Atdtda28: Pilgrim, 785-786

[Paul Nightingale]

Again the section begins by asking the reader to play catch-up: "Kit had
almost gotten used ..." etc. And so to: "... one day he and Prance came
across a band of reindeer herders ..." etc. And then the fast-forward: "...
as Kit explained it later". At first we are told that Kit rides Kirghiz
horses; this detail is immediately revised to include the similar but
different "shaggier pony-size cousins, his feet all bur dragging along the
ground". Down the page: "... the narrow track of his life branching now and
then into unsuspected side trails". So the imprecision of the narrative
moment, the 'now', is supplemented by the range of threads that Kit's life
is "branching" into (until, finally, he will need the talking reindeer "to
pilot him through confusions in the terrain", 786).

For once Prance responds without scepticism or argument ("Of course ...",
785), taking over with the talking reindeer to sideline Kit. Prance is thus
associated with "[f]olk out here" who talk to reindeer "all the time": back
on 783 he was concerned that everyone thought him a Japanese spy. The
reindeer has not spoken to Kit, of course, only appearing to act
anthropomorphically; and Kit's judgement ("It didn't seem that odd ...",
785) is qualified by "... were said to do it ...", a reference less to the
'fact' of talking reindeer than to the power of belief. Again, over the page
on 786, "herders . believ[e] ..." etc. The result of all this is that Kit
enjoys another makeover, transformed into "a pilgrim who [needs] Ssagan to
pilot him through confusions in the terrain". So he begins with a pony that
is not a Kirghiz, "his feet all but dragging along the ground" (785); and
finishes with a reindeer that might be "the reincarnation of a great Buriat
teacher". This final development comes to us courtesy of Prance, responsible
for interpreting/translating whatever has been going on among the herders.