The FEDERAL
From LOCUS SOLUS by Raymond Roussel:
…We were now walking along a steeply rising avenue. Halfway up, we saw a curious old statue of a naked child in a deep stone niche at the side of the path. A small, withered, ancient plant rose from the middle of the right hand, where it had once taken root.
This is the “Federal” with the Semen-Contra that Ibn Battuta saw in the center of Timbuktu.
I had been close friends with the famous explorer Echenoz, who, in his early youth, had undertaken an African expedition as far as Timbuktu.
When Ibn Battuta arrived alone in Timbuktu, a silent sense of unease hung over the land. At that time, a woman, barely twenty years old, ruled this fragmented and hostile country.
Her fits had dire consequences for the natives, given the absolute power the queen wielded, as she issued senseless orders and multiplied the number of death sentences without cause during these moments.
In the marketplace of Timbuktu stood a kind of fetish to which popular belief attributed great power.
As the ruler's current state of delusion steadily worsened, it was decided to ask the earthen statue to quickly banish the plague.
That same evening, a terrible hurricane raged across the country, without damaging the Federal.
Just when they were about to despair of the Federal, one morning the fetish revealed the sprouting seed of a small plant inside his right hand.
Growing rapidly thanks to the alternating rain and blazing sun, the plant produced tiny pale yellow blossoms, which were carefully gathered and, once dried, presented to the ruler.
She recovered from it, and the country became rich through its agriculture.
Echenoz had the Federal Government create an exact replica, which he bequeathed to me after his death, in remembrance of the interest he had shown in the old fetish.