236 COSSACK FAIRY TALES.

longer, and after that he took to flight, and flew high
up right to the very clouds. Then he flew down
again to the man and said to him: “I thank thee,
brother, for that thou hast been the saving of me!
come now and sit upon me!”—* Nay, but,” said the
man, “what if some evil befall me ?”—*« Sit on me,
I say!” cried the eagle. So the archer sat down
upon the bird.

Then the eagle bore him nearly as high as the big
clouds, and then let him fall. Down plumped the
man; but the eagle did not let him fall to the earth,
but ay flew beneath him and upheld him, and
said to him: “ How dost thou feel now ?’”—T feel,”
said the man, “as if I had no life in me.”—Then the
eagle replied: “ That was just how I felt when thou
didst aim at me the first time.” Then he said to
him: “Sit on my back again!” The man did not
want to sit on him, but what could he do2 Sit he
must. Then the eagle few with him quite as hich
as the big clouds, and shook him off, and down he
fell fears till he was about two fathoms from the
ground, when the bird again flew beneath him and
held him up. Again the eagle asked him: “ How
dost thou feel?” And the man replied: “TI feel
just as if all my bones were already broken to bits!”

—“That is just how I felt when thou didst take aim
at me the second time,” replied the eagle. “ But