The Circle

Mitevma of Tomeinona Tere Minkezo

ENON I

Here is the story which is like the waves of the ocean. They come unceasingly, – always the same and always different; they break the boats and collapse themselves; they are dark, but they bear the face of the sun; they take everything into themselves, rejecting nothing. Such is life, and such are people, and such are their deeds. This story is true. It was in reality. Word for word, truth for truth, memory for memory. Allow the past to be the past; and allow the future to be the future. Without the past, there is no future, just as without memory there is no mind. I was told about the past and I pass on these words to you. Those were real events of the past, that happened to people and the Circle. I see that this must be written down so that it will not be forgotten, and so I am writing it down. Now let it be for eight of us, and then we will see. What I know, I write down; what I do not know, happened anyway.

 ENON II

And there was one who heard the voice: his name was Tukar. And he was an architect and he worked for the governor in Hemeder; and he heard the voice. For four days he neither ate nor spoke to anyone, and it was as if his eyes were blind. People said, “Tukar has gone mad”; but on the fifth day, he went away into the mountains. His two sons went after him and found him and begged him to return; he said to them, “I will not return today, but maybe later”. The younger son left him and went back; but the older son would not leave his father. For five years they lived in the mountains, and people saw them and were afraid to approach them. Tukar taught his son what he knew from the voice, which was the voice of the wisest of the gods. And then they returned to Hemeder; and the people, seeing them, went out of their way, for they were afraid of the madmen. They came to their house – but the youngest son would not let them in, saying, “For the sake of my children I will not let the madmen in”. Then they left and began to live by building people’s dwellings for food and doing whatever work they could find. And people saw that they were not insane, and began to talk about it among themselves. One day they came to their house again, and again the youngest son would not let them in. Then they built themselves a poor dwelling; and there were some among the people who helped them. There they dwelt, and also sheltered a beggar covered with sores. They began to teach him, and he was devoted to them. Two years later, the governor intended to build a temple for the god of Hemeder; he had no architect. Then he sent a man to Tukar with a command to appear, saying, “If he is not insane, let us call him.” Tukar listened to the messenger and sent him back; then he ordered his son and the other to go into the mountains and not to return. He went to the governor and told him that he would not build the temple. The latter became angry and ordered him to be put to death. Tukar was taken to the square and eight flexible and sturdy rods pierced his arms, legs, ribs, and sides. The rods were bent into rings and suspended from eight pillars and a stone was tied around his back. He hung there for a day and a night and another day and another night, and then by midday he was dead. People saw it and were horrified; and when he died, a poor man, who had no left hand, went into the mountains and found those who had gone, and informed them of his death. And then Tukar’s son went away through the mountains to the east, and took the other with him; and the one-armed man went away with them. There they settled, and there the son of Tukar founded the Circle. When he died, leaving a successor, there were eleven men in the circle, not counting him, who had died. Tukar’s son was called the First Master; his successor was the Second Master, and after his death, he became the second First Master. When he died, there were sixteen people in the Circle, not counting him, who had died. Under the third First Master, there were thirty people in the Circle, under the fourth – thirty-seven, under the fifth – forty-nine, under the eighth – ninety, under the ninth – one hundred and fifteen, of whom over twenty were women. In those years there was a good ruler in the country where they lived. When he heard of people who regarded themselves as a special tribe, he commanded to know who they were; and a priest with a small guard came to them. The First Master greeted the priest in the best way and showed him his wisdom. The priest returned to the governor and told him that no harm could be expected from these people. He ordered them not to be harassed in any way, as long as they did not cause any harm or disturbance. The word of their wisdom spread, and people began to come to them for advice and no one was hurt. As time went on, noble people also began to come; and of these, a few joined the Circle. They revered the First Master, though they lived where they had lived before. And four women from the Circle became wives of the noble men – but not by custom, but by mere agreement. The time came when the ruler died and another succeeded him. Two years later he had heard about the cleverness of the people from the circle and imagined that he could gain unprecedented power through them. He sent out men to summon the First Master. But he was old and infirm, and the Second Master came to the ruler instead. The ruler demanded from him what he wished; but the Second Master told him that they had no power except that of the spirit. Then the ruler commanded that those women of the circle who were the wives of the noble men, with their husbands and children, should be taken and killed before the eyes of the Second Master; and so it was done. Afterward, he again demanded the same from the Second Master; and the latter was silent. Then he sent an army, and it crushed the village of the Circle and drove the people to the city. And the ruler commanded the men of the Circle to give him power; but they did not have the power that he wanted. And the executioners killed the First Master, in full view of the others they stripped his face and the whole head of skin and flesh and muscle to bare bones. Then they selected the ten who they thought were the most learned and killed the rest, not sparing even the children. The men were thrown into the pits for questioning; among them, there were the Second Master, the Fourth Master, and two regular masters. For more than a year they were tortured and tormented in every way; six of the ten died from that. There remained one of the non-masters, both regular masters and the Second Master, who for the sake of his knowledge was particularly feared to be killed; but his eyes were burnt out. But at that moment there came a countless army from the north-east of a state, trampling the horizon; and that country did not stand, and the ruler killed himself. And the people took the four out of the pits, and on white cloths, they carried them through the city with weeping. And while they were being carried, one of the two Masters died because all his ribs had been broken, so that the ends were sticking out. Seeing all that, the conqueror’s son, who led the army, was amazed and ordered a special official to find out who these people were and why they were being honored. And each of the inhabitants wanted to tell, and they rushed to the said official so that the soldiers drove them away with whips. The conqueror’s son, on learning what had been done to the Circle, sent the three who remained to their father, to his capital, for he did not know what to do with them. They did not arrive soon, for the state was vast, but they were delivered nevertheless. Their father marveled at their fate but did not wish to see them. He commanded that they be provided with everything they needed, and gave them a place to settle three days’ journey from his capital. And the Second Master became the tenth First Master; when he died, five people remained in the circle, and one of them was a woman.

