Blood Was Everywhere, The Rest Of The Sticks In The Fire Had
It On Them, It Sizzled At The Burning Ends, And Ran Off The Other In
Rills.
There were pools of it about her clean, sandy yard.
Her own
room was reeking, the bed, the stools, the floor; it trickled down
the door-post; coagulated on the lintel. She herself was smeared
with it from the things she had come in contact with in the dark,
and the slaves seemed to have been sitting in pools of it. The
things she picked up off the table and shelf left rims of it behind
them; there was more in the skillets, and the oil in the open palm-
oil lamps had a film of it floating on the oil. Investigation
showed that the whole of the rest of her house was in a similar
mess. The good lady gave a complete catalogue of the household
furniture and its condition, which I need not give here. The slave
girls when the light came were terrified at what they saw, and she
called in the aristocracy of the village, and asked them their
opinion on the blood palaver. They said they could make nothing of
it at first, but subsequently formed the opinion that it meant
something was going to happen, and suggested with the kind, helpful
cheerfulness of relatives and friends, that they should not wonder
if it were a prophecy of her own death. This view irritated the
already tried lady, and she sent them about their business, and
started the slaves on house-cleaning.
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