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Chapter Twenty-four. The World Beyond |
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on tour to Wanching; waiting for the rains in May; camping |
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(202) Rice is sprouting in the fields, and each day the Wakching people look anxiously at the deep blue sky and a sun mercilessly burning down on the young crops. Although it is May, the heavy rains of summer have not yet started and only now and then a short thunderstorm breaks the long drought. Once more I am on tour and camping in Wanching. The sky is still cloudless and starry, mist lies on the distant mountains, and a half-moon rises from the veil wreathing the peaks, dark yellow like old gold. She does not climb the path of the heavens upright, but sails out into the sky like a rocking ship, her curved keel to the earth. On the horizon threatening lightning blinks spasmodically, miraculously outlining the rim of the sky where it touches the earth. |
