Then the Asika died and as I had the secret marks and the beauty that is hers the priests burnt her body before Big Bonsa and suffocated me, the child, in the smoke of the burning.

But I awoke again and when I awoke the past was gone and the soul of the Asika filled me, bringing with it its awful memories, its gathered wisdom, its passion of love and hate, and its power to look backward and before." "Do you ever do these things ?" asked Alan.
"Backward, yes, before very little; since you came, not at all, because my heart is a coward and I fear what I might see.

Oh! Vernoon, Vernoon, I know you and your thoughts.

You think me a beautiful beast who loves like a beast, who loves you because you are white and different from our men.

Well, what there is of the beast in me the gods of my people gave, for they are devils and I am their servant.