ENON III

Under the twelfth First Master, they enclosed the settlement with a wooden wall, leaving the crops and fiends outside; there were then over twenty men in the Circle. That First Master made it a custom for the Masters to go outside the walls and speak to the people. But there were two Masters; and they went out in turn, gathered the people around them, and spoke to them. So it went; and at the fourteenth First Master, there were over two hundred people in the Circle, a third of them were women. There were six Masters, and eight regular Masters and the ninth was a woman. The old wall was torn down and a new one was built; and they built it so that a fortress came out, and there was still room for buildings. They lived and did not trouble the ruler of the state. The ruler’s name was Segeste Kshiok Ko Avardazo, and his state was called the Great Land. And it was great: many thousands of oneys from the east to the west and from the south to the north; there was no state like that around. Its rulers were of the same family, and Avardazo was from the forty-second generation; by the title he was domdoude, “he who stretched out his arms”. The former domdoude had gathered many lands and powers under his command, and the army of the Great Land was innumerable. There were no priests in the Great Land, but there were wise men who offered sacrifices to the spirits. In every village was a wise man, in every town and every domdoude had a wise man; and when that wise man died, the domdoude called for one of the others, who was known as the most worthy. The wise men lived in deep dugouts, they offered grain as an offering to the spirits and burnt it on stone altars in the plains or mountains. The law was such that the inhabitants of the various lands of the Great Land were not forbidden to believe in any gods they wanted to believe in, and were allowed to have their priests, but were forbidden to expel the wise men from their towns and villages. If a town or a village expelled a wise man or was disrespectful to him, all inhabitants of such town or village, except for children, were exterminated. And if in any place a quarrel began with a fight between the worshippers of different gods, the same happened there. Therefore, although there were many faiths in different gods in the Great Land, there was no enmity between them, and there were no troubles for domdoude from them. Moreover, the Circle was not trouble either, and therefore no one was oppressing it. When a new wall was built, a wise man came and dug a dugout behind the wall, lived there, built an altar, and started to sacrifice. No one from the circle persecuted him, everyone was respectful to him, even if they did not kneel before him. He did not demand bowing down, but only food and clothes for his vestments; in addition, he demanded grain every sixty days for his sacrifices. Everything that he demanded was given to him – and he did not interfere in the affairs of the circle. Thus, everyone lived peacefully and quietly. However, at the time of the fifteenth First Master people came to take six men from the Circle into the army. The men of the circle shut themselves up in their town and did not let them in. But on the next day, the First Master came out, and he and his messengers went to the capital, to the domdoude. He was allowed to see him and offered him ten men from the circle to be the closest guard. And there were the sons of the noblest families of the Great Land in it, and therefore the domdoude was angry. He said to the First Master: “Give me ten of your men, and they should fight with one of the best guards. If five or more of yours fall, then the rest will be killed, and ten of yours will be taken into the army; but if less than five, then ten of yours will be taken into the closest guard.” The First Master returned to the village of the Circle and summoned ten of those who knew the art of combat and brought them to the capital. A duel was fought in a secret hall; and from the Circle three fell. Ten were taken to the nearest guard; and of the others, no one else was taken into the army. The seventeenth First Master had more than five hundred men in the circle, of whom fourteen were regular Masters. Of the Masters, five were in the closest guard, and there were twenty-seven more from the Circle. There were none more reliable and skilled in battle than them; and the noblest families resented them. The domdoude then wished to declare the First Master noble; the latter, however, refused. The domdoude became enraged, and expelled the men of the Circle from the closest guard; then all the men of the Circle were driven into their village, outside the walls; the village was surrounded by an army of four thousand men, and did not let anyone out. It went on for six days; and no one knew what the domdoude wanted. On the seventh day, the domdoude died, and the army withdrew from the walls. And a new domdoude ruled. That one was still a lad; he returned the men of the circle to the closest guard and called the First Master to him, wishing to speak to him. He spoke to him about the Circle and more, and then let him go. The First Master sent the Second Master to him and he became one of his advisers. And some other people from the Circle were allowed to hold various positions close to domdoude. The noblest families of the Great Land were outraged but could not do anything about it. It so happened that the head of one of these families joined the circle; and then the indignation calmed down. So it was; and soon the Circle became rich and powerful. There were skilled warriors in it who were not forced to go to the army. Some tradesmen had been all over the Great Land and beyond. There were skillful architects and scribes, and such who skilfully composed esyrds, and other craftsmen. And some Masters knew the world and people, as well as the unseen parts of the world. And the First Masters were close to the domdoude, and did many good things.

