The mountains of Asturias, the Night of the Dead. Based on the Güestia, the procession of souls that, according to tradition, walks the paths.
In Valdecubo, a village in the Asturian mountains, Granny Celsa went over the rules of the Güestia every autumn, the way you remind yourself where you keep the keys. “On the Night of the Dead, the dead walk past in a line, dressed in white and carrying candles. At the front walks a living person with the cross, condemned to lead them until someone else takes it from them. If you meet them, draw a circle on the ground and step inside. Accept nothing: not a hand, not a candle. And look at their feet, because the dead bring the graveyard earth with them on their feet.”
Lino was thirteen, and that night it was his job to bring the cows down from the hills, because a storm was threatening. He was coming back along the mill path, his crook in his hand, when he saw the lights.
It was a line of white figures moving in silence, each holding a candle that didn’t flicker even though the wind was blowing. At the front, a man from the next village was carrying a wooden cross, staring into nothing. Lino stepped aside into the ditch and, with the tip of his crook, drew a circle in the mud. Then, as his grandmother had taught him, he looked at their feet.
All of them were stained with dark earth up to the ankles, the man with the cross too. All except the last figure: her feet were white and clean, as if they had never trodden on a path. When the candlelight fell on her face, Lino recognised her. It was Rosario, the miller’s daughter, who had disappeared exactly a year before, on another Night of the Dead, on her way back from the mill. All they ever found was her headscarf, caught on the edge of the millpond.
Lino felt such joy that he forgot to be afraid. If Rosario had no earth on her feet, she wasn’t dead. The Güestia was taking her along, like the man with the cross, and he could save her. “Rosario!” he shouted from inside the circle. “Stop! You’re following the dead!”
The procession halted. Rosario slowly turned her head and smiled at him with a sadness that chilled his blood. “I know, Lino. I’ve been waiting a whole year for someone to take my place.” She held out her candle, which didn’t shed a single drop of wax. “Hold it for me a moment, will you? My hands are frozen.”
Lino had already reached half his arm out of the circle when his grandmother’s voice flashed through his mind: not a hand, not a candle. He threw himself face down on the ground, inside the line, eyes shut, his heart pounding against the earth. He heard footsteps that made no sound. As they passed the mill, Rosario’s light tilted for an instant towards the millpond and went on its way. When Lino raised his head, there was nobody left. In the mud there wasn’t a single footprint.
Activities
1 Detective Inference
Why was Rosario the only one in the Güestia with clean feet? Tick the correct hypothesis.
- a) Because she was alive and the Güestia was taking her along, just like the man from the next village at the front with the cross.
- b) Because she had died that very night and hadn’t yet had time to tread on the mud of any path.
- c) Because she was last in the line and always stepped in the footprints the others left behind.
- ✓d) Because she was never buried: she was dead, but she had no graveyard earth on her feet.
Which clue proves it? Copy or summarise the clue from the text that proves it.
Correct hypothesis: d). That’s it. Clean feet didn’t belong to the living, but to someone with no grave.
Key clue: “All they found of Rosario was her headscarf at the edge of the millpond: her body never reached the graveyard.” That’s the key: if nobody buried her, she couldn’t bring graveyard earth with her.
2 The Loom Order of events
Put the events in order, starting with the earliest. Write the order number (1, 2, 3…) in each box.
- 4 Lino recognises the face of the last figure.
- 2 Lino brings the cows down from the hills because a storm is coming.
- 6 Lino throws himself face down on the ground.
- 3 Lino draws a circle in the mud with his crook.
- 1 Rosario’s headscarf is found at the edge of the millpond.
- 5 Rosario asks him to hold her candle.
Correct order:
- Rosario’s headscarf is found at the edge of the millpond.
- Lino brings the cows down from the hills because a storm is coming.
- Lino draws a circle in the mud with his crook.
- Lino recognises the face of the last figure.
- Rosario asks him to hold her candle.
- Lino throws himself face down on the ground.
The headscarf turned up a year earlier, when Rosario disappeared. That night, Lino brings the cows down, sees the procession and draws the circle before looking at their feet. Then he recognises Rosario, who offers him the candle, and he throws himself to the ground.
3 The Missing Page Coherence
What does Lino do the next morning that fits everything that has happened? Tick only one option.
- a) He goes round the nearby villages asking about Rosario, convinced she is alive and lost in the hills.
- b) He goes back to the mill path that night with a lit candle, ready to take Rosario’s place in the line.
- ✓c) He tells his grandmother about the light that tilted towards the millpond and, that same morning, they drain it.
- d) He goes to the next village to find the man with the cross and take it from him, to free him from leading the dead.
Answer: c). That’s it: the candle pointed to the millpond. There they find her, and at last she can be buried.
- a) Rosario had been dead for a year. Clean feet didn’t belong to the living, but to someone with no grave.
- b) The Güestia walks on the Night of the Dead, not any night. And Lino has just been saved by not taking the candle.
- d) Taking the cross is exactly what his grandmother taught him not to do: whoever takes it, carries it.
4 Spot the Contradiction Literal reading
Three statements don’t fit the story. Put an X next to the 3 statements that don’t fit the text.
- a) According to Granny Celsa, the living person who leads the Güestia walks at the front with a cross.That’s how she tells it, and that’s what Lino sees.
- ✗b) The man from the next village had clean feet, like Rosario.His were muddy up to the ankles, like everyone’s except hers.
- c) Rosario disappeared a year earlier, also on a Night of the Dead.She disappeared on her way back from the mill, exactly a year before.
- ✗d) Lino held the candle for a moment before he remembered his grandmother.He reached half his arm out of the circle, but never took it.
- e) Lino drew the circle in the mud with the tip of his crook.He did it as soon as he stepped into the ditch.
- ✗f) After the procession passed, the path was full of footprints.There wasn’t a single footprint in the mud.
5 The Gallery Visualisation
In the game you choose the illustration that answers this question: “Which illustration shows the Güestia passing Lino, already lying in his circle?”. Here, you draw it yourself, with every detail the text gives you.
What should appear: Everyone has mud on their feet except the last figure, the leader carries the cross and Lino lies in his circle by the ditch.
Reward drawings that include the details from the text, not artistic skill.
Ending
To read aloud once the answers have been checked.
Lino had misread his grandmother’s rule. Clean feet didn’t belong to a living person: the man with the cross was alive and his feet were muddy, because he was really walking through the mud. They belonged to someone who had died without ever reaching the graveyard. Rosario drowned in the millpond the night she disappeared, and she was never buried. That was why she had no earth on her feet, and why she walked at the back of the Güestia, waiting for a living person to take her candle and her place.
At dawn, Lino told his grandmother everything, including the light that tilted towards the millpond. That same morning, the villagers drained the millpond and found Rosario at the bottom. They buried her in the Valdecubo graveyard, with her headscarf.
A year later, Lino waited for the Güestia again inside his circle. Every figure had earth-stained feet. None of them had clean ones. And ever since, Granny Celsa has added a line to her rules: “Clean feet don’t belong to the living. They belong to those with no grave.”
Suggested marking
Each activity is worth 2 points (10 in total). In 1, one point for the hypothesis and one for the clue. In 2, give one point if only a couple of events are swapped. In 4, half a point for each correct cross and minus half a point for each true statement crossed out.