- This is the longest poem we've seen so far. It tells the origin of white people and of really, really big evil—evil with a capital E.
- A long time ago, the story goes, there were no Europeans in the world.
- But one day, witch people from all the Pueblos and all the tribes got together for a witchery convention.
- They decided to hold a competition to see who could be the best witch.
- To prove themselves as the most evil in the Evil Contest, everybody got out their dead baby brains and severed body parts.
- Finally there was only one witch left. This witch didn't show off any gruesome objects. He had a story to tell.
- Everybody laughs, but the witch says the story will begin to happen as they're telling it.
- The witch's story is a poem within a poem. (The italics indicate that the witch is speaking.)
- Way across the ocean live white people, the witch says, who "grow away from the earth."
- For these white people, the world is a dead thing. When they look at it, they see only objects.
- The white people will sail across the ocean and will carry objects that shoot death. They will kill the animals, poison the water, and slaughter the people.
- Not only that, they'll bring drought, and the people will starve.
- There will be lots of corpses and blood. Death, death, death. This is a good thing in the witchery business.
- The people who aren't slaughtered by these white invaders will die anyway at the loss and destruction they see around them.
- You think that's bad? It gets worse.
- The white people will bring terrible new diseases with them. More death.
- The white people will take over the whole continent, from ocean to ocean, and then they'll turn on each other.
- They'll find strange rocks up in the hills veined with green and yellow and black, and they'll use these rocks to explode the whole world.
- OK, the mysterious witch is done with his story.
- The destruction of the whole world? Yep, that's pretty evil. You win, the other witches say.
- Uh, but can you please call that story back? It's actually a little too evil for us.
- Sorry guys, the witch says—it's too late. The big Evil is already on its way.
- Tayo, Betonie, and Shush set out on horseback before dawn and head into the foothills of the mountains.
- Betonie shows Tayo where they will have "the second night" of the ceremony (XV.2).
- From there, the world below looks small. Tayo can't see any sign of "what had been set loose upon the earth" by the witchcraft: the highways, towns, and fences (XV.3).
- In this special place, Tayo feels strong and happy. He feels like he used to before the war. In fact, he has to touch the scars on his hand to remember what year it is.