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 Rh "It is better that I should eat this bread than that goblin," he said to himself.

At that very moment Rarash jumped upon his back and screamed, "First loaf, second loaf! Vashek ate the third loaf!" And after every exclamation pecked him so dreadfully on the back that for a long time afterwards the boy had black and blue marks on his body. In the morning when Palichka got up and went to wake the boy he found him so dreadfully beaten that he could scarcely move. Having heard what had happened, Palichka went at once to Rarash and begged him to go away, as otherwise no man would be willing to serve in his house.

"Ha! ha! ha!" laughed Rarash, and said, "Take me there, where you brought me from, and I shall not trouble you any longer."

The peasant at once put on his cloak and carried the hen back to the same pear-tree where he had found her. From that moment Rarash never troubled him any more.

In a sheepfold at Libenice there was another Rarash, but there he was called Shetek. He looked like a little boy, only instead of nails he had claws on his fingers and toes. The farm labourers told many merry stories