All the marinheiros were sitting around a torn sail, fixing it. Nuro, leading and watching them, said:
‘Did you hear of what happened in Pemba back in 2004? There is this madala, this old man. Two robbers went into his house, right? They checked it out and they stole his suitcase and three small wooden cases, all carved up like they do them in Moeda. They thought there’d be gold in them, or jewels or coins. They get home and they open them up. Moment they open the first case, a huge wind starts blowing - howling! They close the case and it stops. Then they open the second case, and rain starts pouring down. When they opened the third case, this storm hits, - what do you call storms?’
‘Ladu.’
‘Yeah, ladu. Thunders flying everywhere. So they closed all the cases and went to the police station and said: I’m sorry, we’re robbers and we took these cases from the madala and this is what happened. When the police came for him he looked them dead in the eyes and said ‘if you take me to prison, I swear that it will rain every single day until my sentence is served.’ They had to let him go. Some guys are ‘manning fodidos’ like that.’ (untranslatable)
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