The fourth day has come of the brothers’ sojourn on the rock, and still
the bulls surround them. Ever and again the beasts would wander afield,
but one or two always paced within view, quickly passing the news
to their fellows whenever the brothers attempted to flee from their
prison. All around them they tug on the backwood grass, hooking their
tongues round the stalks, or chew the cud and, breathing heavily, lie
on their distended bellies. There two contend, midway between sport and
earnest, and the rattle of their horns echoes around. And there again,
right at the foot of the Devil’s Rock, one paws the earth wrathfully,
casting the soil and sods on high, and roaring wickedly. Thus to the
agony, the livid fury of the brothers, they linger on; for already the
stout sons of Jukola await but the moment when they must die. A moment
ago Lauri had poured a stiff gulp of spirits down his throat, now he
did the same again, which caused the others to wonder greatly and to
begin seriously scolding him.
JUHANI. Has the Devil bewitched thee?
AAPO. Whatever art thou thinking of? Remember that we are all
in the same hole.
TUOMAS. Remember that our dwelling is no wider than a man’s
palm, where it behoves us to move warily.
LAURI. A man mad with anger!
AAPO. But that won’t do here.
LAURI. Let it do for the pit of Hell then. Let the old castle
spin like a millstone and cast down seven unhappy lads to the brutes
there. Spin, rock, from east to west, and the forest around us from
west to east; spin! Heleiyah!
JUHANI. Art thou drunk already, boy?
Lauri. Is that a question to ask? What is life and the world worth? Not
a mouldy farthing. Well then, let everything go in dust and ashes the
way of the wind. Clunk! A drop of this, my heart’s brothers.
AAPO. He’s drunk. Take the can away from him!
LAURI. It won’t come in play. The can’s mine; I didn’t leave
it to be trodden by bulls on the clearing. But you others? Ah! you all
placed your knapsacks nicely on the ground like wretched gypsies when
the bailiff’s gun goes bang.
JUHANI. The can here!
LAURI. The can’s mine.
JUHANI. But I want it in my care.
LAURI. Thou wantest it? If thou wantest it thou’lt get it in
the forehead.
JUHANI. Wouldst thou show fight?
LAURI. If thou wilt, even that shall not be lacking. But
loving brothers never fight. So let’s take a drop of this.
TIMO. Don’t drink, Lauri.
JUHANI. Give the can here at once!
LAURI. A hiding’s what thou’lt get from me. What dost thou
fancy thou art?
JUHANI. A sinful being, true; but still thy eldest brother.
LAURI. Eldest? Well, all the more time hast thou had to sin
in, and all the more thou deservest a hiding. But here’s to thee!
TUOMAS. Thou shalt not taste a drop.
LAURI. I like Tuomas very much, Tuomas and Little-Eero. But
those others there? What am I to say of them?
TUOMAS. Hold thy jaw and give the can here! There, Juhani,
take the knapsack on thy back and the spirits in thy keeping.
LAURI. Thou alone canst turn the will of Lauri. I love thee,
thee and Little-Eero.
TUOMAS. Silence!
LAURI. Men like they! What is Jussi Jukola? a chuckle-headed
cock; a hammerheaded bull.
JUHANI. Shut thy mouth at once that my ears needn’t hear such
words a second time.
LAURI. ‘He that hath an ear, let him hear’, preaches Aapo,
Jukola’s holy Paul.
SIMEONI. Ah thee! Art thou the former grave, solemn and silent
Lauri? Can this be Lauri? This babbling child of sin?
LAURI. Thou too art Simeoni, the mealy-mouthed ‘Hail-Rabbi’.
SIMEONI. That I forgive thee, ever heaping coals of fire on
thy head.
LAURI. Go to Hell, there are coals of fire!
SIMEONI. Godless!
TIMO. Even the hairs on my back bristle.
LAURI. What is Timo, Jukola’s watery-eyed he-goat, bleating?
TIMO. Never thou mind. Goat’s milk is good.
LAURI. Hey?
TIMO. Goat’s milk is good. But I thank thee for the honour:
thankye kindly! Ay, that was our share; thankye kindly! But here’s
another kind of truck before thee too. Look at thy honey-boys there,
Tuomas and Eero, yonder.
LAURI. Hey?
TIMO. Look thy honey-boys, Tuomas and Eero, yonder.
LAURI. Hey?
TIMO. A priest speaks thrice, but he’s paid for it.
LAURI. ‘Another kind of truck’, thou didst bleat. I know
well what kind of truck to compare them with. Tuomas-lad is a noble
axe, grave, manly and strong, but little Eero-nipper is a tiny, sharp
and biting whittling-hatchet. Ay, that lad can whittle, whittle right
smartly, throwing little jests like chips around him, the scamp.
JUHANI. Good. But didst thou call me a chuckle-headed cock?
TIMO. He called me too a he-goat. Thankye kindly!
LAURI. Eero whittles jokes, but he has the heart of a man.
JUHANI. Good, good! But didst thou call me a chuckle-headed
cock?
