Page:Taras Bulba. A Tale of the Cossacks. 1916.djvu/98

92 One of the chiefs took the mace and handed It to the newly-elected Koshevói. Kirdyaga, in accordance with custom, immediately refused it. The chief offered it a second time; Kirdyaga again declined it, and then, at the third offer, accepted it. A shout of approbation rang through the crowd, and again the whole plain resounded afar with the shout of the kazáks. Then there stepped forth from among the people, the four oldest of all, white moustached kazáks with white scalp-locks (there were no very old men in the Syech, for none of the Zaporozhtzi ever died a natural death), and taking each a handful of earth, which recent rains had converted into mud, they laid it on his head. The wet earth trickled down from his head, ran on his moustache and cheeks, and smeared his whole face with mud. But Kirdyaga stood motionless in his place, and thanked the kazáks for the honour they had shown him.

Thus ended the noisy election, as to which one cannot say whether It was as pleasing to the others as it was to Bulba: by means of it he had taken his revenge on the former Koshevói. Moreover, Kirdyaga was an old comrade of his, and had been on expeditions with him by land and sea, sharing the toils and hardships of war. The crowd immediately dispersed to celebrate the election, and such revelry ensued as Ostap and