To improve the translator's understanding of the language, Henderson and Charlie interview the natives, such as Spet, who talks politely to his interviewer, thinking he is the ghost of a relative. Spet later tells Winton, using the improved power of the translator, that when the rains come, young people like himself, in order to become adults, must hang upside down; some die, and the rest become long and thin. (Parts of the story are seen from Spet's point of view; he regards the coming ordeal with calm acceptance.) Winton, appalled, tells Henderson that they should stop the practice, but Henderson, assuming that Winton is always wrong, disagrees. Henderson is shocked when Spet describes the procedure to him.
