St. Peter's Umbrella Part 1

St. Peter's Umbrella.

by Kalman Mikszath.

INTRODUCTION

Kalman Mikszath, perhaps the most purely national, certainly, after Jokai, the most popular of all the Magyar novelists, was born at Szklabonya, in the county of Nograd, on January 16th, 1849. Educated at Rimas...o...b..th and Pest, he adopted the legal profession, and settled down as a magistrate in his native county, where his family had for generations lived the placid, patriarchal life of small country squires.

A shrewd observer, with a strong satirical bent and an ardent love of letters, the young advocate made his _debut_ as an author, at the age of twenty-five, with a volume of short stories, which failed, however, to catch the public taste. Shortly afterward he flitted to Szeged, and contributed to the leading periodical there a series of sketches, whose piquant humor and perfection of style attracted so much notice as to encourage a bookseller in the famous city on the Theiss to publish, in 1881, another volume of tales, the epoch-making "Tot Atyafiak," which was followed, four months later, by a supplementary volume, ent.i.tled "A jo paloczok." Critics of every school instantly hailed these two little volumes as the finished masterpieces of a new and entirely original _genre_, the like of which had hitherto been unknown in Hungary. The short story had, indeed, been previously cultivated, with more or less of success, by earlier Magyar writers; but these first attempts had, for the most part, been imitations of foreign novelists, mere exotics which struck no deep root in the national literature. Mikszath was the first to study from the life the peculiarities and characteristics of the peasantry among whom he dwelt, the first to produce real, vivid pictures of Magyar folk-life in a series of humoresks, dramas, idylls--call them what you will--of unsurpa.s.sable grace and delicacy, seasoned with a pleasantly pungent humor, but never without a sub-flavor of that tender melancholy which lies at the heart of the Hungarian peasantry. And these exquisite miniatures were set in the frame of a lucid, pregnant, virile style, not unworthy of Maupa.s.sant or Kjelland. Henceforth Mikszath was sure of an audience. In 1883 he removed to Pest, and in the following year a fresh series of sketches, "A tisztelt hazbol," appeared in the columns of the leading Hungarian newspaper, the "Pesti Hirlap," which established his reputation once for all. During the last twelve years Mikszath has published at least a dozen volumes, and, so far, his productivity shows no sign of exhaustion. The chief literary societies of his native land, including the Hungarian Academy, have all opened their doors to him, and since 1882 he has been twice, unanimously, elected a member of the Hungarian Parliament, in the latter case, oddly enough, representing a const.i.tuency vacated by his ill.u.s.trious compeer and fellow-humorist, Maurus Jokai. Fortunately for literature, he has shown no very remarkable apt.i.tude for politics. When I add that in 1873 Mikszath married Miss Ilona Mauks, and has two children living, who have frequently figured in his tales, I have said all that need be said of the life-story of this charming and interesting author.

As already implied, the _forte_ of Mikszath is the _conte_, and as a _conteur_ he has few equals in modern literature. "A jo paloczok," in particular, has won a world-wide celebrity, and been translated into nearly every European language except English, the greater part of the Swedish version being by the accomplished and versatile pen of King Oscar. But Mikszath has also essayed the romance with eminent success, and it is one of his best romances that is now presented to the reader.

"Szent Peter esernyoje," to give it its Magyar t.i.tle, is a quaintly delightful narrative in a romantic environment of out-of-the-world Slovak villages, with a ragged red Umbrella and a brand-new bra.s.s Caldron as the good and evil geniuses of the piece respectively. The Umbrella, which is worth a king's ransom, is sold for a couple of florins to the "white Jew" of the district, becomes the tutelary deity--or shall I say the fetish?--of half a dozen parishes, and is only recovered, after the lapse of years, by its lawful owner, when, by a singular irony of fate, it has become absolutely valueless--from a pecuniary point of view. The Caldron, on the other hand, which is erroneously supposed to contain countless treasures, and is the outcome of a grimly practical joke, proves a regular box of Pandora, and originates a famous lawsuit which lasts ten years and ruins three families--who deserve no better fate. How the Umbrella and the Caldron first come into the story the reader must be left to find out for himself. Suffice it to say that grouped around them are very many pleasant and--by way of piquant contrast--a sprinkling of unpleasant personages, whose adventures and vicissitudes will, I am convinced, supply excellent entertainment to all lovers of fine literature and genuine humor.

R. NISBET BAIN.

The Legend

PART I

CHAPTER I.

LITTLE VERONICA IS TAKEN AWAY.

The schoolmaster's widow at the Halap was dead. When a schoolmaster dies there is not much of a funeral, but when his widow follows him, there is still less fuss made. And this one had left nothing but a goat, a goose she had been fattening, and a tiny girl of two years. The goose ought to have been fattened at least a week longer, but the poor woman had not been able to hold out so long. As far as the goose was concerned she had died too soon, for the child it was too late. In fact, she ought never to have been born. It would have been better had the woman died when her husband did. (Dear me, what a splendid voice that man had to be sure!)

The child was born some months after its father's death. The mother was a good, honest woman, but after all it did not seem quite right, for they already had a son, a priest, a very good son on the whole, only it was a pity he could not help his mother a bit; but he was very poor himself, and lived a long way off in Wallachia, as chaplain to an old priest. But it was said that two weeks ago he had been presented with a living in a small village called Glogova, somewhere in the mountains between Selmeczbanya and Besztercebanya. There was a man in Halap, Janos Kapiczany, who had pa.s.sed there once when he was driving some oxen to a fair, and he said it was a miserable little place.

And now the schoolmaster's widow must needs go and die, just when her son might have been able to help her a little. But no amount of talking would bring her back again, and I must say, for the honor of the inhabitants of Halap, that they gave the poor soul a very decent funeral.

