a tale of the opryshky told by Dmytro Shekeryk-Donykiv of Holovy, from Volodymyr Hnatiuk, Narodni opovidannia pro opryshkiv (1910)

The opryshky were the outlaws of the Carpathian highlands. This account was told at Holovy, a Hutsul village in the Kosiv district, by Dmytro Shekeryk-Donykiv, then seventy-eight, and written down on 6 December 1907 by his son Petro; Volodymyr Hnatiuk printed it in 1910. The pushkars in it were the armed guards who hunted the opryshky, and the posse was the band of men they raised for the chase. The old man tells of the farmers who turned opryshky by night and the army deserters who were the true ones, of raids on manors over the mountain, of winter hiding, and of his own family's dealings with the outlaws.

Translation

There were two kinds of opryshky. One kind were home opryshky: by day a man worked, he was a gazda, and in the evening he took his hair up under his hat, smeared himself with soot, and off to the opryshky. A gazda who went with the opryshky had the hair on his head cut short underneath; only on the very crown did he leave it uncut. And when he goes out to the opryshky, he gathers the uncut hair into a bunch, ties it up at the top on his crown, puts his hat on over that, and there he is, a ready-made army deserter-opryshok, all shorn.

When that gazda comes back home from the opryshky, from the robbing, he unties the hair on his crown, lets it down, washes himself, and there's your gazda. And on top of that he dresses plainly, so that nobody would so much as guess he's an opryshok.

So those were the house opryshky. These house opryshky robbed their own people too, and a good deal. There were such cases, that one man would go to another and rob him, and that one would go to this man or that and rob him, and neither knew of the other, nor heard a word. So these opryshky robbed their own people too, and pushed the blame onto the real opryshky. That's the kind of opryshky these were: by day a gazda, and by night an opryshok.

But it's true there were real opryshky as well. It used to be they'd seize a Hutsul, drive him off to the army, and there the cuckoo was already calling for him. But a great many soldiers deserted from the army. When a soldier runs off from the army, he goes up into the mountains, finds himself a second and a third deserter, and they go to the opryshky. The deserters had to run, because the pushkars chased after them and caught them, handed them back to the army, and there they punished them hard. But the deserters didn't wait for the pushkars and the posse; they just gathered six, eight, ten and twelve together and went to the opryshky. The posse would come for the deserters, but it wouldn't find them at home any more.

But for all that, the deserters' families had trouble, and great trouble they had. The pushkars would seize the deserter's father and mother, beat them and punish them, and drive them from dungeon to dungeon, and bind them with twist-sticks, and do them every harm that ever came into their heads. So hard did the pushkars punish the deserters' families that the old folk had to disown their own children. But all the same, for all that, they used to feed their children and help them in secret, as best they could. To the posse-men's faces they would make a show of calling misery and evil down on those fine children of theirs, but in their hearts they loved them truly and helped them.

It's true that such deserters very seldom came back to their own homes, because they feared betrayal at every turn. People tell how the opryshky used to say: “Never talk with your comrade in the forest, for the beech and the spruce have ears, eyes and a mouth after all, and they can betray you. If you have something to say, say it in the open field, for the field won't betray you.”

That meant it was risky to talk in the forest, because behind a spruce or a beech there might stand another man, an evil one, and see everything and hear it, and then betray the whole secret, and there's your trouble ready-made. But in the open field a man can see far all round, and no enemy can overhear a thing that's said.

But the opryshky weren't knocked on the head with a fist, after all. They had nothing to live on, and so they had to go out robbing, because there was no way they could earn, for the posse would have caught them at once. But the opryshky were no fools: they went robbing to those who wouldn't let them live in the world. That's why the opryshky had a terrible hatred of the lords, because the lords hunted them and took their freedom from them.

The opryshky went robbing trouble knows where: they went to Hungary, to Wallachia, and down to the Lowlands.

It used to be the opryshky would go to Hungary to rob, and over there were great lords, landowners, counts, barons and the whole motley crowd. The opryshky went about in small bands. But when there was a need to go on a big robbing, the opryshky would gather together and fall on their prey in great hosts. Twenty, thirty, forty and more of them would gather, as the need was.

