"Lazar Lagin. The Old Genie Hottabych (англ.)" - читать интересную книгу автора

Volka finally took the first slip his hand touched. Tempting his fate,
he turned it over very slowly, but was pleasantly surprised to see that he
was to speak on India. He knew quite a lot about India, since he had always
been interested in that country.
"Well, let's hear what you have to say," the principal said.
Volka even remembered the beginning of the chapter on India word for
word as it was in his book. He opened his mouth to say that the Hindustan
Peninsula resembled a triangle and that this triangle bordered on the Indian
Ocean and its various parts: the Arabian Sea in the West and the Bay of
Bengal in the East, that two large countries-India and Pakistan-were located
on the peninsula, that both were inhabited by kindly and peace-loving
peoples with rich and ancient cultures, etc., etc., etc., but just then
Hottabych, standing in the adjoining classroom, leaned against the wall and
began mumbling diligently, cupping his hand to his mouth like a horn:
"India, 0 my most respected teacher...!"
And suddenly Volka, contrary to his own desires, began to pour forth
the most atrocious nonsense:
"India, 0 my most respected teacher, is located close to the edge of
the Earth's disc and is separated from this edge by desolate and unexplored
deserts, as neither animals nor birds live to the east of it. India is a
very wealthy country, and its wealth lies in its gold. This is not dug from
the ground as in other countries, but is produced, day and night, by a
tireless species of gold-bearing ants, which are nearly the size of a dog.
They dig their tunnels in the ground and three times a day they bring up
gold sand and nuggets and pile them in huge heaps. But woe be to those
Indians who try to steal this gold without due skill! The ants pursue them
and, overtaking them, kill them on the spot. From the north and west, India
borders on a country of bald people. The men and women and even the children
are all bald in this country. And these strange people live on raw fish and
pine cones. Still closer to them is a country where you can neither see
anything nor pass, as it is filled to the top with feathers. The earth and
the air are filled with feathers, and that is why you can't see anything
there."
"Wait a minute, Kostylkov," the geography teacher said with a smile.
"No one has asked you to tell us of the ancients' views on Asia's geography.
We'd like you to tell us the modern, scientific facts about India."
Oh, how happy Volka would have been to display his knowledge of the
subject! But what could he do if he was no longer the master of his speech
and actions! In agreeing to have Hottabych prompt him, he became a toy in
the old man's well-meaning but ignorant hands. He wanted to tell his
teachers that what he had told them obviously had nothing to do with modern
science. But Hottabych on the other side of the wall shrugged in dismay and
shook his head, and Volka, standing in front of the class, was compelled to
do the same.
"That which I have had the honour of telling you, 0 greatly respected
Varvara Stepanovna, is based on the most reliable sources, and there exist
no other, more scientific facts on India than those I have just, with your
permission, revealed to you."
"Please keep to the subject. This is an examination, not a masquerade.
If you don't know the answers, it would be much more honourable to admit it