The material of Bazyli Jurczenko, a teacher from Ispas, turned out to be very useful during the preparation of the monograph of Pokutia. Moreover, he prepared a manuscript ‘Obrzędy i zwyczaje na Rusi Pokucia’ [The Rites and Customs in the Ruthenian Pokuttia] for the ‘Ethnographic Exhibition’ in Kołomyja in 1880. Kolberg became so interested in those materials that, already after the exhibition, he asked Jurczenko to continue to collect the lyrics of songs and fairy tales, as well as some information about local beliefs.

This is how Kolberg characterised the writings of Jurczenka:
“From all the materials which I received from others the most valuable are those of Jurczenko. Even though I have to shorten his texts, remove repetitions, and correct his language. He evidently tries to use proper Polish; yet, sometimes he uses Russian words, and Russian sentence order. But I have to admit that the amount and details of his observations are impressive”.

The story of Nikolajiszyn derives from the collection of Jurczenka:
“Long time ago, there was a man from Ispas, Semen Nikołajiszyn, who brought a devil to his house. The devil lived with him and brought him good luck. Later, the man upset the devil (some people say that he broke the contract after having earned enough money); in consequence, the devil reduced him to poverty. The man hanged himself; and even after his death, the devil continued tormenting the men’s two sons and a daughter also bringing about their death, too. Probably the whole family would have died, had it for the last two sons not abandoned their father’s house and moved to the other parts of the country. Today, the place where Semen’s lived is desolate. There is only one lilac bush, and sometimes, at night, the devil goes out of the bush; he changes into a pet or a man, and frightens people who walk along the nearby paths”.

Kolberg relates the witches from Ispas and Myszyna:
“In Ispas and Myszyna, they believe that to find out which witch took your milk, you should take a live trout and sprinkle it with some milk straight from the cow. In consequence, the witch will come to you herself; and if you threw this trout into the fire, one of her cows will immediately die”.