The work begins with a description of
Konotop centurion Mykyta Ulasovych Zabryokha sitting "sad and gloomy". The previous day, he had gone to woo Olena, a hard-working and beautiful girl who had no parents, but only a brother; Zabryokha asked the brother if he would give his sister in marriage, but the brother rejected the proposal. While the centurion sits at home, the clerk Pistryak comes to him with a stick marked with notches indicating the number of Cossacks in the hundred; however, having broken the stick while bringing it into the house, he initially miscounts the number of Cossacks. When Zabryokha discovers the error, he ridicules Pistryak in front of the hundred, offending him. Shortly thereafter, an order arrives from the
Chernihiv Regiment to go on a campaign, but the scribe refuses to carry out the order, and writes a letter informing the regiment that the Cossacks cannot come to Konotop, as they must undertake a
witch hunt because there has been no rain in Konotop for a long time. The next day, the whole city gathers near the pond. The scribe has kidnapped several women suspected of being witches, and prescribes a test: each woman is thrown into the water, and if she drowns, she is not a witch, and if she survives, she is a witch. Many women die in the water. The witch turns out to be Yavdokha Zubikha, who floats calmly on the water. Enraged men begin to beat her, but Yavdokha uses her magic to escape. Later, Zabryokha and Pistryak (separately) come to Zubikha with gifts and ask for help. She initially casts a spell so that Olena falls in love with Zabryokha and wants to marry him. Judge Demyan Khalyavsky, Olena's former lover, now sits sad and unhappy because she is now marrying someone else, but Zubikha offers to help him, too. To get her revenge on her assailants, the witch arranges things so Olena marries Khalyavsky after all, and Zabryokha marries the ugliest girl in the village, Solokha. Shortly thereafter, Zabryokha is removed from his position for not complying with the Chernihiv regiment's orders, as is Pistryak, and Khalyavsky becomes the new captain. In the epilogue, the author writes that this tale was told to him by the late Panas Mesiura, and reveals the ending to the story: Khalyavsky was not a centurion for long, because he quickly upset his superiors, and his marriage to Olena was unhappy because it was the result of witchcraft. Zabryokha and Pistryak were punished for drowning innocent women, and the witch died a short time later. ==Reception==