There was not quite enough money collected to defray the expenses, so they had to sell the goat to make up the sum; but the goose was left, though there was nothing for it to feed on, so it gradually got thinner and thinner, till it was its original size again; and instead of waddling about in the awkward, ungainly way it had done on account of its enormous size, it began to move in a more stately manner; in fact, its life had been saved by the loss of another. G.o.d in His wisdom by taking one life often saves another, for, believe me, senseless beings are entered in His book as well as sensible ones, and He takes as much care of them as of kings and princes.

The wisdom of G.o.d is great, but that of the judge of Halap was not trifling either. He ordered that after the funeral the little girl (Veronica was her name) was to spend one day at every house in the village in turns, and was to be looked after as one of the family.

"And how long is that to last?" asked one of the villagers.

"Until I deign to give orders to the contrary," answered the judge shortly. And so things went on for ten days, until Mate Billeghi decided to take his wheat to Besztercebanya to sell, for he had heard that the Jews down that way were not yet so sharp as in the neighborhood of Halap. This was a good chance for the judge.

"Well," he said, "if you take your wheat there, you may as well take the child to her brother. Glogova must be somewhere that way."

"Not a bit of it," was the answer, "it is in a totally different direction."

"It _must_ be down that way if I wish it," thundered out the judge.

Billeghi tried to get out of it, saying it was awkward for him, and out of his way. But it was of no use, when the judge ordered a thing, it had to be done. So one Wednesday they put the sacks of wheat into Billeghi's cart, and on the top of them a basket containing Veronica and the goose, for the latter was, of course, part of the priest's inheritance. The good folks of the village had made shortbread and biscuits for the little orphan to take with her on her journey out into the great world, and they also filled a basket with pears and plums; and as the cart drove off, many of them shed tears for the poor little waif, who had no idea where they were taking her to, but only saw that when the horses began to move, she still kept her place in the basket, and only the houses and trees seemed to move.

CHAPTER II.

GLOGOVA AS IT USED TO BE.

Not only the worthy Kapiczany had seen Glogova, the writer of these pages has also been there. It is a miserable little place in a narrow valley between bare mountains. There is not a decent road for miles around, much less a railway. Nowadays they say there is some sort of an old-fashioned engine, with a carriage or two attached, which plies between Besztercebanya and Selmeczbanya, but even that does not pa.s.s near to Glogova. It will take at least five hundred years to bring it up to that pitch of civilization other villages have reached.

The soil is poor, a sort of clay, and very little will grow there except oats and potatoes, and even these have to be coaxed from the ground. A soil like that cannot be spoken of as "Mother Earth," it is more like "Mother-in-law Earth." It is full of pebbles, and has broad cracks here and there, on the borders of which a kind of whitish weed grows, called by the peasants "orphans' hair." Is the soil too old? Why, it cannot be older than any other soil, but its strength has been used up more rapidly. Down below in the plain they have been growing nothing but gra.s.s for about a thousand years, but up here enormous oak-trees used to grow; so it is no wonder that the soil has lost its strength. Poverty and misery are to be found here, and yet a certain feeling of romance takes possession of one at the sight of it. The ugly peasant huts seem only to heighten the beauty of the enormous rocks which rise above us.

It would be a sin to build castles there, which, with their ugly modern towers, would hide those wild-looking rocks.

The perfume of the elder and juniper fills the air, but there are no other flowers, except here and there in one of the tiny gardens, a mallow, which a barefooted, fair-haired Slovak girl tends, and waters from a broken jug. I see the little village before me, as it was in 1873, when I was there last; I see its small houses, the tiny gardens sown partly with clover, partly with maize, with here and there a plum-tree, its branches supported by props. For the fruit-trees at least did their duty, as though they had decided to make up to the poor Slovaks for the poverty of their harvest.

When I was there the priest had just died, and we had to take an inventory of his possessions. There was nothing worth speaking of, a few bits of furniture, old and well worn, and a few shabby ca.s.socks. But the villagers were sorry to lose the old priest.

"He was a good man," they said, "but he had no idea of economy, though, after all, he had not very much to economize with."

"Why don't you pay your priest better?" we asked. And a big burly peasant answered:

"The priest is not our servant, but the servant of G.o.d, and every master must pay his own servant."

After making the inventory, and while the coachman was harnessing the horses, we walked across the road to have a look at the school, for my companion was very fond of posing as a patron of learning.

The schoolhouse was small and low, with a simple, thatched roof. Only the church had a wooden roof, but even the House of G.o.d was very simply built, and there was no tower to it, only a small belfry at one side.

The schoolmaster was waiting for us. If I remember rightly his name was Gyorgy Majzik. He was a strong, robust-looking man, with an interesting, intelligent face, and a plain, straightforward way of speaking which immediately awoke a feeling of friendship in one. He took us in to see the children; the girls sat on one side, the boys on the other, all as tidy and clean as possible. They rose on our entrance, and in a singing voice said:

"Vitajtye panyi, vitajtye!" (Good-morning, honored sirs!)

My companion put a few questions to the rosy, round-faced children, who stared at us with their large brown eyes. They all had brown eyes. The questions were, of course, not difficult, but they caused the children an amount of serious thinking. However, my friend was indulgent, and he only patted the schoolmaster on the back and said:

"I am quite contented with their answers, my friend."

The schoolmaster bowed, then, with his head held high, he accompanied us out to the road.

CHAPTER III.

THE NEW PRIEST AT GLOGOVA.

The new priest had arrived in the only cart the villagers had at their disposal. Two cows were harnessed to it, and on the way the sacristan stopped to milk them, and then offered some of the milk to the young priest.

"It's very good milk," he said, "especially Bimbo's."