en cast up at the
youth's feet. Next a fiery-red cat with long golden claws rose from
under the juniper, mewed, and darted away, when the earth opened and
threw up another shovelful of silver. Next appeared a great fiery-red
dog, with a golden head and tail, who barked, and ran away, when a
shovelful of roubles was cast up at the youth's feet. This was followed
by a red fox with a golden tail, a red wolf with two golden heads, and a
red bear with three golden heads; and behind each animal money was
thrown out in the grass, but behind the bear there came about a ton of
silver, and the entire heap rose to the height of a haycock. When the
bear had disappeared, there was a rushing and roaring under the juniper
as if fifty smiths were blowing the bellows at once. Then appeared from
the juniper a huge head, half man, half beast, with golden horns nine
feet long, and with golden tusks two ells long. Still more dreadful were
the flames which shot from mouth and nostrils, and which caused the
rushing and roaring. The youth was now beside himself with terror, and
rushed away, fancying himself closely pursued by the spectre, and at
last he fell down in his own farmyard and fainted. In the morning the
sunbeams roused him; and when he came to himself, he took six sacks with
him from the barn to carry off the treasure. He found the hill with the
three junipers, the slaughtered animals, and the wand; but the earth
showed no signs of having been disturbed, and the treasure had vanished.
Probably it still rests beneath the hill, waiting for a bolder man to
raise it.

The grandson of the unlucky treasure-seeker, who relates this story,
could not say if his grandfather had been equally unfortunate in his
marriage, as he never alluded to the subject.

[Footnote 64: _Kergi_ (rise up), spelt backwards.]

[Footnote 65: As in the story of Joodar (_Thousand and One Nights_).]

SECTION X

_ORIENTAL TALES_

Under this heading I propose to notice two stories only. The first of
these is called the "Maidens who Bathed in the Moonlight" (Kreutzwald),
and is peculiarly tame and inconsequential, but yet exhibits one or two
features of special interest which forbid its being passed over
altogether.

A young man who had already learned the language of birds and other
mysteries, and was still desirous to peer into all sorts of secret
knowledge, applied to a famous necromancer[66] to initiate him into the
secrets hidden under the veil of