"R. A. MacAvoy - The Book of Kells" - читать интересную книгу автора (MacAvoy R A)

Roots of the red bog oak and sally will come up too. If set aside and slowly dried out, the dark wood
is good for any construction that requires great strength and resiliency. It can be made into a тАЬcreepyтАЭ
stool, or a flour cist, or even (in the old days) the belly of a harp.
But every so often something appears in a bog that makes people cross themselves and go for the
priest or policeman. Bodies appear occasionally. Generally, the corpse is found to be some poor fellow
who twenty or even two hundred years ago got lost and was drowned for his trouble. But these finds are
uncanny as well as disturbing; however old they are, the lost child of fifty years ago or the ancient
sacrifice to Crom Duv of twenty-five centuries ago, they are recognizableтАФas intact as if they had died
yesterday.
The National Museum has gained greatly from these finds. And since the Bog of Allen was first
exploited technologically, it has yielded hundreds of artifacts to enrich the collective memory of the Irish
people. Wooden things, vessels of all kinds, carvings, votive objects, jewelry. Ancient livestock and wild
creatures. Textiles, dresses, cloaks, shoes, belts, often left deliberately in the peat by their original owners
to get a fine, brown color from the chemistry of the bog, and then lost in the deep, slow currents.
Now and then things turn up which have clearly been тАЬkilledтАЭ there: objects thrown in to hide them
forever. Sacred things of the old church and of paganism hated by Protestant iconoclasts or the Catholic
Jansenist priesthood, these were often broken and drowned, to kill them doubly.
It had been an overcast, heavy day: warm and humid. But with the wind from the sea, the gray clouds
were lifted along the horizon like a blanket, and the westering sun streamed under it, turning earth and
cloud golden, deepest brown and rose.
Smasher Burke loved it like this. The changing mood of the place was one of the things that made this
an interesting job. Riding like a king in a machine that took him three minutes to climb on or off, he saw
everything.
The only disadvantage was the noise. The racket from the rows of blades that neatly cut the peat into
briquettes was deafening, as was that of the belts that carried them to the receiver.
He lit up a fag and stuffed the packet of Silk Cut into his pocket. And then he heard it. A subtle
change in the sound of the machine, followed by a grinding.
He instantly switched off the blades and brought her to a halt. As he climbed down from the cab,
McWilliams, his partner, was already at the blades, trying to free them with a crowbar.
тАЬYa fucking bastard, ya!
тАЬIt's no good! Smasher, it's jammed. No good at all.тАЭ
Burke's Wellies slowly squashed across the peat and around the cutter beams.
тАЬIt's a great fucking stone, Smasher.тАЭ McWilliams squinted, the golden light picking out his yellow
broken front teeth. тАЬYou'll have to back her up a bit.тАЭ
тАЬRight,тАЭ Burke answered him, and clambered back on. тАЬStand away, will you,тАЭ he shouted,
impersonally as a bus conductor. Then he kicked her in, lifting the blades and rolling her five feet to the
rear.
тАЬGood enough, man,тАЭ McWilliams bellowed. тАЬFucking great.тАЭ
Within five minutes it had spread all through the crew that the Smasher had turned up a carving. An
archaeologist from the museum had been called, but before he could get there it was fully dug out and
examined by the men.
 тАЬWhen I heard the crunch I knew it was no ordinary lump of rubbish,тАЭ McWilliams said proudly.
тАЬLook at her, will you? Look at that! It must be thousands of years old.тАЭ
тАЬIt's a cross, man,тАЭ Burke countered quietly. тАЬIt's not thousands. Couldn't be thousands.тАЭ
It was old, though. Anyone could see that. Spirals. Spirals all over.
тАЬLook there. Yer woman in the middle, with her little cunt stuck up, just as shameless!тАЭ McWilliams
laughed nervously.
Burke had bent down to examine it more closely. Following it with his finger, he had discovered that
the spiralsтАФhundreds of themтАФseemed to be made from a single line.
тАЬIt doesn't look Christian,тАЭ McWilliams stated.