Over the whole deep-sunk social valley hung a cloud. This cloud was composed of the darkest elements which exist in human kind, which are: respect for the letter from which the spirit has departed, dense ignorance, suspicious and hateful defence of self against everything which flows from broad, sunny, but 'foreign' worlds.
CHAPTER II
It happened three years ago.
Damp fog was rising from the muddy streets of the town and made dark the transparency of a starry evening. A breath of March wind mingled with the odour of freshly ploughed fields, flew over low roofs, but could not drive out the suffocating exhalations coming in clouds from the doors and windows of the houses.
Notwithstanding the mists and exhalations which filled it, the town had a gay and festive appearance. From behind gray curtains thousands of windows shone with bright illuminations, and from lighted houses came the sounds of noisy conversation or collective prayers. Whoever passed through the streets and looked into this or that window of this or that house, would see all around bright family scenes. In the centre of larger or smaller rooms were long tables, covered with white cloths, and all prepared for a feast. Around them bustled women in variegated dresses, carrying and leaving contributions with a smile on their faces, and admiring their own work in the decoration of the tables. Bearded husbands, holding their children in their arms, pressed their lips to the pink cheeks, or kissed the on the mouth with a loud smack. They tossed them up to the low ceilings, to the great mirth of the older members of the family. Others sat in groups on benches and talked of affairs of the past week. Others still, covered with the folds of their white talliths, stood motionless, facing the walls, rocking their figures back and forward.
These were preparing themselves by fervent prayer to meet the holy Sabbath day.
For it was Friday evening.
In the whole town there was but one house in which reigned darkness, emptiness, and sadness. It was a little gray hut which seemed to have been clapped on to a small hill at the other end of the town--it was the only elevation on the waste plain. And even this hill was not natural. Tradition said that it was made by Karaites, who built it on their temple. Today there remained no traces of that temple. The bare, sandy hill, protected the little hut from the winds and snow storms, and the hut humbly and gratefully nestled in its shelter.
Over its roof, on the side of the hill, grew a large pear tree.
Through its branches the wind rushed sweetly--over it shone a few stars. A large, cultivated field separated this spot from the town. A deep quiet reigned here, interrupted only by muffled echoes of the remote noise of the town. Over the black beds thick clouds of steam and mist, coming from the streets of the town, crept toward the hut.
The interior of the hut was dark as a precipice, and from behind its small windows resounded the trembling but vigorous voice of a man:
"Beyond far seas, beyond high mountains,"--spoke this voice amidst the darkness--"the river Sabbation flows. But it flows not with water, nor with milk and honey, but with yellow gravel and big stones."
The hoarse, trembling voice became silent, and in the dark room, seen from behind two small windows, there was deep silence for a while.
This time it was interrupted by quite different sounds.
"Zeide! speak further."
These words were spoken in the voice of a girl--almost childish, but languid and dreamy.
Zeide (grandfather) asked, "Are they not coming yet?"
"I don't hear them," answered the girl.
In the dark room the hoarse trembling narrative began again:
"Beyond the holy river of Sabbation there live four Israelitic tribes; Gad, Assur, Dan and Naphtali. These tribes escaped there from great fears and oppressions, and Jehovah--may His holy name be blessed--has hidden them from their enemies, beyond the river of gravel and stones. And this gravel rises high as the waves of the sea and the stones are roaring and rushing like a big forest when it is shaken by a storm. And when the day of Sabbath comes--"
Here the old voice stopped suddenly, and after a while he asked softly:
"Are they not yet coming?"
There was no answer for a long time. It seemed as though the other was listening before replying.
"They are coming," she said finally.
In the dark interior was heard a long, muffled moaning.
"Zeide! speak further," said the girl's voice, sonorous and pure as before, only less childish--stronger this time.
Zeide did not speak any more.
From the direction of the town rushed, approaching the hut, a strange noise. This was caused by numerous human feet, by piercing exclamations and silvery laughter of the children. Soon in the distance appeared a big moving spot rolling on the surface of the fields. Soon the spot neared the hut, scattered into several groups and with irresistible shouting, screaming, laughing, rushed toward the bent walls and low windows of the hut.
They were children--boys of various ages. The oldest amongst them was perhaps fourteen years and the youngest five. It was difficult to see their dresses in the darkness, but from beneath their caps and long curls of hair, their eyes shone with the passionate fire of mischief and perhaps some other excited sentiment.
"Guten abend! karaime!" shouted at once the rabble, kicking at the locked door with their feet, and shaking the frames of the windows.
"Why don't you show some light on the Sabbath? Why are you sitting in a black hole like the devil? Kofrim, uberwerfer!" (You unbeliever!
heretic!) shouted the older ones.
"Aliejdyk giejer! oreman! mishugener!" (rascal, beggar, mad-man!) howled the young ones at the top of their voices.
The insults, laughter, and shaking of the door and windows increased every moment, when from within the hut resounded the girl's voice, quiet and sonorous as before, but so strong that it pierced the noise--"Zeide! speak further!"
"Aj! aj! aj!" answered the old voice, "how can I speak when they shout so loudly."
"Zeide! speak further!"
This time the girl's voice sounded almost imperatively. It was no longer childish. In it could be heard grief, contempt and struggle for the preservation of peace.
As sad singing is blended with the noise of stormy elements, so with the wild noise of the mob of children, insulting, mewing, howling, and laughing, the sobbing words were mingled.
"And during the day of Sabbath, Jehovah--may His name be blessed--gives rest to the holy river of Sabbation. The gravel ceases to flow, the big waves of stones do not roar like the forest--only from the river, which lies quiet and does not move, a thick mist rises--so great that it reaches the high clouds, and hides again from the enemies, the four tribes of Israel: Gad, Assur, Dan and Naphtali."
Alas! around the hut with bent walls and dark interior, the holy river of Sabbation did not flow; neither did high waves or gravel nor thick mists hide its inhabitants from the enemies.
These foes were small, but they were numerous. By a last effort of mischievous frolic several of them pulled at the frames of the windows so strongly that several panes broke. A shout of joy sounded far over the field. Through the openings the interior of the hut became strewn with small clods of earth and stones. The old voice, from the most remote part of the room, trembling, and still more hoarse, cried:
"Aj! Aj! Aj! Jehovah! Jehovah!"
The girl's voice, always sonorous, repeated:
"Zeide, keep quiet! Zeide, don't shout! Zeide, don't be afraid!"
All at once, from behind the crowd of children, someone exclaimed threateningly and imperatively:
"Shtyl Bube! What are you doing here, you rascals? Get out!"
The children at once became silent. The man who caused the tranquillity by his loud voice was tall and well built. His long dress was lined with fur. His face looked pale in the dusk, and his eyes shone as only young eyes can shine.
"What are you doing here?" he repeated, in an angry and decided voice. "Do you think that this house is inhabited by wolves, and that you can howl at them and break the windows?"
The boys, gathered in one compact body, were silent. After a while, however, one of them, the tallest, and evidently the boldest, said:
"Why do they not show some light on Sabbath?"
"That's none of your business," said the man.