The hand

Mytheyma of Tova

ENON I

That’s what I’ve heard from the gray-haired Vlay. Once there lived unhappy people. They would live happily if not an evil misfortune. A dragon came to that country. It came and took out the hearts of people, and put stones instead. It came at night, and no one saw him. A person will fall asleep with the heart and wake up with a stone. And as soon as there is a stone in a man’s chest, he becomes cold like a stone and greedy, and evil, as if he is no longer a man at all, nor a beast, but an unknown creature. And there were those from whom the dragon could not take the heart. It burned himself with these hearts as they were burning hot. Such a person will wake up in the morning – and his entire chest is scratched around the left nipple, it hurts and bleeds, but his heart is where it should be. Others did not like such people, envied them, saying: “Why have their hearts been left to them? They are not better than us: their arms and legs are the same. Why do they have hearts, but we do not?”. They did not love them, abused them in every possible way, did not let them into their houses. If it happened, they beat them, sometimes to death. Among these was a young man named Maliam, which meant “the tongue of fire” in their language. He saw this misfortune, and his living heart ached and cried, and the wounds on his chest did not heal, they always bled. Once he decided to find the dragon and slay it. He got ready and came to his father and mother before leaning waiting for parting words. His father told him: “Don’t go anywhere. You are young and weak – why should you go to the dragon?”. Maliam replied: “No, father: I should go!”. Then the father said angrily: “It is our custom not to oppose the dragon. My son should not dishonor his family by going against the custom!”. Maliam insisted: “No, father: I should go!”. Then the father shouted furiously: “How dare you! Why do you care about other people? Why do you want them to keep their hearts when your father and mother have stones in their chests! We gave birth to you, and you want to give others something we do not have! It is disrespect to put others above us!”. Maliam repeated: “No, father: I should go!”. And the father told him: “Then I curse you. You are no longer my son. If the dragon does not kill you, then do not return home”. And his mother also cursed him, and did not give him any food for the journey. Maliam went and thought: “Where to look for the dragon?”. He felt as if his heart was calling him somewhere. It nearly jumped out of his chest and his ribs cracked and blood ran from the wound. Maliam went where the heart drew and the blood ran. He walked for many days and nights, and he did not want to eat, drink, or sleep, and his legs did not ask for rest. He walked for a long time, and came to a high mountain, and climbed it. He tore himself to the bone against stones but climbed a mountain. And from that mountain, he saw a hole leading straight into the sky. He walked into that hole as his heart drew him there. He entered, and there was an endless cave. There was a huge mountain of hearts. It was bigger than the one he climbed. The dragon was lying in front of it. The dragon was so large that the end of his right and left wing could not be seen. Maliam took his ax and started hitting the dragon. The dragon did not defend itself and did not die. Maliam was hitting the dragon for a long time. Then the dragon started crying and said, – “It doesn’t hurt me when you hit me but it hurts because I am a prisoner here. I dwell here from the very beginning of time and I collect hearts. I can’t see the sun, I can’t drink clean water: this is how I should live. And every night I should go after my prey, and I cannot help but go. I live like this for a long time: as long as there is earth and sky. I am worn out, and my bondage is worse for me than death. And I live this way because people keep me in captivity. Whoever wants evil, he, without knowing it, calls me. I come at night and give him a stone instead of the heart so that he would not be ashamed of himself, and he would not feel sorry for others. As long as there are such people, I am not free. I must bring stones to them, and cannot see the sun and drink clean water. Ask them to set me free, ask them to stop torturing me. They should feel sorry for themselves and their children. Tell them to have mercy on me for a man can die and I can’t die”. Maliam hung the ax on his belt and went back where he had come from. And while he was walking back, he felt no thirst nor hunger, nor he was sleepy nor tired. When he returned, he started telling people the truth, the dragon had told him. People did not believe him and did not want to know him, and they laughed at him and spat on him. They said: “What a proud man. He put himself above everyone decided to teach us! He wants to be the first, the smartest, and the kindest of all, and so that others would honor him as if he had saved everyone from misery. He made up a lie to look better than others, but this will never happen!”. They drove him from everywhere, while others beat him, saying: “Here is your honor; go get more!”. He walked among people for a long time, and they hated him so much that they even disdained to kill him. He walked like that for three years, and then he felt exhausted. He came to his house and knocked at the door. And the father and mother answered without opening the door: “We do not need the damned!”. He knocked and said: “Let me in, father, mother: I have not eaten, drank, and slept since I left the house”. They answered: “We do not need the damned!”. He knocked day and night, and in the morning, he turned into a tongue of flame and went into the sky. I’ve heard this myself from the gray-haired Vlay.

