🧚 Opening, part 25 · page 2

And the Tsarítsa spoke to the angel who was taking the shape of the Tsar: “Thou, my dear lord, for one year hast not slept with me.82 How can I, then, be thine?”83 And the Tsar spake to her: “I have made a covenant with God that for three years I will not sleep with thee nor share thy bed.”84 And he left her and went into the Tsar’s palace.85

Angéy the Tsar arrived in an unknown town and engaged himself with a peasant to reap the harvest; and he did not know how to do a peasant’s work; and the peasant discharged him, and he began to weep and sob, and went on his way from that city.86 And poor men met him on the road.87 He said to them: “Will ye take me up with ye?88 I am now a poor man, and do not know how to work, and I am ashamed to beg.89 What ye bid of me I will do.90 I will work for you.”91 And they accepted him and gave him a burden to carry.92 And they went to lie at night, and they bade him heat the bath, carry water, and lay the bed.93 And Tsar Angéy wept bitterly: “Woe to me!94 What have I done!95 I was wroth with the Sovereign, and He has deprived me of my kingdom and has brought me to ruin, and I have suffered all this through the word of the Gospel.”96

In the morning the poor men got up, and they arrived at his own city of Filuyán.97 And they reached the abode of the Tsar and began to beg for alms.98 At this time the Tsar was holding a mighty feast, and he bade the poor be summoned into the palace, bade them be fed sufficiently, and he bade the food of the poor men be taken into the Tsar’s palace and put into a special room.99 And, when the Tsar’s feast was over and the _boyárs_[31] and the guests had all separated, the angel who had taken the form of the Tsar Angéy came to him in the palace where Angéy the Tsar was dining with the beggars: “Dost thou know of a proud and mighty Tsar, how he profaned the word of the Gospel?”100 And he began to teach him and to instruct him before all of the world, that he must not profane the word of the Gospel, and must show respect for the priests, and must not upraise himself, but must be kindly and inclined to the ways of peace.101

THE FEAST OF THE DEAD102

Some girls were out at night for the evening, and arranged for an evening party.103 They went out to get some _vódka_.104 There were bones lying on the road.105 “Ho!” they said, “bones, bones, come and be our guests: we are having an evening party.”106

So, they went back home, brought the _vódka_, and stepped in over the threshold.107

But the bones came and sat at the table just like men, and said to the maidens, “Now give us the brandy.”108

So the girls gave them brandy.109

“Give us bread!”110

So they gave them bread.111

They all sat down to eat, and one maiden dropped the meat.112

Then the bones began lifting and stretching their legs under the bench.113 The girls tried to run away; and the bones raced after them.114 The bones caught one girl up, and broke her across their knees.115 The other girls made their escape into the loft; one girl hid behind the water-butt.116

The bones ran up to the loft and asked: “What is there up there?”117

“God’s taper.”118

“But down there?”119

“The Devil’s poker,” she answered.120

So the bones hauled the second girl out and strangled her.121

THE QUARRELSOME WIFE122

“Father, I should like to marry!123 Mother, I should like to marry, I should really,” said the youth.124

“Well then, my child—marry.”125

So he married, and chose a lanky, black, squinting wife.126 She would have pleased Satan more than the clear-eyed hawk, and it was no good frothing at anybody: he was the only person in the wrong.127 So he lived with her and wrung his tears out with his fist.128

One day he went out where audiences were being given, stood there, and came home.129

“Wherever have you been sauntering?” asked his squint-eyed wife.130 “What have you seen?”131

“Oh, they say that a new Tsar has come on the throne and has issued a new _úkaz_ that wives are to command their husbands!”132

He only meant to joke, but she sprang up, pulled his whiskers and said, “Go to the stream and wash the shirts, take the broom and sweep the house, then go and sit by the cradle and rock the child, cook the supper and grill and bake the cakes.”133

The man wanted to answer, “What are you talking about, woman?134 That is not a man’s work.”135 Then he looked at her, and he froze cold and his tongue clave to his throat.136

So he got the washing together, baked the cakes, swept the cottage, and was no good for anything.137

One year went by, and a second, and the good youth got rather weary of the yoke.138 But what on earth was he to do?139 He had married and he had tied himself for all eternity, and, may-be, his entire life would go by in this misery.140 From sheer wretchedness he contrived himself this contrivance.141 In the forest there was a deep pit of which neither end nor bottom could be seen.142 So he took and closed it up on the top with stakes, and strewed it over with straw.143 Then he came up to his wife: “My dear wife, you don’t know that there is a treasure in the forest.144 It simply moans and groans with gold, and will not give itself up to me.145 It said, ‘Send for your wife.’”146

“Ha, ha! let us go: I will take it, and you say nothing about it.”147

So they went into the wood.148 “Sssh, woman, that is hollow ground out of which the treasure comes forth.”149

“Oh, what a fool you are of a peasant, frightened of everything!150 This is how I run up to it.”151 So she ran up to the straw and was precipitated into the pit.152

“Now, off you go,” said the peasant; “I am now going to have a rest.”153

So he had a rest for a month, and a second month, but he soon became melancholy without his squint-eyed wife.154 So he went into the forest, and he went into the field, and he went to the river, and he could only think of her.155 “Possibly by now she has become quiet.156 Possibly I will take her out again.”157 So he took a withy, let it into the ground, and he listened: she was sitting there.158 He drew it up, looked at it very near, looked very carefully, and in the basket there was a little devil sitting.159 At this the peasant was frightened, and almost let the cord fall out of his hands.160