Antiquer -- Marien Nyerere

In a southern African village, there lives a person named Marien Nyerere who likes collecting antiques.

Marien is just back from his trip to some of Asian countries. He brings back some souvenirs, including a Chinese jade seal, some Singaporean coins and so on. Some of his friends hear about his return and intend to visit him. They all love what he brings back when they come over to his house, which makes him very happy. Then Marien decides to share some wine with his friends that is fermented by himself. He fetches out a jar in which the wine is. After three glasses, Marien who is tired falls asleep soon. Then he has a dream.

In the dream he comes to ancient Egypt. Because, in ancient Egypt, there is a house to which he has always been dreaming of a trip. Marien first comes to a fair at which he decides to buy something for his friends. He sees a vendor selling chestnuts which smell really good. In his dream, he can easily understand Egyptian. So he asks the vendor to see if could try several first. The vendor hands him three (chestnuts). After tasting those, Marien takes out his wallet rapidly and gives the vendor some of his Singaporean coins. The vendor has never seen such kind of coin and thinks those must be precious. In return, the vendor gives Marien all chestnuts he has.

After buying a few more things, Marien then starts to look for the house. On his way, he runs into a person beating a drum, walking on the street, and trying to inform the civilians something. Marien asks him if he happens to know the mountain on which the house is. He shows Marien the way to it. As Marien is about to take off, He drags Marien’s shoulder to try to tell him something. He takes out a ruler he carries with, stands it on the ground, and tells Marien there would be a once-in-a-century strong thunderstorm occurring later today when the shadow of the rule pointing at twelve clock. Marien considers the Egyptian is out of his mind and just disregards him.

Then Marein comes to a ferry and rents a canoe and paddles it along the banks of the Nile. Later in the afternoon, he reaches the mountain. He halts his canoe and walks to look for the house. Half way up the mountain, Marien finds the house. He goes in and discovers that there are a great quantify of antiques in the house, including pottery plates, statues, and monuments with pictograph on them and so on. Later on, he sees a spheroid covered by a piece of cloth. He wants to find out what is it. So he uncovers the cloth. As he is about to see it, there is a loud crash of thunder which help Marien see the object very well. It is a person’s bloody head with the eyes open. Marien is shocked terribly and wakes up from his dream with a start.

It’s already the next day morning. And his friends have already taken off. Marien walks to his calendar on the wall and schedules his next trip to Egypt.

Inventory list

1. A wallet
2. A ruler
3. A person's head
4. A piece of cloth
5. A Chinese jade seal
6. A canoe
7. A house
8. Some Singapore coins
9. A jar
10. Three chestnuts
11. A pottery plate
12. A person beating a drum
13. An African