One egg.
Very heavy rain in the night. Cold during morning, about 1/2 hour’s sun in the afternoon, then more rain. Everything flooded, the Oued Tensift swollen to considerable size – bed is 50 yards wide in places.
The donkey (actually seen dead on the 11.12.38.) now an almost completely clean skeleton. Notice that they leave the head till last.
Orwell Diaries 1938-1942 
… having said that (ref yesterday’s post), I don’t think even Wm Faulkner or Cormac macCarthy had a dead mule being picked entirely clean, head-last, by an unnamed ‘they’. This is new levels of ‘wretched brutalilty’.
Makes me think of the fate awaiting poor Boxer in Animal Farm.
Also maybe the part of the reason the donkeys in Dali’s work disgusted him so much (“Benefit of Clergy,” 1944).
In a detached, scientific (albeit sick) way, I’m interested in the head being left last. My cat, and then by example my dog, always went first for the head of a mouse, rat or rabbit that they had caught and brought home. I’d concluded that the brain must be the tastiest bit. Maybe it’s not so in a donkey (although I’d image the skull of a donkey would be a bit harder to crunch than that of a mouse).
My apologies to anyone eating dinner (or breakfast) while reading this, or those of a vegan nature
Benefit Of Clergy: Some Notes On Salvador Dali by George Orwell, Saturday Book, 1944
That’s just the last three sentences of quite an essay.
ken~~Thanks
I imagine it would be ants (after the dogs) that would pick it “completely clean” – in Australia, if you want a complete unbroken skeleton – stick the carcase on an ants nest and after a week or so it will be sparkling.
Zamboge; Haven’t seen your mother in law for a long time…..
How are those ant bites doing?
Now that there’s only its head and skeleton left he no longer calls it “the wretched brute” but reverts to “the donkey”.
Now going to immerse myself, yet again, in his flying Aspidistra.
Compared to the rest of the donkey, the head is certainly the least meaty, and the brain much harder to access than in a rodent.
We’ve gotten way off topic! What’s interesting is how different varmints eat chickens: raccoons seem to eat the parts humans don’t eat, skunks eat the parts humans do eat, and dogs just chew the head off.
I hear that donkey viscera are the preferred bit by 9 out of ten jackals. Personally I wonder if its not Vultures that are doing all of this …
I clicked on the google map of Marrakesh, and it looks like a real Hell on earth…I have to (still) wonder why he chose that particular place to “convalesce”………
Heavy rain floods me,
Abused lungs struggle for air;
Skeleton is clean
I love the “THEY” in his “they leave the head…”
…THEM…
It’s surprising that the donkey’s head was still intact, considering that cheeks are the tastiest parts of most animals.
George is conducting a group of hapless tourists around the neighborhood.
He calls the group to a halt. He sweeps his arm around to point at the rotting corpse, guiding all eyes to gaze upon it as he gives a brief forensic analysis closing with, “Notice that they leave the head till last,” and everyone nods their heads in unison.
See, these are the kind of discussions you never get at AustenDiary.com. Well, hardly ever.
George (pothumously), Drop the Dead Donkey.