When they fell on some manor or a fortress, some would surround the manor all round, so that nobody could run out and let it be known that opryshky had fallen on the manor or the fortress. The rest ran in at the gate, and some stood guard at the gate, and the others ran into the rooms and did their work. If any young lord or a servant showed himself in the yard or in a room, the opryshky would only shout at him: “Face to the ground, you gallows-bird!”

The opryshky had to shout like that, because they were afraid somebody might do them a foul turn with a pistol. The opryshky rob the place, take the money, the valuables, everything that's of any use to them. When they've finished with everything, then they shout for the servants, and the servants harness the horses to the wagons, the opryshky pack everything into the wagons, and away they go into the open country!

The opryshky get away, and before the lords come to their senses, the opryshky are far off. If the road gives out, so they can't flee with the wagons, the opryshky take everything out of the wagons and off they go, fleeing on foot. And if the posse fell on them, they would stand and defend themselves. For they knew it was all one to them: either to die by an enemy's bullet, or, if he was caught, to hang on the gallows.

But the opryshky would rather die by an enemy's bullet than give themselves up to him and die on the gallows. That's why it was very dangerous to stand up to fire against the opryshky, for the opryshky had to defend themselves terribly hard. If an enemy had crippled an opryshok so badly that there was no more life for him, the opryshky didn't leave him to the enemy; they had to finish him off. Why, the wounded man himself would even ask for it.

Sometimes the opryshky would be robbing over the mountain, and if a great hue and cry went up against them there, and they began to be hunted hard, then they'd go off robbing into Wallachia and rob all over Wallachia. And when they began to be hunted in Wallachia too, then they'd come over here to us, to the Polish side. And they rob the lords and the Jews down in the Lowlands. And when the word goes round here about the opryshky, they flee again over the mountain, where the talk about them has died down by now.

The opryshky went robbing across the border, and trouble knows where. In winter they went robbing nowhere, for they would all have been hunted down by their tracks. In winter they sat in winter huts. Sometimes people would take them in to keep them over the winter, but that was very risky for the opryshky. For it happened more than once that the gazda who had an opryshok wintering with him would either hand him over, or simply kill him himself, as soon as he caught on that the opryshok had money.

It's true not everyone was like that. There were more of the sort who carried food to the opryshky and hid them. For that the opryshky gave those people money and all kinds of good things.

The opryshky built themselves huts in the forests, somewhere by a stream, so as to have water and firewood close by. They built winter huts in lonely places, so that nobody would know or hear of their winter dens. Into those winter huts the opryshky would carry for themselves, from the summer on, flour, brynza, cheese, butter, smoked meat from heifers, so as to have something to eat through the whole winter. For they couldn't go into town to buy anything. For as soon as any opryshok showed himself, they'd catch him that very moment. So the opryshky had to see to it beforehand, for the winter.

The opryshky also had people they knew, to whom they carried all sorts of things, and for that those people fed the opryshky in winter. They carried them food, and horilka, and all sorts of good things. The opryshky knew such people well, and went to them. Lord, the smoked meat they used to bring to the Paliis (Palii Shekeryk), and linen, and all kinds of clothes! They say that Oleksykha Paliivska (Marika Shekeryk, my great-grandmother) married off all her daughters without once lifting a hand for them; the opryshky brought in everything that was needed.

Sometimes the opryshky would hire themselves out to the gazdas as servants in winter, and so they'd winter out the whole winter.

Sometimes the opryshky would come together in winter to make merry. When they were about to part (in spring), they'd come together. In the days of the chieftain Vasyliukiv (Dmytro Ponypalek) the opryshky used to gather on the pasture of Stovpni, and there they feasted on Vasyliukiv's Peak, and for three days there was drinking and shooting. The opryshky simply made merry. When they'd feasted as long as they pleased, then each would go off his own way. And in spring, on St George's Day, they were to come together again at an appointed place. Dmytro Vasyliukiv wintered over there in Hlysnykovate, under Ludova.

That was the life of the opryshky. That is how my father, Dmytro Shekeryk-Donykiv, seventy-eight years old, told me about the opryshky. Many a time my father spoke of it with great fire and gladness.

