592
PARTISAN REVIEW
more and more babies were born there, and no one could say which
were the offspring of the runaways and which were the youngest
brother's, or which were sired by the father. In any case, most of the
babies died almost as soon as they were born. Other men came and
went, and also dim-witted, big-bodied girls in search of a roof, a
man, a child, or food .
The Commissioner has not replied to three successive memo–
randa, each more strongly-worded than the last, sent to sound the
alarm against the seriousness of the moral situation. I was the out–
raged sender of these memoranda. The years are slipping past in
silence. Nothing happens here . Apart from the strange occurrence
which I witnessed this morning, and which I shall report without
comment.
In the morning the rising sun had transformed the mist from
the swamp into a kind of incandescent, unclean rain. The villagers
had left their huts and were preparing to set out for the potato fields.
Suddenly a stranger appeared at the top of the small hill which stood
between us and the rising sun and began waving his arms, describ–
ing curves and circles in the air, kicking or bowing, hopping and
jumping on the spot.
men.
"Who is he," the men asked, "and what does he want here?"
"It's not one of us and it's not one of the smugglers," said the old
And the women said, "We've got to be careful."
While they were discussing what to do, the early morning air
was suddenly full of different sounds, screeching birds, barking
dogs, talking, lowing, humming of insects as large as your fist. The
frogs also began to croak, the chickens tried to outdo them, and
harnesses jangled. And the sounds were all distinct.
"That man," said the gravedigger's youngest son, "has been sent
to break up the village and we must kill him."
"That man," said the innkeeper, "is trying to seduce the girls."
The girls shrieked, "Look he's dancing, look he's naked, look
he's white like a corpse!"
And the old gravedigger said, "What is there to chatter about?
The sun is up, and the white man has vanished behind the hill.
Words won't help; a hot day is starting and we must go to work.
Whoever can work, let him endure in silence . And whoever cannot
bear it any longer, let him die. That's that."
