"Dunsany, Lord - Idle Days On The Yann" - читать интересную книгу автора (Dunsany Lord)

gods; and the merchant also wept, for he said that he was
thinking of his aged father, and of how he soon would
starve, and he hid his weeping face with both his hands, and
eyed the tollub again between his fingers. And so the
bargain was concluded, and the merchant took the toomarund
and tollub, paying for them out of a great clinking purse.
And these were packed up into bales again, and three of the
merchant's slaves carried them upon their heads into the
city. And all the while the sailors had sat silent,
cross-legged in a crescent upon the deck, eagerly watching
the bargain, and now a murmur of satisfaction arose among
them, and they began to compare it among themselves with
other bargains that they had known. And I found out from
them that there are seven merchants in Perdondaris, and that
they had all come to the captain one by one before the
bargaining began, and each had warned him privately against
the others. And to all the merchants the captain had
offered the wine of his own country, that they make in fair
Belzoond, but could in no wise persuade them to it. But now
that the bargain was over, and the sailors were seated at
the first meal of the day, the captain appeared among them
with a cask of that wine, and we broached it with care and
all made merry together. And the captain was glad in his
heart because he knew that he had much honour in the eyes of
his men because of the bargain that he had made. So the
sailors drank the wine of their native land, and soon their
thoughts were back in fair Belzoond and the little
neighbouring cities of Durl and Duz.
But for me the captain poured into a little jar some
heavy yellow wine from a small jar which he kept apart among
his sacred things. Thick and sweet it was, even like honey,
yet there was in its heart a mighty, ardent fire which had
authority over souls of men. It was made, the captain told
me, with great subtlety by the secret craft of a family of
six who lived in a hut on the mountains of Hian Min. Once
in these mountains, he said, he followed the spoor of a
bear, and he came suddenly on a man of that family who had
hunted the same bear, and he was at the end of a narrow way
with precipice all about him, and his spear was sticking in
the bear, and the wound was not fatal, and he had no other
weapon. And the bear was walking towards the man, very
slowly because his wound irked him -- yet he was now very
close. And what he captain did he would not say, but every
year as soon as the snows are hard, and travelling is easy
on the Hian Min, that man comes down to the market in the
plains, and always leaves for the captain in the gate of
fair Belzoond a vessel of that priceless secret wine.
And as I sipped the wine and the captain talked, I
remembered me of stalwart noble things that I had long since
resolutely planned, and my soul seemed to grow mightier