At the top of Cemetery Hill lies an old silk cotton tree. Like many old things in this land, there were tales about the tree and what took shelter beneath it. Giant men; beautiful women with cow's feet; black, horned devils. Worst among them were the shape shifters, who often appeared as bent old men but would transform into balls of fire or animals.
There was one such tale of an old man often spotted under the tree. It didn't help that the town buried their dead on the same hill.
Now, the grammar school was built on the other side of the hill, so all children of school age had to walk past the cemetery to and from lessons. The children had been warned by their parents, "Turn your clothes inside out and hide your thumbs when walking past the cemetery, or the old man will take you".
But Mrs.Oliveira, the old Portuguese head mistress, would hear none of the superstitious drivel. She punished all she found with their clothes inside out with strokes in their palms.
One day, to prove the tree and cemetery were harmless, she marched the children to the top of the hill and made them sit under the tree. There she gave a lengthy lesson on the impossible nature of a man who could turn into fire or any other form.
But even as she spoke, from the top of the tree dropped a ball of fire. When it touched the ground, the ball wobbled and folded, and as the flames died out, a bent old man stepped forward.
The children scattered in every direction, fleeing the hill, leaving Mrs. Oliveira behind. Needless to say, the old head mistress went missing that day and was never seen or heard of again.
ns 15.158.11.151da2
