XX.—THE PLAGUE-SWARM.
A Ruthenian, having lost his wife and children by the
plague, fled into the forest from his desolate cottage and
sought safety there. He wandered about all day long;
towards evening he constructed a booth of branches, lit a
little fire, and fell asleep, wearied out. It was already after
midnight when a mighty noise awoke him. He rose to his
feet, listened, and heard a kind of songs in the distance,
and accompanying the songs a sound of tambourines and
fifes. He listened, in no small astonishment, that, when
death was raging around, people were rejoicing there so
merrily. The noise that he heard kept continually approaching,
and the terrified Podolian[8]
espied a swarming multitude
advancing along a wide road. It was a troop of strange-looking
spectres that circled round a carriage; the carriage
was black and elevated, and in it sat the Plague. At every
step the frightful company kept increasing; for on the road
almost everything was transformed into a spectre.
Feebly burned his little fire; a tolerably large firebrand
was still smoking a little. Scarcely had the plague-swarm
drawn near when the firebrand stood upon feet, extended
two arms—the burning part began to glitter with two
glaring eyes—it began to sing in concert with the others.
The villager was stupefied; in speechless terror he seized
his axe and was on the point of striking the nearest spectre,
but the axe flew out of his hands, transformed itself into a
tall woman with raven-black tresses, and, singing, vanished
before his eyes. The plague-swarm proceeded onwards; and
the Podolian saw how the trees, the bushes, the owls, the
screech-owls, assuming tall shapes, increased the multitude,
the terrible harbinger of a frightful death. He fell down
powerless, and when in the morning the warmth of the sun
awoke him, the vessels that he had brought with him were
smashed and broken, the clothes torn to rags, the provisions
spoilt. He perceived that no one but the plague-swarm had
done him all this mischief, and, thanking God that he had
at any rate escaped with life, proceeded further to seek
shelter and food.
