“What’s that? What’s that? A dog? A dog? Akh, thou damned Nikonian!”[39]
“Wait a bit, old man,”—said I,—“before thou cursest; but it would be better for thee to come hither thyself. Things deserving of wonder are going on here,”—said I.
The old man fussed about behind the partition and entered my room with a candle, a slender one, of yellow wax; and I was amazed as I looked at him! He was all bristling, with shaggy ears and vicious eyes like those of a polecat; on his head was a small skull-cap of white felt; his beard reached to his girdle and was white also; and he had on a waistcoat with brass buttons over his shirt, and fur boots on his feet, and he disseminated an odour of juniper. In that condition he went up to the holy pictures, crossed himself thrice with two fingers[40] lighted the shrine-lamp, crossed himself again, and turning to me, merely grunted:
“Explain thyself!”
Thereupon, without the least delay, I communicated to him all the circumstances. The old man listened to all my explanations without uttering the smallest word; he simply kept shaking his head. Then he sat down on my bed, still maintaining silence. He scratched his breast, the back of his head, and other places, and still remained silent.
“Well, Feodúl Ivánitch,”—said I, “what is thy opinion: is this some sort of visitation of the Evil One, thinkest thou?”
The old man stared at me.—“A pretty thing thou hast invented! A visitation of the Evil One, forsooth! ’Twould be all right at thy house, thou tobacco-user,—but ’tis quite another thing here! Only consider how many holy things there are here! And thou must needs have a visitation of the devil!—And if it isn’t that, what is it?”
The old man relapsed into silence, scratched himself again, and at last he said, but in a dull sort of way, because his moustache kept crawling into his mouth:
“Go thou to the town of Byéleff. There is only one man who can help thee. And that man dwells in Byéleff;[41] he is one of our people. If he takes a fancy to help thee, that’s thy good luck; if he doesn’t take a fancy,—so it must remain.”
“But how am I to find him?”—said I.