EN
This article is an analysis of the linguistic view of the identity of Mazurian people in East Prussia presented in the literary reportage On the Trail of the Sad Devil by Melchior Wańkowicz. The main focus is put on symptoms and mechanisms of an identity formation and a cultural interpenetration at the ethnic borderland viewable in language. The text considers narrator and narrative construction. It also presents the Mazurian attitude towards native language in the early 20th century and its historical grounds.