They were Cossacks in torn, ragged gaberdines.Their disordered garments, for many had on nothing but their shirts, with a short pipe in their mouths, showed that they had either escaped from some disaster or had caroused to such an extent that they had drunk up all they had on their bodies.A short, broad-shouldered Cossack of about fifty stepped out from the midst of them and stood in front.He shouted and waved his hand more vigorously than any of the others; but his words could not be heard for the cries and hammering of the workmen.
"Whence come you!" asked the Koschevoi, as the boat touched the shore.
All the workers paused in their labours, and, raising their axes and chisels, looked on expectantly.
"From a misfortune!" shouted the short Cossack.
"From what?"
"Permit me, noble Zaporozhtzi, to address you.""Speak!"
"Or would you prefer to assemble a council?"
"Speak, we are all here."
The people all pressed together in one mass.
"Have you then heard nothing of what has been going on in the hetman's dominions?""What is it?" inquired one of the kuren hetmans.
"Eh! what! Evidently the Tatars have plastered up your ears so that you might hear nothing.""Tell us then; what has been going on there?""That is going on the like of which no man born or christened ever yet has seen.""Tell us what it is, you son of a dog!" shouted one of the crowd, apparently losing patience.
"Things have come to such a pass that our holy churches are no longer ours.""How not ours?"
"They are pledged to the Jews.If the Jew is not first paid, there can be no mass.""What are you saying?"
"And if the dog of a Jew does not make a sign with his unclean hand over the holy Easter-bread, it cannot be consecrated.""He lies, brother gentles.It cannot be that an unclean Jew puts his mark upon the holy Easter-bread.""Listen! I have not yet told all.Catholic priests are going about all over the Ukraine in carts.The harm lies not in the carts, but in the fact that not horses, but orthodox Christians[1], are harnessed to them.Listen! I have not yet told all.They say that the Jewesses are making themselves petticoats out of our popes' vestments.Such are the deeds that are taking place in the Ukraine, gentles! And you sit here revelling in Zaporozhe; and evidently the Tatars have so scared you that you have no eyes, no ears, no anything, and know nothing that is going on in the world."[1] That is of the Greek Church.The Poles were Catholics.
"Stop, stop!" broke in the Koschevoi, who up to that moment had stood with his eyes fixed upon the earth like all Zaporozhtzi, who, on important occasions, never yielded to their first impulse, but kept silence, and meanwhile concentrated inwardly all the power of their indignation."Stop! I also have a word to say.But what were you about? When your father the devil was raging thus, what were you doing yourselves? Had you no swords? How came you to permit such lawlessness?""Eh! how did we come to permit such lawlessness? You would have tried when there were fifty thousand of the Lyakhs[2] alone; yes, and it is a shame not to be concealed, when there are also dogs among us who have already accepted their faith."[2] Lyakhs, an opprobrious name for the Poles.
"But your hetman and your leaders, what have they done?""God preserve any one from such deeds as our leaders performed!""How so?"
"Our hetman, roasted in a brazen ox, now lies in Warsaw; and the heads and hands of our leaders are being carried to all the fairs as a spectacle for the people.That is what our leaders did."The whole throng became wildly excited.At first silence reigned all along the shore, like that which precedes a tempest; and then suddenly voices were raised and all the shore spoke:--"What! The Jews hold the Christian churches in pledge! Roman Catholic priests have harnessed and beaten orthodox Christians! What! such torture has been permitted on Russian soil by the cursed unbelievers!
And they have done such things to the leaders and the hetman? Nay, this shall not be, it shall not be." Such words came from all quarters.The Zaporozhtzi were moved, and knew their power.It was not the excitement of a giddy-minded folk.All who were thus agitated were strong, firm characters, not easily aroused, but, once aroused, preserving their inward heat long and obstinately."Hang all the Jews!" rang through the crowd."They shall not make petticoats for their Jewesses out of popes' vestments! They shall not place their signs upon the holy wafers! Drown all the heathens in the Dnieper!"These words uttered by some one in the throng flashed like lightning through all minds, and the crowd flung themselves upon the suburb with the intention of cutting the throats of all the Jews.
The poor sons of Israel, losing all presence of mind, and not being in any case courageous, hid themselves in empty brandy-casks, in ovens, and even crawled under the skirts of their Jewesses; but the Cossacks found them wherever they were.
"Gracious nobles!" shrieked one Jew, tall and thin as a stick, thrusting his sorry visage, distorted with terror, from among a group of his comrades, "gracious nobles! suffer us to say a word, only one word.We will reveal to you what you never yet have heard, a thing more important than I can say--very important!""Well, say it," said Bulba, who always liked to hear what an accused man had to say.
"Gracious nobles," exclaimed the Jew, "such nobles were never seen, by heavens, never! Such good, kind, and brave men there never were in the world before!" His voice died away and quivered with fear."How was it possible that we should think any evil of the Zaporozhtzi? Those men are not of us at all, those who have taken pledges in the Ukraine.By heavens, they are not of us! They are not Jews at all.The evil one alone knows what they are; they are only fit to be spit upon and cast aside.Behold, my brethren, say the same! Is it not true, Schloma? is it not true, Schmul?""By heavens, it is true!" replied Schloma and Schmul, from among the crowd, both pale as clay, in their ragged caps.
