Page:Taras Bulba. A Tale of the Cossacks. 1916.djvu/90

84 gave him the money to take care of. Quarrels in the barracks among their inhabitants, were not infrequent; in such cases, they proceeded at once to blows. The inmates of the barracks swarmed out upon the square, and smashed in one another's ribs with their fists until one side finally prevailed and gained the upper hand, when the revelry began. Such was the Syech, which had such an attraction for young men.

Ostap and Andríi flung themselves into this sea of dissipation with all the ardour of youth, and forgot, in a twinkling, their father's house, the seminary, and everything which had hitherto perturbed their souls, and gave themselves up to their new life. Everything interested them,—the jovial habits of the Syech, and the not very complicated laws, which even seemed to them too strict for such a free republic. If a kazák stole the smallest trifle, it was regarded as a disgrace to the whole kazák community: he was tied to a pillar of shame, and an oaken club was laid beside him, with which each passer-by was bound to deal him a blow, until, in this manner, he was beaten to death. He who did not pay his debts was chained to a cannon, where he was forced to sit until some one of his comrades decided to ransom him by paying his debts for him.

But what made the deepest impression upon