Page:Tales and Legends from the Land of the Tzar.djvu/328

312 mediately sprang upon him and would have killed him, when down flew a large black crow and said in a man's voice,—

"Hail to thee, Aleyosha Papovitch, junior! Harken unto me, though I am but a big black crow. Do not deprive this Tartar of his life! Behold, I will fly to the dark blue sea, and fetch thee the water of life and the water of death, to sprinkle over the body of thy brother-warrior, Dobrenin. When thou sprinklest him with the water of death, his flesh will become white and whole again; but when thou sprinklest him over with the water of life, he will awake from his sleep of death."

Aleyosha Papovitch consented to this, and the crow flew away, but soon returned, bringing with it the water of life and the water of death. Aleyosha sprinkled Dobrenin's body first with the water of death, and the flesh became white and whole; he then sprinkled it with the water of life, and Dobrenin awoke and got up. They then set the Tartar free, and returned to their brother warriors.

Early next morning, while all the others were fast asleep, Nikita Gregorevitch arose with the sun, and, as his two brothers had done before, bathed himself in the cold waters of the Saffat river; and after praying to his saint, he looked up, and beheld the Tartar giant crossing in a boat—the terrible Mussulman whom no one had yet been able to kill, whom no wolf dared approach, and over whom no bird had the power to fly; there he was quite close at hand! Nikita Gregorevitch cared nought for danger. The moment he saw the Mussulman, he called out in a loud voice to his