32 COSSACK FAIRY TALES.

Jews caught him by the shoulders to cast him out
and cried: “ Be orf, thou rascal! Does any one know
where this man comes from? No doubt he is an evil-
doer.” The man could not stand this, so he cried:
“Out of the drum, my henchmen! and give the
accursed Jews a sound drubbing, that they may know
better than to take in honest folk!” and immediately
the twelve henchmen leaped out of the drum and
began thwacking the Jews finely.—“ Oh, oh!” roared
the Jews; “oh, dear, darling, good man, we'll give
thee whatever thou dost want, only leave off beating
us! Let us live a bit longer in the world, and we
will give thee back everything.” — Good!” said the
man, “and another time you'll know better than to
deceive people.” Then he cried: ‘Into the drum,
my henchmen!” and the henchmen disappeared,
leaving the Jews more dead than alive. Then they
eave the man his sack and his ram, and he went
home, but it was a long, long time before the Jews
forgot those henchmen.

So the man went home, and his wife and children
saw him coming from afar. ‘‘ Daddy is coming home
now with a sack and aram!” said she; “ what shall
we do? We shall have a bad time of it, we shall
have nothing left at all. God defend us poor
wretches! Go and hide everything, children.” So
the children hastened away, but the husband came to