ould sit exhausted in
the same place.

What did not Pirdorka do? She consulted the sorceresses; and they poured
out fear, and brewed stomach ache (2)--but all to no avail. And so the
summer passed. Many a Cossack had mowed and reaped; many a Cossack, more
enterprising than the rest, had set off upon an expedition. Flocks of
ducks were already crowding the marshes, but there was not even a hint
of improvement.

(2) "To pour out fear" refers to a practice resorted to in case of
fear. When it is desired to know what caused this, melted lead or
wax is poured into water, and the object whose form it assumes is
the one which frightened the sick person; after this, the fear
departs. Sonyashnitza is brewed for giddiness and pain in the
bowels. To this end, a bit of stump is burned, thrown into a jug,
and turned upside down into a bowl filled with water, which is
placed on the patient's stomach: after an incantation, he is given
a spoonful of this water to drink.

It was red upon the steppes. Ricks of grain, like Cossack's caps, dotted
the fields here and there. On the highway were to be encountered waggons
loaded with brushwood and logs. The ground had become more solid, and
in places was touched with frost. Already had the snow begun to fall
and the branches of the trees were covered with rime like rabbit-skin.
Already on frosty days the robin redbreast hopped about on the
snow-heaps like a foppish Polish nobleman, and picked out grains of
corn; and children, with huge sticks, played hockey upon the ice; while
their fathers lay quietly on the stove, issuing forth at intervals
with lighted pipes in their lips, to growl, in regular fashion, at the
orthodox frost, or to take the air, and thresh the grain spread out in
the barn. At last the snow began to melt, and the ice slipped away: but
Peter remained the same; and, the more time went on, the more morose he
grew. He sat in the cottage as though nailed to the spot, with the sacks
of gold at his feet. He grew averse to companionship, his hair grew
long, he became terrible to look at; and still he thought of but
one thing, still he tried to recall something, and got angry and
ill-tempered because he could not. Often, rising wildly from his seat,
he gesticulated violently and fixed his eyes on something as though
desirous of catching it: his lips moving as though desirous of uttering
some long-forgotten word, but remaining speechless. Fury would