One evening I was sauntering along a soft, grey, dusty track between
two breast-high walls of grain. So narrow was the track that here and
there tar-besmeared cars were lying--tangled, broken, and crushed--in
the ruts of the cartway.
Field mice squeaked as a heavy car first swayed--then bent forwards
towards the sun-baked earth. A number of martins and swallows were
flitting in the sky, and constituting a sign of the immediate proximity
of dwellings and a river; though for the moment, as my eyes roved over
the sea of gold, they encountered naught beyond a belfry rising to
heaven like a ship's mast, and some trees which from afar looked like
the dark sails of a ship. Yes, there was nothing else to be seen save
the brocaded, undulating steppe where gently it sloped away
south-westwards. And as was the earth's outward appearance, so was that
of the sky--equally peaceful.
Invariably, the steppe makes one feel like a fly on a platter.
Invariably, it inclines one to believe, when the centre of the expanse
is reached, that the earth lies within the compass of the sky, with the
sun embracing it, and the stars hemming it about as, half-blinded, they
stare at the sun's beauty.
* * * * *
Presently the sun's huge, rosy-red disk impinged upon the blue shadows
of the horizon before preparing to sink into a snow-white cloud-bank;
and as it did so it bathed the ears of grain around me in radiance and
caused the cornflowers to seem the darker by comparison; and the
stillness, the herald of night, to accentuate more than ever the burden
of the earth's song.
Fanwise then spread the ruddy beams over the firmament; and, in so
doing, they cast upon my breast a shaft of light like Moses' rod, and
awoke therein a flood of calm, but ardent, sentiments which set me
longing to embrace all the evening world, and to pour into its ear
great, eloquent, and never previously voiced, utterances.
Now, too, the firmament began to spangle itself with stars; and since
the earth is equally a star, and is peopled with humankind, I found
myself longing to traverse every road throughout the universe, and to
behold, dispassionately, all the joys and sorrows of life, and to join
my fellows in drinking honey mixed with gall.
Yet also there was upon me a feeling of hunger, for not since the
morning had my wallet contained a morsel of food. Which circumstance
hindered the process of thought, and intermittently vexed me with the
reflection that, rich though is the earth, and much thence though
humanity has won by labour, a man may yet be forced to walk hungry...
.
Suddenly the track swerved to the right, and as the walls of grain
opened out before me, there lay revealed a steppe valley, with, flowing
at its bottom, a blue rivulet, and spanning the rivulet, a
newly-constructed bridge which, with its reflection in the water,
looked as yellow as though fashioned of rope. On the further side of
the rivulet some seven white huts lay pressed against a small declivity
that was crowned with a cattle-fold, and amid the silver-grey trunks of
some tall black poplars whose shadows, where they fell upon the hamlet,
seemed as soft as down a knee-haltered horse, was stumping with
swishing tail. And though the air, redolent of smoke and tar and hemp
ensilage, was filled with the sounds of poultry cackling and a baby
crying during the process of being put to bed, the hubbub in no way
served to dispel the illusion that everything in the valley was but
part of a sketch executed by an artistic hand, and cast in soft tints
which the sun had since caused, in some measure, to fade.
In the centre of the semi-circle of huts there stood a brick-kiln, and
next to it, a high, narrow red chapel which resembled a one-eyed
watchman. And as I stood gazing at the scene in general, a crane
stooped with a faint and raucous cry, and a woman who had come out to
draw water looked as though, as she raised bare arms to stretch herself
upwards--cloud-like, and white-robed from head to foot--she were about
to float away altogether.
Also, near the brick-kiln there lay a patch of black mud in the
glistening, crumpled-velvet blue substance of which two urchins of five
and three were, breechless, and naked from the waist upwards, kneading
yellow feet amid a silence as absorbed as though their one desire in
life had been to impregnate the mud with the red radiance of the sun.
And so much did this laudable task interest me, and engage my sympathy
and attention, that I stopped to watch the strapping youngsters, seeing
that even in mire the sun has a rightful place, for the reason that the
deeper the sunlight's penetration of the soil, the better does that
soil become, and the greater the benefit to the people dwelling on its
surface.
Viewed from above, the scene lay, as it were, in the palm of one's
hand. True, by no manner of means could such lowly farm cots provide me
with a job, but at least should I, for that evening, be able to enjoy
the luxury of a chat with the cots' kindly inhabitants. Hence, with, in
my mind, a base and mischievous inclination to retail to those
inhabitants tales of the marvellous kind of which I knew them to stand
wellnigh as much in need as of bread, I resumed my way, and approached
the bridge.
As I did so, there arose from the ground-level an animated clod of
earth in the shape of a sturdy individual. Unwashed and unshaven, he
had hanging on his frame an open canvas shirt, grey with dust, and
baggy blue breeches.
"Good evening," I said to the fellow.
"I wish you the same," he replied. "Whither are you bound?"
"First of all, what is the name of this river?"
"What is its name? Why, it is the Sagaidak, of course."
On the man's large, round head there was a shock of bristling, grizzled
curls, while pendent to the moustache below it were ends like those of
the moustache of a Chinaman. Also, as his small eyes scanned me with an
air of impudent distrust, I could detect that they were engaged in
counting the holes and dams in my raiment. Only after a long interval
did he draw a deep breath as from his pocket he produced a clay pipe
with a cane mouthpiece, and, knitting his brows attentively, fell to
peering into the pipe's black bowl. Then he said:
"Have you matches?"