INTERLUDE 1: The Demon Child
There is a story current amongst the Roma Gypsies of central Europe. It is as follows:
"Once upon a time, there was a woman who had greatly offended the most powerful wizard in the high mountains of Bavaria. Having caught her in a cunning trap, the wizard, who was so powerful that none dare utter his name, he spoke thus, 'For thyne transgressions, woman, I shall place upon thee a most terrible and awful curse; thyne son that already grows in thy belly shall be of a visage so angelic that nought shall be able to deny him in anything, yet his soul shall be vile and unto a demon.'
"Hearing this great curse, the woman fled down from the mountains and sought out somebody who could lift the curse. And lo, in time she found the great and puissant witch the Lady Margali Szvardos, who said unto her 'This is a curse not even I am able to lift. But I can change the curse, reversing its effects by magicks known to me.' And when the woman was all too glad to accept this offer of help, she warned, 'In changing thy child, and the curse upon him, shall give him the appearance of a demon, yet he shall be possessed of the heart and soul of an angel. Be sure before you accept my aid.'
"The woman still consented and subjected herself to the magicks of the witch queen. And yet, when the child was born, she took but one look at her new-born son, and screamed that Margali's work be undone and fled once more into the night, leaving the demon child with the angelic soul in the witch's care.
"There is a moral to this tale. Evil always wears a pleasing face and that is how it seduces the hearts of men."
The inclusion of Margali Szvardos in tale has long confused anthropologists. Margali Szvardos was until recently the leader of a tribe that had made its home among the Alps. Most anthropologists consider her an anachronism attached to the story in more recent times, yet interviewees claim to have seen her and her demon child within the last thirty years.