Monday, April the 27th, 2009

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Seven Stints

First Stint

1. Dragon: roars, opens its mouth; 2. Bird: twitters, a small door in the tower opens, the bird looks out, flaps its wings and opens its beak; 3. Stork: rapidly opens and closes its beak; 4. Prince: strikes the dragon with his sword; 5. Ghost: appears suddenly from behind the tower and wails; 6. Young Boy: strikes the bell with a hammer.

Second Stint

1. Dragon : turns into a ghost; 2. Bird : caws, revolves at a terrifying speed; 3. Albatross : emerges from beneath a bejewelled ermine cloak; 4. King : distributes alms to hobbledehoys; 5. Sedgwick : does Sedgwicky things with a thimble and a balloon; 6. Myrmidon : strikes the bell with a towel.

Third Stint

1. King : has penny on tongue, lifts instep, fells wrongdoer; 2. Stork : dissembles; 3. Prince : falls through trap door; 4. Ghost : shakes its manacles; 5. Idiot : collects drool in a beaker; 6. Grunty Man : swipes at the bell with his big hairy paw.

Fourth Stint

1. Dragon : blasts metallic fire through a hoop; 2. Duck : peeps out from behind tower and clucks; 3. Nixon : parades dog in front of bell; 4. King : lollops about; 5. Bird : cries out, eerie, eerie!; 6. Ghost : makes bell resound with a blast of icy breath.

Fifth Stint

1. Prince : shovels coal into a brazier; 2. Potter : strains lettuce in riddle; 3. Stork : flaps wings at pig; 4. Pig : flaps ears at stork; 5. Baron : spreads butter on cracker; 6. Dragon : strikes bell with spoon.

Sixth Stint

1. Albatross : slumps in horror; 2. Yoko Ono : waves napkin; 3. Ghost : elicits Lovecraftian shudders from passers-by; 4. Prince : resembles the man with the twisted lip in the Conan Doyle story; 5. Has-Been : writhes, gibbers, bleeds on rug; 6. Pig : bashes bell with trotter.

Seventh Stint

1. Baron : engraves name on skylight; 2. Bird : suffers pangs; 3. Dragon : smothers Nixon with embroidered pillow; 4. Idiot : abandoned on platform of oil rig; 5. Ghost : all tucked up and fast asleep; 6. King : melts down bell and fashions it into a crown.

(Many thanks to OSM for drawing my attention to this.)