The Potter's Thumb

'The Potter's Thumb' is a novel written by Flora Annie Webster Steel. The story begins with two Englishmen, Dan Fitzgerald and George Keene, coming across a mother and her sick child on a dust heap in the city of Hodinuggur. The child is suffering from a condition called «the potter's thumb,» which is said to be caused by a slip in the molding process when the potter is working with clay. The mother explains that many children are born with this condition and that it often leads to death. Fitzgerald is moved by the sight and reflects on the history and current state of the city and its people, noting that it is a place where past and present civilizations clash and overlap.