Oh, save me or I die of laughter. Antek and his wife have come home from
Paris. She poses as the wife of an artist of golden Bohemia; he wears
silk shirts, has a forelock, and wears his beard wedge-form. I
understand all; I understand that she could overcome his habits, his
character; but how did she conquer his hair?--that remains for me an
endless puzzle.
Antek has not stopped painting "corpses;" but he paints also genre
pictures of village life. He has great success. He paints portraits too;
these, however, with less result, for the carnation always recalls the
"corpse."
I asked him, through old friendship, if he is happy with his wife. He
told me that he had never dreamed of such happiness. I confess that
Kazia has disappointed me in a favorable sense.
I too should be perfectly happy, were it not that Eva begins to be a
little weak, and, besides, the poor thing becomes peevish. I heard her
crying once in the night. I know what that means. She is pining for the
theatre. She says nothing, but she pines.
I have begun a portrait of Pani Ostrynski. She is simply an incomparable
woman! Regard for Ostrynski would not restrain me, of course, and were
it not that to this hour I love Eva immensely, I know not--
But I love Eva immensely, immensely!
THE END.
TRANSLATOR'S NOTES.
Charcoal Sketches were written in the Pico House, Los Angeles,
California, in 1878. Perhaps the hotel is in existence yet; in that case
the register for the above year contains the signature of Sienkiewicz
and the number of his room. These Charcoal Sketches, as the author
informed me, are founded on facts observed by him, and give a picture of
life in the district where he was born and where he spent his youth.
Ignorance, selfish class isolation, and resultant social helplessness,
are depicted in remarkable relief and unsparingly. There is not
collective intelligence and strength enough in Barania-Glova to save
Repa's wife from ruin and murder. Pan Floss is driven from his land of
"Little Progress" and has to pay for Sroda's oxen, which the owner
himself turned in on his neighbor's clover; since Pan Floss is a noble
and Sroda a peasant, the latter thinks himself justified in taking what
he can from the noble in the night or the daytime, by fair means or
foul. Pan Skorabevski has no wish to annoy himself in aiding peasants;
if he wants anything from them, or wishes to defend himself against
them, he calls in Pan Zolzik. The great public forces of Barania-Glova
are the vile Zolzik, and Shmul without conscience. Father Chyzik, the
priest, considering that his whole business is with another world, has
no thought for the temporal welfare of Repa's wife.
The following is a translation of most of the names in Charcoal
Sketches:--
_Barania-Glova_ Sheep's Head.
_Burak_ Beet.
_Krucha Wola_ Brittle will.
_Kruchek_ A small raven, or rather a rook.
It is a name given frequently
to a dog.
_Lipa_ Basswood.
_Maly Postempovitsi_ Little Progress.
_Oslovitsi_ Asstown.
_Repa_ Turnip.
_Shmul_ Samuel.
_Sroda_ Wednesday.
_White Crawfish_ A phrase meaning eggs.
_Zolzik_ Strangler.
_Zweinos_ Two noses.
Tartar Captivity is a sketch preliminary to "With Fire and Sword."
Though it appears as a fragment of a memoir, it is an original
production written by Sienkiewicz in the style of the seventeenth
century. Here the author uses for the first time the two main historical
elements of Polish society: nobility and the Church. These two elements
were raised to an ideal height in the Polish mind. Zdaniborski was a
noble sincere and naïve, who considered the position and privileges of
the nobility to be as sacred and inviolable as those of the Church; both
he believed to be the direct product of God's will.
Mayors of the air, referred to in Chapter V., were men appointed to keep
alive fires which would fill the air with a smoke disagreeable to the
plague or pest, and prevent it, or rather her, from approaching. The
plague or pest in the popular mind was represented as a female who went
around killing people.
On the Bright Shore. All persons who have read "Children of the Soil"
will remember Svirski, the sympathetic artist in that book; this same
Svirski is the hero of the present narrative.
* * * * *
That Third Woman. In this narrative the only character needing
explanation is, I believe, the minstrel. In Little Russia and the
Ukraine the minstrel called "Kobzar," from kobza, the instrument on
which he plays, and also "Did" (grandfather), because he is generally
old and sometimes blind, is a prominent figure to this day. In centuries
past he played a great part by rousing popular feeling and carrying
intelligence from place to place. At present his rôle is to entertain
people who wish to hear either what the minstrel himself improvises, or
the ballads of that region. The Duma, or ballad of the Ukraine, is
famous.
* * * * *
Let Us Follow Him was written somewhat earlier than "Quo Vadis," and was
a tentative sketch in a new field, as was Tartar Captivity, which
preceded "With Fire and Sword."
Transcriber's Notes:
p. 112 "Enunia" changed to "Evunia".
p. 197 "countenance'" changed to "countenance,".
p. 211 "trappings" changed to "trappings,".
p. 301 "'" changed to full quote after "rubel!".
p. 315 Polish crossed l changed to English l in wykarmila, and
wszczepil.
p. 382 "lip" changed to "lips".
Words with multiple spellings retained as in original.