"Until the dead are buried they change somewhat in appearance each day. The color change in Caucasian races is from white to yellow, to yellow-green, to black. If left long enough in the heat the flesh comes to resemble coal-tar, especially where it has been broken or torn, and it has quite a visible tarlike iridescence. The dead grow larger each day until sometimes they become quite too big for their uniforms, filling these until they seem blown tight enough to burst. The individual members may increase in girth to an unbelievable extent and faces fill as taut and globular as balloons."

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Source: Ernest Hemingway (2002). “Death in the Afternoon”, p.112, Simon and Schuster

About the author

Ernest Hemingway

Novelist

Ernest Hemingway was a celebrated American novelist and short story writer known for his distinctive prose style and works like 'The Old Man and the Sea.'

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