midnight
And there was a mountain at Ossówiec , where the witches had met last June , and where they would soon meet again in December , in order to deliberate where they should go in the shape of dust and wind . But if you painted `` C.M.B. , '' the initials of the three Kings of the East , on all the doors and walls , no witch would be able to get in and throw something into your plate . Or you need only say to yourself , `` God bless it , '' before you began to eat or drink , and then no witchcraft could harm your food , for the saints would hold their hands stretched out over the plate . Those who regularly prayed to the Holy Mother or to the saints had no need to fear the devil , who , four weeks ago , had come to miller Kierski at midnight -- the man who lived at Latalice , north of Gradewitz , and was always swearing and drinking -- and had almost wrung his neck off . He had been left on the dunghill behind his barn , where he lay quite stiff and blue in the face ; and if St. Peter 's cock had not flown on to the roof of the mill and crowed three times , -LSB- Pg 41 -RSB- so that the devil thought it was the miller 's cock crowing in the early morning , the miller would have been found as dead as a door-nail , with his face turned round to his back ; and his soul would already have been in hell . Marianna firmly believed that ghosts were screaming in the pines outside , and that witches were dancing in the wind that howled round the farm ; but above all she believed that the devil was running about on the Przykop like a will-o ' - the-wisp , and was longing to get into the house , in order to fetch a soul to hell . But even if she had not so firmly believed it , it would have amused her to whisper all kinds of strange stories to the trembling child , who had long ago crept into her bed and was clinging to her .