200 COSSACK FAIRY TALES.

that they should bring in lights, and he saw that
his faithful wife was quite an old woman. Then he
bethought him, and said: “ Was ever the like of this
known? My first and faithful wife goes a-seeking
her husband throughout the wide world, while my
accursed second wife, Empress though she be, sells
her husband for three apples!”

Then he bade them give his faithful wife rich
garments as much as she would, and she stripped
off her disguise, and washed her face and erew
young again. But the faithless wife was tied to the
tails of four wild horses, and they tore her to picces
in the endless steppes.