Chai

Chai by Awetis Aharonean (1921)

In a mountain village called O—, a fierce winter storm rages so violently that the inhabitants take it as an omen of fate, sheltering in the sakhi (a windowless fireside room) of Melikh-Shalim. The men huddle together, smoking pipes, frightened by the howling wind, which they interpret as the "song of destiny." A magistrate named Gewo recalls a peasant who recently perished in a snowstorm on the mountain, and the men agree that no one can escape fate. An Armenian watchman named Chai enters, shaking snow from his shoulders, and is welcomed to warm himself. He is the last Armenian remaining in the village, others of his race having been driven away; unable to bring himself to beg, he became the village watchman. The villagers, uncertain of his real name (Nacho), settled on calling him Chai, a colloquial word for "Armenian." As the men in the sakhi continue discussing fate—with Melikh, the magistrate, and even the head of the church all professing belief in its power—Chai suddenly declares from the corner that he does not believe in fate. This provokes scorn and surprise, since Chai is regarded as a lowly figure. Pressed to explain, and urged by the magistrate to stay and finish his account despite needing to resume his watch, Chai tells his story. He recounts that in a certain year, he was one of ten men whom Turks and Kurds called conspirators but whom Armenians called defenders and saviors; the band lived in the mountains like eagles, fighting and killing Turks and Kurds who hunted them. While the group was camped on the summit of Mount Sim and supplies ran out, Chai was sent unarmed, in daylight, to forage for food from villages, uncertain whether their inhabitants still lived. Climbing over a neighboring mountain, he encountered an armed Kurd, a "hornidie" (a member of a Turkish regiment), who stopped him and demanded to know his business. Chai claimed to be a starving villager from Chnt traveling to Derdschan for bread for his children, and begged to be let go, but the Kurd refused, insisting on turning him over to "the law." Chai protested that this would ruin him and endanger his starving children, but the Kurd remained unmoved, and Chai understood, from a wordless exchange of glances, that the Kurd intended to kill him. As they walked together through a lonely valley, Chai noted the Kurd's dagger with an ivory handle in his girdle and began looking for a chance to seize it. He deliberately slowed his pace, feigning trouble with his sandal straps; when the Kurd came alongside him, Chai grabbed the dagger from the Kurd's girdle and stabbed him in the chest, killing him and saving his own life. Chai then produces the very ivory-handled dagger for the men to see. They examine it in awe, and Chai, once dismissed as poor and shabby, is now regarded as a hero who mastered his own fate. He repeats that he does not believe in fate, then tucks the dagger back into his girdle and departs into the storm to resume his rounds. The other men fall silent; outside, the wind's wild voices no longer sound to them like the implacable voice of fate, but seem instead to cry out "Revenge! Revenge!"

By Awetis Aharonean · First published 1921 · Genre: Historical Fiction, Philosophical Fiction, Adventure Fiction · 2,596 words

First lines

It was night; winter and snow. The night was so dark, so full of terror that people in the little mountain village of O -- could not remember when they last saw day and the sun; bright light and blue sky. The wind blew, too! And what a wind it was. It was as if it came from some world of the dead, because in its voice there was something that made the nerves tremble and painted horror before the brain. It played with the snow, and the play was the play of a demon. Not only people shivered, but the entire mountain village, its poor little houses, its hay stacks, and the dry mounds of manure piled up for burning. And one could not tell whether the shivering was because of the cold, or because of the accursed storm that was raging. For these mountain village dwellers, thunder and lightning, storm and cold, were not merely harmless caprices of nature. The peasants knew how sad the result might be. Why should they not be afraid and tremble! But it was lucky that the sign of the cross was sure protection against lightning; and for the snow storm there was the stable and the _sakhi_.[1]

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Armenian resistance · historical fiction · political struggle · patriotism · heroism · national identity · survival · mountain warfare · freedom fighters · Ottoman oppression · cultural identity · tragic narrative

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Chai is listed on Textopian as a historical account by Awetis Aharonean, dated 1921 CE.

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