“Yes,” said Shecol, “he has been up here all night, turning the meat over to keep it from burning.”
As they came nearer Yappa saw a big pit in the ground about ten feet long. This was lined with stones. An ox had been cut in half and some long iron skewers stuck through the halves; then the oxen were hung across the top of the pit. Yappa gave a sniff.
“It smells good,” she said. “It’s getting brown too,” and she peered down into the pit at the glowing coals below.
They passed a place where some men had begun to dig in the ground.
“That’s where the head is cooking,” said Shecol.
“Down there in the ground?” exclaimed Yappa.
“Yes, we dug a little hole, lined it with stones, and built a fire. After the stones were very hot, we raked the fire out, scattered some dirt over the stones so that they should not burn the meat, and set the head right down in it; then we filled the hole with dirt.”
Don Secundini came up just as the men finished taking the head out of the hole. He brushed off the dirt and said, “This is the best of all the meat.” He took it over where Donna Maria was sitting and said to her, “You shall have the tongue.”
“Thank you,” said Donna Maria.
“I don’t think I ever tasted such good meat before,” said Yappa.