called, although his Christian name was Dion. He was my father's
brother, but by no means like him. Rather an odd sort of a fellow, and
as keen as a razor. He went even beyond the old classical types; he was
more cynical and more of a philosopher than they. Not the oldest
inhabitant remembered the time when the cloak that covered his stooping
shoulders on the street was new. Daily he went to church, never into
church. There, on the sacred threshold, among the beggars and outcasts,
he paid his homage to his Maker, and then returned to his desolate home.
There was a large public well in the village. To this he himself went
with a large pitcher for his drinking-water. This water he poured into a
large boiler, boiled and strained it, and then drank it, because then
he was sure of the bacilli. He kept no attendant or housekeeper, for
fear of being murdered; and he was so much in dread of poison that he
never ate cooked food or anything made of flour, not even bread. He
lived on baked potatoes, nuts, honey, raw fresh eggs, and all sorts of
fruits and vegetables which might be eaten raw, and which grew in his
own orchard and garden. Out of his large herd of cattle he selected a
cow for his stall. This cow he attended to with his own hand, carefully
examining each stalk or haulm she ate, in order that no poisonous weed
might be consumed by her, and thus poison the milk. Each morning and
evening his own hands milked her, and he churned all his butter, and
made all his cheese himself. He never ate anything but what I have
mentioned, and he never went out without two loaded double-barrelled
pistols in his boots. He never read any other newspaper than the
Slavonic _Narodne Novine_, which he got from the village parson; but,
before reading it, he held it over a charcoal fire, on which he had
thrown some juniper berries, to kill possible malarial germs. His land
was all farmed out, and the rent had to be paid to him in gold or
silver, which he locked away in a great old iron chest. Occasionally,
through auctioning off some poor debtor's effects, he came into