This chapter's epigraph is from a poem by Edgar Allan Poe, "Infernal lightning winged snake" . The poem is about a snake that has a root in its body but is not in its soul. The root of the snake is in Edgar's body, but the snake's soul is in someone else's. Since the root is not present in Edgar, the snake will think that Edgar has passed it on to someone else, and so many people will die because of its anger. This is why Edgar is so upset. He wants to kill the snake, but he can't, because he's blocked by the stars. He's also worried that the snake might think that he has passed on the root to some other person. He wonders how many people would be killed by its anger, since the snake doesn'