"If it be thine, take it, for I sounded all the depths of the sea in
searching for it."
All the others laughed, but the youngest daughter thanked him.
Then they all went to dine. After dinner the serpent said to him, in
the presence of all the guests, "Well, prince, now that thou hast
dined and rested, to thy tasks again! I have a bow of one hundred
poods[30] weight. If thou canst bend this bow in the presence of these
my guests, thou shalt have my daughter!"
[30] A pood = forty pounds.
When dinner was over they all lay down to rest, but the prince
hastened off as quickly as he could to Ivan Golik, and said, "Now
indeed it is all over with us, for he has given me such and such a
task."
"Simpleton!" cried Ivan Golik, "when they bring forth this bow, look
at it, and say to the serpent, 'I should be ashamed to bend a bow that
the least of my servants can bend!' Then call me, and I'll bend the
bow so that none other will be able to bend it again."
With that the prince went straight off to the serpent again, and the
serpent commanded and they brought the bow, together with an arrow
weighing fifty poods. When the prince saw it, he was like to have died
of fright; but they put the bow down in the middle of the courtyard,
and all the guests came out to look at it. The prince walked all round
the bow and looked at it. "Why," said he, "I would not deign to touch
a bow like that. I'll call one of my servants, for any one of them can
bend such a bow as that!"
Then the serpent looked at the prince's servants one after the other,
and said, "Well, let them try!"
"Come forward thou, Ivan Golik!" cried the prince.