"Gurdjieff, G I - Beelzebubs Tales To His Grandson" - читать интересную книгу автора (Gurdjieff G I)

Another boy, leaning just opposite me, from whose mouth, by the way, whenever he spoke saliva always
splashed abundantly in all directions, snapped at this remark of the first boy and delivered himself, with a
copious quantity of saliva, of the following words:
"Shut your trap, you hopeless mongrel offshoot of the Hottentots! What an abortion you are, just like
your teacher! Suppose it is true that the greatest physical force of the pigeon is concentrated in that big
toe, then all the more, what we've got to do is to see that just that toe will be caught in the noose. Only
then will there be any sense to our aim—that is to say, for catching these unfortunate pigeon
creatures—in that brain-particularity proper to all possessors of that soft and slippery 'something' which
consists in this, that when, thanks to other actions, from which its insignificant manifestability depends,
there arises a periodic requisite law conformable what is called 'change of presence', then this small so to
say 'law conformable confusion' which should proceed for the animation of other acts in its general
functioning, immediately enables the center of gravity of the whole functioning, in which this slippery
'something' plays a very small part, to pass temporarily from its usual place to another place, owing to
which there often obtains in the whole of this general functioning, unexpected results ridiculous to the
point of absurdity."
He discharged the last words with such a shower of saliva that it was as if my face were exposed to the
action of an "atomizer"—not of "Ersatz" production—invented by the Germans for dyeing material with
aniline dyes.
This was more than I could endure, and without changing my squatting position, I flung myself at him,
and my head, hitting him with full force in the pit of his stomach, immediately laid him out and made
him as is said "lose consciousness."
I do not know and do not wish to know in what spirit the result will be formed in your mentation of the
information about the extraordinary coincidence, in my opinion, of life circumstances, which I now
intend to describe here, though for my mentation, this coincidence was excellent material for the
assurance of the possibility of the fact that this event described by me, which occurred in my youth,
proceeded not simply accidentally but was intentionally created by certain extraneous forces.
The point is that this dexterity was thoroughly taught me only a few days before this event by a Greek
priest from Turkey, who, persecuted by Turks for his political convictions, had been compelled to flee
from there, and having arrived in our town had been hired by my parents as a teacher for me of the
modern Greek language.
I do not know on which data he based his political convictions and ideas, but I very well remember that
in all the conversations of this Greek priest, even while explaining to me the difference between the
words of exclamation in the ancient and in modern Greek, there were indeed always very clearly
discernible his dreams of getting as soon as possible to the island of Crete and there manifesting himself
as befits a true patriot.
Well, then, on beholding the effect of my skill, I was, I must confess, extremely frightened, because,
knowing nothing of any such reaction from a blow in that place, I quite thought I had killed him.
At the moment I was experiencing this fear, another boy, the cousin of him who had become the first
victim of my so to say "skill in self-defense", seeing this, without a moment's pause, and obviously
overcome with a feeling called "consanguinity", immediately leaped at me and with a full swing struck
me in the face with his fist.
From this blow, I, as is said, "saw stars", and at the same time my mouth became as full as if it had been
stuffed with the food necessary for the artificial fattening of a thousand chickens.
After a little time when both these strange sensations had calmed down within me, I then actually
discovered that some foreign substance was in my mouth, and when I pulled it out with my fingers, it
turned out to be nothing less than a tooth of large dimensions and strange form.
Seeing me staring at this extraordinary tooth, all the boys swarmed around me and also began to stare at
it with great curiosity and in a strange silence.
By this time the boy who had been laid out flat recovered and, picking himself up, also began to stare at
my tooth with the other boys, as if nothing had happened to him.