IVAN GOLIK AND THE SERPENTS. 267

said: “ Thanks to thee, Ivan Golik, thou hast saved
my host from perishing ; I will save thine also.”

Then they went on further, and lo! the gnat was
marching with his host, and so vast was it that no eye
could take it all in. Then the lieutenant-general of
the gnats came flying up and said : “Oh, Ivan Golik!
let my host drink of thy blood. If thou dost consent,
‘twill be to thy profit; but if thou dost not consent,
thou shalt not remain in the land of Russia.”

Then he stripped off his shirt and bade them tie
him up so that he could not beat off a single gnat,
and the gnats drank their fill of him and flew off
again.

After that they went along by the seashore till
they came to a man who had caught two pike. Then
Ivan Golik said to the prince: ‘ Buy those two pike
of the man, and let them go into the sea again.”

‘But wherefore ?”

“ Ask not wherefore, but buy them !”

So they bought the pike, and let them go into the
sea again. But as they swam away, the pike turned
round and said: ‘‘ We thank thee, Ivan Golik, that
thou hast not let us perish, and it shall be to thy weal
and welfare ! ”

Swiftly they moved on their way, but the story
that tells thereof moves still swifter. They went on
and on, for more than a month maybe, till they came