136 COSSACK FAIRY TALES.

out and kill it!” Then the old man jumped up, tore
off the bear, tied him up, and threw him in the
cellar.

Next morning, between dark and dawn, the old
woman took her distaff and drove the ox into the
steppe to graze. She herself sat down by a mound,
began spinning, and said: “ Graze, graze away, little
ox, while I spin my flax! Graze, graze away, little
ox, while I spin my flax!” And while she spun, her
head drooped down and she dozed. And, lo! from
behind the dark wood, from the back of the huge
pines, a grey wolf came rushing out upon the ox and
said: “Who are you? come, tell me!”—*“I am a
three-year-old heifer, stuffed with straw and trimmed
with tar,” said the ox.—*<Oh! trimmed with tar, are
you? Then give me of your tar to tar my sides, that
the dogs and the sons of dogs tear me not !”—*“Take
some,” said the ox. And with that the wolf fell
upon him and tried to tear the tar of. He tugged
and tugged, and tore with his teeth, but could get
none off. Then he tried to let go, and couldn’t;
tug and worry as he might, it was no good. When
the old woman woke, there was no heifer in sight.
“Maybe my heifer has gone home!” she cried; “I'll
go home and see.” When she got there she was
astonished, for by the palings stood the ox with the
wolf still tugging at it. She ran and told her old