He passed the whole Sunday in reading his Bible, and never went out collecting rags on that day. While reading, he groaned and sighed continually. He kept the book close to his breast, and was angry with any one who interrupted him or who touched his Bible. "Oh, you drunken blackguard," said Kuvalda to him, "what do you understand of it?" "Nothing, wizard! I don't understand anything, and I do not read any books . . . But I read. . . ." "Therefore you are a fool . . ." said the Captain, decidedly. "When there are insects in your head, you know it is uncomfortable, but if some thoughts enter there too, how will you live then, you old toad?" "I have not long to live," said Tyapa, quietly. Once the teacher asked how he had learned to read. "In prison," answered Tyapa shortly. "Have you been there?" "I was there." "For what?" "Just so . . . It was a mistake . . . But I brought the Bible out with me from there. A lady gave it to me . . . It is good in prison, brother." "Is that so? And why?" "It teaches one . . . I learned to read there . . . I also got this book . . . And all these you see, free. . . ." When the teacher appeared in the dosshouse, Tyapa had already lived there for some time. He looked long into the teacher's face, as if to discover what kind of a man he was. Tyapa often listened to his conversation, and once, sitting down beside him, said: "I see you are very learned . . . Have you read the Bible?" "I have read it. . . ." "I see; I see . . . Can you remember it?" "Yes . . . I remember it. . . ." Then the old man leaned to one side and gazed at the other with a serious, suspicious glance. "There were the Amalekites, do you remember?" "Well?" "Where are they now?" "Disappeared . . . Tyapa . . . died out. . . ." The old man was silent, then asked again: "And where are the Philistines?" "These also. . . ." "Have all these died out?" "Yes . . . all. . . ." "And so . . . we also will die out?" "There will come a time when we also will die," said the teacher indifferently. "And to what tribe of Israel do we belong?" The teacher looked at him, and began telling him about Scythians and Slavs. . . . The old man became all the more frightened, and glanced at his face. "You are lying!" he said scornfully, when the teacher had finished. "What lie have I told?" asked the teacher. "You mentioned tribes that are not mentioned in the Bible." He got up and walked away, angry and deeply insulted. "You will go mad, Tyapa," called the teacher after him with conviction. Then the old man came back again, and stretching out his hand, threatened him with his crooked and dirty finger. "God made Adam--from Adam were descended the Jews, that means that all people are descended from Jews . . . and we also. . . ." "Well?" "Tartars are descended from Ishmael, but he also came of the Jews. . . ." "What do you want to tell me all this for?"