The black cloth bound book has written on the cover:
 
 
 
                        A Book of
 
                        Summoning
 
 
 
                        by Draxus
 
 
[the book contains a table of contents for easy reference]


Table of Contents
 
General Overview of Summoning. . . . . . . . . . . page 1
The Spell. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . page 2
[A large portion of the book no longer exists, so those parts are not 
listed in the table of contents]
The Ritual . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . page 256
Concluding statement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . page 257
 

General Overview of Summoning
 
Throughout the ages, summoning spells have been a part of all magic 
users.  Mages are able to conjure up demons, druids the elements, and 
clerics the undead.  Even before this more specialized version of 
summoning, a more general summon was developed for quick transport of a 
person across great distances.  Of course in the beginning, this spell 
was quite new, and quite unrealiable, and ended up either scattering the 
person into tiny pieces, or randomly teleporting them.  I am among the 
lucky few to have experienced the latter, and fortunately not the 
former.  This work will expound upon all the known types of summoning, 
be it done through magic, song, portals, ritual, etc.

The Spell
 
The basic spell of 'summon' was the first to be developed so many eons 
ago.  I have heard rumors that it was created when a stingy mage refused 
to pay his wife's passage on a boat to join him.  Instead he used this 
spell and brought her to him, minus her hair.  I'm sure she was upset, 
but in light of what could have happened, she's lucky.  The summon spell 
had many bugs in it to begin with, and fatal accidents were not 
uncommon.  But as time progressed, improvements were made until the 
current age, where the summon spell is a most reliable and perfectly 
safe way of transportation.

The Ritual
 
A popular way of summoning, without magic, is the use of ritual to summon 
creatures.  Most often this involves the summoning of the dead.  To summon 
the spirits of the once living through nonmagical means, requires:
 
The site of the death of the person
The bones of the person at the spot of death
A 'personal item' once owned by the person
 
The ritual procedes as follows:  the person item is placed near the 
bones of the person at their death site.  Then chant the following 
phrase "Erst moz ov vinomo", and take once more the personal item into 
your possession.  The spirit of the person should be summoned to this 
world.
 
Now the barrier between this world and the other plane can be drained of 
its energy, so this ritual may not be performed in the same place 
often.  I have heard of horrible incidents where TWO spirits of the same 
person have been summoned (as if the person were split), but I have yet 
o witness this event.

Conclusion
 
Summoning has played an integral part in magic since the most early 
phases.  Without it, we would probably be less advanced than we are 
today, as summoning aids in the quick dissemination of knowledge and 
even rapid trade of commerce.  As time goes on, we may person further 
our use of the summon tradition, expanding it to object, and whatever 
the mind can think of.  Only time will tell.