Intestine wars survived him, and continued for a long time; then came the plague and the Swedes. The Tartars were almost continual visitors in the Ukraine, carrying legions of people into captivity. The Commonwealth became a desert; a desert the Ukraine. Wolves howled on the ruins of former towns, and a land once flourishing became a mighty graveyard. Hatred grew into the hearts and poisoned the blood of brothers.
NOTES.
POLISH ALPHABET.
Since the Polish alphabet has many peculiar phonetic combinations which are difficult to one who does not know the language, it was decided to transliterate the names of persons and places in which such combinations occur in this book. The following are the letters and combinations which are met with most frequently:--
| Polish Letters. | English Sounds. |
| c | ts |
| cz | ch in "chief" |
| sz | sh in "ship" |
| szcz | shch |
| rz | r followed by the French j |
| w | v |
| ż | j in French |
In this transliteration ch retains its ordinary English sound. Kh is used as the German ch, or the Gaelic ch in "loch;" so is h, as in Hmelnitski, and a few names in which it is used at the beginning and preceding a consonant, where it has the power of the German ch. J is the French j; the vowels e, i, u, are, respectively, ai in "bait," ee in "beet," oo in "pool," when long; when short, "bet," "bit," "put" would represent their values.
The following names will illustrate the method of this transliteration:--
| Polish Form of Name. | Form in Transliteration. |
| Potocki | Pototski |
| Kulczinski | Kulchinski |
| Gdeszinski | Gdeshinski |
| Leszczinski | Leshchinski |
| Rzendzian | Jendzian |
| Woronczenko | Voronchenko |
| Żabkowski | Jabkovski |
In Jendzian the initial R has been omitted, on account of the extreme difficulty of its sound to any one not a Pole. In Skrzetuski, a very difficult name also, sh has been used instead of the French j, because in this word the two sounds are almost identical, and the sound of sh is known to all, while j is not.