Dear Mr. Stroud. I very much appriciated your fabulous and fascinating books which were full of just the type of sarcasm I love. However I have a few questions about name.

1. If it is true that the summonings unexceptionally require names how did Lovelace then complete the summoning of Ramuthra as, at least according to the text, was no naming included in the ritual.

2. As to the third book kitty finds two other spirits apart from Bartimaeus also named Rekhyt. Wheather they're nicknames or not I do not know but if there exist several spirits with the same name what would then occur if a summmoning would take place and two diffrent spirits would appear?

3. Does there exist different types of essence as Bartimaeus says that he is consctructed of air and fire and Honorius being almost invurnerable due to his fire essence. Aswell as Honorius points out that he was being weakened by the water.

Thank you for your time.

Hello -

1. The summoning horn draws something already in the magician's power over to our world by a simple blast: the magician (or magicians - Ramuthra needs 4 of them) have already done the necessary summoning, including the recital of the name. But the manifestation is held back until the horn is blown.

2. You're right that if the names were the same there'd be confusion. I think Rekhyt is a kind of byname or nickname - each of the 3 djinn, including Bart, would have other names that combined with Rekhyt to make them completely individual.

3. The essence of most djinn is closely linked to the elements fire and air, but other spirits will have different combinations. Elementals are utterly associated with one of the 4 options. In the Other Place the 4 elements are all intermingled - and exist in different amounts in each spirit summoned to our world.

Thanks for the questions!

J