They were either frightened at the arrival of the young men, who did not care to be familiar with anyone; or else they merely wanted to keep up their feminine custom of screaming and rushing away headlong at the sight of a man, and then screening their blushes for some time with their sleeves.

The hut was furnished according to the fashion of that period--a fashion concerning which hints linger only in the songs and lyrics, no longer sung, alas! in the Ukraine as of yore by blind old men, to the soft tinkling of the native guitar, to the people thronging round them--according to the taste of that warlike and troublous time, of leagues and battles prevailing in the Ukraine after the union.

Everything was cleanly smeared with coloured clay.

On the walls hung sabres, hunting-whips, nets for birds, fishing-nets, guns, elaborately carved powder-horns, gilded bits for horses, and tether-ropes with silver plates.

The small window had round dull panes, through which it was impossible to see except by opening the one moveable one.