher: You mean aurochs? Wild oxen?
Walker: Yes, those. What do they look like?
Researcher: Mostly dirt at this point, boss. The last recorded specimen died in the 1600s.
