Blk 1 SREDNI VASHTAR

Sredni Vashtar by SAKI (Hector Munro) (adapted)

SYNOPSIS
Sredni Vashtar is a short story written by Saki (Hector Hugh Munro) between 1900 and 1914 and initially published in his book Beasts and Super-Beasts. It has been adapted into a short film and a TV drama.
The story concerns a 10-year-old boy called Conradin, who lives with his strict cousin and guardian, Mrs. De Ropp. Conradin rebels against her and invents a new religion for himself, which centres around idolising a polecat-ferret he calls Sredni Vashtar; a vengeful, merciless god. Conradin keeps the polecat hidden in a cage in the garden shed, and worships the idol in secret. The story comes to a climax when his cousin sets out to discover his god.

In Hindi, Sherni means Tigress. Vastar is a region of India with hills and forests. Sherni Vastar in Hindi means The Tigress of Vastar region. Saki had strong connections with India.

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Conradin was ten years old, and the doctor had pronounced his opinion that the boy would not live another five years. The doctor counted for little[1], but his opinion was endorsed[2] by Mrs. De Ropp, who counted for nearly everything. Mrs. De Ropp was Conradin's cousin and guardian, and in his eyes she represented those three-fifths of the world that are necessary and disagreeable and real; the other two-fifths, were summed up in himself and his imagination. One of these days Conradin supposed he would succumb to the pressure of necessary things---such as illnesses and restrictions and dullness. Without his imagination, which was unrestrained in his loneliness, he would have succumbed long ago.

Mrs. De Ropp would never have confessed to herself that she disliked Conradin, though thwarting[3] him “for his good'' was a duty which she did not find irksome[4]. Conradin hated her with a sincerity which he was perfectly able to mask. Such few pleasures as he could contrive for himself gained a relish[5] from the likelihood that they would be displeasing to his guardian.

In the dull, cheerless garden, overlooked by so many windows that were ready to open with a message not to do this or that, he found little attraction. In a forgotten corner, however, almost hidden behind a shrubbery, was a disused tool-shed, and within its walls Conradin found a haven[i], something that became a playroom and a cathedral. He had peopled it with familiar phantoms, evoked partly from fragments of history and partly from his own brain, but it also boasted two inmates of flesh and blood. In one corner lived a ragged-plumaged Houdan hen, on which the boy lavished an affection that had scarcely another outlet. Further back in the gloom stood a large hutch[ii], divided into two compartments, one of which was fronted with close iron bars. This was the abode of a large polecat-ferret[iii], which a friendly butcher-boy had once smuggled, cage and all, into its present quarters, in exchange for silver. Conradin was dreadfully afraid of the sharp-fanged beast, but it was his most treasured possession. Its very presence in the tool-shed was a secret and fearful joy, to be kept from the knowledge of the Woman, as he privately dubbed[iv] his cousin.

And one day, he spun the beast a wonderful name, and from that moment it grew into a god and a religion. The Woman indulged in religion once a week at a church near by, and took Conradin with her, but to him the church service was an alien rite. Every Thursday, in the dim and musty silence of the tool-shed, he worshipped before the wooden hutch where dwelt Sredni Vashtar, the great ferret. Red flowers in their season and scarlet berries in the winter-time were offered at his shrine, for he was a god who laid stress on the impatient side of things, as opposed to the Woman's religion, which went to the contrary direction. And on great festivals, powdered nutmeg was strewn in front of his hutch. These festivals were of irregular occurrence, and were chiefly appointed to celebrate some passing event. On one occasion, when Mrs. De Ropp suffered from acute toothache for three days, Conradin kept up the festival during the entire three days, and almost succeeded in persuading himself that Sredni Vashtar was personally responsible for the toothache.

After a while Conradin's absorption in the tool-shed began to attract the notice of his guardian.

Vocabulary help

[1] Was not important
[2] approved
[3] Making him frustrated
[4] annoying
[5] Hearty enjoyment
[i] A place of refuge or rest
[ii] A coop for small animals
[iii] A weasellike, mammal often trained to hunt rats or rabbits.
[iv] nicknamed

``It is not good for him to be pottering down there in all weathers,'' she promptly decided, and at breakfast one morning she announced that the Houdan hen had been sold and taken away overnight. With her short-sighted eyes she peered at Conradin, waiting for an outbreak of rage and sorrow. But Conradin said nothing: there was nothing to be said. Something perhaps in his white set face gave her a momentary qualm, for at tea that afternoon there was toast on the table, a delicacy which she usually banned on the ground that it was bad for him;
``I thought you liked toast,'' she exclaimed, with an injured air, observing that he did not touch it.``Sometimes,'' said Conradin.


