"Speak, we are all here."
The men all pressed together in a close mass.
"And have you heard nothing of what has been going on in the Hetman's dominions?"
"What is it?" inquired one of the barrack atamáns.
"Eh! What? Evidently, a Tatár has plastered up your ears, that you might hear nothing."
"Tell us: what is going on there?"
"That is going on the like of which no man born or christened ever yet has seen."
"Tell us what it is, you son of a dog," shouted one of the crowd, apparently losing patience.
"Things have come to such a pass that our holy churches are no longer ours."
"How not ours?"
"They are leased to the Jews now. If the Jew is not first paid, there can be no service."
"What nonsense is this you're telling us?"
"And if the thrice-accursed dog of a Jew does not make a sign with his unclean hand over the holy paskha,[1] it cannot be blessed."
"He lies, brother nobles! It cannot be that an unclean Jew puts his mark upon the holy paskha."
"Listen! I have not yet told all. Roman Catholic priests are driving about all over the Ukraina, in carts. The harm lies not in the carts,
- ↑ The special Easter dish, made chiefly of curds. I. F. H.
