great favorite in Russia, and
which will serve as another illustration of the use made of magical
"properties" in the Skazkas.

EMILIAN THE FOOL.[351]

There were once three brothers, of whom two were sharp-witted,
but the third was a fool. The elder brothers set off to
sell their goods in the towns down the river,[352] and said to the
fool:

"Now mind, fool! obey our wives, and pay them respect as
if they were your own mothers. We'll buy you red boots, and
a red caftan, and a red shirt."

The fool said to them:

"Very good; I will pay them respect."

They gave the fool their orders and went away to the downstream
towns; but the fool stretched himself on top of the stove
and remained lying there. His brothers' wives say to him--

"What are you about, fool! your brothers ordered you to
pay us respect, and in return for that each of them was going to
bring you a present, but there you lie on the stove and don't do
a bit of work. Go and fetch some water, at all events."

The fool took a couple of pails and went to fetch the water.
As he scooped it up, a pike happened to get into his pail. Says
the fool:

"Glory to God! now I will cook this pike, and will eat it all
myself; I won't give a bit of it to my sisters-in-law. I'm savage
with them!"

The pike says to him with a human voice:

"Don't eat me, fool! if you'll put me back again into the
water you shall have good luck!"

Says the fool, "What sort of good luck shall I get from
you?"

"Why, this sort of good luck: whatever you say, that shall
be done. Say, for instance, 'By the Pike's command, at my
request, go home, ye pails, and be set in your places.'"

As soon as the fool had said this, the pails immediately
went home of their own accord and became set in their places.
The sisters-in-law looked and wondered.

"What sort of a fool is this!" they say. "Why, he's so
knowing, you see, that his pails have come home and gone to
their places of their own accord!"

The fool came back and lay down on the stove. Again did
his brothers' wives begin saying to him--

"What are you lying on the stove for, fool? there's no wood
for the fire; go and fetch some."

The fool took two axes and got into a sledge, but without
harnessing a horse to it.

"By the Pike's command," he says, "at my request, drive,
into the forest, O sledge!"

Away went the sledge at a rat