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.
[8] A Ruthenian by nationality, a Podolian by locality.
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.