The Man Who Spoke Snakish

Twenty-Seven

e spent the night with the adders, but in the morning we arranged a division of labor. Hiie had to kill a deer, but we entrusted the cooking of it to my mother. It was the only option. Mother would have been fatally offended otherwise. She never let anyone else roast meat, and if Salme or I tried to help her, she only took that to mean mistrust, and sometimes even started crying. “Ah, so the food I make isn’t good enough for you?”

So it was natural that Mother would be preparing the wedding roast.

We told her that Hiie would procure the deer; Mother nodded at this and said she would bring two goats and about ten hares in that case.

“No, Mother, we were thinking of roasting only one deer,” we explained.

“Are you joking?” exclaimed Mother. “This is a wedding! One deer is not enough. There definitely has to be goat and hare as well.”

“Mother, there’s no need for such a large feast!” I tried to convince her. “Why so much? Who will eat it?”

“They might not eat it, but the table has to be laid plentifully,” maintained Mother. “Of course it’s another matter if you don’t like the food I make …”

Her eyes were growing damp again.

“No, no!” we said. “We like it very much! Go on then. Cook the goats and hares as well as the deer. Do just as you like!”

Mother was satisfied. She rolled up her sleeves and started flaying and chopping.

I set off to get the wine, and Ints came with me.

“I’d like to get some fresh air,” she said. “Sitting at home with the children wears me out terribly.”

“So where are you leaving your children?” I asked.

“The children are coming with me, of course,” replied Ints. “They need some recreation too. They’ve never seen a single iron man or monk, and they’re very excited. Just a couple of days ago I was telling them how we killed that monk, and how the slowworm retrieved the ring from his stomach; the children found that very funny. Do you remember that story?”

“Why wouldn’t I?” I said. “Come on then; maybe I’ll be needing your fangs.”

We set off for the edge of the highway, where the monks and iron men always rode by, and lay in wait. The little adders chased each other and frolicked among the crowberry plants.

Finally a lone rider wearing chain mail came into view.

“Is that a suitable one?” asked Ints.

“I can’t see if he’s carrying a wineskin,” I said, peering more closely at the iron man with a peculiar kind of pleasure that I had only recently learned to feel. “But let’s knock him down anyway.”

When the iron man had come right up to us, I gave a long hiss. The horse understood these words immediately and reared on its hind legs, whinnying. The iron man toppled out of his saddle and fell on his back on the road.

The next moment I was upon him, and struck off his head with my knife, giving a loud roar.

“There!” I screamed. “That’s what they used to do in the days of the Frog of the North!”

I kicked the iron man I had cut down, and he flew into the bushes with a clatter.

“Splendid!” shouted Ints, and her children hissed with pleasure, coming over to nose around the dead iron man. “Where did you learn that?”

“It came by itself,” I said. “A lineage from my grandfather.”

I was still panting excitedly. If someone had told me at that moment that I had to go to the wedding immediately and give up lurking by the roadside, I would have refused. Now I truly understood Grandfather’s words: in a time of war, a woman must wait. At that moment I would not give up my war for any price. I wanted to experience again that feeling that overcame me when an enemy’s head bounces and clatters along the road. And in any case, we still didn’t have any wine.

I dragged the dead iron man in among the trees and threw myself down right there to await a new victim.

“Coming,” said Ints after a little while, having much keener hearing than I had. “And it’s a cart, not a rider.”

I soon saw that she was right. We were incredibly lucky. Along the road came two bullocks, pulling behind them a cart with two monks and two vats of wine in it.

“That’s the wine for my wedding going by,” I told Ints. “It couldn’t have gone better.”

Ints curled up into a ring.

“I think you can begin this yourself,” she said. “I’m not going to intervene at all you’re so nimble. Children, come out of Uncle’s way! Later, you can look at the monks later!”

“But then they won’t have their heads on anymore,” said one little adder.

“What’s the difference? Come out of the way!”

It all went as smoothly as the previous time. On hearing the Snakish words, the bullocks’ eyes bulged; they suddenly became overanimated and pulled the cart straight into the forest. With a yell the monks rolled off into the bushes with their vats and I did what I wanted with them.

“That’s all,” said Ints with a yawn. “Children, let’s go home and eat now.”

By evening the preparations were made and the wedding feast could begin. The bonfire made of stacked trees was blazing and an enormous amount of meat was cooking on it. The vats of wine were in place, and Meeme was resting between them, one of Grandfather’s skull cups in his hand. He was already completely drunk, but still helping himself to more and more of the tipple that trickled from the barrel.

“Try some,” I told my mother, offering her some wine.

“I don’t dare to drink it! I’ve never put such stuff in my mouth before. Leemet, don’t you drink it either. I’m watching; you’re just like your father. He liked those village foods too. I never understood what he saw in them. Now look at you too!”

“Mother, the villagers don’t drink wine. They aren’t given it; they’re taught to be content with porridge and a bit of bread. Wine is drunk by the iron men and the monks.”

