Father used to come home--I still remember it--quite red and swollen, without a cap, having lost everything: he'd come and lie down.

Mother knew what to do: she would bring him some fresh caviar and a little chikhir to sober him up, and would herself run about in the village looking for his cap.

Then he'd sleep for two days! That's the sort of fellows they were then! But now what are they ?' 'Well, and the girls in the sarafans, did they make merry all by themselves ?' asked Beletski.
'Yes, they did! Sometimes Cossacks would come on foot or on horse and say, "Let's break up the khorovods," and they'd go, but the girls would take up cudgels.

Carnival week, some young fellow would come galloping up, and they'd cudgel his horse and cudgel him too.

But he'd break through, seize the one he loved, and carry her off.