lighted,
but they immediately seized the moujik and bound him with
cords, saying:

"No, no, trickster! We'll hand you over to the authorities.
Since you knew how to bring them back to life, maybe it was
you who killed them!"

"What are you thinking about, true believers! Have the
fear of God before your eyes!" cried the moujik.

Then he told them everything that had happened to him
during the night. Well, they spread the news through the
village; the whole population assembled and swarmed into the
graveyard. They found out the grave from which the dead man
had come out, they tore it open, and they drove an aspen stake
right into the heart of the corpse, so that it might no more rise
up and slay. But they rewarded the moujik richly, and sent him
away home with great honor.

It is not only during sleep that the Vampire is to be dreaded. At
cross-roads, or in the neighborhood of cemeteries, an animated corpse
of this description often lurks, watching for some unwary wayfarer
whom it may be able to slay and eat. Past such dangerous spots as
these the belated villager will speed with timorous steps,
remembering, perhaps, some such uncanny tale as that which comes next.

THE TWO CORPSES.[409]

A soldier had obtained leave to go home on furlough--to pray
to the holy images, and to bow down before his parents. And
as he was going his way, at a time when the sun had long set,
and all was dark around, it chanced that he had to pass by a
graveyard. Just then he heard that some one was running after
him, and crying:

"Stop! you can't escape!"

He looked back and there was a corpse running and gnashing
its teeth. The Soldier sprang on one side with all his
might to get away from it, caught sight of a little chapel,[410] and
bolted straight into it.

There wasn't a soul in the chapel, but stretched out on a
table there lay another corpse, with tapers burning in front of
it. The Soldier hid himself in a corner, and remained there,
hardly knowing whether he was alive or dead, but waiting to see
what would happen. Presently up ran the first corpse--the one
that had chased the Soldier--and dashed into the chapel. Thereupon
the one that was lying on the table jumped up, and cried
to it:

"What hast thou come here for?"

"I've chased a soldier in here, so I'm going to eat him."

"Come now, brother! he's run into my house. I shall eat
him mys