The Enchanted Wanderer and Other Stories

12. St. Vsevolod-Gavriil of Novgorod: Prince Vsevolod, baptized Gavriil (?1103–38), the patron saint of the city of Pskov, was prince of Novgorod from 1117 to 1136, and prince of Pskov from 1137 to 1138. He was buried in Pskov and later canonized there. His relics were said to protect the city, and his sword bore the inscription (in Latin) that Ivan Severyanych has embroidered on his belt.

13. Count K——of Orel province: That is, Count Kamensky, of whom there were several. Leskov deals more fully with them in “The Toupee Artist.” Given the date, this would be Count Sergei Mikhailovich Kamensky (1771–1835).

14. an old-style blue banknote: Blue banknotes, first issued in 1786, were worth five roubles, a considerable sum for a peasant at that time.

15. Kaffeeschenks: A court position supervising coffee and tea supplies.

16. Voronezh … relics there: St. Mitrofan of Voronezh (1623–1703) was the first bishop of Voronezh, in southwestern Russia. Relics are “revealed” when they prove to be either miracle-working or incorrupt. In 1831, Bishop Mitrofan’s relics were unearthed and found to be incorrupt; in 1832 he was canonized.

17. wanderers: The Russian word strannik (“wanderer”), as in the title of the present work, can mean anything from a real pilgrim to a simple vagabond.

18. passport: See note 13 to “The Sealed Angel.”

19. St. Mitrofan’s: Both a church and a monastery in Voronezh (see note 16 above).

20. Saracens … Prince Bova: The term “Saracen” is synonymous with “Muslim” in Russian folk tales. Eruslan Lazarevich and Prince Bova are heroes of such tales.

21. Tartars in kibitkas: In Russia, a kibitka (from the Tartar kibit) was a covered carriage or sleigh; among nomads of the steppe it was a round felt tent, sometimes mounted on a wheeled platform.

22. Ryn Sands … Khan Dzhangar: The Ryn Sands are a territory of approximately 25,000 square miles of long hummocky dunes between the lower Volga and Ural Rivers north of the Caspian Sea. Khan Dzhangar or Zhangir (d. 1845) was the last khan of the Bukey or Inner Horde of Kazakhs that moved about on the Ryn Sands. He carried on an important trade in horses and entered Russian government service in 1824.

23. from the apostle Paul: See Galatians 3:28 (“There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus”). Also Colossians 3:11.

24. Holy God: The chant known as the Trisagion (“Holy God, Holy Mighty, Holy Immortal, have mercy on us”), sung during the Orthodox liturgy and in the burial procession.

25. from Khiva: The Khivan khanate, on the territory of present-day Uzbekistan and Tajikistan, was hostile to Russia during the earlier nineteenth century. Its capital, the city of Khiva, fell to the Russian army in 1873, after which it was made a “protectorate.”

26. Nicholas the Wonderworker: St. Nicholas (ca. 270–343), bishop of Myra in Lycia (Asia Minor), is one of the most widely venerated saints in Christendom, and obviously not a Russian.

27. the Keremet: Among the peoples of the Volga-Ural region, the Keremet or Kiremet were generally evil spirits, but the word also refers to the sacred groves the spirits lived in, where sacrifices to them were performed.

28. the Menaion: The Menaion, from the Greek word for “month,” is a collection of Orthodox liturgical texts and saints’ lives for each day of the month throughout the year.

29. banknotes … missing: Russian banknotes were distinguished by color: five-rouble notes were blue, ten-rouble notes gray, twenty-five-rouble notes red, and one-hundred- or two-hundred-rouble notes white.

30. “The Skiff”: A popular song to words by the soldier-poet Denis Davydov (1784–1839), a hero of the Napoleonic Wars.

31. Go away … burning coal?: Words from the popular song “Go Away, Don’t Look,” by Alexander Beshentsov (ca. 1811–82), first published in 1858.

32. the dragon Gorynych: A three-headed green dragon from Russian epic songs (byliny), who walks on his hind legs and spits fire.

33. Nizhny: That is, Nizhny Novgorod, a major Russian city. The fair in Nizhny, world-famous in the nineteenth century, attracted millions of visitors every year. It was also known as the Makary Fair, because it originally took place outside the walls of the monastery of St. Macarius in the Nizhny region. In 1816 a fire destroyed the buildings that housed the fair, and in 1817 it moved to Nizhny proper.

34. the marshal of the nobility: In 1785 the empress Catherine the Great issued a Charter of the Gentry, organizing the Russian nobility into provincial assemblies, each headed by a marshal chosen by his peers.