at that kingdom, and appeared before the king of it, and asked for his daughter’s hand in marriage.
Then the King said to him, “You are not the only suitor for my daughter; there is another suitor, a mighty knight. If I refuse him he will destroy all of my kingdom.”
“But, if you decline my offer, I will ravage your kingdom.”
“What will you?—you had better measure your strength with him: to whichever of you conquers I will give my daughter.”
“Very well; summon all the Tsars and Tsarévichi, all the Kings and Korolévichi, to see us wage an honourable holmgang to win your daughter.”
So then hunters were sent out to all cities, and one year had not gone by before from all the neighbouring parts all the Tsars and Tsarévichi, all the Kings and Korolévichi came together, as also the Tsar who had put his own daughter into the barrel and sent her out into the sea.
On the day appointed all the knights made ready for a bloody holmgang. They fought and fought, and the earth groaned at their blows, the forests bowed down and the rivers rose in waves. The Tsarévna’s son first overcame his opponent and cut off his turbulent head.
Then all the royal boyárs ran up, took the doughty youth into their hands and led him into the palace. Next day he was married to the Korolévna. And after they had feasted at the wedding he set about inviting all the Tsars and Tsarévichi, the Kings and the Korolévichi as his guests to his father and mother. So they all came together, and they got their ships ready and sailed on the sea. The Tsarévna with her husband received her guests with honour, and they began to celebrate banquets and to be joyous. The Tsars and the Tsarévichi, the Kings and the Korolévichi, gazed at the palace and the gardens and wondered. They had never seen such wealth. Then some of them wondered when they saw the ducks and drakes, every one of them worth half a kingdom.
So the guests were fed and bethought themselves of going home, but before ever they had got to the haven, swift hunters precursed them, saying, “Our master bids you turn back again; he wishes to hold secret counsel with you.”
So the Tsars and Tsarévichi, the Kings and Korolévichi, were turning back, when the master came to meet them and said: “Oh ye good folk, one of my ducks has gone: has any one of you taken it?”
“Why are you making a vain quest?” the Tsars and Tsarévichi, the Kings and Korolévichi answered; “this would be an unguestly act. Search us all over. If you find the duck on any one of us do with him what you will; if you do not, let your own head pay for it.”
“I will,” said the master. And he placed them all in a row and searched them; and, as soon as he had come to the father of the Tsarévna, he said quietly:
“At the pike’s good pleasure,
At God’s good measure—
under the lappet of the kaftán of this Tsar, let the duck be found.” So he went and lifted his kaftán and found the duck tied to the lappet; one feather was of gold, one was of silver.
Then all the Tsars and Tsarévichi, Kings and Korolévichi cried out fiercely, “Ho! ho! ho! what a deed! are Tsars turning into thieves?”
Then the Tsarévna’s father swore by everything holy that as to thieving there had never been such an idea in his head. And he had no idea how the duck had come to him.
“That is a fine tale; it was found on you; you must be guilty.”
Then the Tsarévna came out, burst upon her father, and acknowledged that she was his daughter whom he had given away to the poor peasant in marriage and had put into a barrel. “Bátyushka,”51 she said, “you would not then believe my words, and now you have acknowledged yourself that it is possible to be guilty without guilt.”
And she told him how it had all arisen. And after that they began to live, and lived all together and lived all for good and forgot bygones.
The Journey to Jerusalem
An archimandrite one day got up for matins; and, whilst laving his hands, saw an unclean spirit in the Holy Water, seized him and crossed him.
The devil besought him: “Let me go, Father, I will do you any service I can; I will, I will!”
So the Archimandrite said: “Will you take me to Jerusalem between High Mass and matins?”
The Archimandrite released him, and after matins was transported to Jerusalem, and was back in time for High Mass. Then inquiries were set going how this might be, and everyone was astonished how he could get to Jerusalem and back so fast. They asked him about it, and he told them the story.
Vazúza and Vólga
The Vólga and the Vazúza had a long argument whether who was the wiser and the stronger and the more honourable of the two. They contended and quarrelled, and could not decide it. So they resolved at last: “Let us both go to sleep at the same time, and the one which wakes up earlier and first reaches the Khvalýnsk Sea is wiser and stronger and the more honourable.”
So the Vólga went to sleep, and so did the Vazúza.
But at night the Vazúza got up quietly and ran away from the Vólga; she took the next nearest way and flowed off.
When the Vólga woke up she went neither hurriedly nor lagging, but in an ordinary fashion. At Zubtsóv she overtook the Vazúza, and looked so threatening that the Vazúza was frightened, and owned she was the younger daughter, and begged the Vólga to take her in her arms into the Sea of Khvalýnsk.
And, to this day, the Vazúza wakes up in the spring before the Vólga, and wakes the Vólga up
