Besmall

And loneliness balked my pride, my innate pride, my integral native being, besmalling me all the more, until I couldn't remember myself the way I did last year and the years before.

"Weariness too faltered my conscience . . . besmalling me."

The besmalled position shocks Tusker to fell sick for a long time and finally die when he is asked to vacate the Lodge.