One day the daughter of a pope, without asking leave of her mother or
her father, went for a walk into the wood, and utterly lost her way.
Three years went by. Now, in this wood, in which her mother and father
lived, there was a bold hunter. On every holy day he used to go hunting
with his gun and his dog in the dreamy forest.
One day he went into the wood, and the hairs of his dog bristled up.
Then the hunter looked, and in front of him there was a stump on the
wood path, and a Peasant stood on the stump and was cleaning his bast
shoe. He went on with his shoe and was threatening the moon: “Light,
give me light, clear moon.” It was all very strange to the hunter. “Why
does this Peasant,” he thought, “live by himself? He looks so young, but
his hair is quite grey.”
He only thought this, but the Peasant guessed his thought and said, “Why
am I grey? Because I am the Devil’s grandfather.”
Then the hunter understood that it was no mere peasant he saw, but the
Wood Sprite, and he aimed at him with his gun, _Bang!_ and he hit him in
the belly. The Wood Sprite groaned, almost fell down from the stump, and
that very instant jumped up again and crept into the thicket. After him
ran the dog, and after the dog ran the hunter. So he went on and on and
on, and he came up to the mountains, and on one of the mountains there
was a fissure, and in the fissure stood a little hut.
He entered the hut and looked, and there was the Wood Sprite rolling on
a bench, absolutely out of breath, and beside him a maiden who was
weeping bitterly. “Who will now give me food and drink?”
“Hail, fair maiden!” said the hunter; “tell me what you are and whence.”
“O doughty youth, I do not know myself: I have never seen the free
world, and I have never known my father and mother.”
“Well, come quickly, I will take you back to Holy Russia.” So he took
her with him and led her out of the wood, and he went through the
villages, inquiring of all of the places. Now, this maiden had been
taken away by the Wood Sprite, and had lived with him for three whole
years, and she had been enclosed and cut off, and was almost entirely
naked, but she had no shame. Then they came to the village, and the
huntsman began to ask whether anyone had lost a maiden.
Then the pope said, “This is my daughter.” And the pope’s wife came:
“Oh, my dear daughter, where have you been so long? I never thought I
should see you any more.”
Then the daughter looked at them, but was simply staggered and
understood nothing, and only afterwards, little by little, came to
herself. The pope and his wife gave her in marriage to the huntsman and
rewarded him with all good things.
Then they went to look for the _izbá_[33] in which she had lived with
the Wood Sprite. They wandered far into the woods, but could not find
it.