One Hundred Years of Solitude

lowered by ropes into a huge
hole dug in the center of the
dance floor. The mulatto
girls, dressed in black, pale
from weeping, invented
shadowy rites as they took off
their earrings, brooches, and
rings and threw them into the
pit before it was closed over
with a slab that bore neither
name nor dates, and that was
covered with a pile of
Amazonian camellias. After
poisoning the animals they