All at once he thought of Brontu and Bachisia and he shivered. What was going to happen that night? Would Giovanna consent? Why did that dog keep whimpering? It sounded like the voice of the dead, the voice of Basile Ledda, the old murdered vulture. But the dead are silent. It was only the howling of a dog.

He began to laugh and to drowse. His eyelids closed. He no longer saw the misty, purple darkness that pressed against the entrance of the hut. He felt as if a sack of soft, heavy material were falling around him. He could not move, but there was something sweet and pleasant about the stillness. His dreams became confused. He dreamt he had died of a viper’s bite, and his soul had entered the body of a dog, and the small, lean, yellow dog was sniffing round Bachisia’s kitchen, looking for a bone. Costantino sat by the fireside. He was dressed in red with a huge chain round his ankle. When he saw the dog he threw the chain at it. An iron ring gripped the animal’s head. Terrified, Giacobbe forced himself to speak so that he would be recognized. He awoke sweating, crying, ‘Little chicken!’

It was midnight. Beneath a clear sky, full of huge golden stars, the deserted pastures glowed red with the burning scrub.

Unable to sleep, Giacobbe lay a long time tossing this way and that. The drunken euphoria had passed, leaving his mouth dry and bitter. He rose and drank. Then he remembered that the evening before he had eaten nothing, and he lay for a long while in the doorway of the hut, thinking, his face illumined by the firelight.

‘Ought I to eat something?’ he wondered without realizing what he was saying. He looked up at the stars. It was close to midnight. What had that little animal, the master, got up to? Giacobbe’s anger kindled anew, chiefly against Bachisia, who had boldly come with the crazy idea of begging from the young man. It was the old hag’s ruse to catch Brontu, to make up his mind for him. She was a filthy old woman. She had no conscience. Didn’t she believe in God? At that, Giacobbe Dejas became thoughtful. Then he lay down again, wondering if he was hungry and if he should eat.