1954 AVGXÍSZ
The SheeprThrough '&l^tlZ'TZ^t*l
wear m moved in with the
clergyman'M iamily, Now that she was giving it
oae m
íi^áy /ram A/m. One oi theS was going to'be ihői^li'^^ f^L'^^'^^KÍ'*'J°^' íZter to a landowner. and the otL was ^^L^^^üJi^ knapsack Iroving to town.He had anough oi the viUage Z Z^'U^tl^J''' " an<f wanted to give the town a try. They were 5 ^"wt oeg^ing , . .
a// thinking 6f how to divide up among them- T^HJS SONS knew thai tlieit mother was selves their íatber*s belongitigs, J^^^gmgthem tlje knapsack, butt^^^
— So you are gomg to Itve wtth the clergy^ nothmg oi Sándor Lukács's hiieránd, thereiore, man? — said the yoiinger one to his mother, thought she was merely envious. This hurt thern
.^y^K she héing their mother, When she
and thought of Jiie in the town. U he coüld earn somé moneyy he w as iar as
America. ~ y
— I don't know whatwill happen to me said the woman suspiciously. She was airaid oi being frank, Jőjflite had táughther the uncert-ainty of whatthenextm^ and perhaps iiér sons had s^ill sömething in mind, What she was tnost airáíd oi^^v^ one oi
them wouíd wárrt h^r tp him, for she
.had had quite eiiougb ofs^ poor. AU
slie wanted wasi t&géí: out of this poverty and she was yearning for ihe clérgyman*s kitchen as ior paradise, Eyeh today,. when she was up
had leftoff weeping, the elder son said to her: ^What are you sniffling for! . . .
After somé time the old woman answeréd somewhatuneasily:
~^,0h, my sons, how l miss your good father . . , You don't know how much he meant to mer
As she said that, Feri was taking the jácket with the buttons ofl the door-hinge. The old woman's heart missed a beat, for tbere, in the pocket, was the red pipe ...
And the óther son gathered űp the scytbe trying to make up his mind which of them had
at their house^^ey were plucking a chicken, struckthe better bargain. But the poor mother
P"^y saw that the yóunger son had taken íhís-session of the satchel and the red pipe, the bad, wicked serpent that lie was, who even^vants to turh his back on the viUage. And she felt a terrible loathing for her son.
— Oh, youdogs — she said shaking her fists at them, — your father has hardly been buried and you are aheady laying your hands on his belongings. l'd been better off to dig you under the gtound, the good-for-nothings that you are.
But the sonswere éeaf to her vo/ce.TAey just gathered up one Éhabby piece after the other, now and then saying a few words, watching one another, a lot of hum'-ing and ha*-ing. This went
imagme, on a weekday
— Do what you want, said the older son quietly, he was the one who intended to stay in the viUage, but he was realíy thinking of a girU He wanted to get married, all the • more so, because the girVs iámily had a house. He was glad to get his mother ofi his hands,
THE YOUNŐERson ciosed his pocketknife, X which snáppeá like a shot írom a small pistol. He opened and ciosed it onoe more. This íine knife was fit for a man sétting out into the big wide world . . . He would have liked to start
Hunyadi Mátyás
,NEGYVENEZREr
the dividing up, but didh't know how,^ — How shabby that knapsack is — /le said onright urítil midday next day when evérything
atter a while, looking at the satchel,
His brother also looked at the knapsackf thinking, so that's itt my brother also, has his eye on the cómmon knapsack which his father aiways used to take with him to markét or when he went far írom the vilIage, in the old days, to work as a navvy. Tfiis knapsack was the object of thpr dre^s; when they had both been children, their fathéf had given them his leit-ovér iood írom this knapsack, or what he had brought them írom the fair; in the old days
many a good thing had come out of this knap^ p^j^ 'anFchoosrinTdividr^^ sack. But his brother could not fool him: he ^
was divided up.
