[18] A little Russian song.—Translator.
[19] The popular nickname among Great Russians for the Little Russians.—Translator.
[20] Literally, “dear little father”: the genuinely Russian mode of address to a man of any class, as mátushka (“dear little mother”) is for women of all classes.—Translator.
[21] The poem, after describing the deadly qualities of the upas-tree, narrates how a potentate sent one of his slaves to bring him flowers from it. The slave, thoroughly aware of his danger, fulfilled his sovereign’s behest, returned with branches of the tree, and dropped dead.—Translator.
[22] It should be Akím, popular for Iakínthos, Hyacinth.—Translator.
[23] The unpoetical Russian name is “chicken-blindness” (night-blindness).—Translator.
[24] The eighth (out of fourteen) in Peter the Great’s Table of Ranks.—Translator.
[25] “S’,” a polite addition to sentences, equivalent to a contraction of the words for “sir” or “madam.”—Translator.
[26] The fourth from the top in the Table of Ranks.—Translator.
[27] The figures in the mazurka are like those in the cotillon (which is often danced the same evening), but the step is very animated and original.—Translator.