THE CHIEFS OF SHALA PROBATE A WILL—WE VISIT THE HOUSE OF LULASH—A JOURNEY TO UPPER THETHIS.
I may say that such agitators will have a very bad time of it, as doubtless all agitators deserve to have, since all agitators always have had it. There was a conference that afternoon in the padre’s bedroom, and this time it was the padre who wanted the principle of private property established. A man had died and left a piece of land to the Church, and the padre wanted the land to build the school on. Four chiefs of Shala sat beside the desk, on a bench brought in for the purpose, and Padre Marjan, gaunt and earnest in his Franciscan robe, talked the case out before Perolli. (Perolli was no longer a hunted man who might be turned over to the Serbs; he was now an honored guest, emissary from an allied tribe, whose words were heard with respect.)
Padre Marjan had written down the testator’s dying words in a notebook. He read them, those little mysterious marks on paper. They said that the man had made much land—every foot of earth is made by incredible labor of uprooting bowlders and building stone walls to catch washed-down soil—and he felt that he was leaving enough land to the tribe to stand as his contribution, without this one small piece. That piece he wished the tribe to give to the Church.
There was also a statement from the man’s wife, saying that her husband had long wished the Church to have that piece of land, and that she and her children wished it also.
“Those words are written words,” said Perolli, gravely, the eyes of all upon him. “Therefore they are holy words; they are as the words of the saints.”
“That is doubtless so,” said one of the chiefs. “But this man was not a saint, and, besides, how can he give away land? Land belongs to the tribe of Shala.”
“It is not as though I wished to take the land from Shala,” said Padre Marjan. “I do not want it for myself. I wish to build a school upon it, and the school will be for all the children of Shala. It will be for the good of the tribe, that their children can learn to read and write.”
“Glory to your lips,” said another chief. “But since it is for the children of Shala, let it be built on the land of Shala. Build our school upon it, and all our tribe will bless you.”
“But this man left the land to the Church, for the welfare of his soul. It is written here upon this paper that the land belongs to the Church. It is the Church that will build the school in Thethis; I myself am already teaching your children, and even when the new teacher comes from Tirana the school will be under my care. I am the servant of the Church in Thethis, and this land must belong to the Church.”
“We will think about it,” said the chiefs.