Pulp and Tendon-cord

Courbet was the Witnesses’ first name, not that it mattered much if you had a given name, as Witnesses went by their Witness-given names, which were chosen by the head Witness, a man called Gibbs. Gibbs was the first Witness to witness the stigmata of the cross, and as was common in those who had had the witness was prone to vassalage and lighting candles, each lit with the one preceding, an antecedent chain of fire, burnt wick and charred moths’ wings. Gibbs wore a Witnesses’ smock banded round the waist, then folded under then over then under then tied in a double-knot that looped round the flare-point of the hipbone. He, Gibbs, never wore socks, preferring friar’s sandals, which he bought from the harridan’s sister, who had taken to tanning calf’s hide with vinegar lye she made from pulp and tendon-cord.