Zelezniak

The historical notices that have been published respecting him, agree in describing him as a man of middle stature and of extraordinary physical strength; that he was fierce in aspect and sombre in disposition; that his energies were inexhaustible, and that his very name excited an involuntary shudder; that he was a religious fanatic, guided by the sincere impulses of a misdirected enthusiasm, and that he was neither crafty nor ambitious. He was at that time (in 1768) in the fortieth year of his age. He appeared to cherish an insurmountable antipathy to the Jews, an antipathy which suffered no diminution to the end of his career; and which was ascribable perhaps to the false notion maliciously propagated by the Russian peasants against them. During his meals, he often feasted his eyes with their dying agonies; he invented for these, his most hated victims, tortures which surpass all belief, and of which the bare idea makes the blood run cold. He was superstitious, and had a peculiar aversion for females of dark complexion; and if they bore the least symbol of manhood upon their chins he burnt them as witches. In his features were combined the boldness of the lion and the fierceness of the tiger. His eyes glared with a fiery but sullen redness, which was quite in keeping with the solitary life he had passed, within hearing of the roar of the cataracts of the Dnieper. He had an enthusiastic veneration for the priesthood of his own creed; and seemed to have a remarkable predilection for prophets so called, and astrologers. His voice was like the bellowing of a bull. His portrait, which I saw several times in my early boyhood, did not belie the execrable historical character of the prototype. See Lesur, Histoire des Cosaques; Tuczapski, Madame Crebs, fille de Madonovicz. Description de la Rebellion des Haidamaques, Lelevel, Colonel Logoski, Swientski, Ferrand les trois Demembremens, Niemcevictz, and Czaykoski.