The whip had unraveled with use, its leathers repeatedly breaking. In some instances Jacobo repaired the break by soaking the ends in water and joining them in a shrunken knot. Other times, he discarded the frayed leather and spliced in whatever was at hand—lamp cord, baling wire, shoe laces. He banded additional wire and patches of leather around the deterioriating handle and layered them over with thick strips of eleectrical tape. In the end the thing looked less like a whip than the fetish of a crazed electrician.
