“White for the leader, white for the wheeler,
The pole lies bare on the one side.
Heigh! It’s not far to Galatz. Heigh!”
But if he met women and young girls then he sang a knowing song, rather like this:
“When I took my old wife
Eight lovers did sigh:
Three women already wed,
And five girls, in one village.”
They say, moreover, that one could not take the road, especially in the month of May, with a pleasanter or gayer man. Only sometimes, when you pretended not to see you were passing the door of a public house, because you did not feel inclined to soften old Nichifor’s throat, did you find him in a bad mood, but even on these occasions he would drive rapidly from one inn to the other. On one occasion, especially, old Nichifor coveted two mares which were marvels on the road, but at the inns, whether he wanted to or no, they used to halt, for he had bought them from a priest.