244 COSSACK FAIRY TALES.

and said to him: “What! hast thou not got the
hare? Did nothing come out, then ?”—‘ No,” said
he, “nothing but an old woman who asked me what
I was seeking, and I told her the golden hare, and
she said: ‘It is not here,’ so I let her go.”—Then the
eitl rephed: “ Why didst thou not lay hold of her?
for she was the very golden hare itself, and now thou
never wilt catch it unless I turn myself into a hare
and thou take and lay me on the table, and give me
imto my mother’s, the she-dragon’s hands, and go
away, for if she find out all about it she will tear the
pair of us to pieces.”

So she changed herself into a hare, and he took
and laid her on the table, and said to the she-dragon :
“There’s thy hare for thee, and now let me go
away!” She said to him: “ Very well—be off!”
Then he set off running, and he ran and ran as hard
as he could. Soon after, the old she-dragon dis-
covered that it was not the golden hare, but her own
daughter, so she set about chasing after them and
destroying them both, for the daughter had made
haste in the meantime to join Ivan. But as the she-
dragon couldn’t run herself, she sent her husband,
and he began chasing them, and they knew he was
coming, for they felt the earth trembling beneath his
tread. Then the she-dragon’s daughter said to Ivan :
“I hear him running after us. I'll turn myself into