50 COSSACK FAIRY TALES.

were a spring of water there, though the water was
very near dried up. But looking closer, [ saw that
it was quite full; so I bethought me that I would
drink thereof, and I leaned over, when lo! that
Evil-Wanton (I mean the Devil) caught me by the
beard and would not let me go. I begged and
prayed, but still he held me tight. ‘Give me,’ said
he, ‘what thou hast at home, or I'll never let thee
go!’—And I said to him: ‘Lo! now, I have horses.’
—‘I don’t want thy horses!’ said he.—‘I have
oxen,’ I said—‘I don’t want thine oxen !’ said he.
——‘JT have,’ said I, ‘a wife so fair that the like of her
is not to be found in God’s fair world; take her, but
let me go.’—‘I don’t want thy fair wife!’ said he.
—tThen I promised him what I should find at home
when I got there, for I never thought that God had
blessed me so. Come now, my darling wife! and let
us bury them both lest he take them !”—“ Nay, nay!
my dear husband, we had _ better hide them some-
where. Let us dig a ditch by our hut—just under
the gables!” (For there were no lordly mansions in
those days, and the Tsars dwelt in peasants’ huts.)
So they due a ditch right under the gables, and put
their children inside it, and gave them provision of
bread and water. Then they covered it up and
smoothed it down, and turned into their own little
hut.