THE STORY OF TREMSIN. 99

went together, And when they came to the sea the
horse said ; ‘ Now lay upon me the hides and the tar
and the flax, and lay them in this order : first a hide,
and then a pood of tar, and then a pood of flax, and
so on, laying them thus till they. are all laid.”
Tremsin did so. ‘And now,” said the horse, |
shall plunge into the sea, and when thou seest a large
red wave driving towards the shore, run away till
the red wave has passed, and thou dost see a white
wave coming, and then sit down on the shore and
keep watch. I shall then come out of the sea, and
after me the whole herd; then thou must strike
with the horse-hair the horse which gallops imme-
diately after me, and he will not be too strong for
thee.”—So the faithful steed plunged into the sea, and
Tremsin sat down on the shore and watched. The
horse swam to a bosquet that rose out of the sea, and
there the herd of sea-horses was grazing. When the
strong charger of Nastasia saw him and the hides he
carried on his back, it set off after him at full tilt, and
the whole herd followed the strong charger of Nastasia.
‘They drove the horse with the hides into the sea, and
pursued him. Then the strong charger of Nastasia
caught up the steed of Tremsin and tore off one of his
hides, and began to worry it with his teeth and tear it
to fragments as he ran. Then he caught him up a
second time, and tore off another hide, and began to