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PodCastle 394: Ogres of East Africa
* Author : Sofia Samatar
* Narrators : Khaalidah Muhammad-Ali and Troy Wiggins
* Host : Rachael K. Jones
* Audio Producer : Peter Wood
*
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First published in Long Hidden: Speculative Fiction from the Margins of History from Crossed Genres.
Rated PG
Ogres of East Africa
by Sofia Samatar
2. Ba’ati
A grave-dweller from the environs of the ancient capital of Kush. The ba’ati possesses a skeletal figure and a morbid sense of humor. Its great pleasure is to impersonate human beings: if your dearest friend wears a cloak and claims to suffer from a cold, he may be a ba’ati in disguise.
[Mary arrives every day precisely at the second hour after dawn. I am curious about this reserved and encyclopedic woman. It amuses me to write these reflections concerning her in the margins of the catalogue I am composing for my employer. He will think this writing fly-tracks, or smudges from my dirty hands (he persists in his opinion that I am always dirty). As I write I see Mary before me as she presents herself each morning, in her calico dress, seated on an overturned crate.