At one point in the story, Ishmael is chased by a wild bore. He recalls a story his grandmother told him about a hunter. Pigs and humans were enemies and the hunter, in pig form, lured the pigs and then changed form to kill them. To the change into the pig, the hunter ate a special plant for it, one pig saw the plant the man ate and told the pigs to eat all the plants so the man can't return to his human form. The metaphor is that Ishmael's own countrymen turn against each other. Each side wants everybody to conform to a "shape" or they will be killed. The Bra Spider's Tale was about a very hungry spider who wanted to eat at all the feasts in all the different villages. To do this, he left ropes leading to each of the towns and instructed the