: A cycle of eight stories written on behalf of a hospitable beekeeper who arranges the best gatherings on the farm. The beekeeper wrote down the stories heard on them in order to amuse and frighten the people.
Foreword
The preface is written on behalf of the beekeeper from Dikanka, whom the villagers nicknamed Rudy Pank. He describes winter gatherings that look like balls, but they gather there "not to turn their feet and yawn in the hand." Girls come to gatherings with spindles, then little hacks with violins are stuffed into the hut and the fun begins. And after "they all get together in a tight pile" and begin to "carry on chatter." What fears you will not hear then! In this book he collected “fears” and stories told by his neighbors.
The best gatherings in Dikanka - in the Rudy Pank hut. In conclusion, the beekeeper invites everyone to visit him and explains how to get to Dikanka.
Sorochinskaya fair
Solopiy Cherevik with his daughter, the beautiful Paraska and her stepmother went to the fair in the town of Sorochinets. On the way to Paraska, a dapper-dressed couple laid his eyes and started a squabble with a tongue-in-cheek stepmother.
Stopping at the godfather, Cherevik and her daughter went to the fair and found out that merchant people were afraid of the appearance of the red scroll. Then a gape Cherevik discovered that Paraska was hugging with his old couple. He treated Cherevik with beer and had already agreed on a wedding, but the stepmother did not approve of the groom.
Towards evening, a red scroll appeared at the fair, the story of which was told to Cherevik by godfather. The devil, expelled from the hell for a certain offense, drank his red scroll in a shred, which went hand in hand, bringing its owners only misfortunes. The last of them chopped a scroll and scattered pieces around. Since then, every year the devil walks around the fair and collects them.
To achieve the beautiful Parasque, the couple took advantage of this legend. At first, his friends scared everyone to death by putting scary pig snouts in the windows of the kum's hut, then they threw a piece of red scroll into Cherevik, accused him and the kum of stealing his own mare, tied it up and threw it into the barn. From there they were "saved" by the couple and received Parasky's hand.
Evening on the eve of Ivan Kupala
About a hundred years ago, the Kozak Korzh lived in Dikanka with his young son Ivas, the beautiful daughter Pidorka and employee Petrus. Noticing that the daughter and the worker fell in love, Korzh kicked Petrus out of the house, and Pidorku decided to marry a rich lyah.
To help Petrus, Basavryuk volunteered, "the devil in a human form." He offered untold wealth for a fern flower. Petrus picked a flower, and blue, like a dead man, Basavryuk led him to the witch. She whispered over the flower, and he indicated the place where the treasure was buried. To dig up the chest, it was necessary to shed innocent blood, and Petrus, whose mind was clouded, killed Ivas.
Having woken up, Petrus, who did not remember anything, carried gold to Korzh, and soon they got married. The holiday was overshadowed only by the disappearance of Ivas. Pert was trying to remember everything that was with him that night, and soon he went wild completely.
On the eve of Kupala, Pidorka brought a medicine woman to her husband, in which Petrus recognized the witch, immediately remembered everything and launched an ax into her. Then the witch turned into Ivasia, who was covered in blood, and Pidorka ran out of the house in fear, and when she returned, she found a handful of ash instead of Petrus, and broken shards instead of gold.
Soon Pidorka went on a pilgrimage, and the returning Basavryuk was bypassed by everyone - the sorcerer lured the good fellows to tear away treasures that were not given to unclean hands.
May night, or the Drowned Woman
The young Cossack Levko, the son of a village head, fell in love with the beautiful Gann, but his father did not want to hear about the wedding. Once Levko told Gann about a house with boarded up shutters at the pond. The centurion-widower who lived there once with his daughter married. His wife disliked her stepdaughter and made the centurion drive her daughter out of the house. Pannochka rushed into the lake, became a drowned woman and once dragged her stepmother to the bottom, but she avoided punishment, becoming a drowned herself.
