Page:More Tales from Tolstoi.djvu/125

Rh thought Zhilin, "at any rate I know the place now, and must make a bolt for it." He would have liked to have escaped that very night. The nights just then were dark—the moon was on the wane. Unfortunately, the Tatars returned that very evening. They used to come in driving captured cattle before them in a merry mood; but on this occasion they drove in nothing at all, and brought along with them on his saddle a slain Tatar, the brother of the red-bearded Tatar. They arrived very wrathful, and gathered together to bury their comrade. Zhilin also came out to see what was going on. They wrapped the corpse in a piece of cloth without a coffin, then they placed it on the grass in the middle of the village under a plane-tree. The mullah arrived, and they all squatted down together on their heels in front of the corpse.

The mullah was in front, behind him sat the three village elders in their turbans, and in a row with and behind them some more Tatars. There they sat with dejected eyes and in silence. The silence lasted for a long time, and then the mullah raised his head and spoke:

"Allah!" he said. It was the only word he spoke—and once more they all cast down their eyes and were silent for a long time. They sat there without stirring. Again the mullah raised his voice:

"Allah!"

"Allah!" they all repeated, and were again silent The dead man was lying on the grass, he moved not, and they all sat round him like dead men. Not one of them stirred. The only thing to be heard was