OH. if
he lay a-snoring. Then Oh seized him, and bade
them bring wood and tie his labourer fast to the wood,
and set the wood on fire till the labourer was burnt
to ashes. Then Oh took the ashes and scattered
them to the four winds, but a single piece of burnt
coal fell from out of the ashes, and this coal he sprinkled
with living water, whereupon the labourer immediately
stood there alive again and somewhat handsomer and
stronger than before. Oh again bade him chop wood,
but again he went to sleep. Then Oh again tied him
to the wood and burnt him and scattered the ashes to
the four winds and sprinkled the remnant of the coal
with living water, and instead of the loutish clown
there stood there such a handsome and_ stalwart
Cossack * that the like of him can neither be imagined
nor described but only told of in tales.

There, then, the lad remained for a year, and at the
end of the year the father came for his son. He
came to the self-same charred stumps in the self-same
forest, sat him down, and said: Oh!”—Oh imme-
diately came out of the charred stump and said ;
“ Hail! O man !”—“ Hail to thee, Oh !”—“ And what
dost thou want, O man ?” asked Oh.—‘* I have come,”
said he, ‘‘ for my son.”—“ Well, come then! If thou

1 Kozak, a Cossack, being the ideal human hero of the Ruthe-
nians, just as a bogatyr is a hero of the demi-god type, as the
name implies.