Sf . COSSACK FAIRY TALES.

for there was nought else of him remaining, And
the ‘sar was very wroth. “All my people will be
devoured,” cried he. And he commanded that all
the foreign merchants passing through his realm
should be made to read prayers for the dead over
his daughter's body. “And if they will not
read,” said he, “they shall not depart from my
kingdom.”

So the foreign merchants went one by one. In
the evening a merchant was shut up in the church,
and in the early morning they came and found and
swept away his bones. At last it came to the turn
of the young man’s uncles to read the prayers for the
dead in the church. They wept and lamented and
cried: “We are lost! we are lost! Heaven help
us!” Then the eldest uncle said to the lad: « Listen,
good simpleton! It has now come to my turn to
read prayers over the Tsarivna. Do thou goin my
stead and pass the night in the church, and T’ll give
thee all my ship.”—“ Nay, but,” said the simpleton,
“what if she tear me to pieces too? I won’t cone
—But then St. Michael said to him: “Go and fear
not! Stand in the very middle of the church fenced
round about with thy laths and boards, and take with
thee a basket full of pears. When she rushes at thee,
take and scatter the pears, and it will take her till
cockcrow to pick them all up. But do thou go on