Viy — Страница 30

This was already the second cockcrow; the gnomes
had mjssed the first. The frightened spirits rushed pell-mell for the
windows and doors in order to fly out quickly, but nothing doing: and so
they stayed there, stuck in the doors and windows. When the priest came in,
he stopped at the sight of such disgrace in God's sanctuary and did not dare
serve a panikhida⁹ in such a place. So the church remained
forever with monsters stuck in its doors and windows, overgrown with forest,
roots, weeds, wild blackthorn; and no one now can find the path to it.
when rumors of this reached Kiev and the theologian Khalyava heard,
finally, that such had been the lot of the philosopher Khoma, he fell to
thinking for a whole hour. In the meantime great changes had happened with
him. Fortune had smiled on him: upon completing his studies, he had been
made bell-ringer of the tallest belfry, and he almost always went about with
a bloody nose, because the wooden stairs of the belfry had been put together
every which way.
"Have you heard what happened with Khonia?" Tiberiy Goro-
bets, by then a philosopher and sporting a fresh mustache, said, coming
up to him.
"It's what God granted him," said the ringer Khalyava. "Let's go to the
tavern and commemorate his soul!"
The young philosopher, who had come into his rights with the passion of
an enthusiast, so that his trousers and frock coat and even his hat gave off
a whiff of spirits and coarse tobacco, instantly expressed his readiness.
"Khoma was a nice man!" said the ringer, as the lame tavern keeper set
the third mug down in front of him. "A fine man! And he perished for
nothing!"
"No, I know why he perished: because he got scared. If he hadn't been
scared, the witch couldn't have done anything to him. You just have to cross
yourself and spit right on her tail, and nothing will happen. I know all
about it. Here in Kiev, the women sitting in the marketplace are all
witches."
To this the ringer nodded as a sign of agreement. But, noticing that
his tongue was unable to articulate a single word, he carefully got up from
the table and, swaying from side to side, went off to hide himself in the
remotest part of the weeds. Withal not forgetting, out of long habit, to
steal an old boot sole that was lying on a bench.

Оригинальный текст книги: Библиотека Максима Мошкова.