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Dr. Pipt is "The Crooked Magician" who lives in the Munchkin Country of the Land of Oz.

Description

The Crooked Magician is so crooked that his legs are nearly as handy as his arms. When he sits, one knee is under his chin and the other behind his back. He is a cheerful man and his face is pleasant and agreeable.

He lives on a mountain in the Munchkin Country in a big house surrounded by a grim forest. The house is round and painted blue, with a pretty garden with blue trees and blue flowers in abundance. In one part of the garden there are beds of blue cabbages, blue carrots, and blue lettuce, as well as bun-trees, cake-trees, cream-puff bushes, blue buttercups which yield excellent blue butter, and a row of chocolate-caramel plants. Paths of blue gravel divide the flower and vegetable beds, and a wide path leads to the front door.

At the back of the house is a domed hall which serves as the Magician's workshop. It's windows extend nearly around the circular room, except where it attaches to the main house. There is a door into the house and another back door to the outside. The room is furnished with chairs and benches, and at one end stands a great fireplace.

History

Dr. Pipt lives in the Munchkin Country with his wife Margolotte. He invented the Powder of Life, and used it to animate both the Patchwork Girl and the Glass Cat.

He also created the Liquid of Petrifaction, which turns things to marble. Unfortunately, it spilled on his wife Margolotte and friend Unc Nunkie.

Background

In The Marvelous Land of Oz, it is implied that the inventor of the Powder of Life is a Dr. Nikidik, another crooked magician from the Gillikin Country. Oz characters sometimes change their names—Roquat the Nome King becomes Ruggedo. (In an article in the Spring 1965 issue of The Baum Bugle, Lee Speth argues that Nikidik faked his death in the earlier book, to assume a new identity as Pipt.)

For a realistic precedent for Dr. Pipt, see the character Tom Hucks in Aunt Jane's Nieces at Millville.

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