Colophon

Translated from Volodymyr Hnatiuk (ed.), Narodni opovidannia pro opryshkiv (Etnohrafichnyi zbirnyk 26; Lviv: Naukove tovarystvo im. Shevchenka, 1910), no. 4, pp. 4–7. Hnatiuk gives the record line “Holovy, 6/XII, 1907, recorded by Petro Shekeryk-Donykiv”, and the text ends by naming the teller as the recorder's diedia, Dmytro Shekeryk-Donykiv, aged 78; Hnatiuk's glossary gives diedia as “father”. The text was transcribed from the page images of the Internet Archive scan. Hnatiuk's footnote to za-horu, “over the mountain”, reads “To Hungary”, and the English keeps the teller's words. His glossary settles these words: starynia, the parents and kin; the kalush, a short stick put through the cord that bound a captive and twisted so the cord cut deep, rendered “twist-sticks”; the rovta, the band raised under the pushkars to catch opryshky, “the posse”, and rovtari, its men; the pushkars, the guards whose duty was to catch opryshky; the katush, “dungeon”; biino, “fearfully” (the English gives its sense here, “risky”, “dangerous”); brandzhia, a crowd of every rank and faith, “the whole motley crowd”; fystunok, “fortress”; ukutaty sy, “to finish”; poklych, “hue and cry”; a zymyvnyk or zymovyk, the lonely hut where opryshky spent the winter, and zymyvlia, the secret keeping of opryshky through the winter; bai, baiuvaty, a feast and to make merry; buzhenytsia, smoked meat; Palii, Panteleimon. Kimnia is read as the crown of the head (standard timʼia, with the Hutsul change of soft t to k). Hushma is read from the context as a bunch or knot of hair. Skymuvaty is read as “to catch on, realize” from its use elsewhere in the volume, where a man realizes that a beggar is Dovbush in disguise; tennula in rukov ny tennula is read as “did not stir”, from ny tenne sy elsewhere in the volume, hence “without once lifting a hand”. Yelyvok is read as the Hutsul form of ialivok, “heifers’”; lietskyi bik, “the Polish side”; khatieni opryshky, “house opryshky”. “The cuckoo was already calling for him” keeps the teller's kuie zazulia, the cuckoo that counts out a man's years. Pyshni dity, “fine children”, may be meant with an edge. Ny buly biti v holov kulakom, “weren't knocked on the head with a fist”, is kept as said; its sense comes two sentences on, where the opryshky “were no fools”. The old man's bida znaie kuda is rendered “trouble knows where”. Wallachia (Voloshina) is the Romanian land beyond the mountains, and the Lowlands (Doly) the plains below them. Gazda, the Hutsul householder, brynza, the sheep's cheese, and horilka are kept in their own names. Two letters are kept as printed: in z hrabunkiv t khati, “from the robbing, home”, the print has t where id or do, “to”, is expected; and on p. 6 it has eluhy where sluhy, “servants”, is meant. Hnatiuk's list of misprints corrects neither.

No English translation of this narrative is known to us.

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Source Text: Які були опришки?

The Hutsul text as printed by Hnatiuk (1910), no. 4, transcribed from the page images; line-end hyphens are joined, and four of Hnatiuk's longer paragraphs are divided here at the same places as the English.

Опришки були двоєкі: одни опришки були домашні, шо у днину робив, був ґазда, а у вечєр волосє узєв пид крисаню, вимастив си сажив тай гайда у вопришки. Котрий ґазда ходив у вопришки, то мав з долини на голові волосє острижене, лиш на самим кімню ни стрих волосє. Та єк иде в опришки, то волосє ни стрижене збере в гушму, тай завєже з верхє на кімню, по верх того покладе крисаню, тай готовий вийсковий дезинтир-опришок, острижений.

Єк си верне тот ґазда з опришків, з грабунків т хатї, то волосє на кімню розвєже, розпустит, умиєт ци тай готовий ґазда. А шє до того уберет ци по простеньку, шо нїхто и ни на здогадь, шо вин опришок.

