Vietnam or Thailand ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
Updated: May 7, 2025
"The Devil take you, for a pack of whimpering hounds!" he cried. "Holy Saints! they are afraid to make a reisak!" Ivan crossed himself and sprang. He cleared the rocks, but, instead of bursting through the ice with his head, fell at full length upon his back. "O knave!" yelled the Prince, "not to know where his head is! Thinks it's his back! Give him fifteen stripes." Which was instantly done.
Now the reisak was a gymnastic performance peculiar to old Russia, and therefore needs to be described. It could become popular only among a people of strong physical qualities, and in a country where swift rivers freeze rapidly from sudden cold. Hence we are of the opinion that it will not be introduced into our own winter diversions.
Prince Alexis, perceiving this diverson, cried out in ecstasy, "Oh, by St. Nicholas the Miracle-Worker, I'll give you better sport than that, ye knaves! Here's the very place for a reisak, do you hear me children? a reisak! Could there be better ice? and then the rocks to jump from! Come, children, come! Waska, Ivan, Daniel, you dogs, over with you!"
The second attempt was partially successful. One of the hunters broke through the ice, head foremost, going down, but he failed to come up again; so the feat was only half performed. The Prince became more furiously excited. "This is the way I'm treated!" he cried. "He forgets all about finishing the reisak, and goes to chasing sterlet! May the carps eat him up for an ungrateful vagabond!
The serfs hung down their heads, feeling somehow responsible for their master's misery. Some of them wept, out of a stupid sympathy with his tears. All at once he sprang down from the cask, crying in a gay, triumphant tone, "I have it! Bring me Crop-Ear. He's the fellow for a reisak, he can make three, one after another."
Word Of The Day
Others Looking