ghosts and vampires rose up at night. Old Zaporojians, sit-
ting around their fires, told marvellous tales of what took
place in those forest depths, from which issued the howling
of unknown beasts,--cries half human, half brute,--terri-
ble sounds as of battle or the chase. Under water was
heard the ringing of bells in submerged cities. The land was
inhospitable, little accessible, in places too soft, in places
suffering from lack of water,--parched, dry, and dangerous
to live in; for when men settled down there anyhow and
began to cultivate the land, they were swept away by Tar-
tar raids. But it was frequently visited by Zaporojians
while hunting--or, as they phrased it, while at "indus-
try"--along all the rivers, ravines, forests, and reedy
marshes, searching for beavers in places of which even the
existence was known to few.

And still settled life struggled to cling to those regions,
like a plant which seizes the ground with its roots wherever
it can, and though torn out repeatedly, springs up anew.
On desert sites rose towns, settlements, colonies, hamlets,
and single dwellings. The earth was fruitful in places, and
freedom was enticing. But life bloomed up first when
these lands came into possession of the princes Vishny-
evetski. Prince Michael, after his marriage with a Mol-
davian lady, began to put his domain beyond the Dnieper
into careful order. He brought in people, settled waste
regions, gave exemption from service for thirty years, built
monasteries, and introduced his princely authority. Even
a settler in that country from a time of unreckoned pri-
ority, who considered that he was on his own ground, was
willing to descend to the status of a tribute-payer, since for
his tribute he came under the powerful protection of the
prince who guarded him, - defended him from the Tartars
and the men from below, who were often worse than the
Tartars. But real activity commenced under the iron hand
of young Prince Yeremi. His possessions began immedi-
ately outside Chigirin, and ended at Konotop and Romni.
This did not constitute all the wealth of the prince, for
beginning at Sandomir his lands lay in the voevodstvos of
Volynia, Russia, and Kieff; but his domain beyond the
Dnieper was as the eye in his head to the victor of Putivl.

The Tartar lay long in wait on the Oryol or the Vorskla,
and sniffed like a wolf before he ventured to urge his horse
to the north. The men from below did not attempt attack.
The local disorderly bands entered service. Wild, plunder-