when a wall of dried earth rose up.
Together the three friends bore witness:
“We invoke thee, oh Geno King of heaven!
We behold a wall, the foundation of a dwelling.”
Hamtoudo said: “Let's find the entry-door and go in confidently;
we will find someone there to be our guide
until we know the right thing to do.”
The three friends, wandering all around,
saw no exit from the wall extending up to the clouds.
Hamtudo said:
“Let us sit here and wait;
Someone is sure to come help us.”
The three friends settled in and waited
three nights and three days
and grew weary of waiting for something they did not know.
When they decided to leave, a panel of the wall
measuring three elbows wide
came apart and disappeared into the earth.
Then the travelers came upon a thatched hut;
inside they found a rooster.
Twenty-two months was its age.
They saw it digging about looking for grains
that might have fallen, lost, in the dirt.
The morning songster leaned its head and looked
on the left and right to see who had come in,
or rather, to show off the beautiful comb
in the middle of its head, a stiffly planted one.
Then the travelers went into the hut,
thinking they would find only the rooster inside.
There they discovered an old man with atrophied feet,
which were spindly like the shape of a snake.
The old man was seated crouched on his feet.
They greeted with respect, respect mixed with fear,
that half-human figure, human down to the buttocks.