In the first paragraph the author uses the words such as withered, melancholy, and foul to a) establish the setting of the story. b) show that dr. heidegger does not like his guests. c) give hints about the characters of dr. heidegger's guests. d) let the reader know that the friends had known each other for a long time.

C)give hints about the characters of Dr. Heidegger's guests.

The words all describe Dr. Heidegger's guests. Since the story is not written from Dr. Heidegger's guests, we don't know if this is the way he feels about his friends. This eliminates option B. The words also do not describe the time or place of the story, eliminating option A. None of the words indicate a length of time or are used to show how long the friends know each other, eliminating option C.

The details that best show evidence of tribal traditions are, "never in the history of his people had a man married a woman who spoke a different tongue” and "it has never been heard," was the verdict of an old man speaking a few weeks later.