Burial without delay

Burial without delay is presented as a binding Aït Kebbash norm, making prompt burial more than a practical concern. It requires Driss’s body to be laid to rest without needless postponement, and it shapes both David’s journey with the dead man’s family and the timing of Abdellah’s decision about him.

The Obligation and Its Force

The norm is described as requiring a body to be buried with all haste; any delay is treated as a breach of the holy texts. The language makes time itself part of the obligation: discussions and farewells give way when the Aït Kebbash turn toward the vehicle, signaling that it is time to attend to the burial. Marital affection and other ordinary attachments do not outweigh the duty’s urgency.

The obligation also frames Abdellah’s demand that David return with the family to Tafal’aalt and bury Driss. Hamid presents the request as customary and proper: the man responsible for Driss’s death should accompany him home for burial. David initially regards the proposal with suspicion, anticipating extortion and being held in the village. Yet the possibility of being forgiven gives the journey a different meaning for him; official exoneration and forgiveness by Driss’s father are not the same, and David understands the latter as the only relief that can answer his guilt.

The Journey and Funeral

The arrangements leave David without a clear account of the money expected of him. When Richard asks about the amount, Hamid says he cannot ask David directly and that David must simply take a certain amount. The text does not specify the sum or identify it as a formal price for the burial; it shows the financial uncertainty accompanying the demand to travel.

The funeral itself passes quickly. In the wind, at a graveyard cut into the desert, Driss’s bandaged body is lowered into its place and prayers are said. His mother had died years earlier; aunts and cousins weep and curse, while the men absorb their grief in silence. The scene gives the rule a concrete consequence: burial proceeds despite the harsh conditions, and the family’s mourning takes place within the limited time that the obligation allows.

Burial Before Judgment

Prompt burial does not settle the question of David’s responsibility. Abdellah waits until Driss has been buried and he has spoken with Ismael before deciding what to do about David. His immediate concern is whether David will tell the truth about how Driss died. For Abdellah, a deliberate lie would be more blameworthy than the accident because it would be a willed act; his judgment therefore follows the burial rather than being resolved by it.

Afterward, David asks whether Abdellah managed to forgive him. Hamid assures him that he must have, reasoning that otherwise David would not be drinking coffee with him in Alnif. That assurance offers a measure of closure, but it does not turn the burial obligation into legal acquittal or erase the distinction between accident, truth, and forgiveness. The rule governs what must happen to the dead; the living still have to answer for what they did and said.