Tsuguto Sumihara is way too nice...or rather, was too nice. He lost his life in a bus accident after being bullied into giving up his seat, and somehow was reincarnated into a mining camp! Not only that, the mine is at the base of an impossibly tall tower. It's there he meets the ram--horned Loulier, his first friend in this bizarre land. But when she's bullied, Tsuguto finds that maybe he wasn't reincarnated without powers after all...and that, if he's to have a future in this strange new land, Loulier's just the partner he needs.
Tsuguto and Loulier, his sheepfolk friend, emerge from the dungeon of Belg triumphant, earning them the epithets, "The Evil-Eyed King" and "Shoveler" respectively. They immediately become the talk of the town, and it doesn't take long before Loulier is abducted by a gang of slave traders! In his search for his missing partner, Tsuguto is pressured into cooperating with Loulier's original creditor and slave owner, the Rezeheim Trading Company. And as if the search couldn't get any harder, he encounters a notorious Red Name, known as one of the "Three Crimson Calamities." Tsuguto will first have to survive this harbinger of devastation if he is to save Loulier!
After beating the dungeon in the mining town of Belg, Tsuguto and Loulier earn the epithets, "Evil-Eyed King" and "Shoveler" respectively. Loulier is soon captured by the slavers of the Milliard Trading Company and Tsuguto rushes close behind to save his partner. But also in pursuit is the notorious Red Name and so-called "Crimson Calamity", Sephina. When everyone witnesses her sheer destructive power, the plucky heroes have little choice but to join forces with unlikely allies...
Sumihara Tsuguto was once an ordinary seventeen-year-old, but not anymore. Now, he and the sheepfolk girl Loulier form an adventuring squad in a world completely unfamiliar to him. The duo are separated when Loulier is caught by Danaroot and his band of thugs and thrown into the dreaded "Trash Pit." Determined to find Loulier, he leaps in after her, and he is about to find out exactly why none have ever returned from it alive...
The evil eye--the power to inflict illness, damage to property, or even death simply by gazing at or praising someone--is among the most pervasive and powerful folk beliefs in the Indo-European and Semitic world. It is also one of the oldest, judging from its appearance in the Bible and in Sumerian texts five thousand years old. Remnants of the superstition persist today when we drink toasts, tip waiters, and bless sneezers. To avert the evil eye, Muslim women wear veils, baseball players avoid mentioning a no-hitter in progress, and traditional Jews say their business or health is "not bad" (rather than "good"). Though by no means universal, the evil eye continues to be a major factor in the behavior of millions of people living in the Mediterranean and Arab countries, as well as among immigrants to the Americas. This widespread superstition has attracted the attention of many scholars, and the twenty-one essays gathered in this book represent research from diverse perspectives: anthropology, classics, folklore studies, ophthalmology, psychiatry, psychoanalysis, sociology, and religious studies. Some essays are fascinating reports of beliefs about the evil eye, from India and Iran to Scotland and Slovak-American communities; others analyze the origin, function, and cultural significance of this folk belief from ancient times to the present day. Editor Alan Dundes concludes the volume by proffering a comprehensive theoretical explanation of the evil eye. Anyone who has ever knocked on wood to ward off misfortune will enjoy this generous sampling of evil eye scholarship, and may never see the world through the same eyes again.
The memoir of an eleven year old girl awakening to physical maturity, religious consciousness and an intense curiosity about the mysteries of hasidic spirituality and Kabbalah. It is a rare window into the world of a hasidic girl in pre-World War I Eastern Europe.
Contains the first three stories in the Tiger's Eye Mystery series: DEAD EYE, PRIVATE EYE, & prequel short story TRAVELLING EYE WARNING: Dangerous books!! Beware of "I laughed so hard I almost peed a little"* and "I fell out of bed laughing"* consequences! - * 5 STAR reader reviews DEAD EYE: For Jack Shepherd, tiger shape-shifter and former soldier, life is heading for a dead end. Dead End, Florida, to be exact. When he learns that he inherited a combination pawn shop/private investigation agency from his favorite uncle, Jack's first job is to solve his uncle's murder. Because sometimes it takes a tiger's eye to see the truth. Tess Callahan, who owns half a pawn shop in the strangest town in Florida, didn't expect Jack to show up and be so very enticing. And exciting. And annoyingly over-protective. But when yet another dead body shows up on her doorstep, it's time to take action. And if she has to team up with a sexy tiger shape-shifter to do it, well, that's just a bonus. Welcome to Dead End, Florida, where Bigfoot keeps a winter home. And welcome to the Tiger's Eye Mysteries! PRIVATE EYE: When Tess Callahan, new owner of Dead End Pawn, meets her grandmother the banshee, life is about to get complicated. When Tess's partner Jack Shepherd, tiger shapeshifter and P.I., gets involved to help them investigate a banshee-kidnapping spree, life is about to get deadly. Because nothing is ever simple in Dead End, Florida, and sometimes it takes a tiger's eye to see the truth. TRAVELLING EYE: A shapeshifter heads home...and gets caught up in the mystery: Who shot Santa? When tiger shapeshifter and ex-rebel soldier Jack Shepherd learns about his uncle's death, he fires up his Harley and heads across country to go home to Dead End, Florida. Along the way, a beautiful woman pulls him into a deadly mystery involving a missing Santa and a race to save two lives. But it's Jack, and he never takes life seriously, so the laughs are flying as fast as the clues. Now that he's on the case, Jack won't be stopped, and he won't give up, because sometimes it takes a tiger's eye to see the truth. *** Warning: This paranormal mystery series contains magic, shapeshifters, humor, banshees, magical ballerinas, GYSTers, a taxidermied alligator, smugglers, goats, thugs, assassins, witches, gunshots, bad singing, terrible parking, the FBI, swamp commandos, tigers, special agents, flirting, belly laughs, comedy, and a pawn shop.