ENON II

That’s what I’ve heard from the gray-haired Vlay. There were two great friends; they were inseparable. And they fell in love with one girl. She chose one of them and stayed with him. The other felt jealous and started hating both, and drove them away from him. In sorrow, they left that land altogether. But he stayed and was immensely angry with his former friend. The whole year passed, but his anger did not subside. And it became so great that he took an ax and went to look for his former friend to kill him. A day passed, and another, and his anger grew more and more. It grew so big that he could no longer carry it. It bent him to the ground, and he fell, growling and howling like an animal. Then a man of unprecedented height and strength suddenly appeared and told him: “Let me carry you”. He answered in surprise: “Who are you?”. And the man replied: “Call me Revenge. If you want, I will carry you – and in five days we will overtake your enemy. But you must feed me as much as I want”. He agreed and gave Revenge all the supplies he had with him. Revenge ate everything, then took him in his arms and carried him, walking through trees, hills, rivers, and rocks. Revenge carried him day and night and then began to beg for food. He said: “There is nothing more”. Revenge said: “Let me rip off one of your legs and eat”. He said: “Let it be so”. Then Revenge ate his leg and carried him on. On the third morning, Revenge ate his other leg by agreement, on the fourth – his hand, on the fifth – the other hand. On the sixth morning, Revenge brought him to the place where his former friend lived. He no longer had legs or arms, and he had nothing to even take his ax with. Then Revenge took the ax and killed his former friend. From the one he was carrying, he tore out the heart and ate it, and threw the body to the wild animals, and disappeared. I’ve heard this myself from the gray-haired Vlay.

ENON III

That’s what I’ve heard from the gray-haired Vlay. Once there lived a king who had a son. His son was very arrogant. And when the king died, his son became the king. He ordered his people to rejoice and to bring him everything they had as a gift. And people gave everything they had, and whoever did not was executed. People had nothing left but empty dwellings, not even food was left for them. The king feasted in his palace, and his close friends feasted with him. They feasted for forty days and forty nights. When they left the palace, they saw that there was no one alive anywhere – only dead bodies. All the people died of hunger, and the army ran away. Fear filled the hearts of those close to the king, and they ran away too, and he was left alone. He walked among the dead bodies and breathed in the stench of putrefaction, and wondered who he was: a king or not a king. And he saw a naked old man walking between the corpses. He followed him to find out who he was. But as far as he got closer, as far as the old man moved away. Even if he ran, and the old man did not run, still he could not catch up with him. Only once did the old man turn around without stopping. Then he took his best buffalo, sat on it, and went after the old man, but he could not catch up with him anyway. And he chased after him, speeding the buffalo – but he could not catch up. He followed the old man day and night, and when the buffalo fell, he went on foot. The old man did not stop and kept going forward, and he also did not stop and did not want to sleep or eat. The king followed the old man and walked for many days. They walked through forests, prairies, sands, and across the mountains. They walked on great waters and rivers without getting their feet wet. They went into heat and cold and storm, walked through many lands. They went through many villages and among different people, but these people did not see them, even in the daylight. The king followed the old man and still could not catch up with him. And he lost track of the days and did not know when it was spring and when it was autumn. They walked for a long time – so long that the king became old and gray and bent over and naked. And one day they entered a city where there were no people, and only dead bodies lay on the streets. And then the old man disappeared. The king kept going forward because he could not stop. And he heard that someone was following him; when he turned around, he saw himself – young and in the royal attire. Then he went on, and no longer turned around, for he was very frightened. And so they went… I’ve heard this myself from the gray-haired Vlay.