LAURI. I called thee a hammerheaded bull too.
JUHANI. Good, brother, good!
TIMO. Keep quiet, Juho. Me too he called a he-goat, and I
thank him for the title; for the goat is no useless animal at all. The
red-cheeked young mistress at Viertola, Mistress Lydia, drinks only the
milk of white goats, and nothing else. There you are.
SIMEONI. Should we be men if we hooked on to the words of a
drunken man?
LAURI. Thou a man? Thou? Oh little brother! bitterly wouldst
thou weep if a maid were to accost thee--something that would hardly
happen to a milksop like thee.
JUHANI. Simeoni, Simeoni, I’d sooner be stabbed with a knife
than with such words.
SIMEONI. Ay, ay, it’ll be seen on the last day whom they have
stabbed.
TIMO. Us thou hast painted as anything between a cock and an
axe, but what art thou thyself, if I ask thee sternly and take on my
worst temper.
LAURI. I am Lauri.
TIMO. See, see! Simply gentle Lauri?
LAURI. Good-fellow Lauri, and nothing more, though you have
been pleased to make me out and call me many things: badger, Könni’s
hoer, mopy, and a thousand suchlike. Hm! I’ve heard something of the
kind from the lips of each of you. And in deepest silence I have put by
every word. Now I feel like spreading out the pile a little, I feel,
devil take it! like giving you real hard knocks, and down every man of
you to the bulls like a sack of chaff!
AAPO. Is this truly Lauri, well-behaved, silent Lauri? Who’d
believe it?
JUHANI. Ah! brother Aapo, ah! there’s many weeds in that
wheatfield. I’ve suspected it long, but now I know the man’s heart.
LAURI. Hold thy jaw, thou Jukola’s bull.
JUHANI. For the Lord’s sake don’t annoy me any longer, for my
blood’s getting hotter and hotter! Thou accursed puppy, I’ll throw thee
down into the mortar of those bulls, and then may the day of terror
come, the last day of the almanack!
SIMEONI. Misery, misery!
AAPO. Silence, silence! No fighting.
TUOMAS. Be sensible, thou.
JUHANI. He has shamelessly insulted me. A cock, chuckle-headed!
AAPO. What about Apostle Paul. Keep calm.
TIMO. What about he-goat. What sayst to that? Many thousand
thanks, twin-brother!
AAPO. Let us remember how near we are to the jaws of death.
Brothers, there is a thought in my brain, an idea on the tip of my
tongue that I believe is important to us just now. Note: this rock
is a ship in a storm, the storm being that muttering, angry drove
of bulls around our rock. Or shall I choose another picture? Ay, let
this rock of ours be a castle, which the enemy, an enemy cruelly armed
with spears, besieges. Now if the besieged castle has no chieftain,
no leader in discipline and defence, mutiny and disorder will spread
amongst the men, and soon both castle and garrison are lost. And
that is what will happen with us, unless we arrange and provide for
ourselves differently, unless we set up lawful order in our midst.
Therefore, let there be one whose words of wisdom all shall listen to,
and behave accordingly. Juhani, do thou now control thyself and the
whole band of brothers. Know that most of us are on thy side and uphold
thy authority in this besieged castle.
JUHANI. What punishment shall we settle on for the one who
disobeys my word, and through his evil temper causes a general disorder
and danger?
TUOMAS. Let him be cast down to the bulls.
JUHANI. Right, Tuomas.
AAPO. A stern punishment, but one our situation demands. I
agree to the rule.
SIMEONI. ‘Cast before the bulls’ like the martyrs aforetime;
but tenderness won’t help here.
TIMO. May he be cast before the bulls; let this be the law and
commandment.
JUHANI. Let it be the law and commandment. Impress this
terrible paragraph on your hearts and live thereafter. Now my first
command is that Lauri is silent and lays himself nicely down to sleep;
secondly, I command that each of us except Lauri takes a little sup
from the tin flask to comfort our hearts. Ay, here’s to us!
LAURI. And I’m to be without? I?
JUHANI. Thou art to go to sleep.
LAURI. Time enough for that in Hell.
JUHANI. God knows, Lauri-dear, where we shall yet sleep.
LAURI.
‘God knows, Jussi-dear,
Where our skins will dry this year.’
I sing like a man, hoot like a hunter’s horn.
‘I’m a loving little child,
Mother’s little Jussi.
I’m a loving little child,
Mothers little Jussi.’
JUHANI. Spare thy song for the present.
EERO. Spare the little boy’s song for me.
LAURI. Spare it for Jukola’s Jussi and let’s begin a new one,
a real big song. Let’s sing and dance, heleiyah!
JUHANI. See that I do not sentence thee to be cast down to the
bulls.
TUOMAS. Lauri, I warn thee now for the last time.
LAURI. For the last time? Well, it is best thou ceasest.
JUHANI. That we can brawl like this at the very gates of
Death, we full-fledged heathens!
SIMEONI. God has cause to punish us thus. O punish us, smite
us on this rock of torture.
