Chapter 7 Chapter VII

There are clumps of mint and a low wall of rosemary growing around the village of Bratofungo. I don’t know whether they are naturally wild or cultivated in the spice garden.There I turned and turned, my chest full of aromas, looking for a way to get to Old Nan Sebastiana. Since Sebastiana disappeared on the path to the leprosy village, I have thought more often that I am an orphan.I don't know anything about her and feel sad.I asked Galateo, and when he passed I climbed to the top of a tree and yelled at him.But Galateo hated the children because they sometimes threw live geckos at him from the trees.He answered some incomprehensible teasing remarks in that thin, sweet voice.Now, with the curiosity to enter the leprosy village and the desire to see the nanny, I kept wandering around in the fragrant grass.

Unexpectedly, a man in light-colored clothes and a straw hat stood up from a bush of thyme, and walked towards the village.It was an old man with leprosy, and I wanted to ask him about the nurse, so I came within a distance of him hearing me without shouting, and said, "Hello, stop, Mr. Leprosy!" However, at this moment, maybe I was awakened by my voice.The other guy sat up right next to me and stretched.He had a scaly face like a piece of bark, and a thick, stiff white beard.He took out a whistle from under his clothes and blew a sharp whistle at me, as if making fun of me.It was only then that I realized that there were lepers lying everywhere in the afternoon sun. They were hiding in the bushes, and now they got up slowly, dressed in light clothes, and walked towards the Bratofon Pavilion against the light.They hold musical instruments or gardener's tools in their hands and use them to make sounds.I took a few steps back to avoid the beard, but I almost bumped into a noseless female leper combing her hair under a moon-hanging tree.I ran among the bushes, and I kept meeting lepers.Only then did I realize that I could only go in the direction of the village of Bulatofungo, which is at the foot of the hillside, and the thatched roof decorated with kites and ribbons is close in sight.

The lepers only sometimes winked at me or played their harmonica to show their attention, but I felt like I was walking right in the center of their procession, being sent to Bratofonko like a captured animal.into the village.I saw lilacs painted on the walls of the house, and a half-naked woman stood in front of the window, her face and chest were also tattooed with lilacs, holding a lyre in her arms, she called out: "The gardeners are back!" !" and played the piano.Other women poked their heads out of windows and balconies, rang their bells, and sang, "Welcome home, gardeners!"

I walked carefully on that narrow street, not daring to touch anyone, but I seemed to be at a crossroads, surrounded by lepers, men and women sitting on the threshold of their homes, in rags, Moreover, the color faded and became transparent, and even the swollen abdominal lymph glands and shame were revealed.They all have hawthorn flowers and white peonies in their hair. The leper gave a little concert, I might say, for my welcome.Some people bowed towards me to play the violin, drawing the bow exaggeratedly and powerfully, some people croaked like frogs as soon as I looked at them, others performed strange puppet shows to me, small puppets jumped on a rope. jump off.It is these incongruous movements and sounds that make up a small concert, but there is a special line they sing repeatedly from time to time: "The little rooster without spots goes to pick mulberry stubble, and is also stained."

"I'm looking for my nurse," I said aloud, "does the old ladies of Sebastian know where she is?" They laughed, smug and malicious. "Sebastian Gina?" I called out, "Sebastian Gina? Where are you?" "Here, boy," said a male leper, "be good, boy," and he pointed to a door. The door opened, and out came an olive-skinned woman, perhaps an Arab, with barbed tattoos and kite ribbons, and began to dance a sort of wild dance.What happened next I didn't quite understand at the time: the men and women threw themselves on top of each other, and I learned later that they were starting a Sansar revelry.

I was so crowded that there was nowhere to go, and suddenly, the tall old lady Sebastiana pushed through the group and came over. "Ugly ghosts," she said, "at least behave a little better before a pure and innocent soul!" She took my hand and led me away.And those people are still singing: "The little rooster without spots goes to pick mulberry lanes, and also gets spots!" Sebastiana was wearing a light-colored purple dress that looked like a vestment, and there were already some spots on her unruffled cheeks.I was very happy to see my nurse again, but I was also very worried, because she would definitely pass on leprosy to me by holding my hand.I told her about it.

"Don't be afraid," said Sebastiana, "my father was a pirate, and my grandfather was a hermit. I know the power of every herb, and it will cure the diseases of the natives as well as the diseases of the Moors. They Take mint flowers and quinces for stimulation; and I quietly drink borage and water violets, and I will die without leprosy." "Nurse, what's the matter with the spots on your face?" I asked, much more relieved, but not completely relieved. "Greek turpentine. To convince them I have leprosy too. You come with me, and I'll make you drink a boiling potion. For walking about this place, it's not superfluous to be cautious."

