The Geographer's Library

RAINBOW DUST AND
PEACOCK’ S TAIL
The peacock’s tail, the rainbow: men smarter than I held faith that these symbolize
the coming rebirth, and the inherent inconstancy of the new, which
having replaced what is dead does not yet know what it is. Yet must I observe
that rainbows are more often prismatic, brief, and visually incomplete than
they are the arcing bands we see represented; and peacocks are exceptionally
ill-tempered birds.
—boudewijn ten huyten,
The Arch of St. Innocent’s, or Flamel’s Folly
November 18, 1986
Aubrey College
Oxford
To [NAME DELETED], Commander: Soviet Navy, Baltic Fleet
Haapsalu, Estonia
I trust you will forgive the long silence between my receipt of your
instructions and this, my proud announcement that I have, at last and
only in part, succeeded. What you requested was not easy. It required
patience, determination, and large amounts of research and travel. As
you know, I grow exceptionally nervous and physically unwell whenever
I travel southeast of London or northwest of Wales; I therefore feared,
perhaps beyond reasonable measure, my recent journey to Gyumri and
208