LAURI. A rock of joy, this is, Väinämöinen’s rock of joy,
which same old gaffer is said to have been the god of Savo. I once
heard a right smart song of him from an imp of a chimneysweep’s boy.
I remember too a real jolly sermon by that same boy, which he spouted
glibly between his red lips and grinning teeth as he stood in a smoking
chimney at Kuninkala. And this is what he preached...
JUHANI. Quiet now, thou raving brute!
LAURI. And now, having sung to our fill, sung together with
one voice as is the custom in church, let us preach; I am the parson,
this rock is the pulpit, you are the choir, and the bulls around us the
congregation, solemn and pious. But first a marching hymn to accompany
parson to the pulpit. Ye heard. Parson’s waiting.
JUHANI. Wait, wait, thou’lt soon be marched and hymned.
LAURI. Thou art the choir-leader, the old parish clerk
himself, these others thy ’prentices, the half-woollen gentry, thou
knowest, that fill the choir bench on Sundays and holy days, sweating
and red as turkeycocks. Here they sit again like owls, with swelling
lapels, hair smoothed with butter and lard, fading grey beard quaking
somewhat. Sit in peace, however, and sing Parson-Matt into the pulpit.
True, he trotted from Keijula tavern to church, but he laved his head
and brushed his hair, and now, greatly moved, climbs prayerfully
into his tub and sets the old women weeping like a true lad. Now,
choir-leader, I roll my eyes at thee, so let her ring. ‘Make haste
Jim’, as the former parson shouted to his choir-leader.
JUHANI. Close thy mouth right quickly, thou vagabond!
LAURI. Not so, but ‘Open Thou each shepherd’s mouth’ is
what thou hast to sing. But let this be enough, be still, hearken,
and purse thy mouth to a smug church-mouth when I preach. Now,
chimney-sweep’s boy, lend me thy mind and thy unfettered tongue. A
sermon I will preach today, a thing to reach your souls, of Peter’s
tattered travelling-cloak and its ten button-holes. However, glancing
o’er my flock, my heart receives a sorry shock, for mine eye sees only
stinking nanny-goats and the devil’s own billy-goats. O virgin-maids,
sluts and jades of Kärkölä! ye strut in silks and satins, gilded o’er
like peacocks; but spit me right i’ the face if on the last day ye do
not shout loudly for Parson-Matt to speak for you. But that’s a vain
hope, yea! Good morrow, old man Sorrow, I would have a word with you:
take after old man Kettula. But thou damned Paavali Peltola, how didst
thou behave at building-bee last winter? Thou drainedest many glasses
and huggedst the serving-lasses. But I say unto thee, young feller:
take after Jumppila Jalli; or be judged in the end by Parson-Matt, the
heathens, Greeks and breeks; and then a sack over thy head and down to
Hell. Open therefore in time the flaps of thy ears and hear my speech
and what I proclaim and preach; for I’ve been boiled in many a broth,
and the heart in this breast is like an old sealskin pouch. This lad
has been in much and various. In Helsinki I’ve been bound to a trade,
bound in jail, bound in the stocks and behind other locks. But best to
my belief is that I am no thief, never besmirched my neighbour’s well,
or hugged his wife and then farewell.
I had a little sweetheart once, a little cat, a down-right minx, but
she escaped and ran away. Forth I went to look for her: sought through
Finland’s lands and lakes, round the Baltic and Germany, but couldn’t
find my golden nugget. Back I came to Finland’s fells and firs and
found her on a sandy ridge beyond the town of Tampere. There’s my
little Tettu! I cried, nigh off my head, but Tettu was touchy and said:
What art thou? And skipped into the nearest shanty. But I, always
a jolly lad, was neither hurt nor sad, but stuffing a quid into my
cavern, went to the town’s best tavern, where Mick was fighting and old
women frighting.
A mug of ale and two spans of spirits as a chaser is a fair amount of
measure for a tired man’s throat and head. And now the can danced and
my beard wagged, the boys all burst out singing and the old woman’s
daughters giggling. But I forsook the joyous scene and set off down the
street. My song rang out, the windows fell bang out, and this set all
the Tampere townsmen afoot. But I, always a jolly lad, I ran like a
rabbit along the strand, kicking up in their faces stones and sand. I
came along to Pori, they put me in a basket there and dragged me round
the market square; to Uusikaupunki I roamed, they called me names from
every home; Turku’s worst of all the pack, they stuck a knife into my
back. However, I came to Aningaisten Street and there five merry jades
did meet. The first she kicked me on the thigh, the second said ‘let
the lad go by, for he is no meddler and no broken-down peddler’. But
the third inquired ‘what aileth the lad?’ and the fourth said ‘let’s
help him before it gets bad’. Well, let’s go along then arm in arm,
said I, but the fifth poked me furiously with her fist and howled: ‘Go
to Helsinki!’ To Helsinki I then did plod, they gave me gruel in the
quod, and then they cross-examined me, and mercilessly punished me: ‘Go
now, go thy way, thou son of a hammer!’ I took the road again and went,
I, always a merry lad, I, whose heart is like an old seal-skin pouch. I
wandered singing along the road: and so I came to Häme, popped into the
Kuninkala pulpit; and then ’tis amen!
