Baudolino keeps going to the lake, waiting for Hypatia; but she doesn’t come. His worries are growing on whether Hypatia participates in the honey celebrations with the fecundators or not.
Returning to the city in one evening, he sees candle lights and hears voices through the open door of a hut. Inside, Kyot feeds mushrooms into a huge grinder at the bottom of which some liquid drips into a small container. A panotian woman stacks rolls of cloth on shelves. Rabbi Solomon, bent over a table loaded with big and small containers, mixes the content of some. A few cockatrices, creatures looking like a rooster, with whiskers on the beak and a long tail behind, roam around. “Try this one,” Rabbi tells to Kyot who gets a dart and dips it in the container. One cockatrice sticks his head above the table and looks curious at Kyot. Kyot holds the creature’s stare and slowly bends under the table to prick him. The creature jolts, widely opens both eyes, one lid and the whiskers flutter, the eyes close, then the head disappears below the table. The bird’s dropped with a thud and raised the dust of the dirt floor. The other three cockatrices bend their long necks to look down at the still bird. Rabbi Solomon exults, “This worked, it’ll kill the Magogs!” The cockatrices look up reproachful at Rabbi. All of a sudden though, the dead bird springs back to life and erratically flies, bumps on the straw’s walls and knocks off containers from the table. Rabbi covers his head and retreats in a corner, Kyot stays safe under the table while Baudolino is laughing his head off. “That’s what I call a good kill!” he manages to say between bursts of laughter.