The portion of the Panoplia Propheticus available to the general public at the Bene Gesserit Library is composed of three parts: the "Shari-a," which contains the rituals which were seeded; the "Shari-b," which links the rituals, superstitions, and myths to their specific B.G. purposes; and the "Canto et Respondu," a collection of invocation rites, benedictions, and litanies, which takes its name from its first item. All Bene Gesserit novices were required to master the patterned catch phrases which would identify the superstitions and rituals embedded in a given culture, therefore allowing them to immediately acclimate themselves to that culture. They also had to learn the Canto et Respondu for each patterning. Examples of catch phrases which identify superstition patterns are as follows: "Que sera, sera," "The thing must take its course," "You can't keep a good man down," "The coming of a Reverend Mother to free you," "Behind every great man is a good woman," "Time will tell," "If you want to know, ask a popcorn mavin," and "You had to have been there."
In essence, the Panoplia Propheticus presents a science of religion employed by the Bene Gesserit through their "missionary" branch. One puzzling piece of information was recently discovered about the collection. Although the Missionaria Protectiva supposedly had been disbanded during the Imperium of Leto II, compelling evidence indicates that the Panoplia Propheticus collection in the Bene Gesserit Archives is still open to the Sisterhood and active.
J.A.C.
Further references: BENE GESSERIT entries; MISSIONARIA PROTECTIVA; Panoplia Propheticus, vol. I-III (available only through application to the B.G. Sisterhood); R.M. Marcellus Irulan Moiam, "A Survey of Ancient Bene Gesserit Cultural Maintenance Texts," Archives Quarterly Review 14:26-53; R.M. Cassius Ida Treac, "New Views of an Old System," Archives Quarterly Review 15: 199-253; R.M. C.I. Treac and Ahna Judehic, The Roots of Tomorrow (Wallach: Soror); Pyer Briizvair, ed., Summa of Ancient Belief and Practice (Bolchef: Collegium Tarno).
PARACOMPASS
Direction-finding device of Zensunni origin adapted for use on Arrakis. The paracompass is a plastic cylinder from 5 to 7 cm in diameter and 5 to 7 mm thick. The clear exterior case can be separated to expose the dial face, the powerpack and the reset mechanism. The flat, calibrated dial is mounted above the powerpack, which uses its parabichlorotolene (para-B) crystals to filter and amplify minute magnetic fields. The reset mechanism is used to "lock on" the chosen force.
The paracompass is an adaptation of ancient direction-finding devices. Sources in the Rakis Hoard, cross-referenced through the Guild Libraries, trace its origin to Harmonthep, whose magnetic field was notoriously "random." There the Zensunni manufactured the first crude paracompass, a liquid-filled, heavy, and awkward instrument. The design evolved as the Zensunni moved, until the magnetic characteristics of Arrakis, coupled with the static disruptions caused by Coriolis storms, fostered the precise simplicity demonstrated in paracompass examples recovered from sietch sites on Rakis.
Working examples of the paracompass show almost no deterioration of the melange-based plastic casing. When the casing has been broken and the powerpack exposed, the para-B has degenerated into a large volume of pumicelike material. As anticipated, the chemical combination of para-B with moisture and small traces of spice creates a fast-expanding and quick-stabilizing foam.
Powerpacks used para-B crystals as the ring-shaped core of a special conductive coil made up of discs separated by insulators. The crystals are carried through the drilled centers of the discs. The characteristic stable-ion properties of the crystals allow them to detect magnetic fields. They respond by generating electronic impulses which are transferred to the conductive disc around the active area and then sent via microconnectors to the minicoils that wrap the connectors. These coils cause the dial face to rotate, giving a direction setting. The dial is calibrated in standard radian increments. The 0-2 radian mark is polarized to be attracted by the minicoils.
The reset system is ingeniously simple. It lets the user select the magnetic "pull" that is to be the reference point, and then read directions relative to that source. The reset button, when depressed, seats in one of the notches that surround the rotating powerpack. The dial can still rotate freely relative to the powerpack. When the dial is properly lined up with a known magnetic "pull," the user releases the reset button so that the powerpack and dial will rotate together from then on.
