They are such consummate thieves and rogues, that, according to an ancient
tradition still current among them, they once tricked the devil himself.
The story is as follows:--The devil had acquired a right to their fields,
on which they agreed with him, that when their crops were ripe, they should
retain the upper part and the devil should have the lower. They sowed all
their lands with wheat, and the devil of course had nothing but the straw
for his share. Next year the old gentleman, fully determined not to be
again so bamboozled, stipulated that the upper part should belong to him
and the lower to the Karpians; but then they sowed all their grounds with
beet, turnips, and other esculent roots, and so the devil got nothing but
the green tops for his portion.
_Memoirs of Artemi._