Hirschman's book is a homage to Sarah Kali accompanied by Gypsy glifs. According to Wikipedia, Saint Sarah is a patron saint venerated by the Roma (Gypsy) people. She is also known as Sara-la-Kali (Sara the black). The center of her cult is Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer, a place of pilgrimage for Roma in the Camargue, in southern France, where legend identifies her as the servant of the two saints Mary commemorated in the town. An alternative legend has her as a pagan of noble birth and being converted to the faith of Abraham. In the traditional account, Saint Sarah was a native of Upper Egypt; after the Crucifixion of Jesus, Mary Salome, Mary Jacobe, and Mary Magdalene were cast adrift in a boat that arrived off the coast of what is now France "a sort of fortress named Oppdium-Ra", and the location was known as Notre-Dam-de-Ratis (Ra becoming Ratis, or boat); the name being changed to Notre-Dame-del-la-Mer, and then Le Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer in 1838. Some say that the boat arrived in AD 42, and they were accompanied by Saint Joseph of Arimathea and the Holy Grail. Sarah was the black Egyptian servant of Mary Salome and Mary Jacobe according to some, servant to Mary Magdalene according to others. Saint Sarah's feast day is 19th August. In France the official day of her pilgrimage is 24th May. Her statue is carried down to the sea on this day to reenact her arrival in France. Though the tradition of the Marys and company coming to France is quite old (it appears in the 13th century Golden Legend, for instance), Sarah first appears in The Legend of the Saintes-Maries (1521) by Vincent Philippon. However, there are many different opinions as to who Saint Sarah is. In some, she is tied with the Maries as an Egyptian servant; in others, with the Roma. She is called Sarah-la-Kali (Black Sarah), a moniker that brings together two strands of this tradition. When the Maries' boat arrived at the shore where the village now stands, she taunted the three saints in the boat, and one of the Maries climbed out of the boat and stood on the rough waters, inviting Sarah to walk out to her. Sarah attempted this but floundered and nearly drowned. One of the Maries lifted her up and carried her to safety. Sarah and the two Maries stayed to found a Christian community, building an altar to the Virgin themselves, which was excavated in 1448 on the orders of King Rene of Provence.Records of Saint Sarah's veneration are not found before 1800s. According to the Dan Brown's novel The Da Vinci Code (Which is considered heretical by orthodox Christianity) a Saint Sarah was the child of Mary Magdalene and Jesus. The book places Sarah's mother Mary as being the symbolic Holy Grail, or the vessel holding Jesus's blood (which would be the child of Christ), and claims that Mary fled to Egypt following the Crucifixion to give birth to her child. She then traveled to Southern France and her daughter married into the ancestors of the Merovingian dynasty. Also, the statue of Saint Sarah makes an appearance in Tony Gatlif's 1993 film Latcho Drom ('Safe Journey') where she is carried to the sea, and her landing is re-enacted. -- Source of annotation: Marvin or Ruth Sackner.