She took me to her home. This hut is relatively secluded, very clean, and everything is neatly arranged.we chat. "Medardo, where is Medardo?" she asked me, but every time I didn't finish her sentence she rushed to me and said, "What a rascal! Like a bandit! In love! Poor girl! And here, here, you can't even think about it! I know how much they waste! We save things from our mouths to give to Galatio, but do you know what they do here? That Gala Teo is not good, you imagine? A bad guy, and not just him? The good things they do at night! Then they do it in broad daylight! These women, these shameless women I have never seen! They are at least They ought to be able to sew, but they can't even do that! They're untidy and in rags! Well, I've said that to them all to their faces... But they, you know how they answer me, they ?” I am very happy to see the nanny this time.The next day I went fishing for eels.

I cast my hook into the little lake where the spring water flowed and waited and fell asleep.I don't know how long I slept, the noise woke me up.I opened my eyes and saw a hand hanging over my head holding a hairy spider mite.I turned my head and saw that it was my uncle, wearing his black cloak. I jumped up in fright, but at this moment Starscream bit my uncle's hand and disappeared.My uncle put his hand in his mouth, sucked the wound gently, and said, "You fell asleep, and I saw a long-haired red spider crawling up your neck from the upper branch. I reached out to stop it, and lo, Bitten by it."

I wouldn't believe a word he said: he used similar methods to harm me, at least three times.But now it was also true that he had been bitten by a Starscream, and his hand was swollen. "You are my nephew," said Medardo. "Yes," I replied, surprised because it was the first time he had acknowledged me. "I recognized you right away," said he. "Oh, spider! I only have one hand, and you're going to poison it! But of course it's better to hurt my hand than the boy's neck." -some." I know my uncle never talks like that.I doubt very much that he actually told the truth and became kind in the blink of an eye.I figured it out quickly: pretense and deceit were his usual tricks.Of course, he looked much changed, his expression was less grim and cruel, and he looked weak and mournful, perhaps pained and worried about the bite.Moreover, his clothes were dusty and not in the same style as he used to wear, giving the impression that his black cloak was a bit worn out, with dried leaves and chestnut shells hanging on the hem, and the clothes inside His clothes were not the usual black velvet, but faded woolen wool; instead of high leather boots, he wore blue and white striped wool socks.To show that I wasn't interested in him, I went to see if any eels would bite.Instead of eels, I saw a gold ring gleaming with jewels on the hook.I lifted it up, and the gem was engraved with the crest of House Terralba.

