Memoirs of a Porcupine by Alain Mabanckou Page B

clear about this, this house is not a place for tears, there is a cemetery a bit further down, you’ll find any number of carcasses there who’ll be happy to receive your
tears’, but still Aunt Etaleli stammered ‘Tembé-Essouka, my daughter’s death is not a normal death, people shouldn’t die like that, I beg you, look carefully, I’m sure you’ll help me, the whole country is in awe of your great knowledge’, she began sobbing again, despite the sorcerer’s annoyance, ‘hell’s teeth, silence, I said, do you want me to kick you out of here, d’you want me to send an army of bees to buzz you, eh, what is this business, then, who d’you think I am, do you still not understand, that the old man here, the one you’re accusing of this misdeed is not the one who ate your daughter, how many times do I have to tell you, dammit , and now if you insist on knowing the truth, I will reveal it to you, because I see everything, I know everything, and to convince you of the innocence of this man you’ve brought here, you must all undergo the trial of the silver bracelet, too bad, don’t say you weren’t warned, I’ll give you ten seconds to decide whether I begin the trial, yes or no’
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    you won’t believe me, dear Baobab, Papa Kibandi at once accepted to undergo the trial of the silver bracelet, while even those who reckoned they had nothing to worry about were thinking twice about it, firstly because Tembé-Essouka was as blind as a bat, secondly because the outcome of the trial could be affected by panic, Papa Kibandi was not going to back off, Aunt Etaleli had suddenly dried her tears, she seemed to delight in advance in the idea of seeing her brother exposed before four witnesses, the fire lit up the hut, crackling like the fires which tear through the bush in the dry season, the masks seemed to move their thick lips, whispering occult phrases to the sorcerer, to which he responded with sudden shakes of the head, smoke
swirled round the visitors’ faces, each coughing and spluttering louder than the next, a smell of something rotten, then of charred rubber caught in their throats, and when the smoke finally cleared Tembé-Essouka placed a pot filled with palm oil on the fire, threw in a silver bracelet, let the oil boil for some time before plunging his hand straight in, the boiling oil came up to his elbow, he recovered the bracelet without burning himself, showed it to the astonished group, put it back in the pot, ‘now it’s your turn, madame, you do the same’, after a second’s hesitation, Aunt Etaleli plunged her hand into the pot, seized the bracelets, almost cried victory, and the witnesses, reassured, all did the same, again with success, and the sorcerer turned next to Papa Kibandi, ‘it’s your turn, I’ve made you go last, because you are the supposed eater’, Papa Kibandi immediately obliged, and triumphed, under the watchful eye of Aunt Etaleli, while the other witnesses turned to stare at the accuser in amazement, the sorcerer said, ‘the four witnesses and the man unjustly accused will now leave this hut and wait outside, and I will reveal to you, madame, who it was that ate your daughter’, Aunt Etaleli stood alone facing the masks, who by now looked disgusted, and the sorcerer was deep in thought, eyes closed, and when he opened them Aunt Etaleli had the feeling he wasn’t actually blind at all, he looked her straight in the eye, gave a bark like a Batéké dog, the fire suddenly died, he began counting his beads again, chanting something Aunt Etaleli didn’t understand, his eyes rolling, this time lifelessly, his thumb and index finger seized one of the biggest beads, he stroked it nervously, stopped his chanting, took the aunt’s right hand, asked her ‘now who’s this guy they call Nkouyou Matété I see in my thoughts, eh’, Aunt Etaleli