n to distinguish a small, iron-bound coffer. He tried to
seize it; but the chest began to sink into the earth, deeper, farther,
and deeper still: and behind him he heard a laugh, more like a
serpent's hiss. "No, you shall not see the gold until you procure
human blood," said the witch, and led up to him a child of six,
covered with a white sheet, indicating by a sign that he was to cut
off his head. Petro was stunned. A trifle, indeed, to cut off a man's
or even an innocent child's head for no reason whatever! In wrath he
tore off the sheet enveloping his head, and behold! before him stood
Ivas. And the poor child crossed his little hands, and hung his
head.... Petro flew upon the witch with the knife like a madman, and
was on the point of laying hands on her....

"What did you promise for the girl?" ... thundered Basavriuk; and like
a shot he was on his back. The witch stamped her foot: a blue flame
flashed from the earth; it illumined it all inside, and it was as if
moulded of crystal; and all that was within the earth became visible,
as if in the palm of the hand. Ducats, precious stones in chests and
kettles, were piled in heaps beneath the very spot they stood on. His
eyes burned, ... his mind grew troubled.... He grasped the knife like
a madman, and the innocent blood spurted into his eyes. Diabolical
laughter resounded on all sides. Misshaped monsters flew past him in
herds. The witch, fastening her hands in the headless trunk, like a
wolf, drank its blood.... All went round in his head. Collecting all
his strength, he set out to run. Everything turned red before him. The
trees seemed steeped in blood, and burned and groaned. The sky glowed
and glowered.... Burning point, like lightning, flickered before his
eyes. Utterly exhausted, he rushed into his miserable hovel, and fell
to the ground like a log. A death-like sleep overpowered him.

Two days and two nights did Petro sleep, without once awakening. When
he came to himself, on the third day, he looked long at all the
corners of his hut; but in vain did he endeavour to recollect; his
memory was like a miser's pocket, from which you cannot entice a
quarter of a kopek. Stretching himself, he heard something clash at
his feet. He looked--two bags of gold. Then only, as if in a dream, he
recollected that he had been seeking some treasure, that something had
frightened him in the woods.... But at what price he had obtained it,
and how, he could by no means understa