Страница 440 из 788

With inexpressible apprehension all the Lithuanian folk gazed

each night at this heavenly marvel, foreboding ill from it, and

likewise from other signs: for too often they heard the cries of

ill-omened birds, which, gathering in throngs on empty fields,

sharpened their beaks as if awaiting corpses. Too often they

noticed that the dogs rooted up the earth, and, as if scenting

death, howled piercingly, which was an omen of famine or of war.

But the forest guards beheld how through the graveyard walked the

Maid of Pestilence, whose brow rises above the highest trees, and

who waves in her left hand a bloody kerchief.145

From all this the Overseer drew various conclusions, as he stood

by the fence after coming to report on the work; so likewise did

the Bookkeeper, who was whispering with the Steward.