k of a chap1 nevados working

	The snow was lying forty feet lower than it usually extended and had engulfed their workplace. The snow-house itself was covered over, and the treading platform could never have been found had they not known exactly where it was. The mountain hut was half hidden in a deep drift, and they had to dig their way into it. The youths unloaded the donkeys' burdens, excavated the hut door, and drove the donkeys within. Half the hut was a byre; the animals' body warmth helped to soften the biting cold. A copper brazier stood on the floor between the byre and sleeping platform, and in the summer, when the journey was easier. Outside, the men had already begun to work. They linked arms and danced on the treading floor, their stamping feet packing the snow down hard. As soon as it looked translucent they stopped, and began the harder task of cutting it into blocks and putting the blocks into the snow-house, spreading reeds between one layer and the next, to make it easier to lift in the summer. While three of them, hands wrapped in rags, lifted and packed the blocks of snow, the others shovelled more snow onto the treading floor, and the dance began again. Warming up as they worked, the dancers began to sing. Their voices dispersed in a vast silence. They were sustained by the thought that a little straw basket of ice, the size of a man's fist, would sell for a king's ransom in the towns, in the heat of the summer.