April Anomalies A-Z: Asmodeus

On February 18, 1865 – two months almost to the day before his untimely death, President Abraham Lincoln received a strange letter warning him of his imminent assassination and, in a post-script, sharing a lewd and completely inappropriate joke about farmers’ daughters in Kentucky.  The letter was signed Asmodeus, King of Hell, and Commander of the Infernal Legions. 

He is the King of Demons, the demon of wrath, the demon of anger, the destroyer of worlds, Ashmedai, Asmodée, Sidonay, Asmodevs, the demonic offspring of a succubus and King David, Commander of the 72 Legions of Hell.  He is the King of Hell, answering only to Lucifer himself.  If he appears to you he will come three times.  First he will appear as a handsome man walking with limp.  In his second guise he comes with the head of a bull. When he appears the third and final time he will have the head of a furious ram breathing fire.  He carries with him at all times a lance and the banner of hell.

The letter was deemed a perverse joke and, along with numerous other discarded scraps of paper, was burned in one of the White House fireplaces.  The room immediately filled with a rancid, oily smoke. Contemporary reports say that it smelled of rotted fish and camphor. The entire building had to be evacuated and three servants were overcome by the smoke.  They died within the next several hours. 

Fish oil can be extracted from the livers of fish by rapidly heating them to over 400 degrees.  Or, in a slower, but more complete method, by preserving the livers until they have fermented and allowing the oils to separate naturally.  When the oil is poured over a hot brazier, it will produce the same thick cloud of foul smelling smoke that filled the White House that February afternoon.  This is the only way to ward off the demon Asmodeus.

Apocryphal Tobit burned fish livers and hearts to drive away Asmodeus, the worst of demons.  He fled to Egypt where, for a time, he was bound by the angel, Raphael.  This is how Tobit survived in the face of Asmodeus’ assaults.  President Lincoln, however, was not so fortunate. 

This is part of April Anomalies A-Z, a creative writing exercise and not intended to be an altogether accurate picture of the creature described above.  Though, Abraham Lincoln DID, in fact, receive a letter on February 18, 1865 from “Asmodeus.”  That part is true.