It was,indeed, as though this, the very first of the strange scenes I was to witnessin the land of Moribundia, had been specially prepared for me – so arrangedthat the members of the community were spread out before me, for my benefit, asit were, in a state of absolute naturalness and unself-consciousness, and soabsorbed in their own rites that a stranger could move among them with lessconspicuousness than a ghost.
I knew at oncethat I must seize this moment – drink in these unspoiled impressions while Icould and keeping close to the trees, I began to circle slowly, but withoutstealth in the direction of the pavilion.
It was notuntil I passed the second or third group of boys lying sprawled across thegrass that I became aware that somethingwas ‘wrong’ – had my first intimation, in other words, that this world into which I had come had certain physicalcharacteristics and peculiarities which differed, however faintly, from those inthe world from which I had come. Therewas, in fact, something ‘wrong’ about these boys themselves. And this something ‘wrong’ derived from the fact that there wassomething much too ‘right’ about them.
