Stephen King's the Dark Tower: The Complete Concordance Revised and Updated (18 page)

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The
can-toi
hide their rat-heads behind humanoid masks (can you blame them?), but up close, their faces are rarely that convincing.
Can-toi
masks are formed from a kind of living latex which cannot be manufactured but must be grown. As living things in their own right, the masks have to breathe. They do this through a red hole (which looks like a bleeding red eye) located on the forehead. These red holes usually dry up when their masters cross over to our world, which is probably a good thing. Otherwise, they’d never even begin to pass for human.

While
taheen
look upon humans as an inferior race, the
can-toi
worship the human form as divine. They even believe that they are
becoming
human, and that after the fall of the DARK TOWER, they will replace mankind. It seems that they are having at least minor success in their endeavor to become like men, since their minds can be progged (or read) by psychics. (The thoughts of true
taheen
sound like white noise.) At a certain point in his or her development, each low man or low woman is given a human name by their clan-fam. These names often sound absurd to actual humans. For example, one
can-toi
has the name VAN GOGH BAEZ. Another is called JAMES CAGNEY.

The
can-toi
’s primary job is to take care of the psychic BREAKERS in the DEVAR-TOI, or Breaker prison, located in THUNDERCLAP. However, their duties also include hunting down escapees with their duplicitous lost-pet posters and their secret pavement messages coded as moon-and-star designs. Some
can-toi,
such as RICHARD P. SAYRE, vice president of the SOMBRA CORPORATION,
even live in our world and pass for hume much of the time. Like the BIG COFFIN HUNTERS (or REGULATORS), who also ultimately serve the CRIMSON KING, many of the
can-toi
have blue coffins tattooed on their hands.

Although they occasionally get up to other nasty mischief in our world (as both PERE CALLAHAN and CALVIN TOWER can testify), when relaxing at home in ALGUL SIENTO or BLUE HEAVEN (the
taheen
and
can-toi
term for the Devar-Toi), the low men live in HEARTBREAK HOUSE. Despite their devotion to the Crimson King, the poisonous air of END-WORLD has as terrible an effect upon the low men as it does upon ordinary humes. End-World’s poisons give the
can-toi
skin sores and nosebleeds. Even the smallest wounds they suffer can become infected and deadly.

When our
ka-tet
attacks the Devar-Toi, their policy is to save the Breakers but to kill the
taheen
and
can-toi
guards. The world won’t miss these latter monsters much, especially since they have such a pathetic sense of humor. To a
can-toi,
hanging a picture of NIAGARA FALLS upside down is the height of comedy.

Like the CAN-TAH, the
can-toi
also appear in KING’s novel
Desperation.
In that book, the
can-toi
are the animal servants of the demon Tak (short for Can-Tak, or big god). Unlike our
can-toi,
the
can-toi
of
Desperation
have neither human bodies nor the ability to reason or speak.

V:289
(lost-pet posters),
V:290–91, V:297
(indirect),
V:299, V:302–3
(indirect; lost-pet posters),
V:304, V:306, V:426–27
(indirect),
V:429, V:430, V:435, V:443, V:449
(lost-pet posters),
V:451
(lost-pet posters),
V:452, V:455–57, V:549, V:591, VI:64, VI:95, VI:111, VI:244–45
(their job is the Breakers),
VI:248, VI:278–79, VI:318, VI:320, VI:326, VI:337, VI:353, VI:364–84
(Dixie Pig),
VI:407, VII:5, VII:10, VII:14, VII:25 (can-toi)
,
VII:26 (can-toi)
,
VII:51 (can-toi)
,
VII:55–71
(five in birth room),
VII:81, VII:83
(came through door after Jake),
VII:85, VII:86–87, VII:88, VII:90, VII:93, VII:101, VII:104–9
(following Jake),
VII:111
(posse),
VII:133–35, VII:146, VII:209, VII:222, VII:223, VII:226, VII:230, VII:235–36, VII:237, VII:238, VII:241, VII:269, VII:272, VII:281, VII:286, VII:288, VII:292, VII:293, VII:297, VII:300, VII:326–27, VII:334, VII:337, VI:556–82
(Devar-Toi battle),
VII:393, VII:407, VII:448, VII:476, VII:498

