"Most holy chief!" And she could go no further; she was so frightened that the voice broke in her throat: her tongue became a stake of wood.
"What is it?"
"Oh, oh! according to the list—"
"What is that? Do they want you in the army? Hei?" asked the chief.
The petitioners immediately fell to laughing in a chorus, to uphold the good humor of the chief; but he said at once to those courtiers,—
"I pray you! I pray you be silent!"
Then he said impatiently to the woman,—
"More quickly! What is it?—for I have no time."
But she had lost her head altogether from the laughter of the audience, and blurted out disconnectedly: "Burak, Repa! Repa! Burak, O!"
"She must be drunk," said one of those nearer.