Sigil of Shax
At a glance
- Entry
- 44 of 72
- Rank
- Marquis
- Legions
- 30 in the text
- Also written
- Shaz, Shass
Description in the text
Shax is attributed the power to take away sight, hearing, or understanding and to steal money or fetch objects. The text says he can reveal hidden things, but warns that his answers are deceptive unless he is constrained.
Read entry 44 on page 36 of the 1916 edition
Appearance
A stock dove with a hoarse but subtle voice.
Topics attributed to this entry
- Senses
- Theft
- Hidden things
Reading this entry
Shax, also Shaz or Shass, is a stock dove with a hoarse but subtle voice. The marquis is credited with depriving people of sight, hearing, or understanding, stealing royal money, fetching horses or other things, and revealing certain hidden objects. The text oddly gives a 1,200-year interval for the return of stolen money. That detail should be reported as written, not smoothed into a promise of ordinary recovery.
The passage warns that Shax lies unless placed in a triangle and says his hidden-object knowledge excludes things guarded by wicked spirits. It gives familiars only “sometimes,” another qualification easy to lose in a list of powers. He rules 30 legions and has a seal. The many limits and conditions are what make this entry more precise than an unrestricted claim of theft or divination.
Read entry 44 on page 36 of the 1916 edition or compare the 1904 transcription.
A closer reading of entry 44
What the numbered text says
Shax’s stock-dove form and subtle, hoarse voice introduce a passage dominated by loss and unreliable recovery. Sight, hearing, or understanding can be taken away in the text’s claim; royal money and other objects may be removed or fetched. Its odd 1,200-year return period is attached to the stolen money, not to a return to heaven. The warning about false answers qualifies the promise to disclose hidden things and should travel with it.
About the printed seal
Seal 44 is reproduced on frontispiece 4 under the entry’s number. Three printed name forms point to the same emblem. No part of the plate is identified by the text as a dove, coin, eye, or ear.
Compare another entry
Compare entry 34: Furfur. Furfur is another entry with a truthfulness condition, but his claims concern storms, love, and secret or divine answers. Shax’s misleading speech is attached to theft, impaired senses, and hidden things. The catalogue repeats the warning while changing its context.