Page:The Complete Works of Lyof N. Tolstoi - 11 (Crowell, 1899).djvu/580

556 No butchers were to be seen in the yard; they were all in the chambers, at work. That day about a hundred head of cattle were slaughtered. I was about to enter one of the chambers, but stopped short at the door. I stopped because the chamber was crowded with carcasses being moved about, and also because blood was flowing below and dropping from above. All the butchers present were besmeared with blood, and, had I entered, I should certainly have been covered with it. One suspended carcass was being taken down, another was being moved toward the door, a third, a slaughtered ox, was lying with its white legs raised, while a butcher with his strong hand was ripping up its tight-stretched hide.

Through the door opposite to the one at which I was standing, a big, red, well-fed ox was led in. Two men were dragging it, and hardly had it entered when I saw a butcher raise a knife above its neck and stab it. The ox, as if all four legs had suddenly given way, fell heavily upon its belly, immediately turned over on one side, and began to work its legs and all its hind quarters. Another butcher immediately threw himself upon the ox from the side opposite to the twitching legs, caught its horns, twisted its head down to the ground, while another butcher cut its throat with a knife. From beneath the head there flowed a stream of blackish red blood, which a besmeared boy caught in a tin basin. All the time this was going on, the ox kept incessantly twitching its head as if trying to get up, and waved its four legs in the air. The basin was quickly filling, but the ox still lived, and, its stomach heaving heavily, both hind and fore legs worked so violently that the butchers held aloof. When one basin was full, the boy carried it away on his head to the albumen factory, while another boy placed a fresh basin which also began to fill up. But still the ox heaved its body and worked its hind legs.

When the blood ceased to flow, the butcher raised the animal's head and began to skin it. The ox continued to writhe. The head, stripped of its skin, showed red with white veins, and kept the position given