The word for going mad here, məshuga, has cognates in related languages that refer to the cawing of birds and the whinnying of camels. A cognate in Assyrian means simply “to howl”. In an etymological sense, then, the threat is of a devastation so great the human mind cannot hold it without breaking. Language is insufficient to express it; all that will suffice is an animalian onslaught of asemantic noise.