The powerpack's crystals remain sensitized to the alignment of forces at the moment the powerpack is released to rotate. The level of intensity produced by a particular "pull" remains embedded in the crystalline "memory" until the paracompass is reset the next time. If the user had set his compass to the magnetic "pull" source he had intended, he could count on reading accurate relative directions from his paracompass until the next time it was reset.
The Fremen used their paracompasses to maintain their bearings in spite of sandstorms and dune shifts. Children were trained in compass use from an early age, and learned the relative positions of various magnetic sources because their survival would often depend on their accuracy with the instrument. The Kitab al-Ibar tag, "Know always that which pulls you; a human led blindly is easily led astray," is testimony to the importance of the "pull." Everyone who could walk the sand possessed and mastered the paracompass.
Outline knowledge of major magnetic sources, and even a rough calibration of their absolute strengths, was available on some of the sinkcharts published in villages. In spite of some drifting since the Imperial era, the references remain approximately accurate. Extant working models of the paracompass have been tested and found to work faultlessly.
J.L.G.
Further references: FREMKIT; Anon., Kitab al-Ibar, Rakis Ref. Cat. 1-Z288.
PENTASHIELD
A security device produced by special application of field-generator effects. Pentashields were localized planar fields suitable for enclosed areas like doorways or passageways. They made use of five adjacent cyclically polarized fields. As used in escapeways or pru-doors, pentashields allowed the passage only of people wearing a properly coded dissembler. The large, complex, and bulky field generators needed to produce a pentashield made them expensive and relatively rare.
Further references: HOLTZMAN EFFECT; PRU-DOOR.
PROCÈS VERBAL
Legal proceedings and the threat thereof played a large part in the crises of the Imperium, but none more so than that of the procès verbal, which figured prominently in several crucial events at the beginning of the Atreides dynasty. Bergen Perobler's "History of Procès-Verbaux" (3 Quadrant law Review, Ser. 73:35, 1147-76), the most original article on the history of jurisprudence written in this generation, is the basis of the present extract.
The difficulty for the legal historian began with the Rakis Finds: many of the crystals refer to the procès verbal, at first understood as a semiformal report alleging a crime against the Imperium (as in, e.g., Stilgar's Commentary), yet this definition was immediately objected to by the first legal experts to study the translations. Realizing that in every culture legal terminology has erred on the side of over-precision, these experts asked how something could "fall between a loose verbal allegation and a formal charge of crime" (Mahmut al-Saudin, District Magistrate's Procedures, 353; Rakis Ref. Cat. 11-R3433). In all societies, it was argued, a charge of crime is made or is not made. In the legal sense, no status is afforded to mutterings, rumors, and the like.
Moreover, research into the most ancient meanings of procès verbal failed to illuminate the matter. It is now established beyond question that the term originated in Terran Franzh, yet there (see Perobler, 1150) its meaning was precise: "an authenticated written statement of facts in support of a criminal or other charge." Perobler therefore faced a point of law that seemed anomalous in the history of the Imperium, whose members were, as a rule, scrupulous to the point of fanaticism in observing even the minutest of formal legalities: a term of precise meaning had somehow been deliberately changed to cover the most amorphous of situations, yet the whole legal system used th
e term so familiarly that none of them bothered to define its new meaning, apparently assuming it would be completely understood.
And there was another problem: despite the adjective customarily applied to it — "loose," "informal," "semiformal" — the mere mention of a procès verbal was terrifying. Siridar-baron Vladimir Harkonnen was momentarily panicked by the hint that a procès verbal might have been brought against him (Count Hasimir Fenring, Confidential Imperial Report, 10, 192.8.13; Rakis Ref. Cat. 3-L723); similarly, Alia's procès verbal against the Fedaykin drove that battle-hardened group underground (although in this case, since Alia was Imperial Regent, her report — to herself— was merely a stratagem to mask a tyrannical action). If the procès verbal was not a formal charge of crime, why should it have been so feared? Many argued erroneously that the phrase had been mistranslated, since the worst that could succeed such a report would be increased surveillance of the person against whom the procès verbal had been made.
