[Footnote 1: Chief town of a district in the government of Poltava.] [Footnote 2: Every foreigner, whatever may be his station, is called a German by Russian peasants. A dress coat is often sufficient to procure this name for its wearer.] [Footnote 3: A village in the government of Poltava, in which the author places the scene of most of his stories.] [Footnote 4: The free burghers of Little Russia, even to this day, pride themselves on being called _Cossacks_.] [Footnote 5: Almost every family name in Little Russia has some meaning; the name of _Choop_ means the tuft of hair growing on the crown of the head, which is alone left to grow by the Little Russians; they uniformly shave the occiput and temples; in Great or Middle Russia, peasants, on the contrary, let the hair grow on these parts, and shave or cut it away from the crown.] [Footnote 6: Kootia is a dish of boiled rice and plums, eaten by Russians on Christmas Eve.] [Footnote 7: Varenookha is corn brandy boiled with fruit and spice.] [Footnote 8: A rank in irregular troops, corresponding to that of captain in the army.] [Footnote 9: Borsch is a soup made of meat, sausages, and thin slices of beet-root and cabbage steeped in vinegar.] [Footnote 10: Chief town of a district in the government of Poltava.] [Footnote 11: Long coats made of sheepskins, with the fur worn inside. They are used in Russia by common people.] [Footnote 12: The ovens of the peasants' cottages are built in the shape of furnaces, with a place on the top which is reserved for sleeping.] [Footnote 13: About eightpence a yard.] [Footnote 14: Little Russians shave beard and whiskers, leaving only their mustachios.] [Footnote 15: Chief town of a district in the government of Chernigoff.] [Footnote 16: A carriage something between a dog-cart and a tilbury.] [Footnote 17: This, according to the laws of the Greek Church, would prevent their children from intermarrying.] [Footnote 18: Village clerks in Russia had their hair plaited; a practice which still continues in some remote provinces. Many priests, not allowed by the custom of the land to cut their hair short, wear it, for convenience' sake, plaited when at home and only loosen it during the performance of the duties of their office.] [Footnote 19: Russians are much more strict in their fasts than Papists, eating no milk or eggs. Some even go so far as to eat no fish and no hot dishes, restricting their food to cold boiled vegetables and bread. The author has here very happily seized a trait of the inconsistency of a Little Russian peasant's character--swallowing a camel in asking for communication with the devil, and straining at a gnat in the shape of a curd dumpling in fast-time.] [Footnote 20: This touch very characteristically exemplifies the cunning _naïveté_ of the Little Russians, who, when deeply interested in anything, will never come to the point at once.]