284 COSSACK FAIRY TALES.

‘Be not anery, but tell me, now, wherefore art thou
so yellow ?”

“God made me so,” answered she, and then she
sighed.

“No,” replied Legless. “I know why thou art
so yellow. But I can make thee once more just
as God made thee.”

Now the Tsar bad heard them speaking, and the
words of the cripples moved him strangely. So
he had the armless man and the legless man in the
wagon brought to him, and said to them: “Do as
you are able.”

But Legless said: “O Tsar! let the Tsarivna
speak the truth, and confess openly how she became
so vile!”

Then the father turned to his daughter, and she
confessed and said: “The serpent flew to me, and
drew my blood out of my breast.”

“When did he fly to thee?” they asked.

“Just before dawn, when the guards were sleep-
ing, he came flying down my chimney. In he came ~
flying, and lay down beneath the cushions of my
couch.”

“Stop!” cried Legless; “we'll hide in the straw
in thy room, and when the serpent comes flying in
again, thou must cough and wake us.”

So they hid them in the straw, and just as the