Prologue

In the dawn, a man (referred to in the Characters list as the digger) progresses over the plain. He makes holes in the ground using a two-handled instrument made of steel, thereby “striking the fire out of the rock which God has put there.” Behind him, wanderers move mechanically from hole to hole, “monitored by escapement and pallet”; they seem prudent and reflective, but they are not. Their movements seem like the validation of causality. Some wanderers seek for bones; others do not. The man strikes fire in another hole and withdraws his instrument. “Then they all move on again.”