234 COSSACK FAIRY TALES.

that they all sprang to their feet straightway and
scampered off through the forest, forgetting all the
booty which they had robbed the merchantmen of.
Then Ivan came down from the oak and cried to his
brothers: ‘You come down here and divide the
spoil!” So the wise brothers came down, put all the
merchandise on the backs of the robbers’ horses, and
went home with it; but the only thing that Ivan
was able to secure for himself was a bag of incense.
This he immediately took to the nearest churchyard,
placed it on the top of a tomb, and began to pound
away at it with his millstone. Suddenly St. Peter
appeared to him and said: “ What art thou doing,
good man?”—“T am pounding up this incense to
make bread of it.’—‘ Nay, good man, I will advise
thee better: give me the incense and take from me
whatever thou wilt.”—* Very well, Saint Peter,” said
the fool; “thou must give me a little fife, but a fife
of such a sort that whenever I play upon it, every one
will be obliged to dance.”—“ But dost thou know
how to play upon a fife ?”—*No, but I can soon
learn.” Then St. Peter drew forth a little fife from
his bosom and gave it to him, and took away the
incense, and who can say where he went with it!
But Ivan stood up and gazed at the sky and said:
“Look now! if St. Peter hath not already burnt my
incense, and made of it that large white cloud that