Summary

The morning of St. John's day, Doña Lupeng awakes later than usual to the sound of screaming that she cannot immediately identify. She is more agitated than usual, as her children's nurse is not yet preparing breakfast and she cannot find another member of her caretakers, Amanda. She then realizes that the screaming is actually coming from the stables, specifically from Amanda, who is married to Entoy, the carriage driver. Doña Lupeng finds Amanda sprawled out naked in bed and she stops screaming, and instead starts "noiselessly quaking with laughter" (40). Entoy reveals that Amanda went to the Tadtarin, a women's fertility festival that takes place on the summer solstice, and that now the spirit of Tadtarin itself has possessed her.

The next day, Doña Lupeng laments to her husband about the absurdity of the ritual, asking "how can they...