Pagina 178 di 788

If they approached one another, or met, they did not speak or

exchange greetings, being in deep meditation, absorbed in

themselves. In them the Count saw an image of the shades in the

Elysian Fields, who, not subject to disease or care, wander calm

and quiet, but gloomy.

Who would have guessed that these people, so far from lively and

so silent, were our friends, the Judge's comrades? From the noisy

breakfast they had gone out to the solemn ceremony of

mushroom-gathering; being discreet people, they knew how to

moderate their speech and their movements, in order under all

circumstances to adapt them to the place and time. Therefore,

before they followed the Judge to the wood, they had assumed a

different bearing, and put on different attire, linen dusters

suitable for a stroll, with which they covered and protected

their kontuszes; and on their heads they wore straw hats, so that

they looked white as spirits in Purgatory. The young people had

also changed their clothes, except Telimena and a few who wore

French attire.-This scene the Count had not understood, being

unfamiliar with village customs; hence, amazed beyond measure, he

ran full speed to the wood.