The
next day the family departs for the village of El Puerto,
where Tony's relatives on his mother's side live. There is great
excitement there, since everyone has heard what happened to Tenorio. The
next day they watch the funeral procession for Tenorio's daughter. It
is led by Tenorio on horseback, followed by a horse-drawn wagon that
contains the coffin. But when the procession reaches the church, the
priest refuses to say the mass for the dead or allow a burial on holy
ground. The procession turns around. Tenorio's daughter will have to
be buried in unholy ground. And without the having the mass said, her
soul, according to Catholic doctrine, will be damned.
Analysis
This
brief chapter gives more insight into the local beliefs about witchcraft
and its rituals. Much of this is directly opposite to Christian ritual.
The night before the funeral, for example, the witches read from their
Black Book; they burn sulfur instead of incense; they kill a rooster and
spread his blood on the dead body (perhaps in a perverse mockery
of the Christian Eucharist). All this is done so that the devil will
come and sleep with the corpse before it is buried.
These
details serve to build up the theme of evil in the novel, and the
chapter as a whole ratchets up the tension of the overall situation,
since Tenorio still vows to have revenge on Ultima. This anticipates the
final showdown in the last chapter.
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