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"Borodaty! let us make Borodaty our Koschevoi!" "We won't have Borodaty! To the evil one's mother with Borodaty!" "Shout Kirdyanga!" whispered Taras Bulba to several. "Kirdyanga, Kirdyanga!" shouted the crowd. "Borodaty, Borodaty! Kirdyanga, Kirdyanga! Schilo! Away with Schilo! Kirdyanga!"
"How now, gentles?" announced those who had brought him, "are you agreed that this Cossack shall be your Koschevoi?" "We are all agreed!" shouted the throng, and the whole plain trembled for a long time afterwards from the shout. One of the chiefs took the staff and brought it to the newly elected Koschevoi. Kirdyanga, in accordance with custom, immediately refused it.
"Come, they have chosen you for Koschevoi." "Have mercy, gentles!" said Kirdyanga. "How can I be worthy of such honour? Why should I be made Koschevoi? I have not sufficient capacity to fill such a post. Could no better person be found in all the army?" "Come, I say!" shouted the Zaporozhtzi.
Moreover, Kirdyanga was an old comrade, and had been with him on the same expeditions by sea and land, sharing the toils and hardships of war. The crowd immediately dispersed to celebrate the election, and such revelry ensued as Ostap and Andrii had not yet beheld.
The wet earth trickled down from his head on to his moustache and cheeks and smeared his whole face. But Kirdyanga stood immovable in his place, and thanked the Cossacks for the honour shown him. Thus ended the noisy election, concerning which we cannot say whether it was as pleasing to the others as it was to Bulba; by means of it he had revenged himself on the former Koschevoi.
The chief offered it a second time; Kirdyanga again refused it, and then, at the third offer, accepted the staff. A cry of approbation rang out from the crowd, and again the whole plain resounded afar with the Cossacks' shout.
Half a score of Cossacks immediately left the crowd some of them hardly able to keep their feet, to such an extent had they drunk and went directly to Kirdyanga to inform him of his election. Kirdyanga, a very old but wise Cossack, had been sitting for some time in his kuren, as if he knew nothing of what was going on. "What is it, gentles? What do you wish?" he inquired.
Two of them seized him by the arms; and in spite of his planting his feet firmly they finally dragged him to the square, accompanying his progress with shouts, blows from behind with their fists, kicks, and exhortations. "Don't hold back, you son of Satan! Accept the honour, you dog, when it is given!" In this manner Kirdyanga was conducted into the ring of Cossacks.
All the candidates, on hearing their names mentioned, quitted the crowd, in order not to give any one a chance of supposing that they were personally assisting in their election. "Kirdyanga, Kirdyanga!" echoed more strongly than the rest. "Borodaty!" They proceeded to decide the matter by a show of hands, and Kirdyanga won. "Fetch Kirdyanga!" they shouted.
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