“That makes it worse!” said Mother, wringing her hands. “No, no, I’m not touching it! Leemet, you’d be better eating some hare. Just look at this beautiful well-cooked shank!”

“Yes, I will,” I replied. “But you try some wine. One drop!”

“Why are you tempting me?” sighed Mother, screwing her eyes tight and swallowing one little swig from the cup. She smacked her lips and screwed up her nose.

“Not as bad as porridge, but not good either. They think up all sorts of silly things. What’s wrong with springwater and wolf’s milk then?”

“Let me have a taste too,” begged Mõmmi.

At first Mother and Salme had assured me that the sick bear definitely wouldn’t be able to come to the wedding, since his backside was hurting him dreadfully. Salme had even thought that she better stay at home and look after the ailing Mõmmi.

“He can’t walk at all; he just lies around,” she had said bitterly. “I’m so sorry for him! That beautiful brown fur. It was that fur that I fell in love with about him! Now it’s all burned and horrible.”

“Only in one place,” I consoled her. “And it’s sure to grow back.”

Hiie and I went to Mõmmi’s bed and nodded at him.

“Sorry you can’t come,” said Hiie. “We’re getting a goat for you too.”

“Why can’t I come?” exclaimed Mõmmi, sitting straight up. “I want to go to the wedding too!”

“You can’t, darling, but never mind,” said Salme, comforting him. “I’ll stay at home with you so you don’t get bored.”

“No, Salme, that’s not a good idea,” said Mõmmi decisively, getting out of bed. “How can you stay at home when your brother’s getting married? You have to go, and I’m coming too.”

“Oh, but you can’t! It’s painful for you to walk!”

“Of course it’s painful,” agreed the bear, taking a couple of limping steps. “But if you support me, I think I can do it anyway.”

“You really think so?”

“Of course! Now listen, Salme, what’s the point in having to bring me food home from the wedding, if I can go there myself and eat right there?”

And so Mõmmi, panting and groaning, lumbered up to the bonfire. Now he sat down contentedly under a tree and wolfed down the meat.

I handed him a beakerful of wine; Mõmmi swallowed it in one gulp, and licked his nose with his long pink tongue.

“I like it!” he declared. “Pass me another one.”

When he had drunk a second beakerful, he hiccupped slightly, gave me a sly look, and ran with great agility behind Salme’s back.

“Peek-a-boo!” he cried, covering Salme’s eyes with his paws. “Who am I?”

Guessing wasn’t particularly hard, for the only one at the wedding with bear’s paws was Mõmmi.

“Mõmmi!” cried Salme. “Why are you walking around? You’ll hurt your wound! I was just about to bring you a new haunch of venison.”

“I don’t want to eat any more,” announced Mõmmi grandly. “And there’s no damage to my wound, I’ve been licking it with my tongue. Don’t you know that a bear’s tongue contains nine medicines? Wait, sweetie, and I’ll show you!”

He drew his tongue far out of his mouth and licked Salme’s face.

“Mõmmi, what are you doing?” tittered Salme. “People are looking!”

“You’re as sweet as honey,” cooed Mõmmi. “Let’s dance!”

“But your bottom, Mõmmi! You were hobbling just now!”

“That was this morning, but now it’s evening! In the morning I was hobbling; in the evening I turn somersaults. That’s the kind of bear I am!” bragged Mõmmi, trying to roll over on his head, but he fell down and lay on the ground on his back, laughing, his four paws in the air.

“Mõmmi!” begged Salme. “What’s come over you? What are you raving about?”

“Let’s dance, Salme. Let’s dance!” said the bear, getting up and starting to lope around heavily, occasionally bowing and twisting his body around. He was mumbling some strange bear song and appeared to be overjoyed.

“Mother, look at what Mõmmi’s doing!” whispered Salme. “Shameful!”

“Why shameful?” laughed Mother, who had started clapping to the rhythm of Mõmmi’s song. “It’s just nice. It’s fun! You’re supposed to have fun at weddings. Go and dance with your husband!”

“I won’t!” declared Salme, scowling at her spouse as he staggered around her.

Hiie’s mother was also at the wedding. She kept a little apart from the others, looking timidly at the blazing linden trees and the bear tramping out his dance.

“Mother, come and eat!” called Hiie.

“I don’t want to,” said Mall, and in her again was the strict woman who had brought her child up so sternly with Tambet. “Meat cooked on wood from the grove would stick in my throat. And that disgusting foreign drink is quite out of place here. Maybe I’m old and I’ve seen out my days, but I’m sorry, daughter, all this is insulting to me. I have my principles.”

“It doesn’t matter what wood the meat is cooked on, as long as it gets juicy enough,” said Hiie. “And if any drink tastes sweet to us, there’s no reason to refuse it. Mother, I grew up in a home that was so full up with principles that I didn’t have room to breathe. I hate principles. I only want what’s good for me. I want to be happy!”