The viscount looked at me, and he said, "Don't be surprised. I passed by here and saw an eel struggling on the hook, which made me feel bad, so I let it go. Then I thought it would hurt the fishing." Man, I want to pay with the ring, the last thing I have worth." I opened my mouth in shock, but didn't know what to say.Medardo went on: "I didn't know it was you who was fishing. Then I saw you sleeping in the grass. I was happy to see you, but then I became worried when I saw the spider crawling on you. You already know what happened later." He said anxiously looking at the swollen and purple hand. Perhaps all this is a cruel deception set by him.But I thought how good it would be if he suddenly softened his heart, what joy it would bring to Sebastiana, Pamela, and all the people he cruelly killed. "Uncle," I said to Medardo, "you are waiting here for me. I will run to my nurse Sebastigina, who knows herbs, and I will ask her to get you some medicine for spider bites." "Nurse Sebastiana..." the Viscount said, lying on the ground with his injured hand resting on his chest, "Is she alright?" I dared not tell him that Sebastiana didn't have leprosy, so I just said, "Oh, it's fine. I'm going." I ran away, and the thing I wanted to do most was to ask Sebastiana, What does she think of these strange phenomena. I found the nurse in the hut.I was running fast, out of breath, and talked to her a bit incoherently, but the old lady cared more about Medardo's bite than about his good deeds. "You said it was a red spider? Yes, yes, I know the herbs to use... Once he was bitten in a small forest and his arm was swollen... You said he got better? How can I tell you Well, he's always been such a kid.... He should know how to be a good man... Where did I put the herbs? Just make him a dressing. He's been a troublemaker since he was a kid, this Medal There are so many herbs here. I put it in a small cloth bag and store it... But he always does this, whenever he gets hurt, he comes crying to find a nurse... Did he bite deeply this time? ?” "His left hand is swollen like this." I said gesturing. "Ha, ha, boy..." the nurse laughed. "Where is the left hand... where is Medardo's left hand? He left it in Bohemia for those Turks. The left half is all left there..." "Isn't it," I said, "but... he's standing over there, I'm here, and his hands are stretched out like this... What's the matter?" "You can't even tell left from right now?" said the nurse. "You learned it when you were five years old..." I didn't bother to think about it any more.Sebastiana must have been right, but I remember exactly the opposite. "You give this herbal medicine to him, go ahead and deliver it well." After the nurse finished speaking, I ran away. Panting, I ran back to the small lake, but my uncle was no longer there.I look around.He was gone with the poisoned, swollen hand. It was late, and I searched back and forth among the olive trees.I finally saw him. He was wrapped in a black bucket cage and stood on one leg by the sea, leaning against a tree, with his back to me and looking out to the sea.I felt fear attacking my heart again, I struggled to squeeze out a sound, and forced out: "Uncle, this is the herbal medicine for biting wounds..." That half of the face turned immediately, tense, showing a savage ugliness. "What herbs? What bites?" he said viciously. "Herbs are for bites..." I said.His original gentle and amiable expression was gone. It was just a moment of beauty, and maybe it was slowly returning now. He smiled with a straight face, but it was clearly a fake smile. "Yes, good boy... put it in that tree hole... I'll use it later..." he said. I obediently put my hand into the tree hole.It turned out to be a hornet's nest.The wasps all rushed towards me.I stood on the ground, and the swarm of bees chased after me, and I jumped into the river.I swam underwater to shake off the wasp.I stuck my head out of the water and heard the viscount's sinister laugh going away. He tricked me again.However, I could not understand many things, so I went to Dr. Trelawney and wanted to talk to him.The Englishman bent over a book of anatomy by a small oil lamp in the gravedigger's house.Rare scenario. "Doctor," I asked him, "is it possible for a person to be bitten by a spider mite without harm?" "Did you say Starscream?" The doctor jumped up, "Who did Starscream bite again?" "My uncle, the Viscount," said I, "I thought he was getting better, and went to the nurse to get him some herbs, but when I came back he was bad again, and refused my help." "I just healed the Viscount's hand bitten by a starscream," Trelawney said. "Doctor, tell me: do you think he is a good man or a bad man?" So the doctor told me what happened. Doctor Trelawney passed by after I left the Viscount lying on the grass with swollen hands.He spotted the Viscount, and was as frightened as ever, and tried to hide in the woods.But Medardo heard the footsteps, stood up and called, "Hey, who's there?" The Englishman thought, "What will happen to him if he recognizes me in hiding!" He fled at once, I don't want him to see it.But he stumbled and fell into the lake. Although he had worked on the boat all his life, Dr. Trelawney could not swim.Then the Viscount said, "Wait for me." He came to the lake, embraced the root of a big tree with his wounded hand, and stretched his legs towards the water until the doctor caught his feet.That leg was thin and long, and the doctor was dragged ashore with only a broken rope. So he was saved.The doctor stammered; "Ah, ah, my lord... thank you, really, my lord... how could I..." He sneezed straight at him, because he had caught a cold. "Health to you!" said Medardo, "put it on, please." He threw his cloak over his shoulders. The doctor declined, more flustered than ever.The Viscount said, "Take it. It's yours." Trelawney noticed that Medardo's hand was swollen. "What bit you?" "A starscream." "Let me cure you, my lord." He took the vicomte to his gravedigger's hut, applied medicine to his hand, and bound it up.The Viscount was courteous and reasonable in his conversation with him.They parted with a promise to meet again as soon as possible, strengthening their friendship. "Doctor!" I said after listening to him, "the viscount you cured turned bad again, and he tricked me into poking a hornet's nest." "He's not the one I treated." The doctor said, blinking his eyes. "How do you say that, doctor 7" "You'll know later. Don't tell anyone now. You let me do my research, because there's a big conflict brewing." Dr. Trelawney paid no attention to me, and went back to his book on human anatomy.He must have had a plan in mind, and he has kept a knowing silence about it ever since, devoting himself to his research every day. However, news came from