Chapter SixSummer came and the rumours died down, just as everything in this world causes a commotion at first before becoming something ordinary which the eye sees or the ear hears without attracting attention. And with the summer came the irrigation shifts that disrupt the order of the peasants’ lives. During periods of unemployment they stay with their families but when irrigation is in progress they work endlessly night and day with virtually no rest at all. At these times their beasts labour with them until they are also exhausted.
While the summer brought work to the fallaheen, to others its arrival meant days of rest and recreation. Hardly had spring turned to summer than Hamid and his brothers returned to the village after months spent between papers and books within the walls of