ENON IV

Under the twenty-second First Master, there were more than three thousand people in the Circle, of whom there were ten Masters and thirty Masters without rank. Once the First Master, called Voido Enem Wamada, divided one thousand men into four groups, and at the head of each quarter he put Masters, the Third, the Fourth, the Fifth, and the Seventh, and gave to each of them two regular Masters under their charge. He called the quarters the Branches and sent them out to settle in the north, south, west, and east, to the frontiers. The domdoude ordered that there should be no hindrance to their settlement. They went and settled there. Every two years the First Masters of the Branches came to the First Master of the Circle for consultation and he instructed them. At that time there were already many people from the noblest families in the Circle, and people from the Circle were respected; there were, however, also enemies. The twenty-fourth First Master of the Circle built a palace similar to the palace of the domdoude for himself; and the domdoude did not forbid it. And there was already a large city around the palace; and from that city, they built roads to the villages of all the four Branches, and these roads were partly paved with stone. Under the twenty-fifth First Master of the Circle, the domdoude died, and his two brothers were struggling for power with each another. One, called Segeste Umanek Ko Irdazo, was in the capital and declared himself domdoude; the other, called Segeste Kem Ko Damardazo, was in the east of the state, and there he raised an army. And he had also wise men with him, through whom he sought to kill his brother; and they wrought their sorceries. But the Masters of the Circle shielded domdoude with their power, and he did not die. The wise man who was with the domdoude fell into a rage. He said: “The spirits have always been a protection for the great domdoude; but now the domdoude have neglected them. And now in one of the provinces of the Great Land three villages died out from a certain pestilence. Then the domdoude called upon his wise man and the First Master of the Circle. And the wise man said: “The spirits show their wrath, for the domdoude have neglected them. Let the protection of the great domdoude be from the spirits and not from the Circle.” The First Master of the Circle said: “One thing I know is that there are no charms stronger than the Circle’s invisible armor. There has been pestilence and there will be more.” domdoude said: “Let the spirits be our protection, as they were before the circle.” Having said that, he forbade the Circle to protect him. And they sent messengers to all but the eastern provinces of the Great Land to command the wise men to offer a sacrifice six times larger than usual. It was done; and the wise man, who was under the domdoude, brought a sacrifice not six times, but sixty times as great. But the spirits did not protect domdoude, and he died of witchcraft. And the highest Masters of the Circle saw with the second sight how omdoude Irdazo perished: they saw him being tormented by unseen yellow eyeless serpents. The First Master of the Circle came to him and said: “We can still shield you.” He replied, “The spirits know best.” And soon he died. Then there was great confusion in the land, for Irdazo had no children. But he had a sister; and she fell into despair. The first Master of the Circle came to her and asked her to be domdoude. She replied: “There were no women yet among the domdoude, and there will not be.” He asked her, but she did not agree, saying, “I will not be the domdoude; I will not live: my brother will come and kill me.” Then the First Master of the Circle turned to the people, saying, “In Dari-dazo is salvation.” And he went again to ask her, and with him went the wise man, and people from the noblest families, and others from revered people. She listened and went to her chambers and ordered all but the nearest guards to leave the palace. Then the guards from the Circle stood outside her chambers, and the others surrounded the palace. People came from everywhere, and the palace was like a boat in the sea. And soon the First Master of the Circle said: “I now know what has happened; let us go in.” The others were afraid; he said: “Don’t be afraid; let’s go in.” He and the others went in and saw that she had strangled herself in her chambers. Then there was a great confusion like which had never been seen before. They said, “Damardazo will come and slay them all.” The noblest families expected no mercy, for they had not followed him before. The wise men said: “Now Damardazo is domdoude, and there will be no other”; saying that, they offered sacrifices to the spirits to glorify him. Seeing that, the nobles started to kill the wise men and those who believed in their gods started to kill them as well. The wise men could not defend themselves and were exterminated; only the one who lived by the city of the Circle remained, for he had sought refuge in the city of the Circle and found it. Many still began to fight among themselves, some from the worshippers of the various gods, and some from the noblest families; and those who did not want Damardazo, exterminated those who did. The First Master of the Circle sent men to call the Branches back. He did not send only to the East, for it was already known in the Circle that at Damardazo’s command, his warriors had exterminated the Eastern Branch. One man only was sent to frighten them; he came to the city of the Circle and told them what was already known. All that was already in my presence; all that I saw for myself.

