 | XI Hadji Murad |  |
XI
ON the fifth day of Hadji Murád's stay in Tiflis, Lóris-Mélikov, the Viceroy's aide-de-camp, came to see him at the latter's command.
"My head and my hands are glad to serve the Sirdar," said Hadji Murád with his usual diplomatic expression, bowing his head and putting his hands to his chest. "Command me!" said he, looking amiably into Lóris-Mélikov's face.
Lóris-Mélikov sat down in an arm-chair placed by the table, and Hadji Murád sank on to a low divan opposite, and resting his hands on his knees, bowed his head and listened attentively to what the other said to him.
Lóris-Mélikov, who spoke Tartar fluently, told him that though the Prince knew about his past life, he yet wanted to hear the whole story from himself.
"Tell it me, and I will write it down and translate it into Russian, and the Prince will send it to the Emperor."
Hadji Murád remained silent for a while (he never interrupted any one, but always waited to see whether his collocutor had not something more to say). Then he raised his head, shook back his cap, and smiled the peculiar childlike smile that had captivated Mary Vasílevna.
"I can do that," said he, evidently flattered by the thought that his story would be read by the Emperor.
"Thou must tell me" (nobody is addressed as "you" in Tartar) "everything, deliberately, from the beginning," said Lóris-Mélikov, drawing a notebook from his pocket.
"I can do that, only there is much — very much — to tell! Many events have happened!" said Hadji Murád.
"If thou canst not do it all in one day, thou wilt finish it another time," said Lóris-Mélikov.
"Shall I begin at the beginning?"
"Yes, at the very beginning ... where thou wast born, and where thou didst live."
Hadji Murád's head sank, and he sat in that position for a long time. Then he took a stick that lay beside the divan, drew a little knife
"Write: Born in Tselméss, a small aoul, 'the size of an ass's head,' as we in the mountains say," he began. "Not far from it, about two cannon-shots, lies Khunzákh, where the Khans lived. Our family was closely connected with them.
"My mother, when my eldest brother Osman was born, nursed the eldest Khan, Abu Nutsal Khan. Then she nursed the second son of the Khan, Umma Khan, and reared him; but Akhmet, my second brother, died; and when I was born and the Khansha[29] bore Bulách Khan, my mother would not go as wet-nurse again. My father ordered her to, but she would not. She said: 'I should again kill my own son; and I will not go.' Then my father, who was passionate, struck her with a dagger, and would have killed her had they not rescued her from him. So she did not give me up, and later on she composed a song ... but I need not tell that."
"Well, so my mother did not go as nurse," he said, with a jerk of his head, "and the Khansha took another nurse, but still remained fond of my mother; and my mother used to take us children to the Khansha's palace, and we played with her children, and she was fond of us.
"There were three young Khans: Abu Nutsal Khan, my brother Osman's foster-brother; Umma Khan, my own sworn brother; and Bulách Khan, the youngest — whom Shamil threw over the precipice. But that happened later.
"I was about sixteen when murids began to visit the aouls. They beat the stones with wooden scimitars and cried 'Mussulmans, Ghazavát!' The Chechens all went over to Muridism, and the Avars began to go over, too. I was then living in the palace like a brother of the Khans. I could do as I liked, and I became rich. I had horses and weapons and money. I lived for pleasure and had no care, and went on like that till the time when Kazi-Mulla, the Imám, was killed and Hamzád succeeded him. Hamzád sent envoys to the
"This needed consideration. The Khans feared the Russians, but were also afraid to join in the Holy War. The old Khansha sent me with her second son, Umma Khan, to Tiflis, to ask the Russian commander-in-chief for help against Hamzád. The commander-in-chief at Tiflis was Baron Rosen. He did not receive either me or Umma Khan. He sent word that he would help us, but did nothing. Only his officers came riding to us and played cards with Umma Khan. They made him drunk with wine, and took him to bad places; and he lost all he had to them at cards. His body was as strong as a bull's, and he was as brave as a lion, but his soul was weak as water. He would have gambled away his last horses and weapons if I had not made him come away.