Soon Levko found out that his widowed father wanted to marry Gann, and decided to take revenge on him. Little couple with friends, dressed in black sheepskin coats inside out, began to chase and scare the head.
Crouching to rest by the pond, Levko saw a window in the window of the boarded up house. She complained to him about her stepmother, who does not cease to torment her, and asked to find one among the other drowned women, promising a reward.
Levko quickly recognized the witch among other ghostly girls, and the little lady gave him a note for the head, in which a certain lieutenant forbade him to marry and gave many important assignments. Levko handed the note to his father, having invented a meeting with the lieutenant, and his head allowed his son to play a wedding.
Missing Certificate
The grandfather of one of the inhabitants of Dikanka was sent by a noble hetman with a letter to the queen. Having sewed the letter in a hat, the grandfather went on a journey, but on the road took a walk with a certain Cossack. In the evening, the Cossack admitted that he had sold his soul to the unclean, and that night he would come for debt. Grandfather promised not to sleep all night and help the Cossack, but, as he was not fastening, he fell asleep anyway. Having woken up in the morning, the grandfather discovered that the Cossack disappeared along with horses, money and a hat with a letter.
Shinkar told his grandfather where to find the devil, and he went to get a letter. At night, the grandfather went deep into the forest and went to the fire, around which terrible faces were sitting. Grandfather told them about his business, threw all the remaining money to the fire and found himself at a laid table surrounded by devils and witches.
One witch suggested that grandfather play thrice three times. Will win - will return the cap, lose - will never see the light of God. Grandfather agreed and lost twice, and then crossed the cards secretly and won. Having received the cap, he plundered and demanded his horse back. It turned out that the devils ate his horse. In exchange, the grandfather received a devil's horse, which carried him over the abysses and terrible steepness.
Unable to resist, his grandfather fell and woke up all bloodied on the roof of his hut, and his wife at that time was sleeping and jumping in a dream bouncing on a bench. Grandfather went to the queen, but forgot to consecrate the hut. Since then, once a year, his wife danced in a dream.
Christmas Eve
The evening before Christmas, the rural blacksmith Vakula came to his beloved, capricious beauty Oksana, the daughter of a wealthy Cossack Chub. Dressing herself up in carols, Oksana noticed on one of her girlfriends elegant little creatures and announced that she would marry Vakula if he brought her the little Queen’s cuttings.
Meanwhile, the blacksmith’s mother, the witch of Solokh, took turns receiving guests - first a devil, then a village head, clerk and Chub. Solokha hid all of them from her son in bags. A distressed Vakula grabbed the bags lying in the middle of the hut and carried them out to the street, where he met Oksana, who repeated her condition.
Throwing the bags in the middle of the street and taking with him the lightest, with the devil, Vakula went to the local sorcerer, Puzatomu Patsyuk. He said that his help was not needed by a man who had the devil behind him. Then the devil jumped out of the bag and tried to make a deal with Vakula, but the blacksmith grabbed him by the tail, crossed him, saddled him and ordered him to be taken to Petersburg, to the tsarina.
Soon, Vakula arrived at the palace and begged the cherevichki from Tsarina Catherine. Meanwhile, rumors circulated around the village that the blacksmith had laid hands on himself, and the caroling youth found in bags in the middle of the street respected people in the village. Oksana did not sleep all night and in the morning fell in love with Vakula. Having slept enough, the blacksmith brought Oksana the cuttings, but she already agreed to marry him without them.
Terrible revenge
Esaul Gorobets invited the son of his named brother Danila Burulbash to his beautiful wife Katerina to the wedding. When the young were blessed with icons, a sorcerer appeared among the guests and disappeared, frightened by the holy images. Danilo returned home past the sorcerer’s castle and the cemetery, on which crosses staggered and the dead rose.