ENON V

It was not known who had the power in the Great Land; some of the noblest families would put themselves forward to rule, while others opposed this. There was enmity and in some places massacre. After some time, all the Branches, down to the last man, assembled at the city of the Circle. Then the First Master of the Circle raised his army. There were over seven hundred men in this army, of whom there were about fifty Masters. The First Master of the Circle was selected from among the noblest families one whose head was clever and resolute and led his army to his side. Then some of the noble families did so willingly and some others saw no alternative. But some resisted and united against the said man, whose name was Dawadar Irem Imodata. And he put his army against them; but the army of the Circle did not go. The First Master of the circle said: “Our weapons will turn on no one but Damardazo.” Imodata defeated his enemies and thereafter sent out across the Great Land to gather an army. Some lands have fallen away; there was no time to subdue them again, because Damardazo moved from the east, leading a huge army. Imodata came to meet him and led an even larger army, including the army of the Circle. And the two armies met and stood against each other. In the army of Damardazo were those who had only skins of clothing and weapons of wood and stone; and there were bears of terrifying size and a great herd of buffalo. And Damardazo attacked; but Imodata’s army stood still and defended. Imodata was where the forehead of the army was, and the men of the circle were on the south wing. Then there was a battle on the hills, a great battle. The land became like a stormy ocean, where instead of waves there were piles of corpses; the smell of blood went with the wind beyond the distant mountains. I was there; I saw for myself. There was fear and sorrow. They fought fiercely; Damardazo sent his greatest forces against our northern wing. And those of his warriors that pressed on the forehead, at the sound of the trumpets, they broke off and drew back; and through that aisle, they drove the buffaloes. And they crushed and scattered our foreheads, and passed through it, and then dispersed. Imodata’s warriors fled, and Damardazo’s warriors struck at them, going after the buffaloes. Then our northern wing also became confused, and then trembled and fled. And Imodata himself could not have stopped his warriors, even if he had not fallen. The South Wing commander, on the other hand, ordered half of his warriors to hold back the enemy and the other half to retreat. And the First Master of the Circle commanded his men to retreat south. And we marched south even without losing fifty men. And those who had been advancing westward at the warlord’s command were overtaken and defeated. We, on the other hand, marched downwards to the south and afterward to the west, and outstripped the enemy. After many days we reached the town of the Circle and shut ourselves in.

