Iamgadi: (ee-am-ghadi) :: (n) :: A religious practice in the lower islands of Gariim'wan. The central gods are all hard bodied insects and crustaceans with the bodies of humans. Practitioners are often seen with live insects crawling freely over their body, or kept in small cages, Iamgadi practitioners also practice extensive body modification and tattooing.

Long, long ago when the 'horseless carriage' was first doing the rounds of India, the Maharaja of Hububpur was quite taken by the fancy new _gadi_, and comissioned his motley crew of royal engineers to build for him the finest example of an _agnirath_ there would ever be.

The resulting vehicle, christened _Dhanno_ was such a gargantuan beast that its engine contained three full-sized elephants on treadmills, nine songbirds with which to alert all and sundry that its earth-flattening approach was iminent, and fourteen score fireflies trapped in various lanterns to the fore and hindquarters of her to provide illumination.

All this was well and good, but the Maharaja soon came to realise that he was far too old and frail to even ascend the various ramps and stairways to reach the bridge of _Dhanno_ let alone work the massive levers that controlled her. The engineers were set to this task, and for thjeir master they created a smaller steam-powered vessel, an armour of spindly legs.

This too proved insufficient, and soon the engineers were cutting off his limbs and selling them for souvernir value, welding onto the bony nubs are complex patchwork of tiny wheels and gears, a massive tin turban of steam engine works.

The Maharaja gazed into the polished brass mirror in his study, regarded the copper spring mustache, the bejewelled gyroscopic adam's apple, the pendulum beard and the long, penny-farthing legs. "_Iamgadi_," he whispered.