328] the wicked wife, who has set her confiding
husband to tend her pigs, is killed by the hero. She had put out his
eyes, and had cut off the feet of another companion of her husband; in
this variant also the Healing Waters are found by the aid of a snake.

The supernatural steed which Katoma tamed belongs to an equine race
which often figures in the Skazkas. A good account of one of these
horses is given in the following story of--

PRINCESS HELENA THE FAIR.[329]

_We say that we are wise folks, but our old people dispute
the fact, saying: "No, no, we were wiser than you are." But
skazkas tell that, before our grandfathers had learnt anything,
before their grandfathers[330] were born_--[331]

There lived in a certain land an old man of this kind who instructed
his three sons in reading and writing[332] and all book
learning. Then said he to them:

"Now, my children! When I die, mind you come and read
prayers over my grave."

"Very good, father, very good," they replied.

The two elder brothers were such fine strapping fellows! so
tall and stout! But as for the youngest one, Ivan, he was like
a half-grown lad or a half-fledged duckling, terribly inferior to
the others. Well, their old father died. At that very time
there came tidings from the King, that his daughter, the Princess
Helena the Fair, had ordered a shrine to be built for her
with twelve columns, with twelve rows of beams. In that shrine
she was sitting upon a high throne, and awaiting her bridegroom,
the bold youth who, with a single bound of his swift steed,
should reach high enough to kiss her on the lips. A stir ran
through the whole youth of the nation. They took to licking
their lips, and scratching their heads, and wondering to whose
share so great an honor would fall.

"Brothers!" said Vanyusha,[333] "our father is dead; which
of us is to read prayers over his grave?"

"Whoever feels inclined, let him go!" answered the
brothers.

So Vanya went. But as for his elder brothers they did
nothing but exercise their horses, and curl their hair, and dye
their mustaches.

The second night came.

"Brothers!" said Vanya, "I've done my share of reading.
It's your turn now; which of you will go?"

"Whoever likes can go and read. We've business to look
after; don't you meddle."

And they cocked their caps, and shouted, and whooped, and
flew this way, and shot that wa