Page:Leskov - The Sentry and other Stories.djvu/315

 Rh richly ornamented Indian idol, and to complete this resemblance with an idol and its fantastic appearance, from under the feet of my wonderful visitor sparks of silver dust spurted out on all sides, and he seemed to float upon them as on a light cloud, looking at the very least like the legendary Hermes.

While I was examining him he—this wonderful spirit—came nearer and nearer and at last was quite close to me, a moment more and he had covered me with snow dust, stuck his fairy wand into the snow and exclaimed:

"How do you do, Bachka?"

I could not believe either my eyes or my ears; this wonderful spirit was, of course, my savage. Now it was no longer possible to make a mistake: the same snow-shoes were under his feet, on which he had run away—on his back he had others; before me, stuck in the snow, was his long staff, and in his arms there was a whole bear's ham, fur and all, with its paw and claws. But in what was he clad—how was he transfigured?

Without waiting for any reply to his greeting, he thrust this bear's meat into my face and roared:

"Grub, Bachka," and he himself sat down on the snow and began to take off his snow-shoes.