Page:Taras Bulba. A Tale of the Cossacks. 1916.djvu/92

86 activity for them. Such an idle existence was not to his mind: he wanted actual work. He meditated incessantly how he might stir up the Syech to some bold enterprise, wherein a man could carouse as became a knight. At last he went one day to the Koshevói and said plainly:

"Well, Koshevói, 'tis time for the Zaporozhtzi to make a little excursion."

"Nowhere to go," replied the Koshevói, removing his short pipe from his mouth, and spitting to one side.

"What d'ye mean by nowhere? We can make a raid on the Turks and the Tatárs."

"Impossible to raid either the Turks or the Tatárs," returned the Koshevói, putting his pipe coolly into his mouth again.

"Why is it impossible?"

"Because it is. We've promised the Sultan peace."

"But he's a Mussulman; and God and the Holy Scriptures command us to slay the Mussulmans."

"We have no right. If we had not sworn by our holy Faith then, perhaps, it might be done; but now 'tis impossible."

"How is it impossible? How can you say that we have no right? Here are my two sons, both young men grown. Neither one has been to war; and you say that we have no right, and