A great many old people came and knelt around us and prayed, old women with jet-black faces and braided hair, old men with work-gnarled hands.

• 许多老人,有脸庞乌黑发亮梳着辫子的老妇人,有因劳瘁而致双手粗糙的老头儿,都过来跪在我们周围祈祷。