Three Arched Bridge

5

IN THE AFTERNOON I had the misfortune to accompany the strangers as far as the bank of the Ujana, I consoled myself that I was at least not obliged to translate the confusion that issued from their mouths. This road bad because non maintain, mess complete. Water smooth itself, road non, routen need work, we has no tales, has instruct, we fast money, give, take. Water different, boat move itself graciosus, but vdrug many drown, bye-bye, sto dhjavolos, Funebrum, he, he, road no, road sehr guten but need gut repair…

Fortunately, now and then they shut their mouths. They followed with their eyes the flight of the thrushes. Then’ seeing the granaries^ they asked about the quantity of wheat and the cattle that were taken to market and the route they took

I noticed that as we drew nearer to the river, not only their desire to talk but their spirits declined precipitously As they waited for the raft that was to carry them across, they did not conceal their terror of the waters, This was evident from their faces’ without their saying,

Dusk was falling when they finally left. I stared after them from the bank for a short while. They were explaining something to each other, making all kinds of hand signs and pointing to each bank of the river in turn. It was cold. In the fast-falling darkness, they looked from a distance like a few black lines scrawled on the raft, as mysterious and incomprehensible as their inhuman gabble. And suddenly, as I watched them disappear^ a suspicion crept into my mind, like a black beetle: the man who had fallen in a fit on the riverbank, the wandering fortuneteller who had been close by him, and these two clerks with their tight jerkins were in the service and pay of the same master,…