“...the element that distinguished Machtet’s works from the stories and novels of the sixties and seventies was the element of “miracles.” In search of romantic stories, Machtet sometimes turned to legends and heroic tales. He used, for example, a Little Russian legend about a Cossack who was sent by his comrades to inform the Zaporozhye Sich about the misfortune that had befallen them, but on the way he succumbed to the spell of a beautiful witch, and for his weakness was condemned not to find peace in the grave until someone another, seduced by the beauty of the witch, will not remove the spell from him. From this legend Machtet created a true poem in prose...”