Foot-Washing Tax

"Heavens! God! What a terrible disaster!"

"It's a curse!"

"The end of the world!"

The shrill cries woke Scathach from her sleep.

"Sister, sister, it's awful!" Mickey and Tommy sobbed uncontrollably.

Scathach asked with concern, "What on earth has happened?"

"It's the potatoes! They were fine yesterday, but today, all those healthy-looking potatoes have rotted and stunk up overnight! Father dug them up, but they just fell apart like cow dung."

"Oh! Heavens!"

Although she had anticipated this possibility, hearing that the potatoes her family relied on for survival had all perished made her nearly faint.

Scathach began to retch violently; in truth, when a person is gripped by extreme fear, it often triggers stomach cramps or even vomiting.

When they arrived at the fields, they found them already crowded with people, filled with the sounds of chest-beating curses and the weeping of women and children.

Beyond that, there was no other sound; even the wisest elders and the most experienced men in the village were helpless in the face of such a situation.

The potatoes that had been growing so promisingly seemed to have withered overnight. Some people, unwilling to give up, tore away the withered leaves, attempting to isolate the "curse" by breaking the branches.

But past experience proved it useless; once a single leaf began to wither, the others would follow suit within days, until the crop died completely.

Despair and death shrouded the entire island of Ireland. In reality, it was the recent rain that had brought the spores of Potato Late Blight to the island, spreading the pathogen through the water vapor cycle.

On the other hand, Franz's experimental fields on the island also showed signs of Potato Late Blight, but the Bordeaux mixture still had some effect; a portion of the potatoes had not