At home, Danilo quarreled with his gloomy and absurd father-in-law, and then Katerina dreamed that her father was the same sorcerer. In the evening, Danilo went to the sorcerer’s castle, looked out the window and saw his father-in-law, busy with magic, he called Katerina’s soul and made her love herself, but the soul did not submit to the sorcerer.
Returning home, Danilo told everything to Katerina and shackled the sorcerer in iron chains. The sorcerer promised his daughter to begin a righteous life, and she let him go. Immediately after this, the Poles attacked the village. Gorobets hastened to help, but was late - Danilo died. The sorcerer returned to his castle and summoned the soul of Katerina, but instead an uninvited and terrifying man appeared to him.
Katerina settled at Gorobets. Waking up one day after terrible dreams, she found Yesaul dead, lost her mind and began to search everywhere for her father to kill. The sorcerer himself came to Katerina to take her with her, but she recognized her father, rushed at him with a knife, and he killed his daughter.
Meanwhile, a gigantic horseman with a baby appeared on the peaks of the Carpathian Mountains. The sorcerer recognized him as an uninvited guest, who appeared during a witchcraft, was frightened and tried to hide, but wherever he went, he still moved to the Carpathians. Finally, the rider opened his eyes and looked at the sorcerer. He died and was thrown by the rider into the abyss to the hungry dead.
The story ends with a story about how the envious Peter pushed his brother Ivan and his little son into the abyss. Ivan cursed the posterity of his brother and predicted that the last in his family would be an unprecedented villain, whom he himself would cast into the abyss, appearing in the form of a gigantic horseman.
Ivan Fedorovich Shponka and his aunt
Rudy Panko wrote this story in a notebook, but his wife pulled out part of the sheets, so the end of the story remained unknown.
Ivan Fedorovich Shponka from childhood was distinguished by timidity and diligence. He was not a supporter of civilian service, and therefore, two years after the death of his father, he joined the infantry regiment and rose to the rank of lieutenant. His mother, meanwhile, died, and his aunt took up the household.
Finally, aunt, referring to her old age and weakness, demanded that Shponka himself take up the household. Ivan Fedorovich resigned and went to his estate, on the way he met his neighbor Grigory Grigoryevich Strochenko, the owner of the village of Khortysh.
Some time later, my aunt recalled that the village of Khortysh was presented to Shponka by the former owner, who often visited his mother, and sent her nephew for a gift.
Strochenko met Shponka as a dear guest, but hearing about the gift, he suddenly died. Having failed, Ivan Fedorovich returned to his aunt, and she, annoyed by the evasiveness of her neighbor, decided to marry her nephew to one of Strochenko’s sisters. This idea embarrassed Ivan Fedorovich so much that he began to have nightmares involving many wives. But in the meantime, aunt had a new plan, which readers are not destined to learn about.
Enchanted place
This storm happened when Rudy Panko was still a child. His father left to sell tobacco, leaving his wife, three sons and a grandfather at home. By evening, the old acquaintances of the grandfather appeared, and the party and dancing began. Not having endured, the grandfather himself went to dance, reached a place near the bed with cucumbers, and then his legs began. Grandfather began to dance several times, and all the time he stopped in the same place.
Having once again approached an enchanted place, my grandfather suddenly found himself in an open field, behind the barnyard clerk. While getting out, it got dark. At a grave nearby, my grandfather noticed a light, decided that the treasure was buried there, and noted the place, thinking of returning in the afternoon and with a spade.
The next day, my grandfather went for the treasure, wandered for a long time, but could not get to the marked grave, returned home with nothing. The next evening, digging up a bed, the grandfather struck the spell in an enchanted place, and found himself at that grave.
Grandfather dug up a cauldron, and then unclean spirits surrounded him, began to frighten, repeating everything he said, and not letting him take the cauldron. Grandfather grabbed his prey and rushed to run. He ran home, opened the boiler, and he turned out to be full of litter and other muck. Grandfather fenced off the enchanted place, and since then only something obscene has sprung up on it.