INDIVIDUAL CAN-TOI/LOW MEN:

ALEXANDER, BEN:
Ben Alexander is one of the guards at the DEVAR-TOI. VII:372

ALIA (NURSE):
See
TAHEEN
: RAT-HEADED TAHEEN

ANDREW:
When we meet him in the DIXIE PIG, just before SUSANNAH/MIA gives birth, this obese low man is wearing a tux with plaid lapels and a red velvet bow tie. (His jilly, TIRANA, looks equally hideous in her strapless, silver evening dress.) Andrew is shot by FATHER CALLAHAN. VI:365–71, VII:9–15

BAEZ, VAN GOGH:
One of the strange human names adopted by a
can-toi.
VII:294

BEEMAN:
A security guard at ALGUL SIENTO. VII:235–36, VII:239–40

CAGNEY, JAMES:
James Cagney (named after a famous hume actor) is a red-haired
can-toi
who stands five feet five inches tall and who likes Western-style shirts and boots. (He prefers footwear that makes him seem much taller.) During the final DEVAR-TOI battle, his mask rips and (at one
point) he is mistaken for a TAHEEN. VII:356–57, VII:371–74, VII:379–82
(called
taheen
)

CAMERON (THE RAPIST):
This
can-toi
raped a BREAKER. His defense was that the CRIMSON KING commanded him to do it as part of his process of “becoming” human. (
See
BECOMING
,
listed in the
END-WORLD
section of
APPENDIX I.) Luckily for the other female Breakers, the former Devar Master, HUMMA O’TEGO, thought Cameron’s defense was preposterous and put him to death. The Breakers were invited to watch. VII:326, VII:344, VII:385

CARLYLE, THOMAS:
One of the unexpected human names adopted by a
can-toi
. VII:294

CONROY:
A technician at the DEVAR-TOI. VII:241

DIXIE PIG GUARDS:
VI:377

DOORMEN AT THE DIXIE PIG:
VI:364

GANGLI, DR.:
See
TRISTUM, DR. GANGLI
,
listed below

HABER:
Haber is one of the
can-toi
who accompany SUSANNAH DEAN from the DIXIE PIG to the FEDIC DOGAN, where she and MIA give birth to the CHAP. Haber has a bulldoggy face, gray, luxuriant curls, and a slanted hole in his forehead. Susannah shoots him in the chaotic battle following the birth of baby MORDRED. VI:370–84, VII:55–70

LONDON, JACK:
Like so many of the
can-toi,
Jack London took a human name (in this case, the name of a famous hume writer). London is DR. GANGLI’s assistant in the third-floor infirmary of DAMLI HOUSE in ALGUL SIENTO. VII:367

RANDO HATTEN LOOK-ALIKE:
VII:293–94

SAYRE, RICHARD P.:
The nasty
can-toi
Richard Patrick Sayre is the executive vice president of SOMBRA CORPORATION, one of the many companies in our world (and our world’s twinners) serving the CRIMSON KING. On July 15, 1976, he signed a contract on behalf of Sombra with CALVIN TOWER, owner of the MANHATTAN RESTAURANT OF THE MIND. Tower was paid one hundred thousand dollars in exchange for his written consent to hold on to the magic LOT for one year, and then, at the end of that time, to give Sombra first right of purchase. However, as soon as the said year began to wind down (and as soon as he knew that Tower had blown the money), Sayre began to sic BALAZAR and his hoods on the chubby bookshop owner, figuring they could bully him into selling. (Thanks to EDDIE DEAN, this tactic doesn’t work.)

With the help of his VAMPIRES and LOW MEN, Sayre brought about the death of FATHER DONALD FRANK CALLAHAN in the early 1980s. He was also in charge of the sting operation which lured MIA and an unwilling SUSANNAH DEAN to the DIXIE PIG so that Mia could give birth to her CHAP. (Susannah takes revenge by shooting him.) When we see Sayre in the Dixie Pig, he appears to be about sixty years old with white hair, a double row of teeth, and outrageously loud clothes. His humanoid mask looks lean and predatory.

