Abstract
The proverbial Čehov's rifle on the wall in a drama doesn't need necessarily to be used in the plot. It may only synecdochically stay for a hunter's lodge and thus express the whole environment with all its connotations and expectations, i.e. with the respect to the genre: a fairytale, a horror, a Biedermeier idyll from the Alps, a document on Hitler, a farse on a poacher etc.
Any decoration is linked to a significant whole, or they are intended to destroy its expectations like in an experimental creation. In many Old Norse sagas, a critical or crucial event is decorated by reed.
Is it just a coincidence, or - if we don't believe in accident in language and text - has it within a text its significance? The answer to such a question may be found only by a comparison with another texts. Can be the clue found in proverbs, which are essentially based in cultural symbolism and which have synchronized its historical layers?