The insight that led to Perobler's solution to these problems was his assumption that people like Harkonnen and Alia, while aware of the power of words, would worry more about actions. He therefore abandoned the universally held notion that the procès verbal was a matter of legal procedure, and instead hypothesized that it was a tort — a wrongful action. Yet clearly, he reasoned, the procès verbal was something one said; therefore, for words to be actions, they must be a special kind of words called "performatives."
Performatives have been studied in classes in elementary logic since the time of the ancient Terran philosopher named J.L. Austin (probably the St. Augustine quoted by Lady Jessica): performatives are those words which, when spoken, constitute an action. For example, when the words "I promise to behave myself" are spoken under the appropriate circumstances, they are in fact a promise; when one says, "I bet you five sovereigns," the words do not describe a bet, they are a bet. Other examples would include marriage vows, bequests, and the like. Hence, in most legal systems for thousands of years, a report of a performative statement has been admissible as evidence, since it is regarded not as a report of what someone said (for it would then be inadmissible as hearsay) but as evidence of an action, of what someone did. Following this hunch, Perobler began to investigate records of the Summa Imperial Court, searching for decisions establishing performatives with legal consequences.
As legal historians now know, he found such a decision (Imperium vs. Meljacanz, S.I.C. Sidir XX, 9670). Sidir XX, sixty-third Emperor of House Corrino, had proclaimed a law forbidding false accusations of treason the year before. Meljacanz was a merchant who had spread certain rumors about a competitor, Agnan. To his surprise, Meljacanz found himself not in civil court answering a charge of slander but in criminal court being prosecuted under the newly enacted law. On appeal, the Summa Court held that Meljacanz's words constituted an accusation in the procès verbal sense. Although Agnan had not been present when the words were spoken, his witnesses had, and their testimony was not hearsay, ruled the court, but an account of what Meljacanz had done. His accusation, they ruled, had been performative.
Within a century, this ruling had been perverted from a safeguard against slander to a subtle means of oppression. Under an imperial law of long standing, if A charged B with speaking treason, B could refuse to take the witness stand, claiming the ancient protection against self-incrimination. Now that the Summa Court had unwittingly laid the groundwork, A would charge himself with speaking treason (by means of an anonymous procès verbal; such documents, through some twisted humor in legal tradition, were usually ascribed to "Agnan, whereabouts unknown"). In defending himself against the charge, A would then summon B as a witness to his innocence. If B refused to take the stand, A would petition the court to declare B a reluctant witness. As such, B could not refuse to testify without risking contempt of court, the sentence for which lasted until B purged himself of contempt by taking the stand, and from which there was no appeal. Nor could B, if he took the stand, object to the presence of a truthtrance observer.
In one case Perobler uncovered, a victim remained jailed on contempt charges for sixty-eight years, dying in prison on Salusa Secundus. After B had been removed from the picture, A could then demand to be confronted by his accuser; since "Agnan" could not be found (since no such person existed), the court would not dismiss the case — such would allow B to be freed — but rather would suspend proceedings until "Agnan" was located, releasing A on his own recognizance. The notorious Imperial informer Elson Ketrer had been so released 201 times when he was assassinated in 10075.
We can now much more clearly appreciate Baron Harkonnen's fear. Count Fenring was indirectly threatening to have such an anonymous procès verbal drawn up against himself (being in fact if not in form unsigned, such an accusation richly deserved the adjective "loose"). When brought before the court, Fenring would then have called Harkonnen as a defense witness, catching the Baron in this dilemma: if Harkonnen refused to testify, he could be jailed on contempt; if he testified before a truthtrance observer, he would certainly have revealed more than enough to subject himself to a whole spectrum of Imperial Charges.
