Viy — Страница 23

He turned his eyes away, then again looked
with horror at the coffin. She's standing up ... she's walking through the
church with her eyes closed, constantly spreading her arms as if wishing to
catch someone.
She was walking straight toward him. In fear he drew a circle around
himself. With an effort he began reading prayers and reciting the
incantations that had been taught him by one monk who had seen witches and
unclean spirits ail his life.
She stood almost on the line itself; but it was clearly beyond her
power to cross it, and she turned all blue, like someone dead for several
days. Khoma did not have the courage to look at her. She was frightful. She
clacked her teeth and opened her dead eyes. But, seeing nothing, she turned
in the other direction with a fury that
showed in her twitching face and, spreading her arms, clutched with
them at every pillar and corner, trying to catch Khoma. Finally she stopped,
shook her finger, and lay down in her coffin.
The philosopher still could not come to his senses and kept glancing
fearfully at the witch's cramped dwelling. Finally the coffin suddenly tore
from its place and with a whistle began flying all through the church,
crossing the air in every direction. The philosopher saw it almost over his
head, buc at the same time he saw that it could not enter the circle he had
drawn, so he stepped up his incantations. The coffin crashed down in the
middle of the church and remained motionless. The corpse again rose up from
it, blue, turning green. But just then came the distant crowing of a cock.
The corpse sank back into the coffin and the coffin lid slammed shut.
The philosopher's heart was pounding and sweat streamed from him; but,
encouraged by the crowing of the cock, he quickly finished reading the pages
he ought to have read earlier. At daybreak he was relieved by the beadle and
gray-haired Yavtukh, who on this occasion performed the duties of a church
warden.
Having gone to lie down, the philosopher was unable to fall asleep for
a long time, but fatigue overcame him and he slept till dinner. When he woke
up, all the events of the night seemed to have happened in a dream. To
bolster his strength, he was given a pint of vodka. At dinner he quickly
relaxed, contributed observations on this and that, and ate a rather mature
pig almost by himself. However, he did not venture to speak of his
experiences in the church, from some feeling unaccountable to himself, and,
to the questions of the curious, replied: "Yes, there were all sorts of
wonders." The philosopher was one of those people in whom, once they have
been fed, an extraordinary philanthropy awakens. Pipe in his teeth, he lay
looking at them all with extraordinarily sweet eyes and kept spitting to the
side.