" "What stupid orders! They don't themselves know what they are doing!" said the officer and rode off.

Then a general rode past shouting something angrily, not in Russian.

"Tafa-lafa! But what he's jabbering no one can make out," said a soldier, mimicking the general who had ridden away.

" I'd shoot them, the scoundrels!" "We were ordered to be at the place before nine, but we haven't got halfway.