person
Yefim
also: Ефим, the herdsman, the shepherd
A decrepit one-eyed herdsman who, driving his herd to the watering place, abandons his flock to join the burbot-wrestling and is later chased off by the barin for neglecting his duty; his fussy, self-important commentary on the 'right' way to land the fish is one of the story's comic engines.
Reading notes
- The Burbot §21 herdsman Yefim
A village herdsman (pastukh) drove the collective livestock of a village or estate -- sheep, horses, cows together -- to pasture and water on a fixed daily round; abandoning the herd, as Yefim does here, was a serious dereliction that gets him shouted at later in the story.