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Title: Elias Author: Leo Tolstoy Date: 1885 Language: en Topics: family, fiction Source: Original text from http://www.revoltlib.com/?id=10341, 2021.
There dwelt once upon a time in the Ufimsk government a Bashkir named
Elias. The father of Elias had left him a poor man. His father had only
gotten him a wife a year before, and then died. In those days Elias
owned seven mares, two cows, and twice ten sheep. But Elias was now the
master, and began to spread himself out; from morn to eve he labored
with his wife, rose up earlier and lay down later than all other men,
and grew richer every year. Five-and-thirty years did Elias continue to
labor, and won for himself great possessions.
Elias now had two hundred head of horses, a hundred and fifty head of
horned cattle, and one thousand two hundred sheep. Many men-servants
pastured the tabuns<[1] and the herds of Elias, and many maid-servants
milked the mares and the cows and made kumis, butter and cheese. Elias
had much of everything, and everybody round about envied the life of
Elias. People said: "Ah, what a lucky fellow that Elias is! He has
everything in abundance, he has no need to die." And good people began
to know Elias and make his acquaintance. And guests came to him from
afar. And Elias welcomed them
all, and gave them to eat and to drink. Whosoever came to him found
abundance of kumis, and tea, and sherbet, and the flesh of rams.
Whenever guests came a ram or two was immediately killed, and if there
were many guests they killed a mare.
Elias had three children — two sons and a daughter. Elias had provided
his sons with wives, and had given his daughter in marriage. While Elias
was poor his sons had worked with him and guarded the herds and the
tabuns themselves, but when the sons became rich they began to amuse
themselves, and one of them took to drink. One of them — the eldest —
was presently killed in a brawl, and the younger son fell into the power
of a stuck-up wife, and this son no longer listened to his father, and
Elias had to give him his portion and get rid of him.
So Elias paid him out and gave him a house and cattle, and the riches of
Elias were diminished. And shortly after this a disease fell upon the
sheep of Elias, and many of them perished. And then came a year of
scarceness — no hay would grow — and many cattle starved in the winter.
Then the Kirghiz came and stole the best part of the horses, and the
estate of Elias diminished still further. Elias began to fall lower and
lower, and his natural forces were less. And when he had reached his
seventieth year things came to such a pass that he began to sell his
furs, his carpets, his kibitki[2] and then he began to sell his cattle,
down to the very last one; and so Elias came to naught. And he himself
perceived that he had nothing left, and he was obliged in his old age
to go with his wife to live among the common people. And the only things
which Elias could now call his own were the clothes he had on his body,
his fur cloak, his hat, and his shoes; and his wife, Shem Shemagi, was
also an old woman. The son whom he had bought off departed into a
distant land, and his daughter died. And there was none to help the old
folks.
Their neighbor, Muhamedshah, pitied the old folks. He himself was
neither rich nor poor, but lived at his ease, and he was a good man. He
remembered that he had eaten bread and salt with Elias, and he was
filled with compassion and said to Elias:
"Come to me, Elias, and live with me along with thine old woman. In the
summer thou shalt work for me according to thy strength in the melon
fields, and in the winter thou shalt feed my cattle and let Shem Shemagi
milk the cows and make kumis. I will feed and clothe you both, and
whatever ye may want tell it me and I will give it you."
Elias thanked his neighbor and dwelt with his wife in the house of
Muhamedshah as one of his servants. At first it seemed grievous to them,
but soon they grew accustomed to it, and the old people continued to
live there and work according to their strength.
It was profitable to the master to have such people, for the old folks
had themselves been masters and knew how things should be rightly
ordered, and were not idle but worked according to the ir ability; the
only thing which grieved Muhamedshah was to see people who had been so
high fall to such a low estate.
And it chanced one day that distant relations came as guests, to
Muhamedshah, and a Mullah came also. And Muhamedshah bade Elias take a
ram and slay it Elias skinned the ram and cooked it, and set it before
the guests. The guests ate the ram's flesh, drank as much tea as they
wanted, and then fell a-drinking kumis. The guests sat with their host
on down cushions on the floor and drank their kumis out of little cups,
and conversed together, and Elias went about his work and passed by the
door where they were sitting.
Muhamedshah saw him and said to one of his guests: "Didst thou see that
old man who passed by my door?"
"I saw him," said the guest; "is there anything extraordinary about
him?"
"There is this much extraordinary about him — that he was once upon a
time our richest man — Elias they called him; perchance thou hast heard
concerning him?"
