ince Ivan was a witness of what took place, and he seized her
feather-dress and burnt it, and then laid hold of her. She first
turned into a frog, then assumed various reptile forms, and finally
became a spindle. This he broke in two, and flung one half in front
and the other behind him, and the spell was broken along with it. So
he regained his wife and went home with her. But as for the false
wife, he took a gun and shot her.

We will now return to the stories in which Harm or Misery figures as
a living agent. To Likho is always attributed a character of
unmitigated malevolence, and a similar disposition is ascribed by the
songs of the people to another being in whom the idea of misfortune is
personified. This is _Gore_, or Woe, who is frequently represented in
popular poetry--sometimes under the name of _Beda_ or Misery--as
chasing and ultimately destroying the unhappy victims of destiny. In
vain do the fugitives attempt to escape. If they enter the dark
forest, Woe follows them there; if they rush to the pot-house, there
they find Woe sitting; when they seek refuge in the grave, Woe stands
over it with a shovel and rejoices.[232] In the following story,
however, the gloomy figure of Woe has been painted in a less than
usually sombre tone.

WOE.[233]

In a certain village there lived two peasants, two brothers: one
of them poor, the other rich. The rich one went away to live
in a town, built himself a large house, and enrolled himself
among the traders. Meanwhile the poor man sometimes had
not so much as a morsel of bread, and his children--each one
smaller than the other--were crying and begging for food.
From morning till night the peasant would struggle, like a fish
trying to break through ice, but nothing came of it all. At last
one day he said to his wife:

"Suppose I go to town, and ask my brother whether he won't
do something to help us."

So he went to the rich man and said:

"Ah, brother mine! do help me a bit in my trouble. My
wife and children are without bread. They have to go whole
days without eating."

"Work for me this week, then I'll help you," said his brother.

What was there to be done! The poor man betook himself
to work, swept out the yard, cleaned the horses, fetched water,
chopped firewood.

At the end of the week the rich man gave him a loaf of bread,
and says:

"There's for your work!"

"Thank you all the same," dolefully sai