I will now announce the banns. The parish clerk and the parish cupper
are firmly bent on marrying; their wedding’s tomorrow, tomorrow after
supper. May they join together and stick to each other like pitch and
tar! The following farms are ordained a day’s work at the vicarage:
Yllilä, Allila, Yli-Seppälä, Pimppala and Alavesi. A dozen boards, a
box of nails, a man from each and two from the best to patch up the
smaller vicarage pig-trough. From Kiiala meadow a horse has escaped,
old but well-shaped, bearing a bell, ironed well, smallish, shortish,
dock-tailed, white-maned. And now dear brothers, one word more, the
sheep on violence sets no store, he doth not kick, he doth not gore,
but alas when a savage bull is loose, he worries trees, paws up the
soil and casts confounded filth and dirt over his shepherd’s Sunday
shirt. And then again amen once more, each to his shanty as before, I’m
off to a real brick house. That was the sermon.
SIMEONI. Such godless doggerel thou knowest, but canst thou
read, evildoer?
LAURI. There’s a question for you: can a parson read? ‘Here’s
a man can read and rant, and never falters in his chant: a hymn as tall
as the cowshed wall’. But a parson sings the Mass and no hymn. I’ll say
the Mass and Little Eero can do the responses.
EERO. I’ll answer if hunger’ll let me.
JUHANI. Wouldst thou begin larking with a madman? Thou limb!
Always ready to play the puppy. Ay, that I can believe. And thou,
Lauri, lay thyself quietly to sleep; finish, brother, this dancing and
raving, or I’ll utter the dreadful sentence, and in a trice ten arms
will cast thee down to the bulls. Stop this play.
LAURI. This is only the opening dance, brother, the opening
dance. Ay, let’s dance, let’s wrestle, let’s dance a Jussian-jig till
the moss flies. Look so!
TIMO. Thou confounded youngster! I was near to tumbling off
the rock. Quieter, quieter!
JUHANI. Lauri, must I now say the dread word that turns thee
in a twinkling to hash? And that merciless word is this: let him be
thrown to the bulls. Shall I say it?
LAURI. Say nothing, but sing while I dance a Jussian-jig. Hih!
JUHANI. Let him be thrown to the bulls, and may God be with
him! Amen. Now it’s said. Let him go.
LAURI. Let’s all go together, hand in hand out of this vale of
starvation--Life!
TUOMAS. Let the law be fulfilled, and go to thy death.
JUHANI. What the Hell, Tuomas!
TUOMAS. Down from the rock, lad!
JUHANI. Stop, for Heaven’s sake!
AAPO. Tuomas turns pale! God help us! Tuomas turns pale.
JUHANI. Wouldst thou do deeds of horror? Brother, brother!
AAPO. He turns pale like a dying man, and deeds of terror are
upon us! Calm thyself, Tuomas, Oh calm thyself! I beseech thee. Up all
of you and help Lauri, help him!
TUOMAS. Out of the way!
JUHANI. No, Tuomas, no!
TUOMAS. Out of my way! Thou wert the judge, I am the hangman,
and may our law be fulfilled. Down from the rock without mercy, man!
LAURI. Like a log down the chute at Nukari. Heleiyah!
SIMEONI. Mercy, Tuomas, mercy, mercy!
TUOMAS. Not a grain of mercy!
JUHANI. God keep us from killing our brother!
TIMO. Ay, Cain from killing Abel.
AAPO. Calm thy mind!
TUOMAS. He dies.
JUHANI. May the powers of Heaven shelter us! No, Tuomas, this
cannot be.
TIMO. Never, never. Lauri is the brother of each of us. Stand!
JUHANI. Murder is nigh. Save Lauri, save our wretched brother!
A fierce struggle now arose on the rock. And while some held the
enraged Tuomas by the collar, others by his belt, some clung to Lauri’s
legs, others wherever they could lay hold of him, to prevent him from
rolling off the rock. Like a terrible, many-headed, many-legged
monster seemed the group of brothers as, entwined in one single body,
they struggled noisily. Tearing at itself, growling, grunting and
sighing this monster moved, whirled round, tumbled from one side of the
rock to the other and back again. With drooping tails the dogs dodged
hither and thither in their fear, often on the point of rolling down to
destruction, intent on preserving their lives. In greater numbers than
ever the bulls too gathered round the rock, looking round-eyed at the
furious struggle. But a general weariness brought peace at last on to
the rock, and panting, the brothers rested on the moss, now ground to a
fine powder. Then Simeoni lifted up his voice and preached, rolling his
eyes fearfully upward towards the heavens.
SIMEONI. Wild beasts and devils are Christian folk become. So
punish us, O Lord! Strike hither with thy lightning, pound to mash and
offal the seven sons of sinful Zion!
