16
PARTISAN REVIEW
minded him that familiarity with the armed forces was not permitted
to natives.
He was a fair young man of the blond type that turns red and
irascible in the tropics; the sort of man who disintegrates as a person
and
is
held together only by the external restraint of
his
uniform,
without which he would go mad. The sweat that poured down his
forehead had caused sores to break out among the sparse, fine, colorless
hairs of his eyebrows; sticking flies troubled him. The skin under
his
headband was raw, and a vein beat in his throat. The Indefatigable
grew more and more arrogant, showing his authority on the least
provocation. He required Satya to open doors for him and to stand
in the blazing street while he rested in the shade; envying the freedom
of Satya's loose clothes, the full unbinding trousers and the thin home–
spun jacket, he tried to impose military posture upon him, prodding
his shoulders with his stick whenever Satya slouched, and ordering
him to keep in step. The soldier wore boots; Satya wore sandals and
his feet were soon blistered.
Public comfort stations were unavailable to colored men who had
to use segregated and foul latrines, containing narrow stalls without
doors and large open wooden troughs that absorbed the odor of urine.
(All natives carried "toilet-cards," long strips of cardboard, ruled off
in squares, which they had to insert in stamping machines that stood
at the entrance.) The soldier, on the same day that he had forgotten
himself and criticized the administration in Satya's presence, accom–
panied him to the latrine-a measure of the reinforced discipline he
should now have to suffer. Satya, knowing he had never entered a
native latrine, warned him of the unpleasantness. But men who had
recently come from the mother country showed a curious avidity for
pain. The Indefatigable went in and stood guard over him. Later,
feeling the need to relieve himself, he made Satya come with
him
into a comfort station-tiled and white, equipped with washstands
and electric dryers. Before entering one of the spacious stalls, he made
Satya lock himself into the adjoining one, ordered him not to use it,
to remain standing, and under no circumstances to step out until
given permission to do so.
2.
THE
LAST
FREE MEN
The meeting began shortly after sunrise, with a mass prayer
during which all the delegates knelt, facing the sun. The people were
