Partridges

Partridges serve as more than game in Kuba’s story: they are the small, tangible gift through which he experiences kindness and dignity, and the catch that draws him into a commercial arrangement with Jankiel. Their movement from Kuba’s snare to the priest’s household and then into a proposed market exchange links subsistence, recognition, and the lure of money without making the birds themselves anything other than caught animals.

From the Snare to the Priest’s Garden

Kuba carries a bundle of birds beneath his capote when he hurries toward church, impatient to deliver them before the bells finish. He tells Witek the Stork-Keeper to bring the cattle into the byre and follow, then sets off with his bad limp. The scene makes the gift a deliberate errand: Kuba chooses to interrupt the morning’s routine and bring his catch to the parish priest.

The Parish Priest of Lipce is gathering fallen pears and apples in his cassock when Kuba intercepts him and offers the partridges. The priest welcomes him and brings him inside. Kuba remains at the threshold, awed by the pictures and the polished floor; he crosses himself but is afraid to kneel lest he soil it. The birds have brought him into a space that feels beautiful and intimidating, though he is not yet at ease within it.

The priest blesses Kuba, praises his piety and regular Sunday attendance, and gives him a whole zloty. Kuba recalls that he has often brought the priest birds, a hare, or mushrooms, but that he had previously received at most ten groszy or a kind word. This time the money is accompanied by an invitation inside and words of approval. Kuba is so moved that tears come to his eyes. The partridges matter here through the response they elicit: the exchange lets a man accustomed to being dismissed feel that someone has treated him as worthy of respect.

A Gift Measured Against Village Contempt

As Kuba walks toward the church, he contrasts the priest’s regard with the village’s habitual treatment of him. He believes that people call him crippled, foolish, and a sponger, while offering him no kind word or pity. He insists to himself that he was born there, is a farmer’s son rather than a foundling or vagrant, and is a true Christian and Catholic. The priest’s welcome after receiving the birds sharpens that contrast; Kuba lifts his head and walks more proudly, drawing himself up as best he can despite his crooked leg.

The change is not simply that Kuba has acquired money. He has been thanked, addressed kindly, and received into a house he had feared to enter. His response gives the partridges a social meaning without turning them into a symbol detached from their practical value: they are the offering he can make, and the occasion for a recognition otherwise scarce in his life. The scene also establishes that he has brought the priest small gifts before, so this act belongs to a recurring practice rather than a single chance encounter.

Jankiel’s Offer

Later, Jankiel patiently asks whether Kuba made money in the forest. Kuba corrects him: the birds were caught in a snare, and he took six to the priest, who gave him a zloty. Jankiel replies that he would pay ten groszy apiece. Kuba is astonished, and his question about whether partridges are kosher shows that he is trying to understand the terms of the offer as well as its value.

Jankiel urges him to bring more birds and offers liquor to seal the arrangement. He makes the prospective return concrete by calculating what Kuba might obtain for six: instead of two pints of ordinary vodka, he says, Kuba could have four pints of arak with herring, a roll, and tobacco. Kuba repeats the list and reckons through it as the drink begins to affect him. The partridges have become not a personal gift rewarded by the priest’s generosity but goods with a stated price and a promised buyer.

From Partridges to a Hunting Partnership

The conversation widens beyond the birds. Kuba says that if he had a shotgun he could do more, then calculates the cost of a sheepskin, shoes, and a gun. When Jankiel asks whether he knows how to shoot, Kuba answers that the village knows he once went into the forest with the squires and that his leg was shot there. The earlier injury thus enters the same conversation as the proposed means of earning money: Kuba’s experience in the forest is both a qualification and a reminder of its danger.

Jankiel offers to obtain a shotgun, powder, and what else is needed, proposing a rouble for a deer. He sets out further conditions: the powder will be charged at fifteen kopecks apiece, and damage to the shotgun will have to be paid for with a quart of oats. Kuba repeatedly checks the promised price, while Jankiel lists the terms and works them out. The surviving evidence records a proposal and Kuba’s agreement to bring game, not the eventual results of the arrangement. Within that exchange, the partridges are the point of entry: the modest catch first earns Kuba a startlingly generous response from the priest, then reveals to Jankiel a possible buyer and opens the prospect of a riskier, better-equipped pursuit of game.