AAPO. Ay, Tuomas, there’s always five against one here; that
thou knowest. But may there be peace now; and keep Lauri still until he
falls asleep, poor wight.
TUOMAS. Curse! I’ll cast every man of you down if I want,
and I shall want if the flame of my anger grows hotter. But quietly,
boys, bow, quietly and nicely! For my blood boils and at such moments
the slightest thing looks to me like death and the horrors of death.
So--nicely, nicely now!
JUHANI. Tuomas is a dangerous man. Be thou my comrade man, who
flyest out at me every day and hour, rather than thou, man, who art
enraged seldom but powerfully, putting at such times my miserable life
in danger. Ah! this was a wicked game.
SIMEONI. Whip us, punish us, Power on high!
TIMO. Shut up, Simeoni, I beseech thee.
SIMEONI. If I am silent, this stone shall speak and cry out.
Whip us, beat us!
JUHANI. Stop calling down worse things upon us. This is plague
enough.
TUOMAS. There he preaches like a madman, his hands crossed,
the eyes in his head like those of a death-owl. Hold thy jaw at once!
TIMO. Shut up, Simeoni, I beseech thee; and let us all live in
peace. Look at Lauri-lad; he droops already and falls asleep, the poor
lad; he sleeps. Ay, for God’s sake let us live in peace and patience
till we can march home from here.
JUHANI. Home! We shan’t even reach our eternal home, an
honourable graveyard; but here we shall sleep at last to be picked
clean by ravens and eagles. I shall die this minute, on this very spot;
ay, well, I die then. Was this life? What was it worth?
TIMO. Ay, was this life? What was it worth? A question.
JUHANI. Thou knewest not dear mother, into what misery thou
once broughtest forth seven little nippers.
TIMO. Thou knewest not.
JUHANI. Oh, what if we were to take one more drink, drain the
last drop from the bottle. There, Tuomas, take a sup and let her go
round.
TUOMAS. I don’t want your spirits!
JUHANI. Ha-ha! Now Lauri’s forgotten Jumppila Jalli and
Kuninkala’s pulpit and all that. Well, well, thou didst indeed rage,
rage and foam on the very verge of life and death. Terrible, when I
think of thee gone before thy Maker, drunk, with eyes aslit.
TIMO. Thou scarest me! Before God drunk!
JUHANI. Before God drunk, with eyes aslit. That’s a bold
thought.
SIMEONI. Thou canst well say it.
JUHANI. It was perilous near it didn’t happen. But there he
lies now pale. Ah! my eyes brim over, for my soul mourns over him, and
I would hide that wretched, poor and suffering brother of mine in the
deepest chamber of my heart.
AAPO. In his sleep he can forget this hunger of ours, this
murderous worm.
SIMEONI. The fourth day! Ah, let us sink down in death.
EERO. For die we must, though meat, living meat walks before
us.
SIMEONI. It is this same meat that kills us!
JUHANI. This very day, this hour and minute! Ay, this hour.
TIMO. Let us kill the meat, shoot every horned brute, and have
fresh meat in stacks. Five rifles are loaded and there’s plenty of
ammunition in Lauri’s knapsack.
JUHANI. There’s an idea!
AAPO. That will save us!
EERO. In truth, ’twill save us!
JUHANI. Ah! how shall we reward Timo?
SIMEONI. Thou angel of God!
TIMO. Meat, fresh meat! And nothing else. He-he! There’s
dozens of newly-cast bullets in Lauri’s knapsack, and even more charges
of powder.
JUHANI. Just as thou sayest, thou peerless boy! Here’s bullets
and powder, more than enough. The bulls number thirty and three. Hm. We
dolts and idiots! Why didn’t we think of this idea before?
AAPO. In truth I did think of the same trick once, but the
stuff in Lauri’s knapsack never came into my mind, which is why I
never spake my thought to you, for five bullets, five bulls.
JUHANI. Something of the sort crossed my mind too, but
without getting further. Three and thirty bulls. Good! Listen, you
good-for-nothing sons of Kaura-Matti! if we shoot now like men, we can
pierce the heart or brain of a bull with every shot, and the road to
freedom lies open, open. Ah thee, Timo-lad!
TIMO. Hey, didn’t I say it. And there’s nothing else to do.
And well thou knowest it. Are we to perish here like rats? Bonny lads
have no time for that. Hey, hey! I said it.
JUHANI. Now a flash and thunder and the road to freedom is
burst open!
AAPO. Ay, Juhani! True, this road goes over bleeding corpses,
but it can’t be helped.
JUHANI. It can’t be helped, so let the red-black blood flow
round the Devil’s Rock. We lucky badgers! soon we shall be gorging meat
like wolves!
AAPO. But how shall we pay for forty bulls?
JUHANI. It is a matter of life and death, in which case the
law is on our side. We’ll make meat, and the pot-bellied master of
Viertola can cart away his meat, if he likes. It doesn’t concern us.
