None of those who surrounded the ilol could understand either her evocation of past events or her prophecy. But all were infected with a wild jubilation that begged their hands to turn it into action. At last! At last! The period of silence, inertia, submission has ended. We are going to be reborn, like our gods! We are going to spring into motion so as to feel alive! We are going to speak to each other, you and I, to confirm our reality, our presence! Yes, it is true what we have seen, what we have heard. And it is not over. Here is the instrument the divinity used to make itself manifest. Here it is. Now that the sacred has withdrawn from her she resembles a dead body, the rind of a devoured fruit. Who will dare approach Catalina? Who will dare assist her now that her true nature is known? Only the priests, the brujos, may touch her without dying.

And only the priests, the brujos, were able to interpret Catalina’s words. Their speech was obscure, too; they were feeling their way among ancient symbols, forgotten for a hundred years and more. But to themselves and the others they made the gift of a promise: the promise that the time of adversity had reached its end.

Catalina heard them in astonishment. She felt cheated. The great force that had possessed her should not be dammed like that, trickling out, as if in little drops, in the timid language of those men. Catalina had been, for a moment, the channel of a torrent, the precipice over which a cascade thundered. And now, withered, she fell silent.

Between all of them they took her back to her house. It was nighttime and some of them hoisted torches of burning wood. The wind fought with the flames. And all at once a chant welled up from the multitude. They proceeded slowly, adapting their footsteps to the religious rhythm of their voices. And the whole mountain vibrated and threw back magnificent, sonorous echoes.

The woman who returned to the hut of Pedro González Winiktón that night was no longer his wife. She was a stranger. She sat down next to the fire, staring into space as if she were interrogating it. She did not want to move, she did not want to speak. When the judge wanted to find out from her what had taken place Catalina could do no more than cover her face with her hands and sob. Other women gave an account of the day’s events. Pedro’s first reaction was anger.