"The Long Porter's Tale" by Lord Dunsany

"Long porter" doesn't seem to be a specific thing? So I guess it's just a porter who is "long", i.e. tall? I guess? It's a very strange term, to be sure.

So what's a porter? Obviously we're not talking about the alcoholic beverage here, no, in this context a porter is a person stationed at a door or gate to admit or assist those entering. There are several other jobs of the same title, but in this story it is this job.

ling: I would have thought this to be calluna vulgaris, a.k.a. heather, but then he says "ling and heather and bracken", suggesting ling is not heather. If you know what it might be, please leave a comment.

The picture used is of the Potala Palace in Lhassa, by Royonx, used here under the Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal Public Domain Dedication (https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/deed.en).

Lhassa is the highest city in the world, so it's the best analog I could think of for Tong Tong Tarrup. Plus Tibetan architecture is very unique in the world, and for most people it is not a familiar style, so it is going to look unworldly to many people. Although the Potala Palace is probably famous enough that a lot of people would recognize it, or at least find this image familiar even if they couldn't specifically put their finger on it, but still, it's a great picture of a great structure.

And would you believe, at my work, there's a project manager who is actually from Tibet! Born and raised there! At a previous job I had a co-worker who was from Nepal. What are the odds, for being in the USA, that I have worked with anybody from these Himalaya nations, much less more than one? *boggle*

Although the more alert among you will note this picture does include some trees, and we're not suppose to see any more green plants by this point in the journey, so small inconsistency there. Oops.

To follow along: https://www.gutenberg.org/files/13821/13821-h/13821-h.htm#porter