"THESE ARE THE RESPECTED MEMBERS OF THE TRIBES" (p. [54]).
"I HAVE OFTEN MET OLD COUPLES WANDERING TOGETHER" (p. [58]).
Years have I known when, for months at a time, no drop of rain has fallen, when, like the people of old, we watched the sky in the ardent hope that the cloud as large as a man's hand would spread and burst into the showerso sorely needed—but the cloud passed and gave not the rain it promised; years when all that had been confided to the bosom of the earth withered and dried away because from April to September no drop had fallen, so that numbers of wretched cattle died for want of pasturage upon which to graze.
Terrible months of straining anxiety, of hopeless waiting that seemed to dry up the blood in one's veins, as the earth was parched from the want of rain.
The rivers had no more water; the land of plenty becomes a land of sighs, the dust covering all things as with a shroud of failure....
But grand indeed are the years of plenty, when man's effort bears fruit.
In oceans of ripe gold the corn lies beneath the immense face of the sun, proud of its plenty, a glorious hope fulfilled!