country.

'You are the only person who can kill him; and in consequence he fears
you to such an extent that he has set spies to watch you, and they
report your movements to him daily.

'When you have reached him, beware of speaking a single word to him, or
you will fall into the power of his friends. Seize him at once by the
beard and dash him to the ground.'

Iwanich thanked the old witch, mounted his foal, put spurs to its sides,
and they flew like lightning through the air.

Already it was growing dark, when Iwanich perceived some figures in the
distance; they soon came up to them, and then the Prince saw that it
was the magician and his friends who were driving through the air in a
carriage drawn by owls.

When the magician found himself face to face with Iwanich, without hope
of escape, he turned to him with false friendliness and said: 'Thrice my
kind benefactor!'

But the Prince, without saying a word, seized him at once by his beard
and dashed him to the ground. At the same moment the foal sprang on the
top of the magician and kicked and stamped on him with his hoofs till he
died.

Then Iwanich found himself once more in the palace of his bride, and
Militza herself flew into his arms.

From this time forward they lived in undisturbed peace and happiness
till the end of their lives.

THE MAGIC RING

Once upon a time there lived an old couple who had one son called
Martin. Now when the old man's time had come, he stretched himself out
on his bed and died. Though all his life long he had toiled and moiled,
he only left his widow and son two hundred florins. The old woman
determined to put by the money for a rainy day; but alas! the rainy day
was close at hand, for their meal was all consumed, and who is prepared
to face starvation with two hundred florins at their disposal? So the
old woman counted out a hundred of her florins, and giving them to
Martin, told him to go into the town and lay in a store of meal for a
year.

So Martin started off for the town. When he reached the meat-market he
found the whole place in turmoil, and a great noise of angry voices and
barking of dogs. Mixing in the crowd, he noticed a stag-hound which the
butchers had caught and tied to a post, and which was being flogged in
a merciless manner. Overcome with pity, Martin spoke to the butchers,
saying:

'Friends, why are you beating the poor dog so cruelly?'

'We have every right to beat him,' they replied; 'he has