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The time came for my escape from Erewhon.  I knew that I would have to find an excuse to visit the eastern mountains during the dark of the moon. I told the King that I wanted to observe the residents of Naffity when they gathered the tears of mourning.  He raised his left eyebrow, but granted leave. 
 
 I was handed a dark lantern and we hiked up to the plateau below the giant fallen statues.  Once everyone was bent over with eyes fixed to the ground, I slipped away and climbed up the rocky slope.  My hands and arms and face were scratched by the long thorns as I burrowed through the boor-geresy thicket and found the tunnel entrance beneath the up-bent knee of the statue of Xite.
 
  
 
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