THE STORY OF LITTLE TSAR NOVISHNY. 65

home, and they saw him coming from afar, and lo!
now he had six guardians, and yet bad come by no
harm. “’Tis no good; we shall never do for him,”
said the serpent. ‘Look, now! Make thyself worse
than ever, and say to him: I am very ill, my brother,
because in another realm, far, far away, there is a
wild boar who ploughs with his nose, and sows with
and in that same

 

his ears, and harrows with his tail
empire there is a mill with twelve furnaces that
grinds its own grain and casts forth its own meal,
and if thou wilt bring me of the meal that is beneath
these twelve furnaces, so that I may make me a
cake of it and eat, my soul shall live.’—Then her
brother said to her: “Methinks thou art not my
sister, but my foe!”—But she replied: “How can
I be thy foe when we two live all alone together
in a strange land ?”—* Well, I will get it for thee,”
said he. For again he believed in his sister.

So he mounted his steed, took his pack with
him, and departed, and he came to the land where
were that boar and that mill she had told him of.
He came up to the mill, tied his horse to it, and
entered into it. And there were twelve furnaces
there and twelve doors, and these twelve doors
needed no man to open or shut them, for they
opened .and shut themselves. He took meal from

beneath the first furnace and went through the
F