The Cossacks cut long reeds from last year's dry reeds, which were then blown so that air could pass through them freely. Having done this, the Cossacks took all their goods, not excluding the longest cats, and lowered it all into the water; then, placing thorn thorns under the sweatshirts of their horses, they gave them several sharp blows with a whip on the sides and sweatshirts, causing the horses to rush off into the steppe like mad.
When the Tatars were very close to the river, the Cossacks took one end of a reed into their mouths and carefully plunged into the water between the reeds and sedges so that only the top of the reed was sticking out above the water. Only the experienced eye of a Cossack could discover the presence of people hidden in this way under the water.
Having stumbled upon the trail of scattered Cossack horses, the Tatars usually set off in pursuit of them, assuming that the Cossacks had drowned. But it was not so easy to catch these mad horses, which the constant pain from the injections forced them to rush across the steppe with incredible speed.
The Talar horses, which also had to carry an armed rider, were completely unable to catch up with them, so after lengthy but futile efforts, the Tatars usually broke up without catching a single horse. It happened that a horse, accustomed to its owner, having walked for a day or even two in the steppe and having calmed down, returned to the place where it had parted with him and, finding him still here, trustingly followed the familiar voice.
After the Tatars left, the Cossacks crawled out of the water and, having rested a little, set off on their journey across the endless steppe. The experienced Cossack was not afraid of getting lost in this vast sea of grass: the sky and the steppe itself with its varied life faithfully and accurately provided him with all the information necessary for a traveler. So, day and night, a Cossack can find out what time it is, determine in which direction this or that country of the world lies. During the day he recognized this by the heights of the sun, at night he was helped by the bright brilliance and blinking of the stars, scattered in bizarre figures throughout the heights of heaven. Here “Voltozhary” is burning, here “Mamaeva Road” stretches across the sky like a wide ribbon, there “Viz” and “Chapiga” are playing and sparkling with their rays.
The steppe, dear to the Cossack heart, was especially beautiful at night: the full moon pours its transparent silver-blue light onto the sleeping steppe with its tall grass and dark mounds; reflected in the bright waters of small, lively steppe rivers in a long, crushing column, which shimmer so sonorously from pebble to pebble; The fog slowly rises and sways above them, and the Cossack thinks that fairy-tale pale mermaids are leading their round dances in the transparent rays of the moon.
The sad cry of the “scarecrow,” instilling fear in an unfamiliar person, could not frighten the Cossack: he was her
All the sounds and voices of the wild steppe and plains are well known.
He himself “scared” like a real scarecrow, howled like a wolf, shinfl like a zmfin, revf like a turin, called perfectly like a quail and cuckooed no worse than a real cuckoo. The cry of “Pugu, Pugu” was even a conventional cry of the Cossacks; with this cry they let each other know about their presence. In general, all these wild and bird cries were a series of conditioned signals with which the Cossacks, invisible to each other, communicated in order to mislead, deceive, and outwit their enemies. It happened that, gliding through the grass like a snake, several people of the Cossacks silently approached the Tatar camp that had spent the night in the steppe and scared away the herd of their horses; Then the rest of the Cossacks, hiding with their horses in the tall grass, flew like a storm at the Tatars rushing about in disarray in the camp, and there was no salvation for them: pfipe, without horses, they did not know what they were doing, how to defend themselves and shouting “Alla, Alla!” died under the saber attacks of the Cossacks. While this merciless slaughter was going on in the midst of blazing fires, a small detachment of Cossacks on the best horses rushed across the steppe ahead of the Tatar herd, since a good horse was considered the best prey for a Cossack. The horse was a faithful comrade of the Cossacks in the steppe, and all the Cossacks were excellent riders.