The narrator tells us that the portrait of the founder of the Barzesa family is still in good condition. The narrator feels sorry for the founder, but he doesn't know why. He's come from the future, he says, and there's nothing he can do about it. He feels like he's just arrived in school, and his classmates have given him an exam to pass. Everyone assumes that he must know the answers to the exam, and the narrator is the most knowledgeable member of the family. He says he has seen wolves corrupted with evil spirits, and that people raised dogs as pets. He also says that he has heard of torture by old-century humans. He tells the narrator to shake the tail of a wild native dog that got carried away by ivan and forgot to shake its tail. He then says that the tail is wild native with lack of propriety, lacks etiquette, and education. He asks the dog to shake his tail. The dog shakes its tail, but the narrator says it's the correct answer. He goes to the holy maiden's room, where she's humming while she digs through cans. She's happy, she says, because the burden of the past has been released. She says that if she tells him that Apu apologizes to her privately every time, he'll show her the left hand of the clan leader.