"Books - David Eddings - Belgarath the Sorcerer" - читать интересную книгу автора (Eddings David)

Tolnedrans were farmers. There were very few isolated farmsteads out
in the countryside, because for the most part the people lived in
villages, went out to work their fields each morning, and returned to
the villages each night.

We passed one of those villages one morning about the middle of summer,
and I saw those farmers trudging out to work.

"Wouldn't it be easier if they'd just build their houses out where
their fields are?" I asked the old man.

"Probably so," he agreed, "but then they'd be peasants instead of
townsmen. A Tolnedran would sooner die than have others think of him
as a peasant."

"That's ridiculous," I objected.

"They spend all day every day grubbing in the dirt, and that means that
they are peasants, doesn't it?"

"Yes," he replied calmly, "but they seem to think that if they live in
a village, that makes them townsmen."

"Is that so important to them?"

"Very important, boy. A Tolnedran always wants to keep a good opinion
of himself."

"I think it's stupid, myself."

"Many of the things people do are stupid. Keep your eyes and ears open
the next time we go through one of these villages. If you pay
attention, you'll see what I'm talking about."

I probably wouldn't even have noticed if he hadn't pointed it out. We
passed through several of these villages during the next couple of
weeks, and I got to know the Tolnedrans. I didn't care too much for
them, but I got to know them. A Tolnedran spends just about every
waking minute trying to determine his exact rank in his community, and
the higher he perceives his rank to be, the more offensive he becomes.
He treats his servants badly--not out of cruelty, but out of a
deep-seated need to establish his superiority. He'll spend hours in
front of a mirror practicing a haughty, superior expression. Maybe
that's what set my teeth on edge. I don't like having people look down
their noses at me, and my status as a vagabond put me at the very
bottom of the social ladder, so everybody looked down his nose at me.

"The next pompous ass who sneers at me is going to get a punch in the
mouth," I muttered darkly as we left yet another village as summer was
winding down.