Synopsis: On an unnamed planet, the people have gone through a mutation that makes them insensitive to burning. Their whole civilization revolves around flamable materials, and the ever-present possibility for anything or anyone to catch fire : petrol gushes from fountains, artists make scultures out of sulfur or phosphorus, etc. The narrator arrives in such a city, structured like a pyre; he has come to ritually set fire to it with a single match, then collect some of its ashes and carefully classify it in a small wooden box.