Footnotes

FOOTNOTES FOR THE POWER OF DARKNESS

1. It is customary to place a dying person under the icón. One or
more icóns hang in the hut of each Orthodox peasant.

2. Peasant weddings are usually in autumn. They are forbidden in
Lent, and soon after Easter the peasants become too busy to marry
till harvest is over.

3. A formal request for forgiveness is customary among Russians, but
it is often no mere formality. Nikíta's first reply is evasive;
his second reply, "God will forgive you," is the correct one
sanctioned by custom.

4. Loud public wailing of this kind is customary, and considered
indispensable, among the peasants.

5. Where not otherwise mentioned in the stage directions, it is
always the winter half of the hut that is referred to as "the
hut." The summer half is not heated, and not used in winter
under ordinary circumstances.

6. The Foundlings' Hospital in Moscow, where 80 to 90 percent of the
children die.

7. Nan calls Mítritch "daddy" merely as a term of endearment.

8. Probably Kurds

9. This refers to the songs customary at the wedding of Russian
peasants, praising the bride and bridegroom.

10. It is etiquette for a bride to bewail the approaching loss of her
maidenhood.

END OF _THE POWER OF DARKNESS_