138 COSSACK FAIRY TALES.

man, and her old man came and threw the wolf into
the cellar also,

On the third day the old woman again drove her
ox into the pastures to graze, and sat down by a
mound and dozed off. Then a fox came running
up. ‘“‘Who are you?” it asked the ox.—<I’m a
three-year-old heifer, stuffed with straw and daubed
with tar."—*Then give me some of your tar to
smear my sides with, when those clogs and sons
of dogs tear my hide!’—‘Take some,” said the
ox. hen the fox fastened her teeth in him and
couldn’t draw them out again. The old woman told
her old man, and he took and cast the fox into the
cellar in the same way. And after that they caught
Pussy Swift-foot! likewise.

So when he had got them all safely, the old man
sat down on a bench before the cellar and began
sharpening a knife. And the bear said to him:
“Tell me, daddy, what are you sharpening your
knife for?”—“To flay your skin off, that I may
make a leather jacket for myself and a pelisse for
my old woman.’—“ Oh! don’t flay me, daddy dear!
Rather let me go, and I'll bring you a lot of honey.”
—‘“ Very well, see you do it,” and he unbound and
let the bear go. Then he sat down on the bench
and again began sharpening his knife. And the wolf

1 The hare.