many sources that the Viscount had a dual personality.The children lost in the forest were led home in terror by the hand of a halfling on crutches, who gave them figs and pancakes; he helped poor widows carry firewood; Dogs bitten by snakes are healed, poor people find mysterious gifts on windowsills and thresholds; fig trees uprooted by the wind are replanted before their masters come out. At the same time, however, the viscount, half-wrapped in a black cloak, continued to commit crimes: the child was taken away and later found locked in a cave sealed with stones; branches and stones fell on the old lady's head; Pumpkins are crushed as soon as they are ripe, purely as a prank. The Viscount devoted himself to torturing swallows for a while.He doesn't kill them, he maims them.But now people start to see swallows flying in the sky with their paws wrapped with bandages and small sticks, or swallows with glued wings or medicines; sometimes a group of swallows fly carefully as if they were cured from a bird hospital .Legend has it that Medardo himself treated it, and it is hard to tell whether it is true or not. Once, Pamela was driving her sheep and duck in a storm in a distant wilderness.She knew there was a cave nearby, so small it could only be described as a hole in the rock.When she went there, she saw a frayed and repaired boot protruding from it, and half of her body wrapped in a black cloak was curled up in the hole.She was about to run away, but the vicomte saw her, came out and stood in the pouring rain, and said to her, "Come in the cave, girl, and come in." "I'm not going to take shelter in there," said Pamela. "There's barely enough room in there, and you're trying to crush me." "Don't be afraid," said the vicomte, "I will stay outside, and you can hide inside comfortably with your sheep and ducks." "Sheep and ducks are not afraid of water." "We let them take shelter from the rain too." Pamela, who had heard of the Viscount's eccentric benevolence, said, "Then I shall try." She slipped into the hole and huddled with the two small animals.The Viscount stood upright in front of the cave.Stretch the cloak like a tent, so that even sheep-like ducks will not be exposed to the rain.Pamela looked thoughtfully at the hand that held up his cloak for a moment, then looked at her own hands, compared them, and burst out laughing. "I'm glad to see you so happy, girl," said the vicomte. "If you will allow me, please tell me why you laugh?" "I laugh because I see what confuses my folks." "whats the matter?" "You have good days and bad days. It seems natural now." "why?" "Because I found out that you are the other half. The Viscount who lives in the castle, the bad one, is the half. And you are the other half, which people thought was lost in the war, and now you are back. You are the good half. "You are very polite, thank you." "Oh, that's it. I didn't say that to please you." The following is the story of Medardo that Pamela heard that night.It turned out that the shell did not shatter his body, but split it in two; one half was taken away by the army's containment personnel, and the other half was buried under the corpses of Christians and Turks, and was not found.In the middle of the night, two hermits passed by the field, not sure whether they were religious or witchcraft, as some people do during the war, they live in the wilderness between the positions of the two armies, or according to people today They embraced the Christian Trinity and the Mohammedan Allah together in their arms, and when they found Medardo's half, they took him back to their cave with strange pity, and used their store of balsam Treated with ointment, revived him.No sooner had he regained his strength than the wounded, farewell to life and death, and with the help of a cane, returned to his castle through many Christian countries through the ages, admiring his good deeds along the way. The kind-hearted half-length viscount finished telling Pamela about his experience, and asked the shepherdess to tell her life experience.Pamela told how the bad Medardo had persecuted her, and how she had run away from home into the forest.Listening to Pamela's narration, the kind-hearted Medardo was deeply moved.He sympathizes with the persecuted chaste shepherdess, with the sad and unconsolable evil Medardo, and with Pamela's poor and lonely parents. "And them!" said Pamela. "My parents were two hard-hearted old men. It would be inappropriate for you to pity them." "Ah, Pamela, think how sad they must be in that run-down house, with no one to look after them, to help them with their work in the fields and in the barn." The barn fell down on top of them That's good!" said Pamela, "I'm beginning to see that you're a little too sentimental. The other half of you has done so many bad things, and instead of being angry with him, you seem to have sympathy for him." "Why not? I know what it's like to be a halfling, and I can't help but pity him." "But you're not the same. You're a little crazy, too, but you're kind." So kind Medardo said, "Pamela, that's the beauty of being half-human: understanding that everyone in the world is And the pain I feel, to understand the flaws of everything that is not complete. I was whole before I knew these things. People can't believe this fact. Not only am I torn and incomplete, Pamela, but you are too, and everyone is. I now have a heart of compassion that I never experienced when I was whole : Sympathy for all the imperfection and inadequacy of the world. If you are with me, Pamela, you will bear with the faults of all, and learn to heal yourself as well as the wounds of all." "That's very well," said Pamela, "but your other fight has put me in great distress, and he's in love with me, and I don't know what he'll do to me." My uncle let go and let the cloak fall, for the storm was over. "I'm in love with you too, Pamela." Pamela jumped out of the hole: "I'm so happy! There's a rainbow in the sky, and I've found a new admirer. He's half the body, but kind-hearted." They were treading mud under dripping branches. path walking.The Viscount's half-opened mouth formed a sweet, incomplete smile. "So, what do we do?" Pamela said. "I said go to your parents, they are so poor, do something for them." "You go if you like," said Pamela. "I'd like to go, my dear," said the vicomte. "I'll stay here," said Pamela, stopping with her ducks and goats. "Doing good deeds together is the only way we can love each other." "Unfortunately. I'm sure there are other ways." "Good-bye, dear. I'll bring you some apple pie." He walked away from the path on crutches. "What do you think about it, Lamb? What do you think, Duck?" asked Pamela, alone with her two domestic animals. "Should all such people be put on my head?"