Читать книгу The Adventures of China Iron - Gabriela Cabezón Cámara - Страница 15

The Morbid Light of Dead Men’s Bones

It poured with rain and the water swept away the merciful dust: all was mud and protruding bones. White bones, pearly and iridescent like a devil’s lantern, the morbid light of dead men’s bones, of mortal remains, of skeletons. Bad sign, said Liz, and I was inclined to agree. Those white bones tinged with a bluish gleam by flashes of lightning were the bones of men and women. Some were already bleached and bare as if scrubbed and polished by an army of skilled craftsmen. Others were not, and they slowly decomposed like little suppurating mounds. My Englishwoman was indignant: Savages! They should bury them. Only animals leave dead bodies lying about. She was right, only savages leave the dead unburied, to be picked at by chimangos. My people were savages, and the pampas a sickening dung heap of Indians and white men.