"After visiting Tiflis my ideas changed, and I advised the old Khansha and the Khans to join the Ghazavát...."
What made you change your mind?" asked Lóris-Mélikov. "Were you not pleased with the Russians?"
Hadji Murád paused.
"No, I was not pleased," he answered decidedly, closing his eyes. "And there was also another reason why I wished to join the Ghazavát."
"What was that?"
"Why, near Tselméss the Khan and I encountered three murids, two of whom escaped, but the third one I shot with my pistol.
"He was still alive when I approached to take his weapons. He looked up at me, and said, 'Thou hast killed me...I am happy; but thou art a Mussulman, young and strong. Join the Ghazavát! God wills it!'"
"And did you join it?"
"I did not, but it made me think," said Hadji Murád, and he went on with his tale.
"When Hamzád approached Kunzakh we sent our Elders to him to say that we would agree to join the Ghazavát if the Imám would sent a learned man to explain it to us. Hamzád had our Elders' moustaches shaved off, their nostrils pierced, and cakes hung to their noses; and in that condition he sent them back to us.
"The Elders brought word that Hamzád was ready to send a Sheik to teach us the Ghazavát, but only if the Khansha sent him her youngest son as a hostage. She took him at his word, and sent her youngest son, Bulách Khan. Hamzád received him well, and sent to invite the two elder brothers also. He sent word that he wished to serve the Khans as his father had served their father.... The Khansha was a weak, stupid and conceited woman, as all women are when they are not under control. She was afraid to send away both sons, and sent only Umma Khan. I went with him. We were met by murids about a mile before we arrived, and they sang and shot and caracoled around us; and when we drew near, Hamzád came out of his tent and went up to Umma Khan's stirrup and received him as a Khan. He said,—
"'I have not done any harm to thy family, and do not wish to do any. Only do not kill me, and do not prevent my bringing the people over to the Ghazavát, and I will serve you with my whole army, as my father served your father! Let me live in your house, and I will
"Umma Khan was slow of speech. He did not know how to reply, and remained silent. Then I said that if this was so, let Hamzád come to Khunzákh, and the Khansha and the Khans would receive him with honour. ... But I was not allowed to finish — and here I first encountered Shamil, who was beside the Imám. He said to me,—
"'Thou has not been asked. ... It was the Khan!'
"I was silent, and Hamzád led Umma Khan into his tent. Afterwards Hamzád called me and ordered me to go to Khunzákh with his envoys. I went. The envoys began persuading the Khansha to send her eldest son also to Hamzád. I saw there was treachery, and told her not to send him; but a woman has as much sense in her head as an egg has hair. She ordered her son to go. Abu Nutsal Khan did not wish to. Then she said, 'I see thou art afraid!' Like a bee, she knew where to sting him most painfully. Abu Nutsal Khan flushed, and did not speak to her any more, but ordered
"Hamzád met us with even greater honour than he had shown Umma Khan. He himself rode out two rifle-shot lengths down the hill to meet us. A large party of horsemen with their banners followed him, and they too sang, shot, and caracoled.
"When we reached the camp, Hamzád led the Khan into his tent, and I remained with the horses....
"I was some way down the hill when I heard shots fired in Hamzád's tent. I ran there, and saw Umma Khan lying prone in a pool of blood, and Abu Nutsal was fighting the murids. One of his cheeks had been hacked off, and hung down. He supported it with one hand, and with the other stabbed with his dagger at all who came near him. I saw him strike down Hamzád's brother, and aim a blow at another man; but then the murids fired at him and he fell."
Hadji Murád stopped, and his sunburnt face flushed a dark red, and his eyes became blood-shot.
"I was seized with fear, and ran away."
"Really? ... I thought thou never wast afraid," said Lóris-Mélikov.
"Never after that.... Since then I have always remembered that shame, and when I recalled it I feared nothing!"
| XI Hadji Murad | |