'Ay day, dalalay!' Eroshka translated the words of the song: 'A youth drove his sheep from the aoul to the mountains: the Russians came and burnt the aoul, they killed all the men and took all the women into bondage.

The youth returned from the mountains.

Where the aoul had stood was an empty space; his mother not there, nor his brothers, nor his house; one tree alone was left standing.

The youth sat beneath the tree and wept.
"Alone like thee, alone am I left,'" and Eroshka began singing: 'Ay day, dalalay!' and the old man repeated several times this wailing, heart-rending refrain.
When he had finished the refrain Eroshka suddenly seized a gun that hung on the wall, rushed hurriedly out into the yard and fired off both barrels into the air.

Then again he began, more dolefully, his 'Ay day, dalalay--ah, ah,' and ceased.
Olenin followed him into the porch and looked up into the starry sky in the direction where the shots had flashed.