ENON VI

The time had come, and the army of Damardazo approached. It unleashed atrocities; and the greater part of it marched toward the capital, while a smaller part encircled the city of the Circle. And the soldiers approached to take over the city; but the Masters produced a thunderbolt and a glow over the city, and the soldiers retreated in fear. On the next day, the First Master of the Circle assembled the Masters and told them: “Our walls are fragile and Damardazo’s forces are great. You must be ready to fall, and others must be prepared for the same. One of the Masters said: “But our invisible power is great; how can we not defend ourselves?” The First Master of the Circle said: “Great power is a great burden. In it good is on the verge of evil. We do not live to fear death. And how can we defend ourselves without sowing terror and death? Who among you wants people to shudder in fear at the mere name of the Circle?” Then the First Master of the Northern Branch said: “Let us fall gloriously, with weapons in hand.” The First Master of the Circle said: “We will fall – and the rest will fall: Damardazo will exterminate the Circle to the last baby.” No one responded to these words; then he said: “Obey me.” They replied, “We obey.” He said: “It is not proper for us to kill through sorcery; nor can we fight with weapons. Neither may we surrender, for there will be no mercy for anyone. We shall buy the lives of the Circle at the cost of our own lives. Obey me. And they answered, “We obey.” Then he went out of the city and appeared before the commander, who was besieging it; and out of fear, no one dared to hinder him. The commander gave him an escort, and he went to the capital, where he saw terrible things. He was admitted to Damardazo, and the latter said to him, “What is your hope?” The First Master of the Circle replied, “We are strong: see, I have come to you without fear. There will be great blood, great death; much more of your people will fall than ours – for it is possible to kill without weapons; and you will fall. But there is a way to enjoy vengeance without great blood.” Damardazo asked: “Now say what you want to say.” And the First Master of the Circle said: “We Masters will leave the city and you will kill us as you wish. In return, you will keep all the others of the circle alive; and you will not cheat – or else we will punish you even after we die.” Damardazo thought a moment and said: “Let it be. I want a stone crypt built near your city; and you, Masters, will enter it voluntarily, and be walled up alive. Let the men of the circle build the crypt, and let them wall you up alive. If it is done like that, and not otherwise, then it will be as you wish. With that, the First Master of the Circle returned to his city; and the army departed from the city. And he gathered everyone together and announced to them what was to come. And the people shouted and cried, and tore their clothes and tore their flesh. The First Master of the Circle asked the people to build the crypt; he said to them, “Believe me; build for the lives of your children, the lives of their children, and their children’s children.” He also said, “If you do not build it, the Circle will perish; but if you build it, it will live in you.” And the men of the circle began to build the crypt. The Masters gave away everything they had; they left only the clothes they were wearing. I and one other man were to become Masters: but the war interfered. He died there, and I returned. And when they began to build the crypt, I came to the First Master of the Circle and said to him, “I wish to become a Master, as I should.” And he said: “You will not be a Master, – but you will be the first after us: you are worthy of it. Live and keep the Circle as well as you can; now go and build the crypt.” And I obeyed him, crying my heart out. When the crypt was erected, then the First Master of the Circle gathered everyone in front of it and asked the hunters to come forward to wall it up. None came out; then he asked again. And then some decrepit elders came out, saying, “Death is already sitting on our shoulders; who else but us to do the sorrowful thing?” And then the Masters said goodbye to the people; and the people wept and wailed and cried, and some of the women fell unconscious; and one of them died. When the Masters had said goodbye, they took off their last clothes and spread them out, and went naked into the crypt. There were more than forty of them who had survived the battle. They went into the crypt and the elders walled them up; the people, seeing this, shouted and some howled like beasts. And the men sent by Damardazo watched it. Fourteen days later the soldiers came and destroyed the walls and the city. And the people were scattered all over the kingdom; and they were forbidden on pain of death to come together; and those who were disobedient were killed. I went to the southeast; and on the way, I gathered together nine more of those who had been in the Circle before. We, in hiding, reached the frontier, and went into foreign lands; only one dared not go. There we settled in a valley, near the mountains, without encountering hostility. And there I wrote down for memory all that I knew of the circle.

ENON VII

All that I have said about what happened in reality; it is all true. The past is an admonition to the hereafter. Everything changes and dies, – and only Life is eternal. Let no one seek support in the transitory, – but only in Life and in its work. Everything exists for the sake of Life, and Life exists for the sake of everything. Written by Tomainon Tere Minkezo.

Translated by Amradkhari