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Chapter Nineteen. Making the Peace |
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Chingmei slave refuses to be freed from Ponyo |
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When Chingmak had first met the Ponyo men in Noklak, sheltered behind his white friends and bolstered by the defeat of their allies, he had demanded the release of a Chingmei man said to live as a slave in Ponyo, and now the young man is brought to Chingmei. Years ago, he had been sold as a small boy by Panso to Ponyo, but in some miraculous way escaping death he had been adopted by a kind-hearted couple and had grown up as a Ponyo man. He is tattooed and dressed like the other men from Ponyo; he does not show the slightest desire to be "liberated," he speaks only Ponyo, is married to a girl of Ponyo, and apparently lives there as a free and respected citizen, who does not appreciate in the least the idea of being liberated. |
