ABSTRACT
In the hot countries the sun burns very strongly; there the people become quite mahogany brown, and in the very hottest countries they are even burnt into negroes. But this time it was only to the hot countries that a learned man out of the cold regions had come. He thought he could roam about there just as he had been accustomed to do at home; but he soon altered his opinion. He and all sensible people had to remain at home; the window-shutters and doors were shut all day long; and it looked as if all the inmates were asleep or had gone out. The narrow street with the high houses in which he lived was, however, built in such a way that the sun shone upon it from morning till evening; it was really quite unbearable! The learned man from the cold regions was a young man and a clever man; it seemed to him as if he was sitting in a glowing oven; that exhausted him greatly, and he became quite thin; even his shadow shrivelled up and became much smaller than it had been at home; the sun even took the shadow away, and it did not return till the evening when the sun went down. It was really a pleasure to see this; so soon as a light was brought into the room the shadow stretched itself quite up the wall, farther even than
the ceiling, so tall did it make itself; it was obliged to stretch to get strength again. The learned man went out into the balcony to stretch himself; and so soon as the stars came out in the beautiful clear sky, he felt himself reviving. On all the balconies in the streets-and in the hot countries there is a balcony to every window-young people now appeared, for one must breathe fresh air, even if one has got used to becoming mahogany brown; then it became lively above and below; the tinkers and tailors-by which we mean all kinds of people-sat below in the street; then tables and chairs were brought out, and candles burned, yes, more than a thousand candles; one talked and then
sang, and the people walked to and fro; carriages drove past, mules trotted “Kling-ling-ling!” for they had bells on their harness. Dead people were buried with solemn songs; the church bells rang, and it was indeed very lively in the street. Only in one house, just opposite to that in which the learned man dwelt, it was quite quiet, and yet somebody lived there for there were flowers upon the balcony, blooming beautifully in the hot sun, and they could not have done this if they had not been watered, so that some one must have watered them. Therefore, there must be people in that house. Towards evening the door was half opened, but it was dark, at least in the front room; farther back, in the interior, music was heard. The strange learned man thought this music very lovely, but it was quite possible that he only imagined this, for out there in the hot countries he found everything requisite, if only there had been no sun. The stranger’s landlord said that he did not know who had taken the opposite house; one saw nobody there, and so far as the music was concerned it seemed very monotonous to him. “It was just,” he said, “as if some one sat there, always practising a piece that he could not manage-always the same piece. He seemed to say, ‘I shall manage it after all;’ but he did not manage it, however long he played.”
