‘We’ll give you sheep and cows,’ said the mayor, blowing his nose with his fingers. ‘Every shepherd will give you one beast. If you need anything, tell me at once. We’re all brothers in this world, but particularly in the small villages.’
Costantino remembered what his brothers in the village had done to him, and he shook his head. ‘My brothers did to me what Cain did to Abel. There are not enough cows or sheep to console me for my loss.’
‘No matter,’ said the mayor, carried away by his idea. ‘Now that you’ve travelled around, tell me, did you ever look down from a high mountain onto the villages scattered over the countryside below? Didn’t it strike you that each of those villages was like a single house where a single family lived?’
Tired of this talk, Costantino replied that he had to leave the village, to go away, far away, and never return.
‘You’re not leaving, are you? You mustn’t,’ ordered the mayor. ‘Where will you go? You must stay here, where we’re all brothers.’
Dr Puddu came carrying a large dirty grey umbrella and went over to see what was in the cooking pot.
‘The reason you’re such a delinquent is because you only eat pig swill,’ he bawled in his harsh voice, tapping the pot with his umbrella.
‘Don’t break it,’ said Isidoro, ‘and excuse me, but that’s not pig swill. It’s beans and bacon and sausage.’
‘And doesn’t the bacon come from pig? You’re all pigs here. So you’ve come back, you rascal? I watched him die. Who? Who? Giacobbe Dejas, of course. He died a bad death, as he deserved. You should take a purge tomorrow. After a journey it’s absolutely essential.’
Costantino looked at him silently.
‘You think I’m mad,’ shouted the doctor, brandishing his umbrella. ‘A purge, understand? A purge.’
‘I heard,’ said Costantino.
‘That’s better. I heard that you’re going away. Go to the devil, but go. Before you go, drop by that dung heap you call the churchyard. And if you scrabble like a dog you can gnaw the bones of Giacobbe Dejas.’
He ground his teeth as if gnawing a bone. Costantino turned to look at him in amazement.