Who was the first human being to pray? Perhaps he or she was a member of Homo habilis, the first truly human species, who roamed the gorges and plains of sub-Saharan Africa about two million years ago, or perhaps a member of Homo erectus (1.6 million—300,000 B.C.E.), Homo habilis’s immediate descendants, who spread across half the globe, from the eastern plains of Asia to the valleys of northern Europe.

Of the two, she was certainly the plainer.

schools is understood only to be expiatorious

Mr Lackersteen tottered after her, with a strange ataxic step caused partly by earth-tremors and partly by gin.