Bulat and Ivan Tsarevich asked the herdsmen if Koshchéi Without-Death
lived far from there, how to go to his house, what time they went home
with the flock, and how they shut it in. Then they came down from
their horses, wrung the necks of the shepherds, dressed themselves in
their clothes, drove the herd home, and stood at the gate.
Ivan Tsarevich had a gold ring on one of his fingers, Vassilissa had
given it to him. Vassilissa had a goat, and she washed herself morning
and evening with the milk of that goat. The maid ran with a vessel,
milked the goat, and was carrying the milk. Bulat took the Tsarevich's
ring and threw it into the vessel.
"Oh, my dove," said the maid, "thou art getting impudent!" She came to
Vassilissa Kirbítyevna and complained. "Now," said she, "the herdsmen
have begun to make sport of us,--they threw a ring into the milk."
"Leave the milk; I will strain it myself," said Vassilissa. She
strained the milk, saw the ring, and gave command to send the herdsmen
to her. The herdsmen came.
"Hail, Vassilissa Kirbítyevna!" said Bulat the hero.
"Hail, Bulat the hero! Be well, Tsarevich! How did God bring you?"
"We came for thee, Vassilissa Kirbítyevna; thou wilt hide from us
nowhere. We should find thee even on the bottom of the sea."
She seated them at the table, gave them every sort of food and all
kinds of wine.
Said Bulat the hero: "When Koshchéi comes home from hunting, ask him,
Vassilissa Kirbítyevna, where his death is. And now it would not be
amiss for us to hide."
As soon as the guests had hidden, Koshchéi Without-Death was flying
home from the hunt. "Tfu-tfu!" said he; "of old there wasn't a sign of
Russia to be heard with hearing or seen with sight; but now Russia
runs into one's eyes and mouth."
Said Vassilissa: "Thou hast been flying through Russia thyself, and
art full of its odor; so to thy thinking dost find it here."
Koshchéi ate his dinner and lay down to rest. Vassilissa came to him,
threw herself on his neck, fondled him, and kissed him, saying: "My
dear love, hardly was I able to wait for thee. I did not expect to see
thee alive; I feared that savage beasts had devoured thee."
Koshchéi laughed aloud. "Simple woman! her hair is long, but her wit
is short. Could savage beasts eat me?"
"But where is thy death, then?"
"My death is in the broom which lies around at the threshold."
As soon as Koshchéi had flown away, Vassilissa Kirbítyevna ran to Ivan
Tsarevich.