He had come to see his brother about selling the woods. We directed him to the forester's hut. He left his car and went on foot up the steep path. Now I should explain that, under our laws of inheritance, everything is left to the eldest son, 'Zirmat akal' (first born). So the farm and the woods belonged to Torbash, even though it was Milmaq who worked them. I don't know what happened when they met but, when Torbash came back down, his face was black with anger. He drove off without greeting us. A week later great machines began to arrive, ploughing up the tracks as they went up the hillsides. The trees began to be torn savagely, not in the old way. On the hillside away from the forester's hut there were soon no trees left, only a tangle of fallen trunks and smashed branches waiting to be sawn up and dragged away.