Batouala

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1922 edition. Excerpt: ... CHAPTER II HE smoked, in short puffs, blinking his eyes, and every now and then drawing a deep breath followed by a stream of saliva. He smoked a long time. The sun. The higher it rose the hotter it got. Although its heat was grateful to him, he was too accustomed to its daily ardor to give it any thought. He smoked. The wind whipped the foliage of the silk-cotton trees, sneaked between the branches, and rustled among the tendergreen young shoots. The rising sap had swelled the trunks into blotches on the living, crackled bark which sweated an amber gum. The lianas, swung like bridges from tree to tree, coiled and uncoiled their serpentine length. The wind was laden with the persistent smell of warm earth, trees, and heavyvegetation, the miasma from the small lakes, the spicy aroma of the wild mint. It was a riot of vegetation. The birds called in bewildered rapture. High up in the air the kites volplaned, black against the blue, faintly uttering their wail of a cry. On the other side of the Pombo, or on the other side of the Bembe, someone was singing: "Ey-hey--yaha--ho I" They must be working there, since song was the invariable accompaniment to labor. The monotonous chant disturbed the pervading tranquillity. When it stopped, nothing was audible save the crackling of the sun-scorched brush, all the tiny sounds that make up silence. The song began again, yonder, not so distinct.... Yassiguindja had now prepared ma nioc, their usual fare, and had also boiled some sweet potatoes and wild purslane, each in separate pots. When her man deigned to come and eat, she took up the pipe, and in her turn puffed at it, in the meanwhile attending distractedly to the grilling of some caterpillars. Her eight companions sat leaning, each against her...