Full resolution (JPEG) - On this page / på denna sida - IX. A Morning’s Journey
<< prev. page << föreg. sida << >> nästa sida >> next page >>
Below is the raw OCR text
from the above scanned image.
Do you see an error? Proofread the page now!
Här nedan syns maskintolkade texten från faksimilbilden ovan.
Ser du något fel? Korrekturläs sidan nu!
This page has never been proofread. / Denna sida har aldrig korrekturlästs.
194 DAYS IN THE SUN
dropped through a trap door into the river, which
washes them in this direction, creating a huge slough
of despond. A stench of carrion meets your nostrils.
At other points the river spurts and bubbles about the
skeleton of a horse or an ass; the denuded ribs stick
out like the ribs of a stranded ship. Dead dogs and
cats, surrounded by a gay mass of branches and reeds,
are stalled at points where a projecting stone pre-
vented them from floating away. Half-fallen willow-
trees hang down over the river, which reflects their
wretched wooden skeletons when it is calm and peace-
ful enough to reflect any image at all. Ravens and
wild dogs fight over the fresh bleeding carcass of a
horse.
But you had to arrive even earlier if you wanted to
see the beginning of the fun. Long before the first
beam of morning had kindled the glaciered top of
Sierra Nevada, announcing to the Vega that the sun
had risen over the Mediterranean Sea more than two
hundred miles away, the peasants had taken their
decrepit beasts down to the river, put bullets through
their heads and walked off. The ravens in the tops of
the trees were already alert, and the dogs came slink-
ing down from town, their flanks flapping loosely over
their empty bellies. But they were driven away by the
flayer who darted forth from the bushes, peered about
in every direction, and dropped down the bank. In
two shakes of a lamb’s tail, he had finished any job
that was undone, putting the unhappy beasts out of
their misery, and then rolled the dead trunks from side
to side as he pulled off the steaming skins, while hun-
dreds of hungry eyes watched him from the bushes and
the tops of the trees. A final liberating incision, and
<< prev. page << föreg. sida << >> nästa sida >> next page >>
