The thunder, the tremors in the earth, the first issues of smoke from the mountain top, evoked fear. Fear: the head half-thrown backward by the contortion of the neck, a shoulder hunched up, a claw-like hand tearing at the hair, an eye suddenly blocked by the closing together of fingers, the breathing laboured and interrupted, plaintive whimpering, the eyes casting about on all sides, the upper lip raised above the upper teeth, the eyelids drawn back to reveal an expanse of white, every part of the body in a shudder, over there the black semicircle of a mouth, here the uncontrollable swallowing of saliva.