14 COSSACK FAIRY TALES.

it.” So they clinched the bargain with a good drink,’
and the old man went home with the money, and the
gipsy walked off with the horse. But it was not
really a gipsy, but Oh, who had taken the shape of a
eipsy.

Then Oh rode off on the horse, and the horse
carried him higher than the trees of the forest, but
lower than the clouds of the sky. At last they sank
down among the woods and came to Oh’s hut, and
Oh went into his hut and left his horse outside on
the steppe. “This son of a dog shall not escape
from my hands so quickly a second time,” said he
to his wife. And at dawn Oh took the horse by the
pridle and led it away to the river to water it. But
no sooner did the horse get to the river and bend
down its head to drink, than it turned into a perch
and began swimming away. Oh, without more ado,
turned himself into a pike and pursued the perch.
But just as the pike was almost up with it, the
perch gave a sudden twist and stuck out its
spiky fins and turned its tail towards the pike, so
that the pike could not lay hold of it. So when
the pike came up to it, it said: “Perch! perch !
turn thy head towards me, | want to have a chat
with thee!”——“I can hear thee very well as I am,
dear cousin, if thou art inclined to chat,” said the
perch. So off they set. again, and. again the pike