With Fire and Sword, Henryk Sienkiewicz [year 7 reading list txt] 📗

unmarried lady. The following are examples:⁠—

Pan Kurtsevich,

Pani Kurtsevichova,

Panna Kurtsevichovna.

These three forms when applied to one family refer to the father, mother, and an unmarried daughter.

The ending in ski is not so complicated; for instance⁠—

Pan Pototski,

Pani Pototska,

Panna Pototska.

The names in vich denote descent; those in ski, origin in, or lordship over, a place.

Nikolai Pototski, Grand Hetman, captured at Korsún, was Pan Pototski, which means lord of Potok (Potok being the name of the place which he inherited); he was also Pan Krakovski, lord of Krakov (Krakow), because he was castellan of Krakov (Krakow), an office to which he was appointed by the king.

The names of villages which Zagloba mentions as belonging to Podbipienta are curious enough, whether real or invented by the whimsical narrator; as is also the name Povsinoga, which he gives the tall Lithuanian, and which means “tramp.” The villages⁠—taken in the order in which he gives them in chapter XLVII⁠—Myshikishki, Psikishki, Pigvishki, Sirutsiani, Tsiaputsiani, Kapustsiana glowa, Baltupye, are⁠—excluding the first two, the meanings of which are given in chapter II⁠—Crabapple town, Homespunville, Simpletown, Cabbagehead, and Slabtown.

The soup botvinia, mentioned in connection with Podbipienta and Pan Kharlamp, which is made of vegetables and fish in eastern Russia, may be made, it seems, without fish in Lithuania. The word is used figuratively to designate a rustic or stay-at-home villager.

Offices and Things Balalaika

A stringed instrument used in southern Russia, resembling the guitar.

Ca̍stellan

The chief of a town or city under Polish rule, as well as the district connected with it. The castellan was always a senator, and was appointed by the king.

Chambul

A party of mounted Tartars.

Koshevo̍i

Chief of a Cossack camp.

Kure̍n

A company or group of Cossacks as well as the barracks in which they lived.

Sotnik

A captain of Cossacks. This word is exactly equivalent to “centurion,” and is derived from sto, “one hundred,” with the nominative ending nik.

Stanitsa

A Cossack village.

Sta̍rosta

Chief of a town under Polish control.

Starshini̍

Elders. This word meant for the Cossacks the whole body of their officers.

Telega

The ordinary springless wagon of Russia, smaller than the country wagon in the United States.

Teorba̍n

A large musical instrument of twenty strings or more.

Voevoda

Governor and commander of troops in a province, corresponding to the military governor of modern times. This office was common to the Poles and the Russians of the East or Moscow.

Endnotes

The author uses Skshetuski, the family name of his hero, oftener than Yan, his Christian name, prefixing Pan = Mr. in both cases. I have taken the liberty of using Yan oftener than Skshetuski because more easily pronounced in English. ↩

Tear-trousers. ↩

Tear-cowl. ↩

Dog entrails. ↩

Mouse entrails. ↩

This is the popular form in Little Russian; therefore it is quoted. ↩

The right bank of the Dnieper was called Russian; the left, Tartar. ↩

Hmelnitski is made to apply the title Tsar to the Khan, either to give him more importance in the eyes of the Cossacks or because Tugai Bey was present. ↩

The author uses sometimes the word vudka and sometimes gorailka. The first is Polish; the second Little Russian. Both mean a liquor distilled generally from rye. When vudka is used it might mean that the liquor was from Poland, and when gorailka that it was of Ukraine origin; but here the words are used indifferently. ↩

Krívonos signifies “crooked nose;” Prostonos, “straight nose.” ↩

“Holota” (Nakedness) was used as a nickname in those days to designate a poor nobleman. Abstract nouns were used by the Cossacks also as names; e.g., Colonel Chernota, which means “blackness.” ↩

City of the Tsar = Constantinople. ↩

A pun on “Pulyan,” which in Polish means “half Yan,” or John. ↩

“Hmel,” a nickname for Hmelnitski among the Poles, = “hops.” ↩

Holota (Nakedness) was often given as a nickname to a poor noble. ↩

Nicknames given by Hmelnitski to the three Polish commanders. ↩

Kapustsiani, “of cabbage,” the masculine form of the adjective. Kapustsiana glowa means “a cabbage head; a stupid fellow.” Glowa is the ordinary word for “head” in Polish, and takes the feminine adjective ending in a: hence Kapustsiana. ↩

This means, “Everything or nothing;” “Carry the day or go to a monastery.” ↩

Circassians from the Caucasus. ↩

Div is a Persian word for “demon” or “evil spirit.” This word meant “a divinity” in times anterior to Zoroaster, and is identical with the root div in our word “divine.” In India and Europe it retained its original signification, and became of evil import only in Persia, in consequence of the triumph of Zoroastrianism. ↩

Panowie is the plural of Pan. ↩

Colophon

With Fire and Sword
was published in 1884 by
Henryk Sienkiewicz.
It was translated from Polish in 1898 by
Jeremiah Curtin.

This ebook was produced for
Standard Ebooks
by
Robin Whittleton,
and is based on a transcription produced in 2011 by
Charles Bowen
for
Project Gutenberg
and on digital scans available at the
Internet Archive.

The cover page is adapted from
Standard-Bearer on the Battlefield,
a painting completed in 1889 by
Józef Brandt.
The cover and title pages feature the
League Spartan and