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Back The Darker Face of the Earth Save as PDF
Chapters (27)
  1. Front Cover
  2. Half-Title Page
  3. Title Page
  4. Copyright Page
  5. Acknowledgments
  6. Dedication
  7. Cast
  8. Prologue
  9. Act One
  10. Scene 2
  11. Scene 3
  12. Scene 4
  13. Scene 5
  14. Scene 6
  15. Scene 7
  16. Scene 8
  17. Act Two
  18. Scene 2
  19. Scene 3
  20. Scene 4
  21. Scene 5
  22. Scene 6
  23. Scene 7
  24. Scene 8
  25. An Interview with Rita Dove
  26. Biographical Note
  27. Back Cover
Who’s that old man?
DIANA Phebe, Hector’s coming up from the swamp!
PHEBE

Don’t fret, chile.

Hector talk kind of crazy sometimes,

but he don’t hurt nobody.
AUGUSTUS His name is Hector?
PHEBE

Yeah. Massa Jennings give it to him

straight off the boat. He used to talk

African—but he forgot most of it.
AUGUSTUS What does he do in the swamp?
PHEBE (Catching a warning look from SCYLLA.)
He lives there.
AUGUSTUS

Hector, mighty warrior,

abandoned by the gods.
DIANA You know a lot of things.
AUGUSTUS

Nothing you couldn’t learn

if you had the chance.

Enter HECTOR, now middle-aged, dressed in muddy rags. He carries a dead snake in a net and looks around with wild, piercing eyes, then wanders up to DIANA.

HECTOR (Tenderly.)
Eshu Elewa ogo gbogbo!

DIANA shrinks back. HECTOR taps AUGUSTUS on the shoulder, holding out the net.

I catch snakes: big ones, little ones.

I’m going to catch all the snakes in the swamp.
AUGUSTUS

I don’t know much about snakes,

my friend.
HECTOR

I’m gonna catch all the snakes in the swamp!

They grow and grow, so many of them.

But I’ll kill them! I’ll kill them all!
SCYLLA

Shh, Hector!

Don’t let the snakes hear!

She puts her arm around HECTOR and pats him gently on the back, all the while staring at AUGUSTUS, as the lights dim and go out.

Scene 4

SCENE 4

SCYLLA’s cabin and the area outside of the slave cabins.

Night. SCYLLA sits in her cabin behind a crude table strewn with an assortment of bones, twisted roots, beads, and dried corncobs. Three candles light up her face from below. AUGUSTUS, in ankle chains, squats outside the slave cabins. In the distance can be heard the rhythmic ecstasy of the Sunday night “shout”. PHEBE at the door with a small cloth bundle. She looks behind her.

SCYLLA Come in, child. Sit.

PHEBE sits.

I know your heart, Phebe.

You have made the spirits angry!
PHEBE I never meant no harm—
SCYLLA Shh!

Picks out a forked branch and arranges the candles in a half-circle around the branch.

The body moves through the world.

Places a round white stone in the fork of the branch.

The mind rests in the body.

Sprinkles green powder from a vial onto branch and stone.

The soul is bright

as a jewel, lighter than air.

Blows the powder away; the candles flare, PHEBE coughs.

There is a curse on the land.

The net draws closer.

What have you brought?
PHEBE Here!

Shoves her bundle across the table. SCYLLA pulls out a pink ribbon and drapes it over the branch.

“Eshu Elewa ogo gbogbo . . .

Sprinkling powder on the first candle.

. . . oki kosi eyo!”

The candle flares and goes out.

You have tried to make the earth

give up her dead.
PHEBE Oh!
SCYLLA (Pulling out a shell necklace, draping it over the branch.)
SCYLLA

“Kosi eyo,

kosi iku . . .