A large number of young girls were to be kidnapped and sent to England in a red ship.

Why the ship was to be red I can easily explain, because in the peasants' language the conceptions of red and beautiful are expressed by the same word (krasny), and in the popular legends the epithet is indiscriminately applied to everything connected with princes and great personages; but what was to be done with the kidnapped maidens when they arrived at their destination, I never succeeded in discovering.
The most amusing instance of credulity which I can recall was the following, related to me by a peasant woman who came from the village where the incident had occurred.

One day in winter, about the time of sunset, a peasant family was startled by the entrance of a strange visitor, a female figure, dressed as St.Barbara is commonly represented in the religious pictures.

All present were very much astonished by this apparition; but the figure told them, in a low, soft voice, to be of good cheer, for she was St.Barbara, and had come to honour the family with a visit as a reward for their piety.

The peasant thus favoured was not remarkable for his piety, but he did not consider it necessary to correct the mistake of his saintly visitor, and requested her to be seated.