ENON IV

That’s what I’ve heard from the gray-haired Vlay. Once there lived a noble young man lived. He was so strong that he could kill any animal with his bare hands. There was no one in that country stronger than him. Once, while hunting, he saw a beautiful girl. He was overwhelmed with lust. He grabbed her and abused her. When the girl’s mother found out about it, she cursed him, saying: “He will die if he ever sees my daughter again”. Once he was at the lake fishing in a boat. That girl came to the lake for water, and he saw her. At that moment his boat turned over. He could not swim because something was dragging him to the bottom of the lake. He started to drown. Then he began begging the girl, shouting: “Forgive me and save me!”. She took pity on him and said: “May the curse disappear!”. She lowered her jug into the lake, and the waters began to gather into it, and so the whole lake got into it. The place where the lake was, became dry as if the waters had never been there. The young man went out on dry land, where the girl was. And when he approached her, he was again overwhelmed with lust. Then he grabbed her again and abused her. Having done this, he felt thirsty and started looking for water. Then he saw her jug, took it, and began to drink from it. And then everything that was in the jug got into him – the whole lake. Suddenly, he exploded like a rotten wineskin, and the lake returned to its shores. I’ve heard this myself from the gray-haired Vlay.

ENON V

That’s what I’ve heard from the gray-haired Vlay. There was once a great kingdom ruled by a brother and sister. They had an adviser – an old and very wise man. He was also a soothsayer. Once the queen decided to poison her brother to rule alone. The wise man foresaw it and revealed it to the king. The king caught her and threw her into prison. After that, the king decided to kill her, so that she would never return to rule. To do this, he freed her from the prison. In three days, he ordered to seize her. He announced that she was trying to kill him again. He commanded to brick her up alive in stone. The wise man saw that she was innocent, and told the king about it. He told him about his lies too. The king told him to be silent, but he went out to people and said the same to them. Then the king threw him into prison and held him there for three years. When the king released him, the wise man repeated the same. The king asked him: “Why do you stand up for the one whom I executed? After all, she is already dead, and you will not save her. Don’t you know that she damned you for what you had done. If I had not executed her, she would have killed you”. The wise man replied: “I know everything you say, the king: but I care about the truth”. Then the king told him: “If you don’t change your mind, you will have a painful death”. The wise man repeated what he had said before. And they seized him and threw him into a pit, and starved him for many days. When he was taken out of the pit, he repeated the same. Then they hanged him by the legs, and when they took him off, he repeated the same. Then they threw him into a pit of filth. He sat there and was covered with ulcers. And when they took him out, he repeated the same. Then he burned ulcers with fire, on a living body, and he repeated the same. Then they threw him at the feet of the bulls, and they trampled him down and broke his bones. And then the king ordered to bring him, dying, at his feet and spoke to him. He said: “You were honored, you were rich and powerful – and now you are dying in pain. Now you see that the truth brings death. What will you say now?”. And the wise man replied: “I am still honored, for I can respect myself for not giving up. This is dearer to me than your respect and any other. I am still rich, because my wisdom has remained with me, and there is nothing more precious than that. I am still powerful because even you could not break my will. I am infinitely more powerful than you, although you are a great king. And there is more life in me now than there was before. You do not see it because you can only see death. And now you, the king, are languishing with immeasurable humiliation, for you know that you could not bear what I had endured. Now you think that you are dung compared to me. Oh, how unhappy you are, the king! You tried your best for three years, and you turned yourself into dung, for you will remain like that forever. You killed yourself – and now you are horrified by this”. Having said this, the wise man repeated what he had said before. And the king angrily ordered to brick him up alive under the place where the royal seat stood. And they put the wise man under the stone, and the king, reigning, sat over him. Many years passed and the king died. And at the moment, the stone split, and from under it came the wise man, alive and well, with a gaze shining like the sun. And he began to reign in that country, and justly ruled for two hundred years, and died naturally. And his descendants all had golden eyes shining like the sun. I’ve heard this myself from the gray-haired Vlay.

Translated by Amradkhari