before them!"

The Lazarus ballads illustrate how the people turn Scriptural characters
into living realities, by incorporating their own observations on human
nature with the sacred text. According to them, Lazarus and Dives were
two brothers, both named Lazarus; the younger rich, the elder poor. Poor
Lazarus begs alms of his brother: "How dare you call me brother?"
retorts rich Lazarus. "I have brothers like myself--princes, nobles,
wealthy merchants, who fare sumptuously and dress richly. Even the
church dignitaries visit me. Your brethren are the fierce dogs which lie
under my table and gather up the fragments. I fear not God, I will buy
off intrusive death, I will attain to the kingdom of heaven; and if I
attain not thereunto, I will buy it!" Thereupon, he sets the dogs on his
brother, spits in his eye, locks the gates, and goes back to his
feasting. The dogs which are set upon poor Lazarus bring him their food,
instead of rending him. After three efforts to move his brother to
compassion, poor Lazarus entreats the Lord to let him die: "Send sudden
death, Lord, winged but not merciful," he prays. "Send two threatening
angels; let them take out my unclean soul through my side with a hook,
my little soul through my ribs, with a spear and with iron hooks; let
them place my soul under their left wing, and carry it to the nethermost
hell, to burning pitch and the river of fire. All my life have I
suffered hunger and cold, and my whole body hath been full of pains. It
is not for me, a poor cripple, to enter Paradise." (This is in
accordance with the uncomfortable Russian belief that a man's rank and
station in this life determine his fate in the other world.) But the
Lord gives orders to have everything done in precisely the opposite way.
Holy angels remove Lazarus's soul gently, through his "sugar mouth"
(referring, possibly, to the Siberian belief that the soul is located in
the windpipe) wrap it in a white cloth, and carry it to Abraham's bosom.
After a while rich Lazarus is overtaken by misfortune and illness, and
he, also, prays for speedy death, minutely specifying how his "large,
clean soul," is to be handled and deposited in Abraham's bosom. He
acknowledges that he has committed a few trivial sins, but mentions,
with pride, in extenuation, that he has never worn anything but velvet
and satin, and that he formerly possessed great store of "flowered
garments." Again the Lord gives contrary orders, and rich Lazarus