Translation:The High Mountains/55

That evening after their meal they went to sit outside. And they lit a big fire as it was getting cold. They stayed up late this evening; they wanted to celebrate Phanis's return. They sang a song, then a second one, and a third. They also told a tale.

With the tale and the fire, it was like in winter.

“This evening you're having a good time! said Thymios the bell maker from Salona. Wait and I'll play you some music”.

To tell the truth, he wasn't there, Thymios the bell maker; he was in Salona. But he played his music as if he were there. Because from far away they heard a flock of sheep with their bells, and these bells all came from Thymios's workshop.

That's where old Athanase buys them.

“Listen, listen!” Dimitrakis and Georgios said together.

And everyone listened to the bells. From the ringing of the bells they could hear that the sheep were walking, then as they were moving their heads to pull up blades of grass, and that they were going on a bit and stopping; that they were grazing, constantly grazing.

The low bells were singing, the high bells were singing too, just as the bell maker wanted them to. And the mountains listened to them...

That's how Master Thymios made his bells. Each one had its own voice.

For some days, weeks, he worked in his workshop to make these bells. He put them in the forge until they became red like the embers; he hammered them on the anvil, once again he heated them, once again he worked them with his hammer.

“No, no, you're not singing yet”, he said. And without ceasing he hammered them until they were formed as he wanted.

“You, you'll have your voice and you, your accent. You, you'll sing like a cuckoo, you like drops of water. And all together you'll sing the song that I know.”

All those who have passed by Salona have seen Thymios bent over in his workshop. He brought honour to his art; nobody has surpassed his level of mastery.

He had numerous apprentices. He sent his bells to Mount Parnassus, to Mount Velouchi, to Mount Olympus. Which violinist can measure himself against Master Thymios who makes the hills sing.