Descendants of the Scythians - Страница 39

It was a bold and at the same time subtle move. If Hartak extended an invitation to the strangers to be his guests, too, he would forfeit his right to do them any harm in the future. Age-old Scythian tradition forbade harming anyone who had been a guest in one’s home, and any violation of the tradition would be regarded as the most perfidious act imaginable.

As Skolot listened to the interpretation of this speech through the archeologist and Varkan, his face was clouded by a deepening frown. Artem was closely watching Hartak who seemed to try to hide among Skolot’s bodyguards. The misshapen Scythian at first made a move suggestive of his desire to flee the scene. But as that was impossible, he remained, his body hunched, his eyes shifting, afraid to meet the gaze of the strangers, especially that of Lida. Then Skolot began to speak, his voice sounding solemn and authoritative this time. As he finished he gave his son a meaningful look, and that proved sufficient.

Hartak began speaking in his turn, gesturing, bowing, an artificial smile fastened on. Even without the interpretation, it was clear that he was asking to forgive him for his belated invitation and that he invited the strangers to be his guests as well as the guests of his glorious and mighty father.

“We accept the invitation,” Ivan Semenovich said decorously. “We are glad to be the guests of Skolot and Hartak.” But an aside meant only for his friends followed:

“That’ll give us an excellent opportunity to find out answers to many of our questions.”

CHAPTER FIVE

The explorers go on a guided tour of the Scythian camp and find that riding horses is not an unimaginably difficult exercise; Artem is shocked to discover that scalps could be worn as signs of distinction; the explorers witness a tooth-pulling and metal forging in a smithy; the archeologist goes through an unfortunate experience; Ronis tells the story of the gold deposits; and finally, the author of the testament from the chest is discovered to be Ronis’s ancestor.

“Hasn’t Artem turned out to be quite a decent horseman?” Ivan Semenovich said jokingly.

“It’s not surprising in my case,” the young man replied in the same jesting vein. “I have been riding horses since childhood. You’d better take a look at Lida. Isn’t that some top class riding? She’s managing her horse as though she’s been doing it all her life!”

“Hey, you’ve forgotten to comment on my horsemanship!” said Dmitro Borisovich plaintively. “I’ve never ridden before, I can give you my word for it!”

“Ivan Semenovich, as it should naturally have been expected, has proved again to be our leader in riding exercises as well as in all other things. He surely looks capable of beating any Scythian in a riding competition,” Artem concluded the exchange of wisecracks. “Even our friend Varkan.”

Varkan, who was riding with the strangers, was glad to seize the opportunity to show how favorably disposed he was to them. He himself had volunteered to guide them around the Scythian camp. He had taken two of his friends, young warriors from Skolot’s troops, to accompany him. Varkan readily told the strangers about anything they wanted to know; he had even learnt several words of the strangers’ odd language from Artem.

The four explorers were riding the horses that had been presented to them by Skolot. Varkan had brought the horses to the strangers and advised who should take which horse. The black horse had been given with the spontaneous applause to Ivan Semenovich. But Artem was also quite happy to have a bay, graceful and very spirited horse. Lida and Dmitro Borisovich had received small, placid mares; nevertheless the archeologist had asked Varkan repeatedly and worriedly:

“Are you sure, my friend, that this animal will not let me down so to say? Are you sure it’s a quiet beast? You see, I would really hate to run into some complications with the horse, because until now my contact with these creatures was limited to observing them from a distance.”

It was only when Varkan confirmed for the umpteenth time that the mare was the most placid of the numerous horses in the great herd belonging to Skolot, that the archeologist consented to be helped onto it.