AAPO. What’ll happen afterwards we’ll see when the fated work
is done. But when the great murder is over there is another task to
be done at once. Note this, as soon as the last beast is stretched on
the ground, we must start flaying them; and one of us must bear the
mournful tidings to Viertola manor.
JUHANI. Important advice. Flay them, skin them, before the
hide sticks to the flesh. Let it be so, and then he who will can take
the flesh and skin, the guts and all else within. The ox on the bench
and the skin off him! Each of us has a knife at his belt that can cut;
here’s my sheath-knife, sharp as a serpent’s tongue. Ay; let’s start
the bloody work. Let the man whose firelock is empty, load it again
with a reliable charge; and then the bloody, bloody work can begin.
AAPO. But brothers! we can wrestle with hunger an hour or two
yet, especially as our salvation is now sure. Let us try once more the
power of six men’s throats and then wait an hour, the last hour of our
captivity.
JUHANI. True, hunger pinches us, but let us do as thou sayest.
Let’s shout, and maybe we can get out of the trap without shedding a
drop of blood. A vain hope, however. Well, well, we can wait a bit
longer; for the terrible key to our freedom is in our fists. So let’s
yell with all our might again. I beseech you all, do it, for it is my
command. Tuomas, silent as this rock, set thy trumpet roaring too. Do
it, I beseech thee, for it is my command.
TUOMAS. Don’t babble. I’ll do as our common law demands.
JUHANI. Be ready then. One, two, three.
They lifted up their voices, shouting seven times, and their cry and
the howling of the dogs was borne afar. Whereafter they sank down
to wait again, although hunger assailed them fiercely, for now the
certainty of salvation infused new strength into them. Of their number,
one, however, brother Lauri, felt neither the pangs of hunger nor the
joy of hope. Snoring and pale, he lay at the others’ feet. The brothers
waited one hour, waited a second, and the sun of the fourth day already
approached its setting. Then Juhani, hearing the faint rumble of
thunder in the southwest, shouted in a high, deathlike voice: ‘Now,
boys! The Lord help us and Amen!’ And soon the fiery, blood-letting
game had begun.
The grey Devil’s Rock disappeared in clouds of smoke: but from the
clouds came flashes, death thundered everywhere into the hosts of
bulls. Now here, now there, as the bullets found their mark, a bull
leapt up with a sudden groan and collapsed, blowing the powerful
life out of his chest as he fell. The brute whose brain was pierced
collapsed quickly, scarcely kicking once, only straining out his legs
like four stiff bars; thus he gave up his life, and darkly-red the
blood spouted from his wound high into the air and from the air in a
curve to the ground. But he whose wound was in the breast, with heart
still untouched, raged for long, galloping bleeding hither and thither
amongst those whom the bullets had as yet spared, until at last he too
tumbled headlong on the field, and, groaning, flung his hooves about
one final moment. Panic haste and a horrific liveliness now seized the
others, as, scenting the smell of the steaming blood of their comrades,
they charged with mighty trumpetings into one tumultuous mass. With
hanging tongues, rolling their eyes and filling the forest with a
fearful bellowing, they kicked the dead twigs, sods and soil high over
their backs.
On the rock, enwrapped in smoke, the brothers stood like pale phantoms,
shooting, loading, and shooting without cease, and ever new bulls
fell on the field. The guns flashed and banged, but sterner yet was
the crashing and flame up in the heavens, where the thunder rode over
mountains of cloud. The smoke and the sombre clouds in the sky cast a
lurid gloaming over the Devil’s Rock. In this half-darkness the shrieks
and groans of the bulls, the howling of the dogs, the crash of the
rifles and the long-drawn tearing rumble of thunder echoed again, and
in the treetops the tempest boomed. Direful was the hour; the air
seemed hot as blood. Even Lauri awoke to semi-consciousness and opened
his eyes, but saw only a ghastly dimness, and in the dimness a few dark
shadows standing around him. He heard a matchless din, heard it beside
him, heard it rise from the ground and sink down from the skies; and
in the unrest of his blood it seemed to him as though everything were
falling downward at terrific speed. A joyless thought entered his mind
and he said to himself: ‘thus we go down to the bottomless pit; we’re
going; well, we can go; what help is there for it?’ So muttering, he
turned on his side, and closing his eyes sank again into deepest sleep.
Like to an arrogant castle the Devil’s Rock wrapped itself in a garment
of smoke, aping the tongue of the thunder. Around it blood streamed
and hooves waved in the air in hundreds. Thunder rolled in the clouds,
which now began to rain heavily, drenching the rustling forest with
water. But the murderous work was done; not a single horn was to be
seen erect. On the ground lay the three and thirty bulls from the
Viertola Manor, some stone-dead, others still kicking; and here and
there the rattling breath of a bull in its death-agony was heard. With
their dogs, the brothers climbed down from the rock and hastened to
shelter at the foot of a dense spruce; for the thunder-cloud still
rained heavily and the bearded forest soughed. There they stood,
regarding the abundant harvest of death before them; and in many
gurgling torrents the blood-bemingled water flowed in every direction
from the Devil’s Rock. But when the rain ceased, they emerged from
their cover, and walked silently with distorted faces among their
victims, looking about them with dreadful glance and at intervals
shaking their heads.
