The Painted Bird by Jerzy Kosinski,
1965, Excerpts
A band of mounted men rode up to the village. There were a
hundred of them, perhaps more. They seemed to be one with their horses; they
rode with marvelous ease, without any set order. The peasants instantly
recognized them. They screamed in terror that the Kalmuks were coming and the
women and children must hide before they could be seized. The Kalmuks rode at
full gallop, bent over their horses, using their spurs and uttering hoarse
cries. Wild confusion seized the village. It was too late for flight. The
riders pulled up their horses between the houses. They jumped off their horses
and tied them up to fences.
The Kalmuks were now dragging a half-naked woman out of a
house. She struggled and screamed, trying in vain to catch her tormentors by
the legs. A group of women and girls was being rounded up with horsewhips by
some laughing riders. The fathers, husbands and brothers of the women ran about
begging for mercy, but were chased away with horsewhips and sabers. A farmer
ran through the main street with his hand cut off. Blood was spurting from the
stump while he kept looking for his family.
Nearby the soldiers had forced a woman to the ground. One
soldier held her by the throat while the others pulled her legs apart. One of
them mounted her moved on top of her to shouts of encouragement. The woman
struggled and cried. When the first was done the others assaulted her in turn.
The woman soon grew limp and did not fight back anymore.
Still another woman was brought out. She screamed and
begged, but the Kalmuts stripped her and threw her to the ground. Two men raped
her at once, one in the mouth. When she tried to twist her head aside or close
her mouth she was lashed with a bullwhip. Finally she weakened and submitted
passively. Some of the soldiers were raping from the front and from the back
two young girls, passing them from one man to the next, forcing them to perform
strange movements. When the girls resisted, they were flogged and kicked.
The screams of raped women were heard in all the houses. One
girl somehow managed to escape and ran out half naked, with blood streaming
down her thighs, howling like a whipped dog. Two half-naked soldiers ran after
her, laughing. They chased her around the square amidst the laughter and jokes
of their comrades. Finally they caught up with her. Weeping children looked on.
New victims were being caught all the time. The drunken
Kalmuks became more and more aroused. A few of them copulated with each other,
then competed in raping women in odd ways: two or three men to one girl,
several men in rapid succession. The younger and more desirable girls were
nearly torn apart, and some quarrels broke out among the soldiers. The women
sobbed and prayed.
A soldier threw a knife at one of the girls who was trying
to crawl away. She was left bleeding in the dirt; no one paid any attention to
her. Drunken Kalmuks handed women splattered with blood from one to another,
beating them, forcing them to perform odd acts. One of them rushed into a house
and brought out a small girl of about five. He lifted her high so that his
comrades could see her well. He tore off the child’s dress. He kicked her in
the belly while her mother crawled in the dust begging for mercy. He slowly
unbuttoned and took down his trousers, while still holding the little girl
above his waist with one hand. Then he crouched and pierced the screaming child
with a sudden thrust. When the girl grew limp, he threw her away into the
bushes and turned to the mother.
In the doorway of a house some half-naked soldiers were
fighting a powerfully built peasant. He stood on the threshold swinging an ax
in wild fury. When the soldiers finally overcame him, they dragged a
fear-numbed woman out of the house by her hair. Three soldiers sat on the
husband, while the others tortured and raped his wife.
Then they dragged out two of the man’s youthful daughters.
Seizing a moment when the Kalmuk’s grip him loosened, the peasant jumped up and
dealt a sudden blow to the nearest one. The soldier fell down, his skull
crushed like a swallow’s egg. Blood and white pieces of brains resembling the
meat of a cracked nut spilled through his hair. The enraged soldiers surrounded
the peasant, overpowered him, and raped him. Then they castrated him in front
of his wife and daughters. The frantic woman rushed to his defense, biting and
scratching. Roaring with delight, the Kalmuks held her fast, forced her mouth
open, and pushed the bloody scraps of flesh down her throat.
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