The Works of Nikolai Gogol, Vol. 1

Rudy Panko original: "Рудый Панько"—by God, I cannot say. And my hair, it seems, is more grey now than red. But with us, please do not be angry, such is the custom: once people give someone a nickname, it remains so for ages and ages. It used to happen that on the eve of a holiday, good people would gather as guests in the beekeeper’s shack, sit down at the table—and then I ask only for you to listen. And I must say that the people were by no means of the common sort, not just some farm peasants; why, perhaps, some would have done honor to a person of higher station than a beekeeper. For example, do you know the deacon of the Dikanka church, Foma Grigorievich? Ah, what a man! What stories he knew how to spin! You will find two of them in this book. He never wore the striped robe original: "пестрядеваго халата" that you meet on many village deacons; but even on weekdays, if you were to visit him, he would always receive you in a loose gown original: "балахонъ" of fine cloth, the color of chilled potato jelly original: "кисель", for which he paid in Poltava almost six rubles per arshin original: "аршинъ" a unit of length, approximately 71 cm.