JiY THAT TIME the new cotter had aheady movéd in and their mother was moving her bed, bedding and old chest on a neighbour's cart to the clergyman's house. But the sons had still not finished. They aheady hated one another so much that both of them knew they would never all their life set foot in the place the other one lived , , , In this ramshackle house in which they had both grown up, among all this trash and Tubbish, peace had aiways reigned, and to
was just talking diáparagingly about it, so that it would be- his chsáply, Slowly, as if he attach-ed no importance to it, taking a long pause, he looked over to the old mah's boots which were peeping out írom under the, bed.
had never entered their mind. An air of family unity and peace had pervaded the small house. Now, suddenly, the iurniture, clothes, and even the rusty yoke, seemed to have turnéd, into entities and beings. Priváté property, a thing unknown to them hiiharto, had suddenly intrud-
Well theknapsac^ is still good for some^ ^.^^ j^^^-^,^ p^^^y^^ ^„„^^ 7^^^^
thing be said but what shall we do with ^^^j^ ^^^^ ^^^^ ^^^^^ j^^^^f^ ^„^ another Ior
these shabby boots? ^aj^g ^/ grabbing a few shabby, tatt^red be-
"THE YOÜNGER son looked at the boots longings for which they ^vere rummaging.
greedily. Of course, the boots. Although ' At last they fimshed. Then the younger son
they were not in what could be called good spiéd a long sheep trough m very bad shape m
condition, they could still sérve to save the good the corner of the yard.
OTKs. For three days nowJie had been turning over in his mind whethér'^o choose the knapsack or the boots, If he only knew what his brother had set his heart on! Any case, he would need the knapsack only until he went to town, fór there no one walked about with a knapsack. If his brother^ were to choose the knapsack, he could make use oí it for another
— We have still to divide this — he called out. . . - '
— So we have — muttered his brother in the^ dark.
— What shall we do with it? To tease them, the new cotter called out:
— Cut it in two!
•^"ap^acK, ne couia maice use ot n lor anoinvr ^rHEY LAUGHED at him, for a trough is him r^^'^*-?"* ^5'.*!' ^ A u^orM nothimr éut in two. But the elder
But, he' ttiought,J would like to keep 't, ior Vm going. on a journey, and to start out withoüta knapsack would be like setting out with empty hands, sort of naked . . . He was worried that his brother never even thought of taking the knapsack and had decided on the boots. His íace turnéd red as he pondered whether the boots were not much better than they appeared.
— Oh, my sons —^ whimpered their mother —• •verything hef belongs to you, now that your poor father is dead! ...
SA» took a ssd glancé at the knapsack and the hoots. Of course, by rights evérything should oelong to her. She could sell the knapsack as "ad been her tntention^ but she did not dare ^hile the old man was still alive, so she thought to sell it once he was dead. The Lukács boy had dropped in one mr^ning and shown an interest in the knapsack. and the red pipe and had of' '•'•rf » set of ciothes of his mother^a in #x-^hangeTme, the black cotton dress had alreadj « greenish colour, bot the seams were still hold"
worth nothing cut in one, the farmer, speculated. that if they were to saw it in two, he could nail a board to the end and still use it as a trough.. His younger brother, of course, did not want to take it with him to' town, but it was all the same to him, he would make a present of it to sonrsone, or perhaps the Jew would give him a packet of tobacco in exchange ...
Mihály put the saw across the middle of the trough. Suddenly Fed got wise to his brotber's intentions. So thafs it, he thought, this trough can make a rich man of my brother. He can feed his pigs írom it, and if he sells the pigs, he can buy a calf and sell it as a cow to buy a house. He will even be a wealthy farmer, while l tramp the road ...
So he grabbed the saw and placed it longways across the trough ....
And so he sawed the trough in two, longways, so that neither of them should make any use
of it.. • J92I,
A TÖRTÉNELEM kutatóját érik olykor meglepetések. Régi hagyományokban, krónikások feljegyzéseiben feltűnő adatokra,, állitásokra bukkan, amelyekre a régiek nem; adtak semilyen magya-rázatot Ilyen adatok Hunyadi Mátyás rejtélyes inegy-venezrei* is.
Kisiskolás" koiiinkban sokan tanultuk, hogy Hunyadi Mátyást a Duna-jegén, felsorakozó 4Ö.0Ö0 köznemes kiáltotta ki királíyá; Olvastunk arról is á kor krónikásai nyomán, hogy Mátyás budai egyetemének 40.000 hallgatója volt; Mátyás csodálatos könj'vtáráról is olvashattuk, hogy 40.000 kötetre rúgott. Még Mátyás születésének 500. évfordulója alkalmából is olvastunk arról, hogy Mátyás Buda a-latt akarta kiépíteni állandó hadseregének 40.000 ember-i-e szánt táborát. ..