То це були опришки хатєнї. Цї опришки хатєнї грабували и своїх багато. Були такі випадки, шо нираз пишов оден до одного, та обрабував, а тот пишов до цего та цего обрабував, тай оден за одного ни знав, анї ни чюв. То ототи опришки грабували и своїх, а впихали вину на правдивих опришків. То це були отакі опришки: в днину ґазда, а в ночі опришок.

Но правда, шо були и правдиві опришки. Бувало имут Гуцула, видженут до войска, тай туда вже єму кує зазуля. Але богато жовні́р дезинтирувало з войска. Єк утечє жо́внїр з войска, вийде в гори, тай си найде з другим, третим дезинтиром, тай идут в опришки. Дезинтирі мусїли тїкати, бо за ними гонили пушкарі и їх ловили, виддавали до войска и там строго карали. Але дезинтирі ни ждали на пушкарив та ровту, лиш си зберали по шисть, вісїм, десїть та дванацїть и ишли в опришки. Ровта приходила за дезинтирями, але їх ни находила вже дома.

За тото однако мали біду стариня дезинтирив и то велику біду мали. Пушкарі, бувало, имут дєдю та маму дезинтиря, бют та карают та гонє по катушях, та вєжут калушями и всєку біду виробєют, єка си лиш їм забагне. Так карают пушкарі стариню дезинтирив, шо стариня мусит ци вирікати своїх власних дїтий. Але однако про тото, бувало, гудували своїх дїтий, тай помагали крадьки, єк могли, своїм дїтем. Нїби в вочі ровтарям брали бідов та лихом на свої пишнї дїти, але в серци любили їх щиро и помогали їм.

Правда, шо такі дезинтирі дуже рідко си навертали ид своїм хатам, бо си боєли зради на кождим місци. Бувало розказуют, шо опришки говорили так: Нїколи ни говори з товаришем у лїсї, бо бук и смерека таки мают вуха, очі и рот тай можут тє зрадити. Єк шо говориш, то говори на поли, бо поле тебе ни зради.

То значіло, шо у лїсї було бийно говорити тимунь, бо поза смеререков або буком може стоєти другий злий чьоловік и все видїти тай чюти и потим зрадити цїлу тайну, тай готова біда. А на поли чьоловік види делеко на окола тай ни може ворих пидслухати нїчьо, шо си говори.

Але опришки таки ни були биті в голов кулаком. Уни ни мали з чього жити и тимунь мусїли ити на грабунки, бо заробити годї було єк, бо ровта би зараз ловила. Але опришки ни були дурнї, вни ходили на грабунки до тих, шо їм ни давали на світї жити. Через то опришки мали страшну нинависть до панив за тото, шо тоти їх переслїдували и збавєли волї.

Опришки ходили на грабунки біда знає куда: ходили на Угоршіну, Волошіну та на Доли.

Бувало опришки пидут на Угоршіну на грабунки, а туда́ були великі пани, дїдичі, ґрафи, барони й всєка бранджя. Опришки ходили малими ватагами. Але єк де треба ити на великі грабунки, то опришки си зберали до купи и нападали великими таборами на свою добичь. Їх си зберало по двацїть, трицїть, сорок и по бирше, єк де треба.

Бувало єк нападут на єкий двир, або фистунок, то одни обскочют двир на окола, аби хто ни вибіх и ни дав знати, шо напали опришки на двир або фистунок. Решта убігала у браму и одни були на вартах у брамі, а другі бігли у покої и робили своє. Єк котрий панок, або слуга показав си на дворі, ци в покою, то опришки лиш на него крикнут: „Лицем до земнї, повішеннику“.

Опришки на то мусїли кричєти так, бо боєли си, аби їх хто ни зпаськудив з пістолєти. Опришки обграбуют, заберут гроші, маєтки, усе, шо лиш для них придатне. Єк уже си в усїм укутают, то тогди крикнут на слуги, а слуги позапрєгают конї у вози, опришки упакуют усе у вози, тай сами далї у поле!

Утечют опришки, а пани си доків спамєтают, то опришки уже делеко. Єк ни стане дороги, шо мож тїкати возами, то опришки повиберают усе з возив тай гайда, піше утїкают далї. А єк би на нї напала ровта, то ставали и боронили си. Бо уни знали, шо для них усе одно: ци згинути вид кульки ворога, ци єк єго имут, зависнути на шибеници.

