head, and then saw that the spectre was sitting on his shoulders.
He took her first to a town. There was music and dancing in the taverns, and joy in every place; mirth and pleasure held their sway. When the peasant entered into the market-place, the woman shook her pestilential garments. Soon the music and dancing ceased, joy disappeared, and terror reigned supreme. The terrified peasant saw coffins and dead bodies on every side. He heard the funeral bells everywhere. Soon the cemetery was filled and there was no more room to bury the dead. Even in the market-place many a corpse was left without a grave!
On went the miserable peasant. Whenever he passed through a village the houses were left empty. The inhabitants, pale and trembling, fled; men were dying on the roads, in the woods, and in the fields,
His native village stood on a high hill: there lived his wife, his little children, and his aged parents. At the sight of it his heart bled within him. Seizing the spectre with all his strength, lest she should escape, he hurried past his home.
Before him flowed the river Pruth, with its blue waters; on the other side arose green hills; and far beyond, dark mountains, capped with snow, lost their summits in the clouds. His resolution was quickly
