But that was not to be. He had to leave home without telling anyone, and he could not rest till he left it behind a couple of hundred miles. To a villager it is a great deal, as if an ocean flowed between.
He had a working analysis of mankind's...
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troubles : marriage, money, and the tangles of human ties. Long practice had sharpened his perception. Within five minutes he understood what was wrong. He charged three pies per question, never opened his mouth till the other had spoken for at least ten minutes, which provided him enough stuff for a dozen answers and advices.
The context (above) of the quotation, "tangles of human ties," helps us
understand what it actually means. The narrator has just explained that the
astrologer had to flee his village under cover of night's darkness. We learn
later that it was because he stabbed a man with whom he had quarrelled while
both were in a drunken fit. It is next that the narrator says the astrologer
had a deep understanding of "mankind's troubles" relating to "marriage, money,
and the tangles of human ties."
It is easy to understand the trouble related to marriage and money as those are
commonly enough spoken about or made the subject of entertainment or
literature. "Tangles of human ties" goes to the root of troubles like marriage
and money and specifies the complexities of human relationships, also know as
"human ties," that develop tangles. An example of a tangled human tie (or
relationship) is the astrologer's relationship with the youth he stabbed and
left for dead. They were undoubtedly friends, or at least acquaintances, or
they would not have been drinking and gambling together. That friendship
suddenly got tangled when the quarrel broke out and then tangled again when the
impulse to stab and try to kill held sway in the astrologer's frenzied and
youthful mind.
The reason this quote follows the passage about leaving home abruptly is that
it serves to (1) foreshadow the tangled human tie that is about to be revealed
to us and to (2) provide an example of what a tangled human tie is. Ironically,
this tie becomes more tangled that evening and then, miraculously as well as
ironically, becomes untangled when the astrologer falsely tells the
revenge-hungry customer that his assailant of old died four months ago when run
down and crushed by a lorry (large commercial truck):
"He died four months ago in a far-off town. You will never see anymore of him.” ...
"I hope at least he died as he deserved."
"Yes," said the astrologer. "He was crushed under a lorry."