Our final insight into Sayre’s dirty work doesn’t come from the
can-toi
himself, but from the bric-a-brac in his office, located below the FEDIC DOGAN. Here Roland and Susannah find files on themselves and their
two dead
ka-tet
mates, as well as two significant oil paintings, both painted by PATRICK DANVILLE. One is of the DARK TOWER, and the other is a symbolic depiction of the Crimson King’s triumph over ALL-WORLD-that-was. This second painting shows black-haired, blue-eyed MORDRED with one triumphant foot atop ARTHUR ELD’s dead horse, LLAMREI. V:95, V:451, V:455–57, V:460, V:464, VI:119–24, VI:125, VI:228, VI:231, VI:234, VI:239, VI:240, VI:251, VI:254, VI:364–84, VII:8, VII:13, VII:14, VII:55–70
(shot),
VII:84, VII:104, VII:105, VII:106, VII:107, VII:108, VII:149, VII:240, VII:549–51
(office),
VII:703, VII:783

STRAW:
Straw is a low man with flabby hands and many rings. Along with SAYRE and a number of other WARRIORS OF THE SCARLET EYE, he attends the birth of MORDRED, son of both the CRIMSON KING and Roland Deschain. SUSANNAH DEAN shoots him. VII:58–68, VII:71

TIRANA:
When we meet this obese low woman in the DIXIE PIG, she is wearing a strapless, silver evening dress. DETTA WALKER rips off her mask and exposes the rat beneath. VI:365–71, VII:13–15, VII:25

TRAMPAS:
In the final book of the Dark Tower series, we find out that all things, even eczema, can ultimately serve the BEAM. In
The Dark Tower,
we find out that Trampas, one of the few
can-toi
who are actually succeeding in the process of
becoming
human, has a terribly itchy scalp. Every time he lifts his beanie-like thinking cap, his thoughts can be read by his BREAKER friend TED BRAUTIGAN. Although Trampas does not mean to leak the CRIMSON KING’s secrets, it is while scanning Trampas’s thoughts that Ted realizes just what he and his fellow psychics are doing in the DEVAR-TOI’s STUDY. It is also by listening to the radio-like broadcasts of Trampas’s thoughts that Ted learns what part he—a facilitator—is playing in the untimely collapse of the Beams.

Although Ted’s escape from the Devar is temporary, his distressing new knowledge strengthens his resolve to oppose the Lord of Discordia’s plans for the macroverse. Ted helps Roland and his friends destroy the Devar and its guards. Unfortunately, Ted also ends up killing Trampas—who ultimately obeys the orders of the enemy—with one of his deadly thought-spears. VII:292, VII:293–96, VII:298, VII:299–302, VII:306, VII:356, VII:370–71, VII:375–77, VII:407

TRELAWNEY:
Security guard at ALGUL SIENTO (the DEVAR-TOI). VII:239–40, VII:325–26

TRISTUM, DR. GANGLI:
The much-feared Dr. Gangli is the DEVAR’s sawbones. According to the BREAKERS, the dark, squat, heavily jowled Gangli looks like John Irving after a bad face-lift. However, none of them would dare say this to his face any more than they’d make fun of the roller skates he uses to sail through his rounds.

Dr. Gangli (who took a TAHEEN name even though he is
can-toi
) rules his third-floor surgery in DAMLI HOUSE with an iron fist. Because of the frequent infections that plague END-WORLD’s denizens, Dr. Gangli prescribes many antibiotics. His prescriptions are losing their effectiveness, but Gangli isn’t around to see them stop working completely. When the gas-pods behind the Damli House kitchens blow up during the Devar’s final battle, Gangli (roller skates still spinning) is blown skyward along
with all of his paperwork. For Gangli, the end of life in the macroverse comes earlier than expected. VII:223, VII:239, VII:356, VII:367–68, VII:374

GANGLI’S ORDERLIES:

LONDON, JACK:
Listed above

NAMELESS ORDERLIES:
VII:367

CANTORA, IRENE

See
TASSENBAUM, IRENE

CAPRICHOSO (CAPI)

See
HAMBRY CHARACTERS
: TRAVELLERS’ REST: SHEEMIE;
see also
BREAKERS
: RUIZ, STANLEY

CARLINER, MARK

See
KING, STEPHEN

CARLYLE, THOMAS

See
CAN-TOI

CARTOON CHARACTERS (OUR WORLD)