Ez a sok 40.000 eléggé feltűnő. Pestnek a XV. század második felében 2000-3000, Budának 4000-^5000 lakosa lehetett, s ha Szilágyi Mihály jókora köznemesi, hadát vonultatott is fel a királyválasztásra, aligha volt az 40.00(^ főnyi. Lehettek ezren is, vagy akár kétezren.
Mátyás budai egyetemét egy kisebb méretű kolostorban helyezték el, s ott egykét tanár tanitott. Németor-szá|r 8 virágzó régi egyetemének együttesen se volt akkoriban 7000 hallgatója, a budai egyetem hallgatóinak a száma tehát ugy 40 körül lehetett.
A páratlanul gazdag budai könyvtárban legalább 350 kézirásos, remek kiálli-tásu könyv lehetett. Ez is kevesebb valamivel 40.000-nél.
Mátyás egész haderejének a létszámáról Velence követe, Baduario azt jelentette, hogy az a fekete sereggel, a székelyekkel stb.-bel együtt 74.480 főnyi volt, de ennek csak kis részét tette az állandó hadsereg. Mátyás tehát Buda alatt aligha akart akkora állandó tábort létesíteni, amelyben 40.000 katonának legyen helye.
Hazudtak Vblna Mátyás udvari történetírói? Nézzünk csak bele a krónikásokat ■ híven követő Ludewig Albrecht Gebhardi »Altalá-nos világtörténet«-ének 'a magyarokkal foglalkozó 15. kötete második részébe. Alig néhány oldalon rengeteg
40.000-rel találkozunk ott is. Például: Amurát szultán 40.» 000 halottat vészit; a keresz<. tes hadak létszáma 40.000; Mátyásért 40.000 arany váltságdiját fizetnek; a török 40.000 katonát vészig Eger alatt stb., stb.
Más forrásokban is rengeteg a 40.000, az 1395-től 1594-íg terjedj 200 esztendő során. így Zsigmondhoz hét fejedelem 40.000 főnyi kise-réttel látogat el. Folytathatnók a példák felsorolását oldalokon át*
Ballagi Aladár egyik tanulmányában aztán rábukkantunk a 40.000-ek magyarázatára. Ez az ötletes töv^ ténész kimutatta^ hogy az udvari krónikások nem hazudtak, voltaképpen igazat írtak. Ezekben á századokban ugyanis á 40.000 nem -volt határozott számjegy, hanem határozatián számnév s eg>^zerüen annyit je^ lentett: »számtalán«, »na-gyon sok«.
> A magyar nyelvben is volt és van hasonló szerepük e-gyes számjegyeinknek. A csaplárosnék a »száz icce bort« felszólításra nem 100 icce bort," hanem l-r-2 teli kancsót állítottak az asztalra. Ha azt mondjuk egy ismerősünknek: »ezer esztendeje nem láttalak* — akkor, bizony, három hónapja is le- ' het annak, hogy találkoztunk egymással ...
Mátyás király ♦negyvenezreinek* a fejtélye tehát így oldódott meg. De ha e-gyik se volt igazán 40.000, rendkívül soknak mindegyik i'éndkivül sok volt a maga korában.
B. E. (Szabad Föld)
óhcizai keresfetés
Tamás Erzsébet, Miskolc, Tóth utca 35 szám alatti lakos azzal a kéréssel fordult szerkesztőségünkhoz>- legyünk segítségére Amei*iká-ba kivándorolt rokonai felkeresésében. Juhász Borbála, férjezett Varró Jánosné, férjével és gyermekeivel 1907-ben, az abaujmegyei Aszaló községből vándorolt ki Amerikába és ott Ohio állam Toledo városában laktak. A második világháború kitöréséig levelezést váltott velük, ez ekkor megszakadt és a levelezést újra szeretné felvenni velük. Aki tud a nevezettekről, értesítse a Munkás szerkesztőségét^ vagy a fenti címre is lehet imi.
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