[FOOTNOTES:]
[1] A verst is two-thirds of a mile.—TRANS.
[2] This muddling of “Emir of Bukhara” is only one example of the ignorant combinations and locutions used by the peasant characters.—TRANS.
[3] A play on words, “tar” in the second sentence meaning “liquor.”—TRANS.
[4] “Matushka” and “batiushka” (literally, “Little Mother” and “Little Father”) are the characteristic Russian formula for addressing elderly strangers, regardless of class distinctions.—TRANS.
[5] A desyatina is a unit of land measurement equalling 2.07 acres.—TRANS.
[6] When a man or woman begins to get on in the world his admiring neighbours signalize their appreciation by adding to the Christian name the patronymic, as if the clever one were of gentle (noble) birth. In this story, Tikhon soon receives the public acknowledgment of success, having begun as plain “Tikhon.” Peasant-fashion, “Nikititch” was transmuted into “Mikititch.”—TRANS.
[7] Sharpers who pretend to be the poverty-stricken descendants of the Tatar Princes who ruled Kazan before it was conquered, during the rein of Ivan the Terrible.—TRANS.
[8] A straight, loose gown, falling from the armpits, worn by unmarried girls.—TRANS.