Scene 8

Then Maille also found the boat. It lay in the middle of a vast hall on the ground floor. The Senegalese from the coastal region are reputed to be excellent seafarers. «Give a man from Yoff a stalk of wheat and he will row with it to America. Give him two, and he will take the whole village along,» goes one of the countless local proverbs, with the help of which people in this land put everything familiar and everything alien into order. And anyone who has witnessed the adroitness with which the fishermen of the Senegalese coast negotiate the breakers of the Atlantic would not wish to contradict the saying. But, unfortunately, Maille was not equipped with such talents.

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