sult it To begin with, there is no single source called the "Oral History", on the contrary, the term is used to designate a variety of materials, some of which, despite the name, were never transmitted through oral tradition The professional historian, when referring to the "Oral History " uses the jargon of his calling for the multi volume work Studies in Atreidean History (SAH),1 which the Insti tute of Galacto-Fremen Culture began to pub lish m 13850 and which now extends into the thousands of volumes (the seventeenth edition of the index the most recent runs to thirty three volumes alone) SAH is an immense conglomeration of documents, plays, ballads, nursery rhymes, wall slogans, cartoons-everything from the most literate and enduring of works to the most ephemeral-having m common only that they in some way provide information on the reigns of Paul, Aha, and Leto II Much of the material was preserved by word of mouth until the middle of the 13%! century, when its collection began Other works, such as the plays of Harq al-Harba and other Atreidean dramatists, were in print almost from their conception But the primary em phasis of SAH has always been the information from the separate oral tradition which, because of its independence could serve as a confirmation ot or check on the official records Several examples of material from the Oral History will clarify its nature In 10330, Rauvlee Ludgwit published a collection of children s verses from Arrakeen and the surrounding villages The volume ORAL HISTORY 403 ORAL HISTORY included counting thymes, nursery rhymes, mnemonics, verses for jumping rope and other games and similar items Ludgwit's compilation was one of the first works to be reprinted in the SAH (Satra Shonjnr trans , Ludgmt s Arrakeen Child Lore SAH 37) Item 941 in the collection is a rhyme tran scnbed in 10324, yet one that obviously refers to Paul's use of atomics to breach the Shield Wall near Arrakeen, allowing his defeat of the Imperial forces Shonjur's transla (ion preserves the rhythm and rhyme scheme of the original Paul, Paul came through tbe wall, Adam Shaddara had a foil, All his hawets all his men, Couldn't lift him up again Hie word in the third hue, hawets, makes no sense in its context, since it means "fish," a creature known on Arrakis only after die importation of predator to guard the qanats Nor do fish play any part whatsoever m the incident upon which the rhyme is based Ludgwit operated on the principle of oral transmission that meaningless words are replaced by meaningful words, often at the expense of the overall sense of the passage, and he argued that the original word in line three had been hawats, meaning "Mentals," from the name of Thufir Hawat, the Mental of Duke Leto, who accepted service with House Cornno after the death of the Cuke The poem shows that Hawat was associated in the popular nnnd with loyalty to the Imperial House and therefore was regarded as more or less of a t