Chapter II. MYTHOLOGICAL, part 11 · page 21 2101A magic, bridge-creating kerchief, however, enables the fugitives to escape from their irritated mother-in-law.102In one story[180] the heroine is ordered to swing the cradle in which reposes a Baba Yaga's infant son, whom she is ordered to address in terms of respect when she sings him lullabies; in others she is told to wash a Baba Yaga's many children, whose appearance is usually unprepossessing.103One girl, for instance, is ordered by a Baba Yaga to heat the bath, but the fuel given her for the purpose turns out to be dead men's bones.104Having got over this difficulty, thanks to the advice of a sparrow which tells her where to look for wood, she is sent to fetch water in a sieve.105Again the sparrow comes to her rescue telling her to line the sieve with clay.106Then she is told to wait upon the Baba Yaga's children in the bath-room.107She enters it, and presently in come "worms, frogs, rats, and all sorts of insects."108These, which are the Baba Yaga's children, she soaps over and otherwise treats in the approved Russian-bath style, and afterwards she does as much for their mother.109The Baba Yaga is highly pleased, calls for a "samovar" (or urn), and invites her young bath-woman to drink tea with her.110And finally she sends her home with a blue coffer, which turns out to be full of money.111This present excites the cupidity of her stepmother, who sends her own daughter to the Baba Yaga's, hoping that she will bring back a similar treasure.112The Baba Yaga gives the same orders as before to the new-comer, but that conceited young person fails to carry them out.113She cannot make the bones burn, nor the sieve hold water, but when the sparrow offers its advice she only boxes its ears.114And when the "rats, frogs, and all manner of vermin," enter the bath-room, "she crushed half of them to death," says the story; "the rest ran home, and complained about her to their mother."115And so the Baba Yaga, when she dismisses her, gives her a red coffer instead of a blue one.116Out of it, when it is opened, issues fire, which consumes both her and her mother.117[181]1 2← previousChapter II. MYTHOLOGICAL, part 10next →Chapter II. MYTHOLOGICAL, part 12↑ back to Russian Fairy Tales: A Choice Collection of Muscovite Folk-loreThis page in Markdown → https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/29/page/2/