Tomeh

Tomeh is a young witness whose account of her grandfather’s death gives Hohsalle a possible link between an earlier animal-bite illness and the deaths that prompted his investigation. Her memory supplies a concrete sequence—attacks on sheep, a wolf bite, and a later illness—while the uncertainty surrounding that connection remains explicit: Hohsalle cannot confirm that the two cases involved the same disease.

Identity and Family Background

Tomeh is the granddaughter of the man Hohsalle has come to ask about. Her father had previously told someone a story about his own father being bitten by a wolf, and Hohsalle follows that report to Tomeh. By the time he arrives, her father has died, two months earlier; Tomeh is therefore the surviving family witness available to recount the grandfather’s case.

Her account emerges in a domestic setting, with an elderly woman present and preparing tea. Tomeh initially looks uncomfortable, but Hohsalle gently says that he will not ask anything difficult and explains why he has come. Once he mentions the story and identifies her grandfather as the person bitten, Tomeh’s expression eases enough for her to begin. Her role in the episode is not that of a medical authority: she contributes what she saw as a child and what happened within her family.

The Wolf Attack and Its Delayed Aftermath

Tomeh recalls that sheep had been taken night after night, provoking her grandfather, who was angry and set traps to kill the animals responsible. The traps caught nothing. When the sheep remained disturbed during the day, her father and grandfather took bows to investigate, and Tomeh followed behind them. She had expected a pack of wolves, but the family encountered one animal, which she clarifies was full-grown rather than a young or undersized wolf.

The wolf was alone and attacked sheep repeatedly, biting them on the leg one after another. Tomeh distinguishes its behavior from an attack driven simply by hunger: in her recollection, it seemed to keep biting because it liked to. As her grandfather pursued it, the wolf bit him on the leg. Her father managed to graze it with an arrow, after which it ran away. The family returned home frustrated, but the bite did not appear severe at first, and her grandfather was well for the rest of that day.

The change came afterward. A day later, or perhaps the day after that, her grandfather complained that his throat hurt and lay down. Tomeh remembers his subsequent severe illness and death the next morning. Her account does not establish a diagnosis, but it gives Hohsalle a specific progression in which illness followed a wolf bite after a delay, rather than beginning at the moment of the attack.

Witness, Memory, and Loss

Tomeh is recounting events she witnessed as a child, and her narration is clear in its sequence but careful about what she cannot know. She says the wolf’s attack was frightening and remembers following her father and grandfather to see what was happening among the sheep. When Hohsalle asks about signs such as drooling, she cannot say whether the wolf drooled because she did not see clearly. This limit matters to the investigation: her testimony preserves observed behavior without turning uncertain details into facts.

Her recollection also reaches its emotional boundary. As she describes her grandfather’s illness, her voice trails off and she rubs her arm; after she finishes, silence settles in the room. The story is not merely a report about an animal attack. It is an account of a family loss, told by someone who witnessed the event and remembers its frightening aftermath, while still being asked to make that memory useful to a medical inquiry.

The Curse and the Unresolved Medical Link

Hohsalle’s questions are part of an effort to understand the deaths of slaves and what people call the Curse of Aquafa. When Tomeh and the elderly woman refer to the curse and ask about another terrible event in Kazan, Hohsalle rejects the supernatural explanation for the deaths under investigation: he says they died after being bitten by dogs. Tomeh immediately recognizes the possible family parallel and reacts with surprise, understanding why Hohsalle had asked about her grandfather.

Hohsalle nevertheless resists presenting resemblance as certainty. He tells the women that an illness carried by the dog that bit Tomeh’s grandfather resembles the illness that killed the slaves, but says they do not yet know whether it is the same. He also asks whether anyone else in the household became ill; the elderly woman confirms that Tomeh’s grandfather alone was affected. Tomeh’s testimony thus sharpens the investigation without resolving it: it offers a precedent for a delayed illness after an animal bite, but leaves both the identity of the disease and the significance of the apparently isolated case open.