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He filled my frame, this giant sitting down outside his hut,
facing the furnace of midday on the Bijago islands. An instant
later, while looking off in another direction, I felt a pressure
on my hand: he had come up to touch me, and my traveling
companions offered their congratulations, it was a rare favor.
He was the eldest of the village, the only one who knew the
paths of the dead, when they walk the island in search of the
canoe that will transport them to the other world (above all,
if you run into them, you must pretend not to recognize them!).
His touch protected me.