THE STORY OF LITTLE TSAR NOVISHNY, THE
FALSE SISTER, AND THE FAITHFUL BEASTS.

NCE upon a time, in a certain kinedom,
in a certain empire, there dwelt a
certain Tsar who had never had a
child. One day this Tsar went to
the bazaar (such a bazaar as we have
at Kherson) to buy food for his needs.

For though he was a Tsar, he had a mean and churlish

soul, and used always to do his own marketing, and so

now, too, he bought a little salt fish and went home
with it. On his way homeward, a great thirst suddenly
fell upon him, so he turned aside into a lonely mountain
where he knew, as his father had known before him,
there was a spring of crystal clear water. He was so
very thirsty that he flung himself down headlong by
this spring without first crossing himself, wherefore
that Accursed One, Satan, immediately had power over