The Invention of Morel - Adolfo Bioy Casares

day. (I I eel the deepest respect for the men who first
learned how to kindle fires; how much more advanced
they were than we!) I had to work for many days,
lacerating myself in the process, in an effort to make a
trap. When I finally succeeded, I was able to add fresh,
bloody birds to my diet. I have followed the tradition of
recluses: I have also eaten roots. I learned to
recognize the most poisonous plants by the pain I
suffered, the attacks of fever, the dreadful discoloration
of my skin, the seizures that obliterated my memory,
and the unforgettable fears that filled my dreams. [2]
I am miserable. I have no tools down here. This
region is unhealthy, sinister. But a few months ago the
mere thought of a life like this would have seemed too
good to be true.
The daily tides are neither dangerous nor punctual.
Sometimes they lift the leafy branches I sleep upon,
and I wake up in a mixture of sea water and the muddy
water of the marshes.
I hunt during the afternoons; in the morning the water
is up to my waist, and the submerged part of my body
feels so large and heavy that I can scarcely move. In
compensation for these discomforts, there are fewer
snakes and lizards. But the mosquitoes are present
the whole day, the whole year long.
The tools are in the museum. I hope to be brave
enough to try to go and get them later. But that may not
be necessary after all—perhaps these people will
disappear; perhaps they are merely hallucinations.
The boat, on the beach at the eastern part of the
island, is inaccessible now. But my loss of it is not
important; all I have really lost is the satisfaction of
knowing that I am not a captive, that I can leave the
island if I wish to. But was I ever really able to leave
That boat has been a kind of inferno to me. When I
came here all the way from Rabaul, I had no drinking
water, no covering for my head. The sea is endless
when you are in a rowboat. I was overwhelmed by the
sun, by fatigue. I was plagued by a burning sensation
and by dreams that never ceased.