There was not a yard or a decent shed to shelter animals or waggons.

That was the way the wealthy lived: and if you had looked for our brothers, the poor--why, a hole in the ground--that was a cabin for you! Only by the smoke could you tell that a God-created man lived there.

You ask why they lived so?
It was not entirely through poverty: almost every one led a raiding Cossack life, and gathered not a little plunder in foreign lands; it was rather because it was little use building up a good wooden house.

Many folk were engaged in raids all over the country--Crimeans, Poles, Lithuanians! It was quite possible that their own countrymen might make a descent and plunder everything.

Anything was possible.
In this hamlet a man, or rather a devil in human form, often made his appearance.