the British Museum and would thus become a national treasure, and confessed that he would gain at most ten thousand pounds by reselling the hide to the museum, as he had intended to do before. He even took some notes out of his pocket, but our people, brought up on morals different from theirs, which put morality and creation first, and money only in fifth or sixth place, immediately shoved the guest’s pounds back into his purse. Just then there was a sharp sound like a clap, ‘Khap!’ The foreigners were once again confused. But to question them about anything was seen as inappro- priate. Whether the cry came from the heavens or the ground, no one could make it out either. Here again, the head of the propaganda department felt the advantage of the widespread bilingualism in the republic. He pretended to be explaining something to the first secretary of the district committee while in Kazakh he spoke words meant for a different ear: ‘Hey, Ashten! You can see they’re not leaving, they’re all admiring you. Five more minutes and we’ll have them out of here.’ There came a groan or a gnashing of teeth from the statue. ‘Hey, be still!’ The head of the department looked under his feet. ‘We don’t want any more scandals from you.’ The secretary for ideology, after asking the interpreter for the name of the head of the delegation, addressed him: ‘Mr. Conrad!’ he turned round sharply. ‘Excuse me, but we are expected!’ The secretary tapped his finger on the clock face. ‘Oh, ta, ta! Nato, nato!’ he retorted and spoke in English, addressing his compatriots. After five or six minutes, the square with the statue was empty. When the noise died down and the guests disappeared around the corner, Ashten jumped down from the plinth and, shaking off the snow, swore at the delegation and its attendants, everyone from the foreigners to his own countrymen. As a result of having to stand motionless for more than half an hour, every muscle in Ashten’s body was twisted and his back ached as if it had been shot. Jumping down from the plinth, Ashten took the rest of the Sary-Agach out of his pocket and tipped it down himself.

***

When most of the late-night members of the delegation had settled down and gone to bed, there was a chilling

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