Tell me,' asked Stas, 'what is a wicked deed?' 'If anyone takes away Kali's cow,' he answered after a brief reflection, 'that then is a wicked deed.' 'Excellent!' exclaimed Stas, 'and what is a good one?' This time the answer came without any reflection: 'If Kali takes away the cow of somebody else, that is a good deed.' Stas was too young to perceive that similar views of evil and good deeds were enunciated in Europe not only by politicians but by whole nations.

In Desert and Wilderness (W pustyni i w puszczy 1912). He ended up transferring to the Institute of Philology and History where he acquired a thorough knowledge of literature and Old Polish. In 1884 Jacek Malczewski exhibited tableaux vivants inspired by With Fire and Sword.

A Polish szlachcic (noble) of the Oszyk coat of arms he was one of the most popular Polish writers at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries and received the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1905 for his "outstanding merits as an epic writer. "
Born into an impoveriHenryk Sienkiewiczd noble family in Russian-ruled Poland Sienkiewicz wrote historical novels set during the Rzeczpospolita (Polish Republic or Commonwealth).