My wife, she's a gypsy. She tells you different, but yes, she's a gypsy. True as day. We go by my family name so to avoid the questions from the officers that come to question our village. She's just fair enough so the genteel families up north aren't suspicious. This is important because you see, if I didn't tell you about my wife, you wouldn't believe.
This thing. It's real. Manticore. It hunts the deserts down south. Beyond Andalusia. My wife, her uncle Razek saw them. He saw one take a horse right out of a caravan. Just took it and ran. The brothers, my wife's uncle and his two brothers (God rest them) shot at it, and it laughed. It laughed at them! I said "Hyenas?" They said no, no they call it Manticore.
See, Manticore, he's this Persian man. Persian man long long ago, before Moses, who has been cursed, so him, his whole family, they are all like this! Teeth go forever down their gullet, scales, hair of old women, scorpion tail, all of it, just like in Revelations, only no judgement day, right?
"Ha!" I said. I didn't believe my wife's uncle Razek. Who would, right? Gypsies, they tell stories! But no, he says, and he pulls a box out of a drawer in his wagon. he shows me this box. Decorated clarinet box. I say "Ok, what is it." He says they find the horse, what's left of the horse, hooves and guts by a river. They find the bones a little farther and they pull the teeth out of the bones. One of his brothers; Vladim, I think gets sick from touching the teeth. His hands itch. No, they sting, like jellyfish sting. Worse than bees, with boils. So they use tongs. That brother Vladim gets a fever and dies seven days later (God rest his soul!) The two other brothers take Vladim and the teeth they put in a in a sack. No, first they put fat? Something like fat. Sheep wool? Something like wax to stop the poison on the teeth. They take his brother home. From touching the teeth, his brother rots alive. Vladim cannot be saved by medicine, not by prayer. The curse, this venom is so strong. They never see Manticore again.
I say this cannot be! Razek, he opens the case and what do I see? They look like tusks. Tusks made of white metal. They are as long as my fingers. He says don't touch them. He says the poison on them. The venom, it's still good to this day. He uses it to etch his tin work. Just a drop in a glass of milk and he can etch his tin all day. Turns the milk sour and red as wine, he says.
Stay out of the southern deserts! Grace of God go with you if you don't!