Plovdiv

“ The Tsarevich Ivan went straight onwards, he went on and on, and as he went he played songs upon his harp; whenever the morning broke he arose again and wended his way along; when night fell he laid him down on the silky grass beneath the vast roof of the heavenly dome bright with stars. And at last he came to a dense forest. The Tsarevich Ivan heard a great cracking in this dense forest as if some one were smashing it, such a rumbling and a thundering was there in this forest. “What is this?” thought the Tsarevich Ivan; “a man must die once though no man can die twice.” ”

“ The return of the victors to the capital was a triumph such as no man there had ever seen or imagined. In front of all rode the princes, Oleg and Vladimir, who had hewn down the Polovtsi; next came the bound prisoners, the boyars, then Vsevolod the conqueror, and last of all came the captives saved from the Polovtsi by the battle. Delight was unbounded in Vladimir, where there were mothers who had been weeping for sons, and wives for husbands whom they had looked on as lost to this world. To crown the whole victory were the treasures and booty seized from the Polovtsi. ”

“ The Tsareviches went on and on, all that day and the next and a whole week, and they came to such a wilderness that they could see neither earth nor sky, nor any living being, nor any habitation; and in the deepest depth of this wilderness they met another old man, even older than the first. “Hail, good youths!” said he to the Tsareviches. “Are ye truants and rest, or are ye in quest?”—“Why, we are in quest of something, of course. We are going in search of the Tsarevna Loveliness-Inexhaustible, with her flask of living-water!”—“Nay, my good youths!” ”

“ The people crowded into the meadows where the Tsarevna’s terem was built as if sewn with stars, and the Tsarevna herself sat beneath the window arrayed in pearls and brocade, and lace, and the most precious of precious stones. The mob of people surged and roared like the great sea Ocean. The Tsar and the Tsaritsa sat on their throne, and around them stood their grandees, their Boyars, their captains, and their heroes. And the wooers of the Tsarevna Baktriana came and pranced and galloped, but when they saw the terem their hearts died away within them. The youths tried their best ”

“ The soldiers of the Tsar saw him, and asked: “Why hast thou bound up thy forehead? Show it! Is there not a star on thy forehead?” Little fool Ivan would not let them look, and withstood them. The soldiers began to make a to-do, the Tsarevna heard it, and bade them bring little fool Ivan to her, took the clouts from his forehead—and behold! there was the star. She took little fool Ivan by the hand, led him to Tsar Gorokh, and said: “Look, dear sovereign papa! this is my intended bridegroom, and thy son-in-law and successor!” ”

“ They lighted on the ground and became twenty maidens lovely as the stars of heaven and as goodly as blood and milk. Amongst them the Tsar-Maiden was walking like a peacock, and said, “My beloved friends, ’tis hot; ye see how the sun burns like an oven. Let us bathe! No evil eye can see us here. So strong a guard stands on the shore that not even a fly could pass by them.”—“A [53] fly cannot pass them, eh! Look now what a big fly has passed them,” said the Tsarevich Ivan, and he took off his little invisible cap and bowed low to the Tsar-Maiden. ”

“ If he be such a hero, let him fetch me three hairs from the head, and three hairs from the beard, of my grandfather, the Sea-king, and then I am ready to be his wife.” The Tsarevich returned home gloomier than an autumn night: he would look at nothing and speak to nobody. “Don’t fret, Tsarevich!” whispered Ivan the merchant’s son in his ear, and he seized his invisible cap, and was in the palace in a trice, and saw the thrice-wise Helena sitting in her state-coach and preparing to drive to the blue sea. ”

“ Tsarevich Ivan! wherefore art thou so sad? Or hast thou heard cruel, unfriendly words from thy father the Tsar?”—“Have I not cause to grieve? My father and sovereign lord commands thee to weave him a silk carpet in a single night!”—“Fret not, Tsarevich! come, lay thee down and sleep, the morning is wiser than the evening!” Then she made him lie down to sleep, threw off her frog-skin, and turned into the lovely maiden soul, Vasilisa Premudraya, went forth upon her beautiful balcony, and cried with a piercing voice: “Nurseys—nurseys! ”

“ Glaib’s men crossed the river, but seeing their comrades in flight on the other side, fell into disorder. Vsevolod charged now quickly, and a general rout was the end of the battle. Oleg and Vladimir, sons of Sviatoslav, rushed forward to hunt down the Polovtsi. Their warriors were trained well in sword-play, and they spared no man. Of the Polovtsi only those who were swiftest and strongest could save themselves. Joyous shouts were raised in the pens which the pagans had built around their captives, freed now by that fortunate battle. Mystislav was made prisoner. ”

“ To cement his alliance with the Russians, Basti, khan of the Polovsti, embraced orthodoxy. The Russian army had already arrived on the Lower Dnieper, when the Tatar ambassadors made their appearance. “We have come by God's command against our slaves and grooms, the accursed Polovtsi. Be at peace with us; we have no quarrel with you.” The Russians, with the promptitude and thoughtlessness that characterized the men of that time, put the ambassadors to death. ”

“ The Tsarevich Ivan said to his father: “How can I ever take this quacker to wife? A quacker is not my equal!”—“Take her!” replied his father, “’tis thy fate to have her!” So the Tsareviches all got married—the eldest to the boyar’s daughter, the second to the merchant’s daughter, and the youngest to the quacking-frog. And the Tsar called them to him and said: “Let your wives, to-morrow morning, bake me soft white bread.” The Tsarevich Ivan returned home, and he was not happy, and his impetuous head hung down lower than his shoulders. ”