Але опришки волїли гинути вид кулї ворога, нїж си єму пиддати и гинути на шибеници. Через то дуже було бийно ставати з опришками до вогню, бо опришки мусїли си боронити страшно завзєто. Єк котрого опришка ворог так скалїчів, шо єму нима уже житя, то єго опришки ни лишєли ворогам, лише мусїли єго добивати. О то навіть сам ранений просив.

Опришки уже, бувало, грабуют за горов, а єк там си на нї зроби велика покличь и зачнут їх там дуже ловити, то пидут тогди на грабунки у Волошіну и грабуют Волошінами. А єк и Волошінами зачьнут їх ловити, то уни пидут тогди суда до нас, на лєцкий бик. Тай грабуют на долах панив та Жидив. А єк си тут зроби за опришками поголоска, то вни знов утїкают за-гору, де за ними поголоски уже утихли.

Опришки ходили на грабунки за кордун, та біда знає куда. Зимї ни ходили на грабунки никуда, бо їх би були за слїдами усїх виловили. Уни сидїли зимі у зимивниках. Бувало брали їх люде на зимивлю, але то було для опришків дуже бийно. Бо нираз трафєло си так, шо тот ґазда, в котрого був опришок на зимивли, або єго видавав у руки, або таки сам убивав, скоро скимував, шо у вопришка є гроші.

Правда, шо ни всї були такі люде. Було бирше таких людий, шо опришкам доносили їсти тай їх ховали. Опришки за це давали тим людем гроші та усєкі достатки.

Опришки клали собі хати у лїсах, дес коло потока так, аби мали блиско воду и дрива. Уни клали хати-зимивники у безлюдних місцях так, аби за їх зимовики нїхто ни знав, анї ни чюв. Опришки у тоти зимивники наношували собі зза лїта муку, бриндзи, сир, масло, буженицї з єливок так, аби мали шо собі їсти через цїлу зиму. Бо вни ни могли ити купувати в місто нїчо. Бо скоро би си лиш єкий опришок показав, так нараз би го имили. Тимунь опришки мусїли си старати ззагодї собі на зиму.

Мали опришки и знакомих людий, до котрих зношували усєкі річі, а тоти люде за тото опришків гудували зимі. Носили їм їсти, горівок, та усєких достатків. Опришки уже, бувало, знали добре таких людий и до них ходили. Бувало, Господи, наносє до Палїїв (Палїй Шекерик) буженицї, полотна та усєкі убори. Розказуют, шо Олексиха Палїївска (Маріка Шекерик, моя пребабка) всї дївки виддала, шо на нї и раз руков ни теннула, усе опришки наношували, шо лиш було треба.

Опришки си нираз у зимі наймали у ґаздив за елуги и так перезимовували цїлу зиму.

Бувало опришки си сходє у зимі на баї. Єк си вже мают розходити (на веснї), то си сходє до купи. Бувало опришки си сходили зза ваташка Василюкового (Дмитро Понипалєк) на полонинї „Стовпнї“ и там баювали на Василюковим верху и по три дни пило то та стрілєло. От просто си веселили опришки. Єк, бувало, так побаюют, кілько си їм схоче, тай тогди си розходи кождий у свою. А на веснї, на свєтого Юрія, мали си знов сходити до купи на означєним місци. Василюків Дмитро зимовував отам у Глисниковатим, пид Лудовов.

Отаке було житє опришків. Так розказував минї про опришків мий дєдя Дмитро Шекерик-Доників, 78-лїтний. Нираз дєдя говорив то з великим запалом та охотов.

Source Colophon

Volodymyr Hnatiuk (ed.), Narodni opovidannia pro opryshkiv (Etnohrafichnyi zbirnyk 26; Lviv: Naukove tovarystvo im. Shevchenka, 1910), no. 4, pp. 4–7. Public domain. Transcribed from the page images of the Internet Archive scan (identifier etnohr_26). Hnatiuk's phonetic spelling is kept as printed, with є, ї and the stress marks in туда́, жовні́р and жо́внїр; his footnote to за-гору is not reproduced. т хатї (p. 4) and елуги (p. 6, for слуги) are kept as printed.

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