The Center for Central Asian Literatures in Translation

A REMINISCENCE

IKONS OF THE STEPPE,
OR THE MEN OF THE TRUE STEPPE 

There were two brothers in that family.  One day these two brothers took and hid their father's snuff-bottle, and then went off to some local sporting event to keep out of the way.  That evening, thinking that he had mislaid his snuff-bottle, the father got mad with anger:  "I reckon that scholar Choimbii's got my snuff-bottle.  I hope his hands stick together!  If he hasn't had his hands cut off, I'll give him the chop!"  The two little boys were afraid, they could find no way out, they were afraid that their hands would stick together for having stolen the snuff-bottle, and so they buried it and levelled off the earth.  Many years later, apparently, the boys went some way down the path of the noble Dharma.  When the two brothers had reached the age of twenty, they sent a letter to their father admitting what they had done as children.

The first year, the elder brother came back to speak with his mother and father.  They started by giving a ring to this, their eldest:  "Put this on the mouth of the hole", they said.  But because it had been so many years, the landscape was changed and he could no longer make out the path.  Wherever he looked, the glorious steppes were blue.  The young man thought and thought, he decided that he would place his ring on the ground.  His father buried the ring there and levelled off the earth.

The following year, the younger brother came back to speak with his mother and father.  They gave a dried out animal tooth to their younger son:  "Dig right where you buried the snuff-bottle", they said.  But because it had been so many years, the landscape was changed and he could no longer make out the path.  The steppe turned shimmering about him, and there was nothing he could do to get his bearings.  The young man walked and walked, he decided that he would push the tooth in somewhere among the grasses.  He looked then and saw that right where he had dug was at the center of the ring left by his elder brother.  And the old man came and said,

"My children, you are both men of the true steppe.  May the error of your youth be forgiven."