She grabbed me by the neck, kissed me, and dragged me to where Mõmmi was reeling around.

“Let’s dance too!” said Hiie.

She pushed me away from her, stretched out her arms, and writhed in the red glow of the bonfire. Just at that moment a large wolf leapt in between us and sank its teeth into Hiie’s neck.

I yelled as if I had been bitten myself. I heard Ints and the other snakes hissing piercingly. I struck the wolf with my knife, but in my panic wasn’t able to kill the animal, only cutting a long wound in its neck. The wolf let go of Hiie and turned toward me, enraged with pain. Just then her mother rushed toward Hiie and the wolf sank its jaws into her face, so that blood spurted between its teeth. I lashed out at the wolf with my knife once again, but it didn’t fall; a second wound merely appeared on its back, forming a red cross with the first slash. Then a roar was heard from Mõmmi; the bear’s paw came down and the wolf’s backbone broke with a sickening crack.

All this happened in a mere moment.

I bent over Hiie. She was unconscious, her neck was broken, and blood was bubbling out of it.

“Ints!” I screamed. “Can’t you do something? Stop the blood! Isn’t there a Snakish word that could do that?”

“There’s no such word,” said Ints’s father, the snake-king, who had crawled up beside me. “Nobody can stop the flow of blood, the same as with a river. We aren’t able to save Hiie. Look at the moss; it’s thick with blood. Most of her life has already left her, and the little that is left will soon flow out too. I’m terribly sorry, Leemet.”

Ints had also wriggled up to me, and was nosing against Hiie’s pallid cheek. For the first time in my life I saw a snake crying.

Beside Hiie lay her mother, recognizable only from her clothes; her entire face was torn away by the wolf’s teeth. And yet she was still alive, and even spoke: “A fire from the grove wood,” she murmured. “I was afraid it would go this way. Misery! The sprites won’t ever forgive it!”

“Shut up!” I shouted, completely losing my self-control.

“The sprites! The sprites!” repeated the lump of blood that had once been a human face. “They’ll pay you back!”

“Your husband is the one who brings us misery, even in death,” I yelled. “He drove the wolves mad! He turned them deaf!” Mall spoke no more. She was dead.

I was so enraged, so desperate, that I kicked her corpse. Then I grasped Hiie by the waist and bellowed. I shook her so that her broken neck lolled to one side and the wound gaped at me to its full depth. I kissed Hiie, grabbed her with such force that if she had still felt anything, she would certainly have screamed with pain. Oh how I wanted her to scream! I squeezed her so hard that I must have broken her ribs, but I didn’t care. I was completely crazed, and only when Mõmmi, using all his bear’s strength, pulled me aside did I leave Hiie’s corpse in peace.

Yes, she was dead.

“How terrible! How terrible!” repeated my mother, who was also spread-eagled on the ground, as if she were a third corpse, weeping uncontrollably.

I felt sick. My nostrils were again invaded by that old familiar stench of decay, nauseating me. Supporting myself on a wine vat, I vomited. Undigested bits of meat mixed with red wine gushed onto the moss.

To this day I remember in detail what I did in those moments after Hiie’s death.

After vomiting I walked several times around the still-burning bonfire. I wasn’t thinking anything, just concentrating on breathing. I had the feeling that if I didn’t, I would forget to inhale and choke. No one spoke to me; no one dared to stop me.

Then I went and cut the legs and the tail off the dead wolf, doing it with a strange numbness as if I were carrying out some tedious but necessary task. When the legs and tail were cut off, I left them there, threw away the knife, and marched into the forest.

I just walked and walked, heedless of the direction. Owls were hooting; some goats and hares ran across my path. I broke a path through the densest thicket, not feeling the scratching of the branches and twigs. I didn’t have a single thought in my head. It was as if I were seeing myself from somewhere afar, up in the treetops, seeing a tiny human, struggling along alone in a dark forest.

Then suddenly it came to me — Hiie! I turned around immediately, as if I had only just received the news of her death, and rushed back the way I had come.

The fire was still smoldering and all the wedding guests were still there. Hiie had been lifted up alongside her mother, and squatting beside her was the louse.

It was nestling against Hiie’s shoulder, and suddenly I had the ghastly thought that the louse was sucking blood from her wound.

“What’s it doing?” I screamed, and rushed closer to scare the louse away with a kick.

“He’s not doing anything; he’s dead,” said Ints. I crouched down and touched the great insect. Ints was telling the truth: the louse was completely stiff and its tiny legs were curled up helplessly.

“He came straight after you left,” said Ints, crawling up by my feet. “He ran here, pressed himself against Hiie, and died.”

“We saw from the tree how the wolf was attacking her,” Pirre said now. I hadn’t noticed him at first. The Primates were sitting in the shade of a tree; they had been walking on two legs again and were now massaging their cramp-stricken toes. “We came straight here and the louse ran ahead of us. He loved Hiie very much. Let him lie there beside her.”

“Let him lie,” I repeated, and then I blacked out.