--I am not a dirty hussy. I am an old pregnant snake. I've been watching a whole hour to see little snakes come out of my body below and crawl around. Say, don't step on my little snakes. --Where are you going? --Who's walking there? Sit down. You make the whole house shake when you walk. --I can't. I feel awful sitting down. --I too. When I am sitting I feel a horror running through my whole body. --So do I. Let me go. _[Three or four Drunkards reel aimlessly about, getting tangled up In the chairs._ --Look what it's doing. It's been jumping for two hours, trying to get on my knee. It just misses by an inch. I drive it away and it comes back again. --Black cockroaches are creeping under my skull and buzzing. --My brain is falling apart. I feel the gray matter separating. My brain is like rotten cheese. It stinks. --There's some sort of a corpse here. I smell it. --Oh my! Oh my! --I'll sneak up to her to-night and cut her throat. --The blood will flow. It's flowing already. See how red it is. --I am constantly being followed by three men. They are calling me into a dark corner of the vacant lot, and they want to kill me. They are already at the door. --Who is walking on the walls and ceiling? --Good Lord! They have come to take me. --Who? --They. --My tongue is getting paralyzed. I'll cry. _(Cries)_ --My whole body is coming out. I'll soon be turned inside out, and then I'll be all red. --Listen, listen. Ho! Somebody! A monster is going for me. He's raising his hand. Help! Ho! --What is it? Help! A spider! --Help! _[For some time they shout "Help!" hoarsely._ --We are all drunkards. Let's call down all the people from above. It's so disgusting up there. --No, don't. When I leave here and go out on the street, it rampages and tears about like a wild beast and soon throws me off my, feet. --We've all come here. We drink rum and it gives us joy. --It gives us fright. I shiver the whole day from fright. --Fright is better than life. Who wants to return to life? --I don't. --I don't. I'd rather croak here. I don't want to live. --No one! --Oh my! Oh my! --Why does Man come here? He drinks little and just sits still. We don't want him. --Let him go to his own house. He has a house of his own. --Fifteen rooms. --Don't touch him. He has no place to go to any more. --He has fifteen rooms. --They're empty. Only rats run around and fight in them. --And his wife. --He hasn't any. Seems she died. _[During this conversation and the following, Old Women in strange headgear enter quietly and replace unnoticeably the Drunkards, who quietly depart. The women mingle in the conversation, but in such a way that no one notices it._ CONVERSATION OF DRUNKARDS AND OLD WOMEN --He'll soon die, too. He can scarcely drag himself along, he's so weak. --He has fifteen rooms. --Listen to the beating of his heart. It's uneven and faint. It'll soon stop beating altogether.