With Fire and Sword by Henryk Sienkiewicz (big ebook reader .txt) 📕

heaps and piles, was heard a low guttural howling, to which other howling responded at once.

“Vampires!” whispered a young Cossack, turning to the old essaul.

“No, werewolves,” answered the old essaul, in a still lower voice.

“O Lord, have mercy on us!” said others in terror, removing their caps and crossing themselves devoutly.

The horses began to point their ears forward and snort. Horpyna, riding at the head of the party, muttered unintelligible words, as it were a sort of Satanic Paternoster. When they had arrived at the other end of the mound, she turned and said⁠—

“Well, it is over. We are safe now. I had to keep them back with a charm, for they were very hungry.”

A sigh of relief came from every breast. Bogun and Horpyna rode ahead again; but the Cossacks, who a little while before had held their breaths, began to whisper and talk. Each one remembered what had happened to him when he met ghosts or werewolves.

“We couldn’t have passed without Horpyna,” said one.

“She is a powerful witch.”

“And our ataman does not fear even the werewolf. He didn’t look, didn’t listen, only turned toward his princess.”

“If what happened to me happened to him, he wouldn’t have been so free from danger,” said the old essaul.

“And what happened to you, Father Ovsivuyu?”

“Once, while riding from Reimentarovka to Gulaipolye, I passed near some mounds at night, and I saw something jump from a grave behind me on the saddle. I looked; it was a little child, blue and pale! Evidently the Tartars had taken it captive with its mother and it had died without baptism. Its eyes were burning like candles, and it wailed and wailed. It jumped from the saddle to my neck, and I felt it biting me behind the ear. O Lord, save us! it is a vampire! I had served long in Wallachia, where there are more vampires than people, but where there are weapons against them. I sprang from the horse and thrust my dagger into the ground. ‘Avaunt! disappear!’ and it groaned, seized the hilt of the dagger, and slipped down along the edge under the grass. I cut the ground in the form of a cross and rode off.”

“Are there so many vampires in Wallachia, father?”

“Every other Wallachian after death becomes a vampire, and the Wallachian vampires are the worst of all. They call them brukolaki.”

“And who is stronger, father⁠—the werewolf or the vampire?”

“The werewolf is stronger, but the vampire is more stubborn. If you are able to get the upper hand of the werewolf, he will serve you, but vampires are good for nothing except to follow blood. The werewolf is always ataman over the vampires.”

“And Horpyna commands the werewolves?”

“Yes, surely. As long as she lives she will command them. If she had not power over them, then the ataman would not give her his cuckoo, for werewolves thirst for maiden’s blood above all.”

“But I have heard that they have no approach to an innocent soul.”

“To a soul they have not, but to a body they have.”

“Oh, it would be a pity! She is a beauty. Blood and milk! our father knew what to take in Bar.”

Ovsivuyu smacked his tongue. “There is no denying it; she is a golden Pole.”

“But I am sorry for her,” said a young Cossack. “When we were putting her in the swing she clasped her white hands and begged, saying, ‘Kill me; do not ruin me, unfortunate one!’ ”

“No harm will come to her.”

Further conversation was interrupted by the approach of Horpyna.

“Hei! young men,” said the witch, “this is Tartar Valley, but don’t fear; it is terrible here only one night in the year. Right after it is the Devil’s Glen, and then my place.”

In fact, the howling of dogs was soon heard. The party entered the mouth of the glen, running at right angles to the river, and so narrow that four horses could hardly enter it abreast. At the bottom of this chasm flowed a rivulet, changing color in the light of the moon like a snake, and running quickly to the river. But as the party pushed on, the precipitous and jagged walls receded from each other, leaving a rather roomy, slightly ascending valley, enclosed at each side with cliffs. The place was covered here and there with lofty trees. No wind was blowing. Long, dark shadows of the trees lay on the ground, and in the spaces flooded with the light of the moon certain white, round, or prolonged objects gleamed sharply, in which the Cossacks recognized with terror the skulls and leg-bones of men. They looked around therefore with distrust, marking their foreheads from time to time with the cross. Soon a light glimmered in the distance between the trees, and at that same time two terrible dogs ran up, enormous, black, with gleaming eyes, barking and howling at the sight of the men and horses. At the voice of Horpyna they stopped, however, and began to run around the riders, sneezing and panting.

“They are not what they seem,” whispered the Cossacks.

“They are not dogs,” said old Ovsivuyu, in a voice betraying deep conviction.

Just then a cottage became visible behind the trees; back of it a stable; farther and higher up another dark building. The cottage appeared strong and well-built, and in its windows a light was shining.

“This is my dwelling,” said Horpyna to Bogun, “and up there is the mill which grinds grain for us; and I tell fortunes from the water on the wheel. I will tell yours. Your princess will live in the best chamber; but if you wish to ornament the walls, we can remove her to the other side immediately. Stop and dismount!”

The party halted, and Horpyna began to cry: “Cheremís, I say! Cheremís!”

A figure holding a bunch of burning pitch-pine came out in front of the cottage, and raising the torch, began to look in silence at those present. It was an old man, an ugly creature, small, quite