File:Antoni Kozakiewicz - Maciej, król nad króle ("Pan Tadeusz", Księga VI).jpg

Maciej was warming himself in the sun after finishing his prayers, and was already setting about his household work. He brought out grass and leaves; he sat down in front of his house and whistled: at this whistle a multitude of rabbits bobbed up from beneath the ground. Like narcissuses suddenly blooming above the grass, their long ears shine white; beneath them their bright eyes glitter like bloody rubies thickly sown in the velvet of the greensward. Now the rabbits sit up, and each listens and gazes around; finally the whole white, furry herd run to the old man, allured by leaves of cabbage; they jump to his feet, on his knees, on his shoulders: himself white as a rabbit, he loves to gather them around him and stroke their warm fur with his hand; but with his other hand he throws millet on the grass for the sparrows, and the noisy rabble drop from the roofs.

— Adam Mickiewicz, Pan Tadeusz, or The Last Foray in Lithuania: a story of life among Polish gentlefolk in the years 1811 and 1812 in twelve books, translated by George Rapall Noyes, London & Toronto, J. M. Dent & Sons, 1917, Book VI, pp. 173–174.