63 COSSACK FAIRY TALES,

and fetch me from somewhere bear’s milk, and I
drank of it, and my health came back to me.’—«I
will fetch it,” said her brother.

But first of all he laid him down to sleep. Nedviga
lay at his head, and Protius at his feet, and Vovchok!
by his side. So he slept through the night, and
at dawn he arose and mounted his good steed
and hied him thence. Again they came to a little
thicket, and this time a she-bear came out. Protius
ran her down, Nedviga held her fast, and the little
Tsar milked her and let her go. Then the she-bear
said: “Hail to thee, little Tsar Novishny ; because
thou hast let me go, I'll give thee a bear-cub.”
But to the little bear she said: “Obey him as
though he were thine own father.” So he set off
home, and the serpent and his sister saw that four
were now trotting behind him. ‘“ Look!” said the
serpent, “if there are not four running behind him!
Shall we never be able to destroy him? I tell thee
what. Ask him to get thee hare’s milk; perhaps
his beasts will gobble up the hare before he can
milk it.” So he turned himself into a needle again,
and she fastened him in the wall, only a little
higher up, so that the dogs should not get at him.
Then, when the little Tsar dismounted from hig
horse, he and his dogs came into the hut, and the

1 Little Wolf.