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HEY DON’T EAT EIDER DUCKS, either, but then the
eider isn’t a domestic bird, even though they build
small stone houses for it, in order to collect the
down, and for years they have had one nesting under the
porch steps. So the cat has been kept inside for weeks. It
doesn’t like that because it is only allowed to be in Martin’s
room where there are no curtains to be torn to shreds. The
cat is called Bonken, it is a tom because they can’t have a
cat that keeps having kittens, they say, which Hans would
have to kill, but it is the same with cats as it is with all other
animals on an island, how can they have young if there is
only one of them?
In late spring when the weather is so bad that you can’t do
anything outside, Barbro and Maria set to work on cleaning
the down with their carding tools. Down is the most
valuable and mysterious material they handle. You can
touch it and put it to your face and feel a distant, hallowed
warmth. You can compress it in your hand and experience
the intimate sensation it is no more than air, and then open
your palms and watch it swell into a grey cloud once more,
as though nothing had happened.
When it is time to sell the down they stuff it into canvas
sacks, attach a label to a cord and tie up the sack. On the
label they write the year the down was collected, the name
of the island and 1 kilo. A kilo of down is amazingly
voluminous and extremely light. So even the high price it
commands is ridiculously low. That is why they keep most
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