"These tales and rumours ought not to be dismissed save with caution.
At least ought they to be given the benefit of the doubt. For, though
all that he says may SEEM to us unintelligible, there may yet be
enshrined therein a meaning, such as--"

"You say a meaning?"

"Yes, a meaning which, eventually, will be vouchsafed to you in a
vision. For example, you may one day see issue from a dense forest a
man of God, and hear him cry aloud: Felitzata, Oh servant of God, Oh
sinner most dark of soul--"

"What a croaking, to be sure!"

"Be silent! No nonsense! Do you blame yourself rather than sing your
own praises. And in that vision you may hear the man of God cry:
'Felitzata, go you forth and do that which one who shall meet you may
request you to perform!' And, having gone forth, you may find the man
of God to be the monk whom we have spoken of."

"A-a-ah!" the woman drawled with an air of being about to say something
more.

"Come, fool!"

"You see--"

"Have I, this time, abused you?"

"No, but--"

"I have an idea that the man of God will be holding a crook."

"Of course," assented Felitzata.

Similarly, on another occasion, did I hear Antipa mutter confidentially
to his companion:

"The fact that all his sayings are so simple is not a favourable sign.
For, you see, they do not harmonise with the affair in its entirety--in
such a connection words should be mysterious, and so, able to be
interpreted in more than one way, seeing that the more meanings words
possess, the more are those words respected and heeded by mankind."

"Why so?" queried Felitzata.

"Why so?" re-echoed Vologonov irritably. "Are we not, then, to respect
ANYONE or ANYTHING? Only he is worthy of respect who does not harm his
fellows; and of those who do not harm their fellows there are but few.
To this point you must pay attention--you must teach him words of
variable import, words more abstract, as well as more sonorous."

"But I know no such words."

"I will repeat to you a few, and every night, when he goes to bed, you
shall repeat them to HIM. For example: 'Adom ispolneni, pokaites'[Do ye
people who are filled with venom repent]. And mark that the exact
words of the Church be adhered to. For instance, 'Dushenbitzi,
pozhaleite Boga, okayannie,' [Murderers of the soul, accursed ones,
repent ye before God.] must be said rather than 'Dushenbitzi,
pozhaleite Boga, okayanni,' since the latter, though the shorter form,
is also not the