48 COSSACK FAIRY TALES.

him, and caught him by the beard. The Tsar sprang
back in terror, and cried: “ Let me go!” But the
Accursed One held him all the tighter. “Nay, I will
not let thee go
entreat him piteously: ‘‘ Ask what thou wilt of me,”

tiz2

cried he. Then the Tsar began to

said he, “ only let me go.”—‘ Give me, then,” said
the Accursed One, ‘something that thou hast in the
house, and then [ll let thee go!”—‘‘Let me see,
what have I got?” said the Tsar. ‘Oh, I know.
I’ve got eight horses at home, the like of which I
have seen nowhere else, and I'll immediately bid my
equerry bring them to thee to this spring—take
them.”—“I won't have them!” cried the Accursed
One, and he held him still more tightly by the beard.
“ Well, then, hearken now!” cried the Tsar. ‘‘I have
eight oxen. They have never yet gone a-ploughing
for me, or done a day’s work. I'll have them brought
hither. Tl feast my eyes on them once more, and
then I’ll have them driven into thy steppes—take
them.”—‘ No, that won’t do either!” said the Ac-
cursed One. The Tsar went over, one by one, all the
most precious things he had at home, but the Accursed

 

Cne said “No!” all along, and pulled him more and
more tightly by the beard. When the Tsar saw that
the Accursed One would take none of all these things,
he said to him at last: ‘Look now! I have a wife
so lovely that the lke of her is not to be found in