renowned Cossacks who wished to test their swords and muscles in an
encounter with the Tatars. There were likewise many brave Cossacks
among those who preferred to remain, including the kuren hetmans,
Demitrovitch, Kukubenko, Vertikhvist, Balan, and Ostap Bulba. Besides
these there were plenty of stout and distinguished warriors:
Vovtuzenko, Tcherevitchenko, Stepan Guska, Okhrim Guska, Vikola
Gonstiy, Zadorozhniy, Metelitza, Ivan Zakrutiguba, Mosiy Pisarenko,
and still another Pisarenko, and many others. They were all great
travellers; they had visited the shores of Anatolia, the salt marshes
and steppes of the Crimea, all the rivers great and small which empty
into the Dnieper, and all the fords and islands of the Dnieper; they
had been in Moldavia, Wallachia, and Turkey; they had sailed all over
the Black Sea, in their double-ruddered Cossack boats; they had
attacked with fifty skiffs in line the tallest and richest ships; they
had sunk many a Turkish galley, and had burnt much, very much powder
in their day; more than once they had made foot-bandages from velvets
and rich stuffs; more than once they had beaten buckles for their
girdles out of sequins. Every one of them had drunk and revelled away
what would have sufficed any other for a whole lifetime, and had
nothing to show for it. They spent it all, like Cossacks, in treating
all the world, and in hiring music that every one might be merry. Even
now few of them had amassed any property: some caskets, cups, and
bracelets were hidden beneath the reeds on the islands of the Dnieper
in order that the Tatars might not find them if by mishap they should
succeed in falling suddenly on the Setch; but it would have been
difficult for the Tatars to find them, for the owners themselves had
forgotten where they had buried them. Such were the Cossacks who
wished to remain and take vengeance on the Lyakhs for their trusty
comrades and the faith of Christ. The old Cossack Bovdug wished also
to remain with them, saying, "I am not of an age to pursue the Tatars,