Chapter 25
Beyond the alternation of light and dark, heat and cold, hunger and its bare and temporary relief at the hands of the charitable bereaved, time had ceased to exist for Lubna.
She was just about keeping body and soul, but not together. It was as if she had already set one foot inside the spirit world. When she made contact with the living who came to picnic and to pray in the company of their dead, they were all too ready to exorcize her with a crust of bread or a lump of cheese. Her thirst she slaked by lapping at the shallow water-bowls that were set into the graves and filled from time to time by visitors, for the benefit of birds and beasts and departed souls.
And then, one morning, time began again.
The peasants heard it first, out beyond the city wall in the higher reac
