"This one," I wantoned on, "was born in my father's house of a seed slave who was born there before him.

He is very close to me.

We are of an age, born on the same day, and on that day my father gave him me." Afterwards, when Hendrik Hamel was eager to know all that I had said, and when I told him, he reproached me and was in a pretty rage.
"The fat's in the fire, Hendrik," quoth I.

"What I have done has been out of witlessness and the need to be saying something.

But done it is.
Nor you nor I can pluck forth the fat.