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My case was a transparent plastic tube of perhaps right feet
square, with ventilation holes and a sliding plastic door. There was no lock on
the door and thus I could come and go as I pleased.
Inside the cube there were canisters of Mul-Fungus, a bowl, a ladle, a
wooden-bladed Fungus-Knife; a wooden headed Fungus-Mallet; a convenient tube of
Mul-Pellets, which discharged its contents one at a time following my depressing
a lever in the bottom of the tube; and a large, inverted jar of water, by means
of which an attached, somewhat shallow, watering pan was kept fitted.
In one corner of the caste there was a large, circular padding a few inches deep
of soft, rough cut, reddish moss which was not uncomfortable and was changed
daily.
Adjoining the cube, reached from the cube by sliding plastic panels, were a
lavatory and washing-booth.
The washing-boot was remarkably like the showers with which we are familiar
except that one may not regulate the flow of fluid. One turns on the fluid by
stepping into the booth and its amount and temperature are controlled
automatically. I had naturally supposed the fluid to be simply water which it
closely resembled in appearance, and one I had tried to fill my bowl for the
morning meal there, rather than ladling the water out of the water pan. Choking,
my mouth burning, I spat it out in the booth.
"It is fortunate," said Misk, 'that you did not swallow it for the
washing fluid contains a cleansing addictive that is highly toxic to human
physiology."
Priest-Kings
page 110- 111
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