The Scythian camp excited great curiosity in the explorers. Everything they came across on their way seemed worthy of attention. There were tall and richly adorned kibitkas mounted on six-wheeled wagons which belonged to rich and high-born Scythians many of whom were sitting outside them surrounded by servants and slaves. There were smaller kibitkas that belonged to numerous hunters who traded hides and furs for food with the rich Scythians who owned large herds of horses. There were also small kibitkas swarming with poorly dressed slaves. In fact, from what the explorers had learnt, it followed that the social status of the ordinary Scythians was hardly different from that of the slaves; they had very few possessions — just their small kibitkas and a handful of house utensils. They toiled from early morning till late at night, trying to earn their living by tending cattle, hunting, and doing all the other menial work.

Only a very limited number of low-born young Scythians could win for themselves a different kind of life through personal bravery: they were chosen to serve in the ranks of Skolot’s warriors alongside the high-born Scythians. But, according to Varkan, they never cut the family ties that linked them to the poorer sections of the Scythian population. They kept their distance, staying away from the sons of the rich and elders; Varkan and his friends were among these “lucky” few. They avoided the haughty rich whenever they could. The behavior of Varkan and his two companions was a good illustration of this: every time the explorers stopped at the kibitkas of the rich, Varkan and the other two Scythians stayed some distance away, but were always at hand to join in conversation with the ordinary Scythians. The fact that Varkan and the likes of him were members of the chieftain’s troops allowed them to preserve a certain measure of independence, but it could be easily observed that the high-born and rich paid them back with feelings of ill will and contempt, frowning upon friendships of some of the young warriors with the Greek slaves.

The archeologist could not suppress his excitement which boiled over as the explorers progressed through the Scythian camp and the everyday life of the Scythians unfolded before him, a life of which he knew but little, whatever knowledge he had being based on the works of ancient Greek historians and evidence unearthed from the barrows. Varkan was showered with questions by Dmitro Borisovich who in his impatience left the Scythian very little time to answer his queries. Varkan was left alone only for short intervals when Dmitro Borisovich was overwhelmed by the desire to share his impressions with his friends.

“It’s fantastic! It’s unbelievably interesting!” he cried out, his eyes shining with excitement behind the lenses of his eyeglasses, his hand pushing his hat back. “You know, Artem, these Scythians seem to have preserved the social structure that was described by Herodotus so long ago! He said that the Scythians lived in many different tribes at various stages of social development, and hence they had different customs and life styles. Some of the tribes were only at the nomadic stage, while others had already attained the sophistication of grain growing. We have found ourselves, incidentally, with Scythians at the stage of nomads and hunters.”

“So what?” Artem said nonchalantly; he did not care very much for these fine historical and social distinctions.

“What do you mean ‘so what’?” the archeologist exclaimed. “This fact clarifies all the conflicting assumptions that have been put forward by the archeologists! For your information, Varkan says that there is another Scythian tribe living not far away that raises grain and trades with Skolot’s tribe. Isn’t that extraordinary? Oh, how I hope we have enough time to see everything there is to see and study it!”

Artem thought: ‘Enough time’ he says! It looks as if we’ll have all the time in the world to get to know and study the life of the Scythians! The way things are, there seems to be very little chance indeed of our being ‘able to return home…

But very soon his gloomy thoughts were swept away by the sight of the lively scenes in the Scythian camp. There was a wide road cutting through the camp and then turning to the forest, meandering among the huge trees with their pinkish leaves.

Most of the kibitkas and big six-wheel wagons were located on one side of the road; there were only narrow passages left between many of the kibitkas with pointed tops; at other places, bigger and more lavish kibitkas had more open space around them. Most such kibitkas belonged to the Scythian elders. They rested not on the ground but on cumbersome wagons with huge crude wheels. The kibitkas of ordinary Scythians, made of rough cloth, were rarely mounted on wagons; in most cases they were pitched directly on the ground. They outnumbered all others and were crowded close to one another.

There were bigger kibitkas of red felt situated some distance away from the rest. They belonged to the high-born Scythians; in fact, the red color was reserved for them only. A little way off, dozens of small kibitkas where the kinsmen of the high-born Scythians, their servants and slaves lived, clustered around the bigger ones.