“Come into my palace. I will give you something to eat and drink, and
some money for your journey.”
Then Ilija went into the palace and sat down near the stove, and there
also sat the pagan knight calling for food to be brought. The servants
brought him an ox, roasted whole, and he ate it up, bones and all. Then
he called for something to drink, and twenty-seven men brought him a
barrel of beer. The knight took it in his hands and lifted it up. Then
Ilija, the Muromer, said—
“My father once had a gluttonous mare, which ate so much that it burst.”