It looks as if much had been neglected in our country's system of defense. We
have not concerned ourselves with it until now and have gone about our daily work;
but things that have been happening recently begin to trouble us.
I have a cobbler's workshop in the square that lies before the Emperor's palace.
Scarcely have I taken my shutters down, at the first glimmer of dawn, when I see
armed soldiers already posted in the mouth of every street opening on the square. But
these soldiers are not ours, they are obviously nomads from the North. In some way
that is incomprehensible to me they have pushed right into the capital, although it is a
long way from the frontier. At any rate, here they are; it seems that every morning
there are more of them.
As is their nature, they camp under the open sky, for they abominate dwelling
houses. They busy themselves sharpening swords, whittling arrows, and practicing
horsemanship. This peaceful square, which was always kept so scrupulously clean,
they have made literally into a stable. We do try every now and then to run out of our
shops and clear away at least the worst of the filth, but this happens less and less often,
for the labor is in vain and brings us besides into danger of falling under the hoofs of
the wild horses or of being crippled with lashes from the whips.
Speech with the nomads is impossible. They do not know our language, indeed
they hardly have a language of their own. They communicate with each other much as
jackdaws do. A screeching as of jackdaws is always in our ears. Our way of living and
our institutions they neither understand nor care to understand. And so they are
unwilling to make sense even out of our sign language. You can gesture at them till
you dislocate your jaws and your wrists and still they will not have understood you and
will never understand. They often make grimaces; then the whites of their eyes turn up
and foam gathers on their lips, but they do not mean anything by that, not even a
threat; they do it because it is their nature to do it. Whatever they need, they take. You
cannot call it taking by force. They grab at something and you simply stand aside and
leave them to it.
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From my stock, too, they have taken many good articles. But I cannot complain
when I see how the butcher, for instance, suffers across the street. As soon as he brings
in any meat the nomads snatch it all from him and gobble it up. Even their horses
devour flesh; often enough a horseman and his horse are lying side by side, both of
them gnawing at the same joint, one at either end. The butcher is nervous and does
not dare to stop his deliveries of meat. We understand that, however, and subscribe
money to keep him going. If the nomads got no meat, who knows what they might
think of doing; who knows anyhow what they may think of, even though they get meat
every day.
Not long ago the butcher thought he might at least spare himself the trouble of
slaughtering, and so one morning he brought along a live ox. But he will never dare to
do that again. I lay for a whole hour flat on the floor at the back of my workshop with
my head muffled in all the clothes and rugs and pillows I had simply to keep from
hearing the bellowing of that ox, which the nomads were leaping on from all sides,
tearing morsels out of its living flesh with their teeth. It had been quiet for a long time
before I risked coming out; they were lying overcome around the remains of the
carcass like drunkards around a wine cask.
This was the occasion when I fancied I actually saw the Emperor himself at a
window of the palace; usually he never enters these outer rooms but spends all his
time in the innermost garden; yet on this occasion he was standing, or so at least it
seemed to me, at one of the windows, watching with bent head the goings-on before
his residence.
"What is going to happen?" we all ask ourselves. "How long can we endure this
burden and torment? The Emperor's palace has drawn the nomads here but does not
know how to drive them away again. The gate stays shut; the guards, who used to be
always marching out and in with ceremony, keep close behind barred windows. It is
left to us artisans and tradesmen to save our country; but we are not equal to such a task; nor have we ever claimed to be capable of it. This is a misunderstanding of some
kind; and it will be the ruin of us."