Page:Taras Bulba. A Tale of the Cossacks. 1916.djvu/99

Rh Andríi had not yet beheld. The dram-shops were attacked: mead, corn-brandy and beer were seized quite simply, without payment; the owners were glad enough to escape with whole skins themselves. The whole night passed amid shouts, and songs which celebrated war-like feats—and the rising moon gazed long at troops of musicians marching about the streets with banduras, round balaláikas and the church choir, who were kept to sing in church and to glorify the deeds of the Zaporozhtzi. At last drunkenness and fatigue began to overpower their strong heads, and here and there a kazák could be seen to fall upon the earth, and, comrade embracing comrade in fraternal fashion, maudlin and even weeping, both rolled upon the earth together. Here a whole group tumbled down in a heap; there a man chose the most comfortable position, and stretched straight out on a log of wood. This last, who was stronger, was still giving utterance to incoherent speeches; at last even he yielded to the power of intoxication, flung himself down—and all in the Syech slept.