Despite this brilliant and intuitive piece of scholarship, Perobler felt that what he had found still did not completely explain the situation of Alia's procès verbal. Surely she could not have called all the Fedaykin as defense witnesses; that line of action would have been too much for even the complacent courts of her regency. As Perobler discovered, Alia directed that the procès verbal charging crimes against the Imperium be drawn up not by "Agnan" but against him, and signed simply, "a Fedaykin." She then directed the court to bring an indictment against the individual Fedaykin who (so the fiction went) had made the accusation. All Fedaykin were summoned to establish who that anonymous (indeed, nonexistent) accuser had been. Alia thus took serious advantage of the comic lament that only with the procès verbal could both plaintiff and defendant be guilty.
In running down these facts, Perobler stumbled across one of history's most savage ironies. Alia's procès verbal against the Fedaykin was, of course, aimed indirectly against her mother. In countering the threat, Lady Jessica sent a simple message to Stilgar: "My daughter is possessed and must be put to the trial" (Stilgar's Chronicles, III, 92). With this short message, Lady Jessica played on the deep revulsion the Fremen felt for possession by spirits, and at the same time included a reply for Alia alone. Both the pre-born Alia and her mother, the Bene Gesserit-trained Reverend Mother Jessica, had the experience of all their predecessors available to their conscious minds. Both could therefore have recognized that in one of the ancestor tongues of Galach, the official Imperial language, the first use of procès verbal was in the title of a book. Although only that title has survived, it is nevertheless instructive: A Relation of the Devill Balams Departure out of the Body of the Mother Prioresse of the Ursuline Nuns of Loudun,... with the Extract of the procès verball, touching the Exorcismes wrought at Loudun (1635). Lady Jessica was certainly aware of the fitness of this coincidence; whether Alia knew but disregarded it in her choice of legal maneuver even Perobler does not venture to guess.
W.E.M.
PRU-DOOR
The idiomatic term for "prudence door" or prudence barrier; a pentashield situated in a passageway or escapeway intended to halt or slow pursuers. These pentashields allowed passage only to people wearing a properly coded dissembler. They were used during the late Imperial period in hidden escapeways and, as a safety feature, in gladiatorial arenas. Their cost and difficulty of maintenance limited their use to the very wealthy. The harsh realities of Imperial culture forced even the most powerful rulers to employ such sophisticated safety precautions.
Further references: HOLTZMAN EFFECT; PENTASHIELD.
PSEUDO-SHIELD
A sabotage device designed for use only on Arrakis. It produced an unusable field that emitted radiation like a true defensive shield, driving sandworms berserk. Nothing could stop a worm that had been aroused by this maddeningly painful device. The huge c
reature would attack and destroy the pseudo-shield and all nearby objects.
Further references: HOLTZMAN EFFECT; SEMI-SHIELD; PENTASHIELD.
PUNDI RICE
A cereal indigenous to Caladan; the staple food of that planet, first brought to the planet Arrakis by House Atreides. Rice is a variety of annual grass, grown in areas where sufficient water is available to submerge the land. Rice is thrown by hand onto the ground, and after twenty-five to thirty days, seedlings are transplanted to fields which are then submerged. The crop is harvested by hand.
Since rice requires so much water, its only availability on Arrakis was as an import. It was subsequently genetically engineered to shorten the growing period and need less water. After the ecological transformation of Arrakis by Leto II, a new breed of pundi rice became a staple food of that planet.
Over the course of the century during which this transformation took place, pundi rice had taken on a significance beyond that of food. As Muad'Dib's memory became sacred, the Fremen sought a way to properly commemorate the Kwisatz Haderach. Since rice was so scarce, it was chosen to symbolize the scarcity of the single most sought-after possession on the planet: water. Pundi rice was chosen not only because it had arrived on Arrakis with Muad'Dib's House Atreides, but also because of its slightly teardrop shape.
The Fremen believed the teardrop to represent the giving of water to the dead: a precious gift to those who cannot use it. Pundi rice came to symbolize the giving of water to the living, to celebrate the "shortening of the way."
The ceremony which evolved, in which "the shortening of the way" came to refer to the shorter time needed to make Arrakis a temperate planet, was held annually because it took a year to collect enough rice to provide each sietch member with the ritual mouthful. The ceremony itself singled out four people, traditionally those who had distinguished themselves in some way during the year.
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