, I suppose, why I took up those pieces of the broken
bow, for I could see what was coming. When they lead forth this horse,
look at it and say, 'I will not mount that horse lest I put myself to
shame. 'Tis with the horse as with the bow, any one of my servants can
mount it!' But that horse is no horse at all, but the serpent's
youngest daughter! Thou must not sit upon her back, but I will trounce
her finely."

Early in the morning they all arose, and the prince went to the
serpent's house to greet them all, and there he saw twenty of the
serpent's daughters, but where was the twenty-first? Then the serpent
got up and said, "Well, prince, now let us come down into the
courtyard; they'll soon bring out the horse, and we'll see what thou
dost make of it."

So they all went out and saw two serpents bringing out the horse, and
it was as much as the pair of them could do to hold its head, so
fierce and strong it was. They led it out in front of the gallery, and
the prince walked round it and looked at it. Then said he, "What! did
you not say you would bring out a _horse_? Why, this is no horse, but
a mare. I will not sit on this mare, for 'twould be to my shame. I
will call one of my servants, and he shall mount her."

"Good!" said the serpent, "let him try!"

The prince called forth Ivan Golik. "Sit on that mare," said he, "and
trot her about!"

Ivan mounted the mare, and the two serpents let go. She carried him
right up among the clouds, and then down again upon the ground she
came, with a ringing of hoofs that made the earth tremble. But Ivan
Golik took out a fragment of the broken bow, fifty pounds in weight,
and trounced her finely. She reared and bucked and carried him hither
and thither, but he flogged her between the ears without ceasing. So
when she saw that all her prancing and curveting was in vain, she fell
to piteously beseeching him, and cried, "Ivan Golik! Ivan Golik! beat
me not, and I'll do all thy behests!"

"I have nothing to do with thee at all," said he, "but when thou dost
come up to the prince, fall down before him, and stretch out thy legs
toward him!"

At this she bethought her for a long time. "Well," cried she at last,
"it must be so, there is no doing anything with thee!" So she carried
him all over the courtyard, fell down before the prince, and stretched
out her legs toward him.

Then said the prince, "Thou seest what a sorry jade it is! And ye
would have had me mount such a mare!"