So before we get started for today's show, I have an announcement. And the announcement is that I would like to take you on the dream trip of your lifetime. I'm not a, no, this is a bad way to start this because it's not a real trip. Here's the thing. We made an audio book. We made a book called

Atlas Obscira number of years ago, and it's a trip all around the world to all of its most

incredible hidden wonders. So if you like what is on this show, imagine more of that, but just like

everywhere. Little entries about everything from the gates of hell in Turkmenistan to the

last Incan bridge in Peru, to the living route bridges in India. It is a trip through the most

amazing and wondrous places on the planet. The reason I called it a dream trip is because not only

does it go to all these incredible places, but my hope is that in

audiobook form, maybe it's the kind of thing you could put on at the end of the evening when you

are trying to wind down and fall asleep and that this book will take you gently and slowly

into a very peaceful place. And then hopefully your travel continues while you dream.

Anyway, if you do not get enough of my voice on this podcast,

there is much, much more of it to be had in the Atlas Obscura audiobook.

Go get it at Audible or wherever else you get your audiobooks.

Okay, on to the show.

Today, we are going to be bringing you two short essays from our friends at the Literary

Journal Off Assignment. These two stories ran in their column called Witching Hour, which features

short, ambient portraits of specific places at a specific time. And this first story is about a

connection between humans and animals on a Scottish farm during a sheep auction. And just because you're going to hear this word throughout the story,

a tupp is a young male sheep.

That's right. A tub.

All right. Once again, Atlas Obscira goes off assignment.

Here's the episode.

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