There was so little artificial light that at night, you could see millions of stars shining in the sky, like burning embers dotted across the heavens. When I was a boy, on nights with a full moon, the light was so strong we could play outside. “If you stare at the moon too hard,” the elder women told us, “a witch will come and kill you.” They also warned us not to point at graveyards. That could kill you too—unless you swallowed a pebble first, of course.
