"What sort of a 'Shaytan' is this brother of yours? How dare he do such a thing?"
"Why not, Bachka, it's nothing; for him it's all the same, Bachka, but for them, Bachka, the Zaysan won't beat them, and the lamas won't drive their reindeer away."
"H'm! Still, I must keep an eye on your idle brother. Tell me his name?"
"Kuz'ka-Demyak, Bachka."
"Kuz'ma or Demyan?"[1]
"No, Bachka, Kuz'ka-Demyak."
"Yes, it's easier for you—Kuz'ka-Demyak, or a copper pyatak[2]—but they are two names."
"No, Bachka, one."
"I tell you they are two."
"No, Bachka, one."
"Get along, you evidently know this better than me, too."
"Of course, Bachka, I know it better."
"Did they give him the names of Kuz'ma and Demyan at the first or second baptism?"
He looked fixedly at me but did not understand; but when I repeated my question he thought and answered:
"That is so, Bachka; when he had been bap-