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Summary Of By The Water's Of Babylon By Stephen Vincent Benet

269 Words2 Pages
In the Hill People’s society in “By the Water’s of Babylon” by Stephen Vincent Benet, knowledge signifies power. Only priests possess knowledge; therefore, a reader must be able to infer that priests imperiously hold the power. John describes the knowledge secured by the priests saying, “I was taught the chants and spells--I was taught how to stop the running of blood from a wound and many secrets. A priest must know many secrets . . . I was taught how to read in the old books and how to make the old writings--that was hard and took a long time.” (1) From a young age priests were educated profoundly more than other members of the society, giving them the power to influence the thoughts and beliefs of their people. The society of the Hill People
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