In this short story by Laura Bohanan, the author struggles with the concept of universal truth. She visited West Africa to study a Tiv and brought the story of hamlet to read to them. It was hard to find a time to tell the story because by afternoon they began drinking. Finding it impossible to tell them the story while they were sober, she decides to drink with them and tell the story anyways. Their concept of the story was much different from hers; she found it hard to tell the story without an interruption of what they thought the meaning really was.

Laura believed that there was only one interpretation of the story; she soon realized that that wasn't the case. This Tiv applied their components of culture to the story and found their own meaning. Since these people believe in witchcraft and not ghosts, they felt...