234 COSSACK FAIRY TALES,

eagle besought him still more and said: “Take me
down rather and keep me, and thou shalt see that it
will be to thy advantage.” The archer, however,
took aim a third time, but the eagle began to beg of
him most piteously: “Nay, kill me not, but take
me home with thee, and thou shalt see what great
advantage it will be to thee!” The archer believed
the bird. He climbed up the tree, took the eagle
down, and carried it home. Then the eagle said to
him: ‘Put mein a hut, and feed me with flesh till
my wings have grown again.”

Now this archer had two cows and a steer, and
he at once killed and cut up one of the cows for the
eagle. The eagle fed upon this cow for a full year,
and then he said to the archer: “ Let me go, that I
may fly. I see that my wings have already grown
again!” Then the archer let him loose from the
hut. ‘The eagle flew round and round, he flew about
for half a day, and then he returned to the archer
and said: “T feel I have but little strength in me,
slay me another cow!” And the archer obeyed him,
and slew the second cow, and the eagle lived upon
that for yet another year. Again the eagle flew
round and round in the air. He flew round and
about the whole day till evening, when he returned
to the archer and said: ‘‘I am stronger than I was,
but I have still but little strength in me, slay me