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Updated: June 13, 2025
I beseech you, for God's sake, let me go!" But it was no part of Mekipiros' plan to plunge down to the ground all by himself. For the last hour or so he had been joyfully awaiting this sweet moment, for this he had laughed, for this he had frisked about so uproariously. He was unable to conceal his delight.
And yet this is the dwelling of the headsman. "You can come in!" cried a strong, penetrating, sonorous woman's voice from within, and the same instant Mekipiros bounded through the door with his huge shaggy head projecting far in front of him. It was plain that he had not quitted the room voluntarily, but in consequence of a vigorous impulsion from behind.
"You only want to find out whether there is poison in the castle or not, don't you?" "Yes, yes. Devil take the fellow! Be off, or I'll knock some of your teeth down your throat." And the poor Leather-bell scuttled off. "And now bring Mekipiros hither!" They dragged the poor half-idiotic creature into the room. His thick, bristly hair hung right over his eyes.
"I'll be bound to say he has even taught Mekipiros to go down on his hams." "Ho, ho, ho! Call him in! Come hither, Mekipiros, you bear's cub, you!" Mekipiros came in. "Come hither, I would box your chaps. There, take that! What, still grinning, eh? There's another then! Weep immediately, sirrah! can't you! Pull a wry mug! So! Put your hands together! Cast down your eyes! So! And now fire away!"
"Then you, too, are one of them, eh?" cried she. "Did you not hear the cry of the death-bird?" stammered he. "What are you afraid of? Tis only my half-crazy old mother." At night the headsman's apprentices sleep on the floor of the loft. The headsman himself has a room overlooking the courtyard; Mekipiros slept in the stable outside with the watch-dog. All was silent.
Ivan then chose out six of the bravest of his followers, amongst them the watchman in whose sylvan hut they had held their secret meetings, Hamza, the sexton, and Mekipiros, whose mouth they had to gag, to prevent him from uttering his eternal "Hamamama!" Poor Mekipiros! A little while ago he was able to pray, now he could not utter an intelligible word!
The sky was now growing grey, the dawn was not far off; but the folks had forgotten to ring in the morning, for the bell-ringers had something better to do. At Thomas Bodza's command they carried the corpses aside out of the courtyard, the corpses of Ivan, Dame Zudár, and poor Mekipiros. They conveyed them to a large ditch at the back of the house, so that none might see their remains.
"Who is there?" inquires from within an unpleasant, hoarsely screeching voice, the owner whereof at the same time soothing the big dog which, snarling fiercely, thrusts his nose between the door and the lintel, and snaps from time to time through the opening. "Open the door, Mekipiros, and don't bawl!" answers one of the new arrivals, impatiently beating with his fists upon the door.
"If the people in the castle hear a noise, and guess our subterfuge, they will shoot Mekipiros, for we will send him on in front. Why, even with a couple of bullets in his body the fellow will be able to scramble up the wall. He's like a toad." Meanwhile the Leather-bell returned and announced that the dogs had gobbled up all the meat thrown to them. "Oh, they made no bones about it," cried he.
"You mad bullock, you, why did you roar out just now, eh?" he whispered in the ear of Mekipiros, and he viciously tugged at the stunted monster's bristly hair with one hand, at the same time holding his other hand before his mouth to prevent him from screaming out.
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