154 COSSACK FAIRY TALES.

He went on and on, and at last he thought to
himself: ‘Come now, I'll see what is inside this ege
of mine!” So he broke it, and out of it came all
sorts of cattle in such numbers that the open steppe
became like a fair. The servant stood there in amaze-
ment, and he thought to himself: “ However in God’s
world shall I be able to drive all these cattle back
again?” He had scarcely uttered the words when
the Iron Wolf came running wp, and said to him:
‘“T’ll collect and drive back all these cattle into the
egg again, and I'll patch the eee up so that it will
become quite whole. But in return for that,” con-
tinued the Iron Wolf, “ whenever thou dost sit down
on the bridal bench,’ I'll come and eat thee.” —*“ Well,”
thought the servant to himself, “a lot of things may
happen before I sit down on the bridal bench and he
comes to eat me, and in the meantime I shall get all
these cattle. Agreed, then,” said he. So the [ron
Wolf immediately collected all the cattle, and drove
them back into the egg, and patched up the ege
and made it whole just as it was before.

The servant went home to the village where he
lived, made him a cattle-pen stronger than strong,
went inside it and broke the egg, and immediately
that cattle-pen was as full of cattle as it could hold.

1 Posad, or posag, a bench covered with white cloth on which
the bride and bridegroom sat down together.