"How could I help hearing of him?" replied the guest; "seen it all I
have not, but the fame of him was spread far and wide."
"Well, now he hath naught, and he lives with me as a servant, and his
old woman lives with him and milks my cows."
The guest was astonished. He clicked with his tongue, shook his head,
and said: "Ah! 'tis plain how fortune goes flying round like a wheel .
One she raises on high, another she thrusts down below. Tell me," said
the guest, "is the heart of the old man sore within him, perchance?"
"Who can tell? He lives peaceably and quietly, and looks well.
"May one converse with him?" said the guest; "I should like to question
him concerning his life."
"Certainly, it is possible," replied the host, and he shouted from
behind the kibitka, "Babad," which signifies grandfather in the Bashkir
language, "go and drink kumis and call hither the old man!"
And Elias came to them with his wife. Elias greeted the guests and the
host, recited a prayer, and squatted down on his knees at the door, and
his wife went behind the curtain and sat down with her mistress.
They gave Elias a cup full of kumis. Elias drank the healths of the
guests and the host, did obeisance, drank a little more, and then placed
the cup aside.
"Now, tell me, grandfather," said one of the guests, "I suppose it
grieves thee looking at us, to call to mind thy former life, and to
recollect how fortunate thou wert, and how now thou dwellest in misery?"
And Elias smiled and said: "If I were to speak to thee of good fortune
and ill fortune thou wouldst not believe me — far better it would be if
thou didst ask my old wife concerning this thing. She is a woman, and
therefore what her heart feeleth that her tongue speaketh; she will tell
thee the whole truth about this matter."
And the guest spake, turning towards the c urtain: "Speak now, old
woman! tell me, how judgest thou concerning thy former good fortune and
thy present ill fortune?"
And Shem Shemagi answered from behind the curtain: "This is how I judge:
I and my old man lived together for fifty years; we sought after
happiness and we could not find it, and only now this is the second year
in which we have wanted for nothing, and we live as working folks and
have found real happiness, and we want nothing else."
The guests were astonished and the host was astonished; he even rose up
and threw aside the curtain to behold the old woman. And there the old
woman stood with folded arms, and she was smiling, and she looked at her
old man, and he smiled also.
And the old woman also said: "I speak the truth, I jest not: we sought
happiness for half a hundred years, and while we were rich we did not
find it at all; now that we have nothing left and live among working
people we have found such happiness that we need nothing better."
"And in what, then, does your present happiness consist ?"
"It consists in this: while we were rich I and my old man had not a
single quiet hour together, we had no time to talk, no time to think of
our souls, no time to pray to God. So many cares were we saddled with.
At one time guests came to see us, and it was a worry what to set before
each and with what presents to gratify them lest they should speak
scornfully concerning us. Then t here was the trouble of seeing to it
that the wolves did not rend the lambs or kids or that thieves did not
chase away the horses. Even when we lay down it was not to sleep, for we
feared that the sheep might overlay the lambs in the night. You might
get up and go about at night, and no sooner would your mind be at ease
than a fresh worry would arise: how to find hay or pasturage in the
winter time — and so it would go on. And all this was nothing to the
disagreements between my old man and me. He would say: ‘We ought to do
this,’ and then I would say: ‘No! we ought to do that!’ and so we began
to curse each other, and that was sinful. Thus we lived, and went on
from care to care, from sin to sin, and we found no happiness in life."
"Well, but now?"
"Now I and my old man rise up together, we converse lovingly and agree
in all things, we have naught to quarrel about and naught to trouble us
— our sole care is to serve our master. We labor according as we are
able, we labor gladly, so that our master may have no loss and may
prosper. We come to the house — there is dinner, there is supper, there
is kumis. If it be cold there is the kizyak[3] wherewith to warm
ourselves, and there are furs. And there is time, when we wish it, to
talk together, to think of our souls, and to pray to God. For fifty
years we sought happiness, and only now have we found it."
The guests began to laugh.
But Elias said: "Laugh not, brethren! this is no jest, but human life.
And at first my old woman and I were fools and wept because we had lost
our wealth, but now God hath revealed the truth to us, and now we also
reveal it to you, not for our amusement but for your good."
And the Mullah said: "These be wise sayings, and Elias hath spoken the
real truth, and all this is written down in the Scriptures."
And the guests ceased to laugh, and they pondered these things in their
hearts.
[1] Studs of horses
[2] A covered wagon.
[3] Dried cow-dung used as fuel by the Bashkirs.