JUHANI. There’s meat here.
TIMO. And blood.
JUHANI. And blood too, in truth. Round this rock even pepper’d
grow for ten years at a stretch; so well has the soil been fertilized.
But let us strike a light and make a fire, in which we can roast
fresh meat for ourselves. Ah, a beefsteak will taste good to us lads
now. Bring, brothers, wood and resiny chips, I’ll strike a light; and
Timo can run to the clearing and fetch my axe and the knapsacks that
we flung down in the face of danger. And then, when we have eaten,
every man of us to work ‘undressing the skins’, as redheaded old man
Krööm used to say. He’s buried now, and best for him to be there. Here
the poor old beggar went hungry as a stray cur; without a friend, a
relation, or a roof to shelter him; even the good name of him had
been struck off his papers. There he crumpled up behind Kolistin’s
threshing-barn, and all lies forgotten now under the sod. That’s it,
Eero, resiny chips; there’s Simeoni with dry faggots; soon we’ll have a
merry fire a-blazing. Cut a few big slices ready Tuomas, from the thigh
of that mottled one. Ahah! I could pounce like a cat this very instant
on the raw, bloody joint.
TUOMAS. A little patience yet, and our joint will taste still
better.
JUHANI. Quite so. But let us be thankful that we belong to
a family used to fighting hunger, a family and a race. We shouldn’t
otherwise be bustling about like this. That I wager.
Soon seven enormous slices of meat were roasting in the flames.
Thus Lauri was not forgotten, although no one wished to disturb his
slumbers on the rock, where he still slept, not awakening even when
the rain poured over him. Timo had set out on his errand; he found
the knapsacks, found the axe on the bloodstained ground, where lay
the bear and seven bulls. And he returned from his errand with the
knapsacks on his back and the axe under his arm, and then six round
loaves were shared out and the meat taken from the fire; and the dry
bread and roast beef, dipped in salt, was ground small between the
men’s teeth. Killi and Kiiski, too, having fasted four days with their
masters, now made a gluttonous meal. But when they had refreshed
themselves, men and dogs, a leaden lethargy suddenly spread through
their limbs. A powerful, unconquerable slumber oppressed them, and with
closed eyes they sank, one after the other, down to the ground. Up on
the rock Lauri slept snoring, down at its base the others lay around
the fire as the sun went out and the September day darkened into night.
So amid their victims, the lifeless herd of bulls, they slept; and
savage Killi and Kiiski kept watch over their camp.
But at last, when the night was already far advanced, they awoke from
their slumber and felt the former strength return to their limbs. They
stood up and began carrying black, juicy, resinous stumps to the fire;
that they might see to flay their monstrous prey in its ruddy glow,
while Eero was immediately despatched with the tidings of these events
to the Viertola bailiff. Up danced the red-black flames, lighting up
the ground and the rugged forest. And off to the manor hastened Eero,
while the others commenced flaying with all their might the prey that
had fallen to them.
Then Lauri too awoke from his deep, long sleep and looked blinking
around him; he looked for a space without comprehending what he saw.
Yonder a burning fire of stumps illumined the calm, dark night; on
every hand cattle weltering in their blood, with tongues outstretched
and stomachs distended in the air. Two of them had already been
transformed into meat, a third was just undergoing the same change. And
of the brothers, some were busy flaying, others held the carcases by
the legs; one smashed the powerful bones with an axe, another heaped
up the meat in a gigantic pile at the foot of a spruce. All this Lauri
saw with confused eyes; until at last he grasped what had happened.
He looked down and saw near the fire a loaf and on the loaf a hunk
of roasted meat. At that a fierce spasm ran through his stomach, he
climbed down from the rock, seated himself in the warmth of the fire
and snatched up the bread and the meat. First, however, he uncovered
his head, crossed his hands, and rapidly nodding his tousled head,
blessed the food, before beginning his tasty supper. There, with
glowering eyes under a wrathful brow, he sat and ate in silence. There
he sat, drying his clothes in the glow of the resiny fire while the
others, a few paces distant, toiled and laboured nimbly; for they had
to cut up a huge bear and forty bulls.
Eero carried word to the Viertola bailiff, the bailiff as hastily to
his master, and then an outcry and a fiery bustle arose, and Eero
started off home at more than usual speed. But, screaming and flashing
with anger, the master of Viertola called together all his available
men. Whereafter he set out wildly for the Devil’s Rock, ten brawny men
with him, and near to his master marched the manor’s lusty bailiff,
a fear-inspiring, tarry knout in his fist. They fared sternly onward
and at last approached their goal, whence a ruddy light flowed forth
to meet them. In the light they perceived seven men, like seven
nerve-shaking ghosts of night, and in bloody work the seven ghosts
laboured, with bloodstained knives in bloodstained fists. Some were
busily flaying, others held the carcases by the legs, some smote
asunder the mighty bones of the flayed beasts and some spread the
hides to dry on the pliant branches of spruce-trees. Quickly Killi and
Kiiski observed the approach of strangers and charged straight at them
with angry barks, but the brothers hastened with stern commands to
control the hounds. The wrathful master of Viertola stepped forward;
perspiring, pot-bellied and goggle-eyed, he stepped forward, backed by
ten strong men.
