Free Impressions of Africa (French Literature Series) by Raymond Roussel Page A

pea ran along the entire bottom edge of the translucent trough.
    The third Negro had just set down a large earthenware vessel brimming with clear water, the weight of which Skariovszki asked one of us to gauge.
    La Billaudière-Maisonnial, skimming off a tiny portion in the hollow of his hand, showed the keenest surprise and exclaimed that the strange liquid felt heavy as mercury.
    During this time, Skariovszki lifted his right forearm to his face, uttering several coaxing words with great tenderness.
    We then saw the coral bracelet, which was none other than a giant earthworm as thick as the Hungarian’s index finger, uncoil its two top rings and stretch slowly toward him.
    La Billaudière-Maisonnial, straightening up again, now had to lend himself to another demonstration. At the gypsy’s request, he received the worm, which crawled over his open hand; his wrist immediately dropped beneath the sudden weight of the intruder, which apparently was heavy as solid lead.
    Skariovszki removed the worm, still coiled around his arm, and placed it on the lip of the mica trough.
    The annelid crawled into the empty receptacle, pulling with it the rest of its body, which gradually slid from around the gypsy’s flesh.
    Soon the animal completely blocked the gap in the bottom edge, its horizontally stretched body supported by the two narrow inner ledges formed by the rectangular plates.
    With great effort, the Hungarian hoisted the weighty vessel, the entire contents of which he poured into the trough, which was soon full to the brim.
    Then, placing a knee on the ground and tilting his head to one side, he set the empty vessel beneath the zither, at a precisely determined point verified with a glance up and down the back of the instrument.
    This last task accomplished, Skariovszki, standing nimbly upright, shoved his hands in his pockets, as if to limit himself from here on to a spectator’s role.
    The worm, left to its own devices, suddenly raised, then immediately let drop, a short segment of its body.
    Having had time to slip into the gap, a drop of liquid fell heavily onto one of the zither strings, which on impact emitted a pure and ringing low C .
    Farther on, another twitch in the obstructing body let through a second drop, which this time struck a bright E . A G , then a high C , attacked in the same way, completed the perfect chord that the worm sounded again over an entire octave.
    After the third and final C , the seven consonant notes, struck at the same time, provided a kind of conclusion to this trial prelude.
    Thus warmed up, the worm launched into a slow Hungarian melody, tender and languorously sweet.
    Each drop of liquid, released by an intentional spasm of its body, struck precisely the right string, which then split it into two equal globules.
    A felt strip, glued into place on the wood of the zither, cushioned the fall of the heavy fluid, which otherwise would have produced a bothersome dripping noise.
    The liquid, which accumulated in round puddles, penetrated inside the instrument via two circular openings drilled in the soundboard. Each of the two expected overspills rolled silently down a thin inner layer of felt specifically designed to absorb it.
    A fine, limpid stream, emerging from some hidden egress, soon formed beneath the zither and ended precisely at the mouth of the earthenware vessel that Skariovszki had carefully set in place. The fluid, following the slope of the narrow and equally felt-lined channel, flowed noiselessly to the bottom of the enormous basin, which prevented any of it from inundating the grounds.
    The worm continued its musical contortions, sometimes striking two notes at once, much like professional zither players who hold a hammer in each hand.
    Several melodies, plaintive or lighthearted, succeeded the initial cantilena without a pause.
    Then, moving beyond the scope of the instrument’s habitual repertoire, the annelid launched into the polyphonic execution of a strangely