d together all her young crabs, and they collected all the coral
and brought it ashore, and gave it to Tremsin. Then the faithful
steed came running up, and Tremsin mounted it, and took the coral to
the thrice-lovely Nastasia. "Well," said Nastasia, "thou hast got the
feather of the Bird Zhar, thou hast got the Bird Zhar itself, thou
hast got me my coral, get me now from the sea my herd of wild
horses!"--Then Tremsin was sore distressed, and went to his faithful
steed and wept bitterly, and told him all about it. "Well," said the
horse, "this time 'tis no trifle, but a real hard task. Go now to thy
master, and bid him buy twenty hides, and twenty poods[13] of pitch,
and twenty poods of flax, and twenty poods of hair."--So Tremsin went
to his master and told him, and his master bought it all. Then Tremsin
loaded his horse with all this, and to the sea they went together. And
when they came to the sea the horse said, "Now lay upon me the hides
and the tar and the flax, and lay them in this order--first a hide,
and then a pood of tar, and then a pood of flax, and so on, laying
them thus till they are all laid." Tremsin did so. "And now," said the
horse, "I shall plunge into the sea, and when thou seest a large red
wave driving toward the shore, run away till the red wave has passed
and thou dost see a white wave coming, and then sit down on the shore
and keep watch. I shall then come out of the sea, and after me the
whole herd; then thou must strike with the horsehair the horse which
gallops immediately after me, and he will not be too strong for
thee."--So the faithful steed plunged into the sea, and Tremsin sat
down on the shore and watched. The horse swam to a bosquet that rose
out of the sea, and there the herd of sea-horses was grazing. When
the strong charger of Nastasia saw him and the hides he carried on his
back, it set off after him at full tilt, and the whole herd followed
the strong charger of Nastasia. They drove the horse with the hides
into the sea, and pursued him. Then the strong charger of Nastasia
caught up the steed of Tremsin and tore off one of his hides, and
began to worry it with his teeth and tear it to fragments as he ran.
Then he caught him up a second time, and tore off another hide, and
began to worry that in like manner till he had torn it also to shreds;
and thus he ran after Tremsin's steed for seventy miles, till he had
torn off all the hides, and worried them to bits. But Tremsin sat upon
t