You know that there are all sorts in this world, good and bad, people
who do not fear God, and feel no shame before their own brother.
In a certain kingdom, in a certain land, there once lived a Tsar and
Tsarítsa, who had one only daughter, Márya Tsarévna. But the old
Tsarítsa died and the Tsar took to him a second wife, who was a witch.
And the witch had three daughters, one of whom had one eye, the next two
eyes, and the third had three. The stepmother could not abide Márya
Tsarévna, and sent the girl with a dun cow on to the heath, and gave her
a dry crust as her only food.
Márya Tsarévna went on to the heath, bowed down to the right foot of the
cow, and all at once was splendidly dressed, and had as much to eat and
drink as she liked. So she guarded the dun cow the whole day, and looked
as gay as any lady in the land. And at night she bowed down again in
front of the right foot, and again became shabby and went home. And the
bit of bread she took with her and offered it to her stepmother.
“Whatever is she living on?” the witch thought, and she gave her the
same piece of bread next day, and told her eldest daughter to watch what
Márya Tsarévna did.
When they reached the heath Márya Tsarévna said: “Come, little sister, I
will find a cushion for your head.” So she went to look, but whispered
to herself:
“Sleep, my sister, sleep,
Sleep, O sister mine;
One eye go to sleep,
Close that eye of thine.”
The sister went to sleep, and Márya Tsarévna stood up, went to her dear
dun cow, bowed down to the right foot, and ate, and drank, and went
about all day long like a princess.
In the evening she woke up her sister and said: “Get up, sister; get up,
dearest; and we will go home.”
“Oh! oh! oh!” her sister whimpered, “I have been asleep all day long and
have not seen anything, and mother will be so angry!”
When they got home, the stepmother asked: “What was it Márya Tsarévna
ate and drank?”
“I did not see anything.”
So the witch scolded her, and next day sent the two-eyed sister with
Márya. “Go,” she said, “and see what she eats and drinks.”
And the girls came to the heath, and Márya Tsarévna said, “Come, little
sister, I will find a cushion for your head.” So she went to search, and
whispered to herself:
“Sleep, my sister, sleep,
Sleep, O sister mine;
Two-eyes go to sleep,
Close both eyes of thine.”
Two-eyes went to sleep, and Márya Tsarévna bowed down as before, to the
right foot of the cow, and looked like a princess all day long. In the
evening she roused Two-eyes; and if the stepmother was angry before, she
was much angrier this time.
So next day she sent Three-eyes, and Márya Tsarévna sent her to sleep in
the same way; only she forgot the third eye, and that went on looking
and looking at what Márya Tsarévna did. For she ran to her dun cow’s
right foot, bowed down, and ate, and drank, and went about all day long
splendidly attired.
And when she got home she laid the dry crust on the table. And the
mother asked the daughter what Márya Tsarévna had eaten and drunk.
Three-eyes told her everything; and the witch ordered the dun cow to be
slain.
“You must be mad, woman,” said the Tsar, “it’s quite a young heifer and
so beautiful!”
“I tell you,” said the stepmother, “it must be done”; and the old Tsar
consented.
But Márya Tsarévna asked him: “Father, do at least give me a little tiny
bit out of the cow!”
The old man gave her the piece, and she planted it; and a bush with
sweet berries grew up, with little birds singing on it, singing songs
fit for kings and peasants.
Now Iván Tsarévich had heard of Márya Tsarévna, went to her stepmother,
laid a bowl on the table, and said: “Whichever of the maidens brings me
the bowl full of berries, I will marry.”
So the mother sent One-eye to get the berries. But the birds drove her
away from the bush and almost pecked out her one eye; and so with
Two-eyes and Three-eyes. At last Márya Tsarévna had to go. Márya
Tsarévna took the bowl and gathered the berries, and the little birds
helped her in the task. When she got home she put the bowl on the table
and bowed down to Iván Tsarévich. So Iván Tsarévich took Márya Tsarévna
to be his wife, and they celebrated a merry wedding and lived a happy
life.
But, after a while, Márya Tsarévna bore a son. She wanted to show him to
her father, and, together with her husband, went to visit him. Then the
stepmother turned her into a goose, and decked her eldest daughter as
though she were the wife of Iván Tsarévich. And Iván Tsarévich returned
home.
The old man, who tended the children, got up early in the morning,
washed himself clean, took the child on his arm and went out to the
field, to the bush in the field. Grey geese were flying over it.
“Geese, ye grey ones, where is the baby’s mother?”
“In the next flock!”
Then the next flock came by.
“Geese, ye grey ones, where is the baby’s mother?”
Then the baby’s mother came to them, threw off her feathers, and gave
her little child the breast, and began weeping:
“For this one day I may come, and to-morrow, but the next day I must fly
away over the woods and over the hills.”
The old man went back home, and the boy slept all day long, until next
morning, and did not wake up. The false wife was angry with him for
taking the child into the fields where it must be much too cold.
But next morning the old man again got up very early, washed himself
clean, and took the child into the field. Iván Tsarévich followed him
secretly and hid in the bush. Then the grey geese began soaring by.
“Geese, ye grey ones, where is the baby’s mother?”
“In the next flock!”
Then the next flock came by.
“Geese, ye grey ones, where is the baby’s mother?”
Then the baby’s mother came to them, threw off her feathers, and gave
her little child the breast, and began weeping: “For this one day I may
come, but to-morrow I must fly away over the woods and over the hills.”
Then she asked: “What do I smell there?” and wanted to put on her
feathers again, but could not find them anywhere.
Iván Tsarévich had burnt them. He seized hold of Márya Tsarévna, but she
turned first into a frog, then into a lizard, and into all sorts of
insects, and last of all into a spindle. Iván Tsarévich took the spindle
and broke it in halves, threw the dull end behind him and the sharp one
in front; and his beautiful young wife stood in front of him, and they
went home.
Then the daughter of the witch cried out: “The destroyer and the wicked
woman have come.”
But Iván Tsarévich assembled all the Princes and the _boyárs_, and he
asked them: “With which wife shall I live?”
They said: “With the first.”
But he answered, “My lords, whichever wife leaps quickest to the door
shall remain with me.”
So the witch’s daughter climbed up at once, but Márya Tsarévna clung on.
Then Iván Tsarévich took his gun and shot the substitute wife, and lived
happy ever after with Márya Tsarévna.