58 COSSACK FAIRY TALES.

he took and waved it till the bridge doubled up
behind them, and went and spread out again right
in front of them. The serpent came up to the edge
of the sea; but there he had to stop, for he had
nothing to run upon.

So they crossed over that sea right to the other
side, and the serpent remained on his own side.
Then the bullock said to them: “T'll lead you to
a hut close to the sea, and in that hut you must
live, and you must take and slay me.” But they
fell a-weeping sore. “ How shall we slay thee!”
they cried; “thou art our own little dad, and hast
saved us from death !”—‘“Nay!” said the bullock ;
“but you must slay me, and one quarter of me you
must hang up on the stove, and the second quarter
you must place on the ground in a corner, and the
third quarter you must put in the corner at the
entrance of the hut, and the fourth quarter you
must put round the threshold, so that there will
be a quarter in all four corners.” So they took and
slew him in front of the threshold, and they hung
his four quarters in the four corners as he had bidden
them, and then they laid them down to sleep. Now
the Tsarevko awoke at midnight, and saw in the
right-hand corner a horse so gorgeously caparisoned
that he could not resist rising at once and mounting
it; and in the threshold corner there was a self-