snakes

The man gets sick with fever. He dreams a childhood memory of men burning snakes. The dream reflects man's failed attempt to battle evil. The Biblical allusion of fighting but succumbing to evil is a theme that is presented through the novel.

The burning snakes twisted horribly and some crawled burning across the floor of the grotto to illuminate its darker recesses. As they were mute there were no screams of pain and the men watched them burn and writhe and blacken in just such silence themselves and they disbanded in silence in the winter dusk each with his own thoughts to go home to their suppers.