All that day that Eliséy passed with the sick people, Efím waited for
his companion. He walked but a short distance and sat down. He waited
and waited, and fell asleep; when he awoke, he sat awhile,--but his
companion did not turn up. He kept a sharp lookout for him, but the sun
was going down behind a tree, and still Eliséy was not there.
"I wonder whether he has not passed by me," he thought. "Maybe somebody
drove him past, and he did not see me while I was asleep. But how could
he help seeing me? In the steppe you can see a long distance off. If I
go back, he may be marching on, and we shall only get farther separated
from each other. I will walk on,--we shall meet at the resting-place for
the night."
When he came to a village, he asked the village officer to look out for
an old man and bring him to the house where he stayed. Eliséy did not
come there for the night. Efím marched on, and asked everybody whether
they had seen a bald-headed old man. No one had seen him. Efím was
surprised and walked on.
"We shall meet somewhere in Odessa," he thought, "or on the boat," and
then he stopped thinking about it.
On the road he fell in with a pilgrim. The pilgrim, in calotte, cassock,
and long hair, had been to Mount Athos, and was now going for the second
time to Jerusalem. They met at a hostelry, and they had a chat and
started off together.
They reached Odessa without any accident. They waited for three days for
a ship. There were many pilgrims there, and they had come together from
all directions. Again Efím asked about Eliséy, but nobody had seen him.
Efím provided himself with a passport,--that cost five roubles. He had
forty roubles left for his round trip, and he bought bread and herring
for the voyage. The ship was loaded, then the pilgrims were admitted,
and Tarásych sat down beside the pilgrim he had met. The anchors were
weighed, they pushed off from the shore, and the ship sailed across the
sea.
During the day they had good sailing; in the evening a wind arose, rain
fell, and the ship began to rock and to be washed by the waves. The
people grew excited; the women began to shriek, and such men as were
weak ran up and down the ship, trying to find a safe place. Efím, too,
was frightened, but he did not show it: where he had sat down on the
floor on boarding the ship by the side of Tambóv peasants, he sat
through the night and the following day; all of them held on to their
wallets and did not speak. On the third day it grew calmer. On the fifth
day they landed at Constantinople.
Some of the pilgrims went ashore there, to visit the Cathedral of St.
Sophia, which now the Turks hold; Tarásych did not go, but remained on
board the ship. All he did was to buy some white bread. They remained
there a day, and then again sailed through the sea. They stopped at
Smyrna town, and at another city by the name of Alexandria, and safely
reached the city of Jaffa. In Jaffa all pilgrims go ashore: from there
it is seventy versts on foot to Jerusalem. At the landing the people had
quite a scare: the ship was high, and the people were let down into
boats below; but the boats were rocking all the time, and two people
were let down past the boat and got a ducking, but otherwise all went
safely.
When all were ashore, they went on afoot; on the third day they reached
Jerusalem at dinner-time. They stopped in a suburb, in a Russian
hostelry; there they had their passports stamped and ate their dinner,
and then they followed a pilgrim to the holy places. It was too early
yet to be admitted to the Sepulchre of the Lord, so they went to the
Monastery of the Patriarch. There all the worshippers were gathered, and
the female sex was put apart from the male. They were all ordered to
take off their shoes and sit in a circle. A monk came out with a towel,
and began to wash everybody's feet. He would wash, and rub them clean,
and kiss them, and thus he went around the whole circle. He washed
Efím's feet and kissed them. They celebrated vigils and matins, and
placed a candle, and served a mass for the parents. There they were fed,
and received wine to drink.
On the following morning they went to the cell of Mary of Egypt, where
she took refuge. There they placed candles, and a mass was celebrated.
From there they went to Abraham's Monastery. They saw the Sebak garden,
the place where Abraham wanted to sacrifice his son to God. Then they
went to the place where Christ appeared to Mary Magdalene, and to the
Church of Jacob, the brother of the Lord. The pilgrim showed them all
the places, and in every place he told how much money they ought to
give. At dinner they returned to the hostelry. They ate, and were just
getting ready to lie down to sleep, when the pilgrim, who was rummaging
through his clothes, began to sigh.
"They have pulled out my pocketbook with money in it," he said. "I had
twenty-three roubles,--two ten-rouble bills, and three in change."
The pilgrim felt badly about it, but nothing could be done, and all went
to sleep.