🧚 Opening, part 24

So they started, and off they went.1

Koshchéy the Deathless came back home, and his good horse stumbled under him.2 “Why, you sorry jade, are you stumbling, or is it some evil thing which you fear?”3

And the horse answered, “Iván Tsarévich has again arrived, and has taken Márya Moryévna away.”4

“Can one catch them up?”5

“It would be possible to sow barley and to wait until it grows up, reap it, thresh it, to brew beer, drink it until you were drunk, sleep out your sleep and then to go on the hunt, and we should still succeed.”6

Koshchéy leaped on his horse, caught up Iván Tsarévich, and said, “I said you were not to see anything more of Márya Moryévna!” and he took her away with him.7

So Iván Tsarévich was again left alone, and he wept bitterly; and once again he returned to Márya Moryévna, and this time too Koshchéy was not at home.8 “Let us go, Márya Moryévna!”9

“Oh, Iván Tsarévich, he will catch us up and he will tear you to bits.”10

“Let him tear me to bits; I cannot live without you.”11

So they got ready, and off they went.12

Koshchéy the Deathless returned home, and under him his good horse stumbled.13 “Why do you stumble, you sorry jade, or is it some evil that you fear?”14

“Iván Tsarévich has arrived, and has taken Márya Moryévna with him.”15

Koshchéy leaped on his horse, caught up Iván Tsarévich, broke him up into tiny bits, put them into a tar cask, took this cask, locked it with iron bolts and threw it into the blue sea.16 And he took Márya Moryévna away with him.17

At the same time the brothers-in-law of Iván Tsarévich looked at their silver ornaments and found they had turned black.18 “Oh,” they said, “evidently some disaster has befallen him!”19 The Eagle rushed into the blue sea, dragged out the cask to the shore, and the Hawk flew for the Water of Life, and the Crow flew for the Water of Death.20 Then they all three met at a single spot and broke up the cask, took out the bits of Iván Tsarévich, washed them, laid them together as was fit: then the Crow sprinkled him with the Water of Death, and the body grew together and was one; and the Hawk sprinkled him with the Water of Life, and Iván Tsarévich shivered, sat up and said, “Oh, what a long sleep I have had!”21

“But your sleep would have been very much longer if we had not been there,” answered the brothers-in-law.22 “Now you must come and be our guest!”23

“No, brothers, I must go and seek Márya Moryévna.”24

So he came to her and said, “Go and find out from Koshchéy the Deathless where he got such a fine horse!”25

Then Márya Moryévna looked out for a good opportunity, and asked Koshchéy the Deathless.26

Koshchéy answered, “Beyond thrice-nine lands, in the thrice-tenth kingdom, beyond the river of fire, lives the Bába Yagá.27 She has a mare on which every day she rides round the whole of the world.28 She has many splendid mares.29 I was there for three days as a herd, and she would not let me have the mare; but she gave me one of the foals.”30

“How can one cross the river of fire?”31

“I have a kerchief: if you shake it to the right three times a lofty bridge rises and the fires cannot overreach it.”32

Márya Moryévna listened, told Iván Tsarévich all about it, and he took the cloth away.33 Iván Tsarévich crossed the river of fire and he reached the Bába Yagá: but journeying afar, neither eating nor drinking.34 A sea-bird came to meet him with her young.35 Iván Tsarévich asked if he might eat one of her chicks.36

“Do not eat it,” the sea-bird said; “at some time I shall be of service to you, Iván Tsarévich.”37

Then he went farther, and he was in a wood, and he saw a bee-hive.38 “Perhaps,” he said, “I may take a little honey.”39

Then the queen-bee answered him, “Do not touch my honey, Iván Tsarévich; at some time or other I shall be of service to you.”40

So he did not touch the honey, but went farther.41 Then he met a lioness with her whelps.42 “May I eat this lion-whelp?43 I am so hungry!”44

“Do not touch it, Iván Tsarévich,” the lioness said; “at some time or other I shall be of service to you.”45

“Very well; it shall be as you will.”46

So he went on hungry, and he went on and on and on, and at last he reached the house of the Bába Yagá.47 Round the house there were twelve poles, and on eleven of the poles there were the skulls of men: only one as yet was untenanted.48

“Hail, _bábushka_!” he said.49

“Hail, Iván Tsarévich!” she replied: “what have you come for?50 By your own good will or for need?”51

“I have come to earn of you a knightly horse.”52

“Very well, Iván Tsarévich: you are to serve me not one year, but only three days.53 If you can guard my mares, I will give you a knightly horse; if you cannot, do not be angry, but your head must also lie on the last of the stakes.”54

Iván Tsarévich agreed, and Bába Yagá gave him drink and food and bade him set to work.55 As soon as ever he had driven the mares into the field, they all turned their tails and ran in the meadows so far that the Tsarévich could not trace them with his eyes: and thus they were all lost.56 Then he sat down and wept, and became melancholy, and sat down on a stone and went to sleep.57

The sun was already setting when the sea-bird flew to him, woke him up and said, “Arise, Iván Tsarévich—all the mares have gone home.”58

The Tsarévich got up, turned back home; but Bába Yagá was angry with her mares.59 “Why have you all come home?”60

“Why should we not come home? the birds flew down from every quarter of the sky and almost clawed out our eyes.”61

“Well, to-morrow do not stray in the meadows, but scatter into the dreamy forest.”62

So Iván Tsarévich passed that night; and next day Bába Yagá said to him, “Look, Iván Tsarévich, if you do not keep the mares well, if you lose one, then your false head shall nod up and down on the stake.”63

So then he drove all the mares to the field, and this time they turned their tails, and they ran into the dreamy woods.64 And once again the Tsarévich sat on the stone and wept and wept and went to sleep, and the sun began to rest on the woods when the lioness ran up and said, “Get up, Iván Tsarévich—all the mares have been collected.”65 Then Iván Tsarévich got up and went home.66

And Bába Yagá was angry that the mares had come home, and she called out to her mares, “Why have you all come home?”67

And they answered, “How should we not come home?—wild beasts from all the four quarters of the world assembled round us and almost tore us to bits.”68

“Well, you go to-morrow into the blue sea.”69

Once again Iván passed the night there, and the next day Bába Yagá sent her mares to feed.70 “If you do not guard them, then your bold head shall hang on the pole.”71

He drove the mares into the field, and they at once turned tail and vanished from his eyes and ran into the blue sea and stood up to their necks in the water.72 So Iván Tsarévich sat on the stone, wept and went to sleep.73 And the sun was already setting on the woods when the bee flew up to him and said: “Get up, Iván Tsarévich—all the mares have been gathered together.74 But, when you return home, do not appear before Bába Yagá; go into the stable and hide behind the crib.75 There there is a mangy foal who will be rolling in the dung: steal him; and, at the deep of midnight, leave the house.”76