In the shed that evening there was an innovation in the worship of the hutch-god. Conradin had been wont[i] to chant his praises, tonight he asked a boon[ii].

``Do one thing for me, Sredni Vashtar.''

The thing was not specified. As Sredni Vashtar was a god he must be supposed to know. And choking back a sob as he looked at that other empty comer, Conradin went back to the world he so hated.

And every night, in the welcome darkness of his bedroom, and every evening in the dusk of the tool-shed, Conradin's bitter litany[iii] went up: "Do one thing for me, Sredni Vashtar."

Mrs. De Ropp noticed that the visits to the shed did not cease, and one day she made a further journey of inspection.

"What are you keeping in that locked hutch?" she asked. "I believe it's guinea-pigs. I'll have them all cleared away."

Conradin shut his lips tight, but the Woman ransacked his bedroom till she found the carefully hidden key, and marched down to the shed to complete her discovery. It was a cold afternoon, and Conradin had been bidden to keep to the house. From the furthest window of the dining-room the door of the shed could just be seen, and there Conradin stationed himself. He saw the Woman enter, and then he imagined her opening the door of the sacred hutch and peering down with her short-sighted eyes into the thick straw bed where his god lay hidden. Perhaps she would prod at the straw in her clumsy impatience. And Conradin fervently breathed his prayer for the last time. But he knew as he prayed that he did not believe. He knew that the Woman would come out presently with that pursed smile he loathed so well, and that in an hour or two the gardener would carry away his wonderful god, a god no longer, but a simple brown ferret in a hutch. And he knew that the Woman would triumph always, and that he would grow ever more sickly under her pestering and domineering and superior wisdom, till one day nothing would matter much more with him, and the doctor would be proved right. And in the sting and misery of his defeat, he began to chant loudly and defiantly[iv] the hymn of his threatened idol:

Sredni Vashtar went forth,
His thoughts were red thoughts and his teeth were white.
His enemies called for peace, but he brought them death.
Sredni Vashtar the Beautiful.

Vocabulary help
[i] Accustomed; used to
[ii] A timely blessing
[iii] A prayer consisting of a series of requests
[iv] Boldly resisting


And then of a sudden he stopped his chanting and drew closer to the window-pane. The door of the shed still stood ajar as it had been left, and the minutes were slipping by. They were long minutes, but they slipped by nevertheless. He watched the starlings running and flying in little parties across the lawn; he counted them over and over again, with one eye always on that swinging door. A sour-faced maid came in to lay the table for tea, and still Conradin stood and waited and watched. Hope had crept by inches into his heart, and now a look of triumph began to blaze in his eyes that had only known the wistful patience of defeat. Under his breath, with a furtive exultation, he began once again the paean[v] of victory and devastation. And presently his eyes were rewarded: out through that doorway came a long, low, yellow-and-brown beast, with eyes a-blink at the waning daylight, and dark wet stains around the fur of jaws and throat. Conradin dropped on his knees. The great polecat-ferret made its way down to a small brook at the foot of the garden, drank for a moment, then crossed a plank bridge and was lost to sight in the bushes. Such was the passing of Sredni Vashtar.

"Tea is ready," said the sour-faced maid; "where is the mistress?" "She went down to the shed some time ago," said Conradin. And while the maid went to summon her mistress to tea, Conradin fished a toasting-fork and proceeded to toast himself a piece of bread. And during the toasting of it and the buttering of it with much butter and the slow enjoyment of eating it, Conradin listened to the noises and silences which fell in quick spasms beyond the dining-room door. The loud foolish screaming of the maid, the answering chorus from the kitchen region, the scuttering footsteps and hurried cries for outside help, and then, after a lull, the scared sobbings and the shuffling steps into the house.

"Whoever will break it to the poor child? I couldn't for the life of me!" exclaimed a shrill voice. And while they debated the matter among themselves, Conradin made himself another piece of toast.


Vocabulary help
[v] A fervent expression of joy or praise: