"Well, it is over. We are safe now. I had to keep them back with a charm, for they were very hungry."
A sigh of relief came from every breast. Bogun and Horpyna rode ahead again; but the Cossacks, who a little while before had held their breaths, began to whisper and talk. Each one remembered what had happened to him when he met ghosts or werewolves.
"We couldn't have passed without Horpyna," said one.
"She is a powerful witch."
"And our ataman does not fear even the werewolf. He didn't look, didn't listen, only turned toward his princess."
"If what happened to me happened to him, he wouldn't have been so free from danger," said the old essaul.
"And what happened to you, Father Ovsivuyu?"
"Once, while riding from Reimentarovka to Gulaipolye, I passed near some mounds at night, and I saw something jump from a grave behind me on the saddle. I looked; it was a little child, blue and pale! Evidently the Tartars had taken it captive with its mother and it had died without baptism. Its eyes were burning like candles, and it wailed and wailed. It jumped from the saddle to my neck, and I felt it biting me behind the ear. O Lord, save us! it is a vampire! I had served long in Wallachia, where there are more vampires than people, but where there are weapons against them. I sprang from the horse and thrust my dagger into the ground. 'Avaunt! disappear!' and it groaned, seized the hilt of the dagger, and slipped down along the edge under the grass. I cut the ground in the form of a cross and rode off."
"Are there so many vampires in Wallachia, father?"
"Every other Wallachian after death becomes a vampire, and the Wallachian vampires are the worst of all. They call them brukolaki."