A Strange Manuscript Found in a Copper Cylinder · Chapter
XIII: The Awful Mista Kosek explained
The dark season begins, and the Kosekin prepare to celebrate the Mista Kosek, or 'Feast of Darkness.' The narrator, curious, asks Almah to accompany him, but she reacts with horror and refuses to explain.
What happens
The dark season begins, and the Kosekin prepare to celebrate the Mista Kosek, or 'Feast of Darkness.' The narrator, curious, asks Almah to accompany him, but she reacts with horror and refuses to explain. He later enters a cavern being decorated for the feast and witnesses a horrific sight, causing him to faint. Almah nurses him back to consciousness, and the Kohen shows great kindness. The narrator is left in despair, unable to reconcile the people's generosity with their unspeakable practices.
Themes in this chapter
Inverted Social Order
The Kosekin's ruling passion is self-denial and hatred of self; they compete to help others, and the narrator and Almah are considered owners of the city.
Death and Sacrifice
The Mista Kosek involves a horrific sacrifice; the narrator is haunted by the thought of being reserved for a similar fate.
Colonial Exploration and Otherness
The narrator and Almah are aliens in a land with incomprehensible customs; Almah longs for her native land, highlighting cultural dislocation.
Characters to notice
- The Narrator
Witnesses the Mista Kosek preparations and faints from horror; struggles to understand the Kosekin's dual nature.
- Almah
Warns the narrator not to attend the Mista Kosek; nurses him after his fainting spell; expresses despair and longing for her homeland.
- The Kohen
Shows kind and sympathetic attention to the narrator after his collapse; plays and sings for him; avoids mentioning the Mista Kosek.
- The Kosekin
Busy decorating the cavern for the Mista Kosek; exhibit friendly rivalry in helping one another; described as kindhearted yet bloodthirsty.
Key passages
“I asked one of the bystanders what this might be, and he told me that it was the Mista Kosek , which means the “Feast of Darkness,” from which I gathered that they were about to celebrate the advent of the dark season with a feast.”
The narrator learns that the cavern is being prepared for the Mista Kosek, a feast to welcome the dark season.
Introduces the central event of the chapter.
“Their ruling passion is the hatred of self, and therefore they are eager to confer benefits on others.”
Almah explains that the Kosekin's primary motivation is self-denial, which drives them to be generous.
Key insight into the inverted social order of the Kosekin.
“It was a sight of horror—awful, tremendous, unspeakable! For a moment I stood motionless staring; then all the cavern seemed to swim around me. I reeled, I fell, and sank into nothingness.”
The narrator is overwhelmed by the horrific sight in the cavern and faints.
Climactic moment of the chapter; the nature of the horror is left ambiguous.