On his dreadful journey, after the shaman has wandered through dark forestsand over great ranges of mountains,... he reaches an opening in the ground. Themost difficult stage of the adventure now begins. The depths of the underworldopen before him.
Uno Harva, quoted by Joseph Campbell in The Hero with a ThousandFacesFiver lay on the earth floor of the burrow. Outside, the downs were still in theintense, bright heat of noon. The dew and gossamer had dried early from thegrass and by midmorning the finches had fallen silent. Now, along the lonelyexpanses of wiry turf, the air wavered. On the footpath that led past the warren,bright threads of light -- watery, a mirage -- trickled and glittered across theshortest, smoothest grass. From a distance the trees along the edge of the beechhanger appeared full of great, dense shadows, impenetrable to the dazzled eye.
The only sound was the "Zip, zip" of the grasshoppers, the only scent that of thewarm thyme.
In the burrow, Fiver slept and woke uneasily through the heat of the day,fidgeting and scratching as the last traces of moisture dried out of the earth abovehim. Once, when a trickle of powdery soil fell from the roof, he leaped out of sleepand was in the mouth of the run before he came to himself and returned to wherehe had been lying. Each time he woke, he remembered the loss of Hazel andsuffered once more the knowledge that had pierced him as the shadowy, limpingrabbit disappeared in the first light of morning on the down. Where was thatrabbit now? Where had it gone? He began to follow it among the tangled paths ofhis own thoughts, over the cold, dew-wet ridge and down into the dawn mist ofthe fields below.
The mist swirled round Fiver as he crept through thistles and nettles. Now hecould no longer see the limping rabbit ahead. He was alone and afraid, yetperceiving old, familiar sounds and smells -- those of the field where he was born.
The thick weeds of summer were gone. He was under the bare ash boughs and theflowering blackthorn of March. He was crossing the brook, going up the slopetoward the lane, toward the place where Hazel and he had come upon the noticeboard. Would the board still be there? He looked timidly up the slope. The viewwas blotted with mist, but as he neared the top he saw a man busy over a pile oftools -- a spade, a rope and other, smaller implements, the use of which he didnot know. The notice board lay flat on the ground. It was smaller than heremembered and fixed to a single, long, square post, sharpened at the further endto put into the earth. The surface of the board was white, just as he had seen itbefore, and covered with the sharp black lines like sticks. Fiver came hesitantlyup the slope and stopped close to the man, who stood looking down into a deep,narrow hole sunk in the ground at his feet. The man turned to Fiver with the kindof amiability that an ogre might show to a victim whom they both know that hewill kill and eat as soon as it suits him to do so.
"Ah! An' what am I doin', eh?" asked the man.
"What are you doing?" answered Fiver, staring and twitching with fear.
"I'm just putt'n up this 'ere ol' board," said the man. "And I s'pose you wants t'
know what for, eh?""Yes," whispered Fiver.
"It's fer that there old 'Azel," said the man. "On'y where 't'is, see, we got t' putup a bit of a notice, like, on 'is account. And what d'you reckon it says, eh?""I don't know," said Fiver. "How -- how can a board say anything?""Ah, but it do, see?" replied the man. "That's where we knows what you don't.
That's why we kills you when we 'as a mind to. Now, you wants take a good lookat that there board and then very likely you'll know more 'n what you knowsnow."In the livid, foggy twilight, Fiver stared at the board. As he stared, the blacksticks flickered on the white surface. They raised their sharp, wedge-shaped littleheads and chattered together like a nestful of young weasels. The sound, mockingand cruel, came faintly to his ears, as though muffled by sand or sacking. "Inmemory of Hazel-rah! In memory of Hazel-rah! In memory of Hazel-rah! Ha haha ha ha ha!""Well, that's where 't'is, see?" said the man. "And I've got t'ang 'im up on this'ere board. That's t' say, soon's I gets it stood up proper. Same as yo............