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THE ROMANCE _of the_ WOODS


_by_

F. J. WHISHAW.

Author of "_Out of Doors in Tsarland_."


_London,
Longmans Green & Co.
and New York._

1895

_All rights reserved_




CONTENTS


                                                   PAGE

   I. ON A RUSSIAN MOOR                               1

  II. IN AMBUSH AT THE LAKE-SIDE                     33

 III. A DAY AFTER CRAWFISH                           55

  IV. A FINLAND PARADISE                             75

   V. AFTER DUCKS ON LADOGA                         105

  VI. ABOUT BEARS: BY ONE OF THEM                   115

 VII. THE FOLK-LORE OF THE MOUJIK                   185

VIII. THE BEAR THAT DIED OF CURSES                  212

  IX. AMONG THE WOOD-GOBLINS                        232

   X. AN UNBAPTIZED SPIRIT                          253

  XI. A WITCH! A WITCH!                             273




THE ROMANCE OF THE WOODS




CHAPTER I

ON A RUSSIAN MOOR


I once had a strange dream. I dreamed that I was dead, and that dying
I suddenly discovered all my preconceived ideas as to the future state
to have been entirely erroneous, at any rate in so far as concerned
such persons as myself--the respectable middle class, so to call it,
of mundane sinners. Had I belonged to the aristocracy of piety and
goodness, which, alas! I did not, or had I occupied a position at the
lower end of the list, other things might have befallen me, better or
worse, as the case deserved; but being, as I say, one of the decently
respectable middle-class sinners, I was shown, in this foolish dream
of mine, into a committee-room marked No. 2, and there informed that
since I was neither very good nor very bad, my present destiny was to
continue to inhabit this planet for a number of years--I forget how
many--not, indeed, in my present corporeal form, but as a spiritual
essence; and that I might select any place this side of the dark
river, the Styx, as my temporary abode, there to live in Nature's
bosom and to assimilate and be assimilated until the simplicity and
beauty of Nature, uncontaminated by man, should have purified me of
all the harmful taints which I had acquired during my terrestrial
existence among fellow-mortals.

And I remember that, in my dream-foolishness, I clasped my hands and
fell on my knees, and with streaming eyes assured the committee of
Mahatmas (for such, in the dream, they appeared to be) that I wished
for no more beautiful heaven than this that they had offered me; and
that I implored them to allow me to stay on for ever in the paradise
they had prepared for me, and never to pass me onward and upward to
attain further joys, however blessed!

And then, in my dream, those Mahatmas flashed their shining eyes at
me (there was very little _but_ eye and flowing cloak about them, I
remember), and said "Silence!" and frightened me thereby out of my
dream-dead wits.

That, they added, was not my affair nor theirs. All I had to do at
present was to make my choice of a place from among those I had best
loved during life, and to do so as quickly as I conveniently could,
because their hands were somewhat full of business this morning, and
they could not spare me more than, at most, five minutes.

I remember that I looked over my shoulder at this and perceived an
innumerable host of persons, all, presumably, in a similar position to
my own, and all ready to take their turns, in strict rotation, before
the committee of Mahatmas in room No. 2; and I could not help
reflecting that the middle-class sinner must indeed be a very large
class, and that I should do wisely to select some rather unfrequented
spot for my future home, lest my domain should be trespassed upon by
other spiritual essences, and my peace marred by--to use a mundane
expression--unseemly rows.

And then I became conscious of a great difficulty in the matter of
this choosing of a place to live in. Picture after picture came up
before my mind's eye, each more fascinatingly beautiful than the
other. There was a lovely little bit of Devonshire coast, and another
shore in Pembrokeshire; there were delicious spots in half the
counties of England--woods, and hedgerows, and rivers, and waving
fields wherein my spiritual being might disport itself in the
contemplation