The superstitions of the Ukraine are numerous. The great enemy of mankind is sometimes called Didho, sometimes Biss, sometimes Satan, sometimes Czort. He is represented now under the form of a black dog; now of a three-horned bull; now of a he-goat; now of a boy in a German dress, — this latter is not considered to be very malignant or dangerous, — he smokes tobacco, regales himself with cream, visits the ladies, taking the features and assuming the dress and manners of their husbands. The one in the form of a black dog is most dreaded; he can be exorcised only by holy water and fervent prayers; and when he yields, the hurricane takes place, which dances Ae Cossack vionihe Steppes. The apparition of a tall female, arrayed in white, with her arms folded, mourning. and wailing on the skirts of the forest, forebodes pestilence. The repeated hootings of the owl are considered to prognosticate a corresponding number of deaths in the village during the space of three years. The appearance of a beautiful maiden, Topielitza, weeping and sobbing, on the banks of rivers or the margins of lakes, with her head hanging down, and dishevelled hair, represents the drowned unhappy one, who has murdered her illegitimate child; and is destined, by way of penitence, to walk upon the marsh-plants, to induce the young of the opposite sex to come in pursuit of her, and perish in the waters, until some one succeeds in saving an infant from death by drowning. A woman with a beard, Czarownica, (pronounced Tcharovnitsa), is looked upon as a sorceress, and is accounted extremely dangerous. Such were sometimes burned.
There prevailed also very singular notions and customs in regard to a being they called Pachole (pronounced Pakhole), which comes from, the Polish word Pacholeh signifying a mysterious orphan who knows not his parents, and who is left alone and without protection in the wide world; and who appears to be the fruit of an ill-assorted marriage of a lady of quality with a husband of low grade. This orphan, without home or country or relatives, wandered about in quest of some one who might give him a resting-place, adopt him, and by acts of kindness banish from his mind the recollections of the miseries he had undergone: he generally appeared about eleven to eighteen years of age, and was accompanied by a large dog. This species of orphan boy enjoyed great privileges in the Ukraine, and received the especial protection of the ladies, of the nuns, and above all of widows, who sometimes espoused them. They were accustomed to sing plaintive songs by moonlight, under the window of some love-lorn widow. After the refrain at the conclusion of each stanza, the dog set up a howl, and the following dialogue ensued:
Widow. Who is singing there? — Boy, A Pachole, a Pachole.
Widow, What is your name? — Boy. I have no name.
Widow, Where do your parents live? — Boy. I have no parents.
Widow. Where are your brother and sister, your cousins? — JBoy. I have none.
Widow. "Where do you live? — Boy. I have no home; the wild Steppe is my bed, the heaven my covering; but perhaps I shall find a mother, or a kind female friend who will guard me from hunger, cold, and misery; who will give me a cool shelter in summer, a warm one in winter, and will take care of my dog, that he become not the prey of wolves.
Widow. Present yourself at the great gate of my abode, in presence of two witnesses; I will adopt you, you shall be my son. (He was accordingly adopted, and inherited her possessions; nor was it in the power of any one to entirely disinherit him).
If the widow replied to the boy, ' Your voice pleases me; come in and be mine, we will be united; such is the will of God," then they were married, and the marriage was considered legal, if the Pachole had attained his seventeenth year. If the widow responded, " Knock at the gate, you shall receive my hospitality, as my guest you shall want for nothing;" then he knocked accordingly, and came under the hospitable roof.
This custom, unique and strange as it appears, prevailed in the Ukraine with greater or less modifications, and it may easily be accounted for. Wars continually raged in the Ukraine in ancient times; the Zaporoguians carried off the children in their predatory and warlike excursions; these children were left to wander, when their captors might have perished by the sword. Likewise, many children might have fled into the Ukraine when the Tatars had butchered their parents; these children received hospitality in the villages, and it would have been thought a crime to ill-treat them. The Cossack women also during the long absence of their husbands, often adopted such orphans. Hence is derived most certainly the Polish proverb, '' Happy as a Pachole with a Ukrainian widow/* (Szczesliwy iak na Ukrainie pacholek u wdowy.)