182 COSSACK FAIRY TALES.

looking at it, three wild doves came flying along and
lit down upon this lake. They threw off their
plumage and plunged into the water, and then he
saw that they were not wild doves, but three fair
ladies. They bathed in the lake, and in the mean-
time the youth crept up and took the raiment of one
of them and hid it behind the bushes. When they
came out of the water the third lady missed her
clothes. Then the youth said to her: “I know where
thy clothes are, but I will not give them to thee
unless thou wilt be my wife.”’—‘‘ Good!” cried she,
“thy wife will I be.” Then she dressed herself, and
they went together to the nearest village. When
they got there, she said to him: “Now go to the
nobleman who owns the land here, and beg him for
a place where we may build us a hut.” So he went
right up to the nobleman’s castle and entered his
reception-room, and said: “Glory be to God!”—
“For ever and ever!” replied the nobleman. “ What
dost thou want here, Ivan ?”—“‘I have come, sir, to
beg of thee a place where I may build me a hut.”—
“A place for a hut, eh? Good, very good. Go
home, and I'll speak to my overseer, and he shall
appoint thee a place.”—So he returned from the
nobleman’s castle, and his wife said to him: “Go
now into the forest and cut down an oak, a young
oak, that thou canst span round with both arms.”