Eagles in the Meadow
Christowe, Stoyan
EAGLES IN THE MEADOW By STOYAN CHRISTOWE AFTER resting several times on the grassy rocks up the A zigzagging pathway, Grandfather and I set foot on the small grassy mound upon whose brow stood,...
...The bleeding corpses of dozens of storks and eagles dropped from the air as though blown breathless by an unprecedented passion of the elements...
...They formed fronts against the sides of the mountains, flurried at one another in mad vehemence...
...Pulling the old man by the arm, I shouted, "Grandpa, look...
...Across from it above the red-capped cupola of the church, the cross glittered against the sky like an unsheathed sword...
...It was as if the two mountains which had faced each other in tranquil friendship for centuries had suddenly been stirred with rage and started to discharge living bullets from their great sides...
...The eagles have given their signal...
...EAGLES IN THE MEADOW By STOYAN CHRISTOWE AFTER resting several times on the grassy rocks up the A zigzagging pathway, Grandfather and I set foot on the small grassy mound upon whose brow stood, like a crown, the chapel of Saint Elyia, overlooking the beautiful valley through which wound the silvery Bistritza...
...Grandfather Bogomir caught me by the hand, and made me walk with him to the edge of the hill, from which a better view could be had...
...He was shaking with excitement...
...It will be a battle between the cross and the crescent...
...Forsaking these dead warriors, they flew low over the village...
...Nothing, my son, nothing...
...Before the shadows of the clouds had overcast the village, the clouds themselves began to descend upon the earth...
...The white crescent on its field of red stood calmly on the roof of the Turkish police station...
...RGrandfather, who could see with his soul what he could not see with his eyes, patted my hair more affectionately than ever, and drawing me close to him said through his tears: "My good child...
...said Grandfather...
...Grandfather Bogomir had not been asleep an hour when I noticed two clouds, one white and the other black, sailing up from the lower end of the basin...
...In beautiful, sweeping waves, the sun reflecting brilliant colors on their smooth surface, they settled on the meadows on either side of the river...
...Sit down," he urged, "sit down here on the rock...
...To avenge their comrades, frenzied eagles, rending the air with incredible cries, fell upon the victors and sank their bills like hatchets into the white crops...
...In the meadows, in front of us...
...Passing the village, the storks soared high, and forming echelons, headed for the mountain passes beyond which rolled the plains clear to the Aegean...
...Deafened by the rage of the tempest and the hellish noise, Grandfather and I sat speechless and motionless on the rock...
...The infernal squealing of the eagles split the very bottom of the basin and scared the whole of nature...
...The sun shone on the wounded bosom of the earth...
...Grandfather Bogomir rose, passed his hand over his lustreless eyes, and stared in front of him bewildered...
...Against their deafening scream, the voiceless storks rattled their spear-like beaks as if a thousand machine guns had been set in motion at one time...
...They just alighted, Grandpa, the storks are on one side of the river and the eagles on the other...
...Huddling close to the skirt of the hill and spreading out toward the bend of the river, the village basked under the hot rays of the sun...
...Gradually the specks grew larger and began to assume the shapes of birds, floating uniformly with outstretched wings...
...And then claws and beaks and wings grappled and struck and beat and the valley was an ocean of clashing waves...
...And as one roaring white wave fell upon a shrieking black one like a split mountain and buried it beneath its slide, another towered up and burst forth to level its bosom against the succeeding tide...
...On either side of the village through all the length of the valley, which stretched from where Grandfather and I sat to the end of the world, ridges of wooded mountains touched the clouds and shut out the other worlds...
...Finally Grandfather rose, turned toward the shrine and began to supplicate the patron saint, expressing gratitude for his traditional guardianship of the village and imploring him not to forsake his wards in this moment when the fates of Christians and Moslems were being decided...
...As Grandfather spoke, two storks and two eagles rose on either side and 'wheeled loftily above the river...
...The conquering storks wheeled about, made jubilant rattles with their beaks, and in beautiful sweeps alighted on the blood-smirched meadows where many of their comrades lay lifeless...
...That is the cry of war...
...On the gabled roof of the tiny grey shrine two old boards nailed together formed a cross, which looked chidingly at the village...
...What is it, my son, what's happened...
...Who will fight...
...They will fight," he exclaimed, "there will be war...
...The valley once more began to breathe...
...We sat in the shade of the walnut tree, whose mighty twin branches, issuing almost from the root of the trunk, arched gracefully on either side...
...the eagles giving a shrill screech and the storks making a rattling noise with their beaks...
...The storks and the eagles-the birds of Moslems and the birds of Christians...
...The cross shall have its day yet...
...A detachment of storks rose above the plane of battle and swooped down upon a contingent of eagles, beating them to the ground with beaks and wings...
...Grandfather took off his fur calpac and flattened it on the ground to serve him as a pillow...
...When did they come...
...Grandfather stuck the wax light on the rusty candelabrum before the saint inside the shrine, described large arcs in the air as he crossed himself, and after bowing before the faded ikon, asked me to lead him outside...
...As their shadows advanced toward us, I discerned that they were made up of hundreds of separate bodies which quivered in the air like bees in a swarm...
...What eagles, my child, where are they...
...The masses of black and white plumage in the meadows started to lift...
...You know I can't see, my son...
...Frightened animals which had fled to the woods in terror, strayed back to the pastures timidly, eyeing suspiciously the fallen birds and snorting repelled at the blood-spattered tufts of grass...
...Now and then an exhausted one, unable to support the pain of a wound, fell expiring on the roof of a house or in the middle of an alley...
...Look, Grandfather, the eagles and the storks...
...But the old man had not ended his prayer when the decimated eagles for whose victory he was praying, overpowered by the bulk of the storks, retreated in a body and sped down the valley like fallen autumn leaves blown by a sudden blast of wind...
Vol. 11 • December 1929 • No. 5
