"I want to take thee in marriage."
"Well, all right, try. If thou art able to hide from me, I will marry
thee; if not, thou wilt pay with thy head."
Ivan went out in the open field, took his flint and steel, struck
fire, and put it to the steppe grass. From wherever he came, a
blue-winged eagle flew to him and said, with the voice of a man, "Good
youth, sit on me quickly; hold firmly, or thou wilt fall."
Ivan sat on the eagle, grasped firmly with his hands. The eagle
clapped his wings, and rose high beyond the third range of clouds. He
is well hidden; it seems no one can find him. But Yelena the Wise had
a mirror: all she had to do was to look in it, and the whole world was
open to her. She knew in a moment where and what was going on in the
white world. She stepped up to that mirror, looked in it, and knew
every secret.
"Stop, cunning fellow," cried Yelena the Wise, with a loud voice; "I
see thou hast flown above the third range of clouds. The blue-winged
eagle bore thee; it is time to come down to the earth."
Ivan came to the earth, slipped off the eagle, went to the sea-shore,
struck fire, and put it to the blue sea. Suddenly, from wherever he
came, a giant pike swam to shore. "Well, good youth, creep into my
mouth; I'll hide thee in the bottom of the sea." He opened his jaws,
took in the young man, sank with him in the abyss of the sea, and
covered him with sand.
"Now," thought Ivan, "perhaps it will be all right." But the point was
not there.
Yelena the Wise barely looked in the mirror, and saw everything at
once. "Stop, cunning fellow, I see thou hast gone into the giant pike,
and thou art sitting now in the abyss of the sea beneath rolling
sands; it is time to come to shore." The pike swam to shore, threw out
the good youth, and vanished in the sea.
Ivan returned to the broad court of Yelena the Wise, sat on the porch,
and grew powerfully thoughtful and sad. At that moment the maid of
Yelena the Wise ran up the stairway. "Why are thou sad, good youth?"
"How can I be glad? If I hide not the third time, I must part with the
white world; so here I am sitting and waiting for death."
"Grieve not; foretell no evil on thy own stormy head. Once I promised
to serve thee; I spoke no empty word. Come, I will hide thee."
She took Ivan by the hand, led him in, and put him behind the mirror.
A little later Yelena the Wise ran to the chamber, looked and looked
in the mirror. She could not see her bridegroom; the appointed time
had passed. She grew angry, and with vexation struck the glass; it
fell into fragments, and before her stood Ivan the brave youth.
There was no help for it,--she had to yield this time. At the house of
Yelena the Wise there was no need of waiting to make mead or wine;
that day they had a noble feast and a wedding. They were crowned, and
began to live,--to live on and win wealth.