AAPO. Good evening, master!
JUHANI. God help us! here’s been a terrible game.
VIERTOLA. Has Hell broken loose? Forty bulls killed! Death and
torment!
AAPO. It happened for the sake of seven men’s lives.
VIERTOLA. I’ll teach you, you Jukola’s robbers and bandits!
At them, men, and beat them until they lie in their blood like my fine
cattle there. At them, men!
AAPO. Softly, master!
TUOMAS. Softly, softly!
JUHANI. Halt, master, with thy men, halt! and remember what
becomes thy peace.
AAPO. Let us talk sensibly of a case of hard fortune.
JUHANI. There is one common law for all of us, before which
we stand as equals. From the womb of a woman thou camest as I came,
and as naked, just as naked, a lad not an inch better than I. And thy
noble birth? Our old filmy-eyed cock can do a little trick on that. The
common law! in this case it stands strongly on Jukola’s side.
VIERTOLA. On your side! Have you the right, accursed, to kill
my oxen on my own ground?
JUHANI. Have you the right to let loose bulls that might cost
a man his life?
VIERTOLA. They were on my own land and in a fenced pasturage.
JUHANI. Then we’ll set this in the scales. The piece of
boundary-fence that the bulls, to our great worry, broke down, belongs
rightly to Viertola’s section. But now I’m minded to ask: why does a
wealthy manor set up so wretched a fence that a beast can break it down
at one rush?
THE BAILIFF. A fence as dense as the face of a brush, thou
scoundrel!
JUHANI. A fence that a bull pushed out of its way like a blade
of grass.
VIERTOLA. What were you doing in my pasturage, my pasturage,
you rogues! What?
JUHANI. We chased a bear, a dangerous brute that would soon
squash both thee and thy bulls. We killed the preying bear, and thus
did our country a great, a public service. Isn’t this a public service!
to weed wild beasts, bogies and devils out of the world? Look you to
that. The law is strongly on our side, though I were to rot.
THE BAILIFF. Keep thy mouth shut, thou rogue, and don’t talk
nonsense!
VIERTOLA. They’re minded to make a mock of us now, the
scoundrels. Beat them! At them!
AAPO. Softly, gentlemen, bailiffs and grooms, and remember how
we have been tortured on the rock, and that every one of us will soon
be mad with fury.
JUHANI. Truly said. Mad with fury, mad with fury! Ah! the
thoughts of a man in that state turn swiftly round, he clenches his
heart hard as a rock and then a single flash, and earth and heaven
squeak. Ah! here we’ve been tortured three days and three nights
betwixt life and death.
TUOMAS. But now we have eaten bloody meat, breathed murder’s
bloody vapour, and here we stand, bloodstained knives in our
blood-drenched hands, bloody up to the elbows. May the Lord move you
to take heed of our words in time, else we’ll make this night a hell of
horror. Take heed, take heed of our words!
EERO. And a warning from the bulls there.
JUHANI. O God, grant them this moment eye-salve, and strength
to their hearts to keep them from teasing us longer! Give wisdom to
their brains and make them take warning from the unhappy bulls there,
for we are still in a state to make mincemeat! Give to them wisdom,
Lord, else shall we become priests over them and with these bloody
knives wed them to one flesh and one blood with the unhappy bulls,
and make a shrieking hell of this dark forest. O Lord, protect that
big-bellied master of Viertola there and his arrogant men! Have mercy
on them, Almighty Son of God!
TUOMAS. Here we stand, come forth if ye are minded.
JUHANI. Here we stand, come forth if ye are minded.
VIERTOLA. Good--good! Brag and boast now, but the time will
come, I believe, when the law will decree otherwise, and then the tail
of your pride will droop, and even your miserable home will go, down
to its rotting foundations. Away, men! I leave you forty bulls as your
prey now, but every one will yet be torn from you to the very last
hoof. Let us go!
JUHANI. Take away your meat and offal before they spoil.
They’re nothing to do with us; we only hastened to flay them before the
hide stuck to the flesh.
VIERTOLA. All’s well! Home, men, as I command.
And with his men the master of Viertola departed, still fiercely
threatening and cursing; but the brothers set themselves to their
butchering again. And the following day the forty bulls had been
flayed, and the brothers returned to their home, carrying the enormous
grey-black bear on a pole. The flesh, hides and offal of the oxen they
left in the forest, with two of the brothers, however, to guard them.
And thus ended the hunting-trip that was born of Tinder-Matti’s tales
of the lands of the north, and planned, in the beginning, as a hunt for
wild duck on Kourusuo Bog.