Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1885-06-11
TIE MAN IN THE MOON.
A History in Poland of How he Got
There.
from the PHILADELPHIA Ne1os.

ana made known to the world the Polish
taust, DIR. Faustus, tricky as the arch
mend himself, and now hanging over the
full moon, en- silhouette, to be known and
pitied of all men in Poland.
Niandot left st. Petersburg one fine
January afternoon to join hunting party
at the castle of friend some hundred
versts away. With him were enough
friends to fill five sleds, each drawn by a
troika-nOw fashionable in the United
States-and speeding over the Noygorod
road to Moscow as fast as the driver, who
stood erect like an ancient charioteer,
could urge them. As he rolled the reins
about his wrists and alternately sang
and swore at his team of three horses
abreast, the one in the centre trotting
swiftly while his mates gallOped by his
sides, the troika-driVer was a far more
interesting sight than the two men who
lay behind him in the sled, stretched at
fun length and wrapped in fur great
coats. The track was cut by sed-run-
ners into many deep Ou6hdbl, or burrows,
which gave a pleasing animation to the
motion Of the whirling carriage and only
a broken vista Of the birch and pine for
ests which swept by the vision. Here
and there lay village, already wrapt in
sleep at $ O'Clock. The moon rose round
on the horizon and silvered the track for
a verst ahead in wake of glistening
snow.
Viandot's bed-fellow in the sled was a
Russian Pole, the nobility of whose race
was sufficiently indicated by the ''ski'' at
the end of his name. The traveller in Rus
STA soon learns that ski is equivalent to
the French de. The noble Pole had
smoked five cigars before he turned on his
ear and said, suddenly raising the visor of
his cap OF otter skin: "Well, there is
Pan Twardowskl."
Viandot looked at the full moon, but
could see nothing answering to his COM
panlon's description Of "a little simpletOn
hanging there with his hands and legs
drawn up like Punch's."
The noble Pole swOre that his eyes were
frozen together and his teeth cold in his
mouth, but he told NiandOt the story, at
the risk of having his tongue cut into by
an Ottkhdbi. "NOt every One,' said ne, 'whO
has read GOethe's Faust knows the his
tory Of the famous DR.. Jean Poing, who
was born at the same time in Anheld,
SuaDia and BrandebOurg. Poing's devil
served him in the guse of a little gray
monk for twenty-fOur years, at the end Of
which Poing in turn became the slave of
the demon, who twisted his neck toward
the end of the sixteenth century and fries
him in hellltire over since. This is the
German Faust. He of Poland is much
older and subtler, called Pan TwardoWski
or NJ. de Tward0u.
"This Pan lived at Crac0w when that
poor little place was the proud capital of
Teche de Beanc. Up to the signing of the
agreement with the devil his story re-
sembles that of POing, a legend which
owed its existence in Germany doubtless
to the rage Of the monks at the invention
Of printing by DR.. Jean Faust, of
Mayence."
1t had become so cold that the words
of the noble Pole were frozen in passing
from his mouth to the ear of ViandOt,
who had to raise the collar of his over
coat. ...,-. ..
''Our Pan was by no means so silly as
that sillIest OF philosophers, Faust. In
Poing7s articles of agreement with
Czernebog, the Black God, was a clause
that the latter could lay hands on him
nowhere except in the city of Rome.
Having secured CzernebOg for a slave,
Pan, of course, avoided Rome as he would
fire, and laughed consumedly at the devil
for an idiot. CZernebog then laid
Jesuitical plot.
"a certain innkeepeF of Cracow one
day asked Pan to hold his child while it
was baptized. The godmOther was to be
/
Marguerites, doubtless, and to her, the
story goes, he sent q box OF bOn-bOns.
The font was setin great room at the
inn. When the ceremony was concluded
Czernebog lost no time in issuing from
the neck of a bottle of schnapps which
Pan had opened TO drink the health Of the
gOdchild.
Follow me- said he to Pan Twar-
dOwski, who scoTnfully jibed his ignOr-
! Of Y nd
God remember that they were not in
Rome. But said Czernebog, go look
over the inn door, and there on a scroll
in the mouth of a rampant steed was the
! legend The City of Rome Enraged at
so palpable a trick, Pan caught up the
bate from its cradle, and shielding him
self behind it's newly-purchasedi innocence,
refused to surrender. There was too
much holy water on the child for the
devil TO dare touch him, 30 he and Pan
finally compromised and executed a
new agreement by which Twardowski
was to become CzernebOg's property as
soon as the latter should perform three
conditions which Pan then and there be-
gan to name.
'gThe first was that Czernebog should
! take the horse over the inn door and gal
lop thrice around the village church.
Selling three straws from the floor the
Black God twisted then deity into
whip, with which he began belabOring
the TANKS Of the painted beast until it
leaped down from the sign all bridled and
saddled, fire flashing from its nOstrlls.
Bestriding his nag, the tiend rode three
times about the village church in an infer
nal rush, more rapid that the ballad LES
morris cont Dtte.'
.sThe twelve labors Of Hercules would
plainly be child's play for such an
energetic demon. So Pan discarded
physical for moral trials, and ordered the
| devil to take q bath in the baptismal font.
Czernebog made wry face, shivered and
| CRASHED his teeth, but the desire 70 de-
| prive Paradise Of an immortal soul, which
/ Is the ruling passion Of devils, was
stronger that his holy hydrophobla. That
! the blessed water might scOreh him as
/ little as possible, CzeruebOg shriveled
/ himself up TO the size OF mouse. APP
pronching the vase wherein the sins OF all
! mankind are washed away, he dived from
/ its edge with a swift whIZ and struck the
water with a scaldlnR, sizzling hiss. The
/ holy water had burned him badly, yet he
/ came out triumphant.
"Jeering poor Pan, e. 'nC resumed
/ his natural shape. n, f-d in his
face. Then 1t was rs turn 10
sniver.
"For the third ana l1s' lost, 10 save his
soul from hell-hro, Pan remembered
Socrates' spouse, and demanded that the
devil should dwell q month In the louise
] with his wife PAM TwardOWski. Whereat