“ The brothers laid their heads together and talked the matter over: “People can live without brains, why not without fingers also?” thought they. So they let little fool Ivan cut off a finger from each of them, and he gave them the swine, which they took to the Tsar, and they praised themselves more than ever. “Tsar!” said they, “we have been beyond the distant sea, beyond the impenetrable woods, beyond the shifting sands; we have suffered cold and hunger, but we have fulfilled thy commands.” ”

“ The Polovtsi asked the Christian princes for help against the Mongols and Turks, who were their brothers by a common origin. "They have taken our country," said they to the descendants of St. Vladimir; "to-morrow they will take yours." Mstislaf the Bold, then Prince of Galitch, persuaded all the dynasties of Southern Russia to take up arms against the Tartars: his nephew Daniel, Prince of Volhynia, Mstislaf Romanovitch, Grand Prince of Kiev, Oleg of Kursk, Mstislaf of Tchernigof, Vladimir of Smolensk, and Vsevolod, for a short time Prince of Novgorod, [57] responded to his appeal. ”

“ To landless princes, or those who had quarrels, the Polovtsi were ready aids, but they were the terror of all who tilled land or lived by labor. To a great chief like Monomach they were enemies nearly always, for principally through them civil war and disorder were possible. A prince without land or position might find among Polovtsi at all times men ready to go with him and take their reward in plundering the country and enslaving as many people as they could lay hands on. ”

“ And at last the Tsarevich Ivan saw that the basket was getting empty, so he said to the bird Mogol: [109] “Look now, thou bird Mogol! thou hast now but little food left; light upon the moist earth, and I’ll get thee another basketful of divers meats.” But the bird Mogol answered and said: “Art thou mad, Tsarevich Ivan? Beneath us now is a forest dark and drear, muddy and boggy; if we lighted down there, thou and I would never get out again so long as the world lasts.” And now the Tsarevich had dispensed all the meat from the basket, and sent the basket and the hogshead flying off the bird ”

“ After Moscow, Podolia is the most densely inhabited government of Russia outside Poland. It is divided into twelve districts, the chief towns of which are Kamenets-Podolskiy, the capital, Balta, Bratslav, Gaisin, Letichev, Litin, Mogilev-on-Dniester, Novaya-Ushitsa, Olgopol, Proskurov, Vinnitsa and Yampol. The chief occupations of the people are agriculture and gardening. The principal crops are wheat, rye, oats, barley, maize, hemp, flax, potatoes, beetroot and tobacco. Podolia is famous for its cherries and mulberries, its melons, gourds and cucumbers. ”

“ Methinks I smell the smell of a Russian soul here!”—“What are you dreaming about? You run about the wide world and do nothing but harass souls, and now you would vex other souls also!”—“Don’t be angry, Tsarevna Neotsyenaya, I do no harm to thy happiness, only I have now a desire to eat, and I should like to eat up this unknown,” said the Forest Monster. Ivan the Tsarevich, however, took off his invisible cap, bowed to the Forest Monster, and said, “Why do you want to eat me? ”

“ The Russians believe that the Poludnica has the shape of a tall and beautiful girl dressed in a white gown. She not only lures small children into the corn, but walking about the fields at harvest-time, she seizes the heads of those whom she finds working there at midday, and twisting their necks, causes them violent pain. The Siberian Russians picture her as an old woman with thick, curly hair and scanty clothing; she lives among the reeds, or in the dense thickets of nettles, and kidnaps naughty children. In other parts of Russia she appears as guardian of fields. ”

“ Igor, a prince of Kíeff, starts with his drúzhina (schola) of warriors to make a raid on the Pólovtsi, who occupied the prairies of South-eastern Russia, and continually raided the Russian villages. All sorts of bad omens are seen on the march through the prairies—the sun is darkened and casts its shadow on the band of Russian warriors; the animals give different warnings; but Igor exclaims: “Brothers and friends: Better to fall dead than be prisoners of the Pólovtsi! Let us march to the blue waters of the Don. Let us break our lances against those of the Pólovtsi. ”

“ Beyond the water there was a great stretch of grazing meadow, then long rolling fields of rye and barley, extending to the woods which bounded the view in every direction. The village was situated within a few miles of the great main highway running from Warsaw to Moscow, and the waters of the lake fed the stream which flowed into one of the branches of the river Dnieper.
The whole region, including the village and nearly all the people in it, belonged to the estate of Baron Popoff, the roofs of whose residence were just visible to the southward, on a hill overlooking the road to Moscow. ”

“ He hired him a lodging at a poor old woman’s, and began to ask her, “Tell me, old mother, why are all the people in this empire of thine so full of woe, and all the houses covered with black cloth?”—“Alas, good youth! a great grief weighs upon us; every day there comes out of the blue sea, from beyond the gray rock, a twelve-headed serpent and eats up a man every time, and now it has come to the turn of the Tsar’s own house. ”

“ Kief was taken by storm; not only did the Polovtsi sack all the lower town, but they rushed to the upper part; they plundered the monasteries, Sophia cathedral, and the Tithe church; they stripped the holy images, and carried away the consecrated vessels and crosses. “The wild ones” seized the precious robes of ancient princes, of Saint Vladimir and his son, Yaroslav the Lawgiver, and other robes which had been kept in the churches and revered as sacred relics. The city was blazing. Along the streets captive people were driven in multitudes. ”

“ Dear Tsar-Gosudar and father! Not by strength but by craft are cities taken, not by cudgels but by cunning will I prevail against the foe. Make trial of my martial strength, make trial of my youthful valour. Look now! They tell me that I had two sisters, Tsarevnas, and that the truant whirlwind carried them away, and that the rumour of them vanished as if it were covered with snow. Call together now all thy princes, thy heroes, thy stalwart voevods, and bid them do thee the service of finding out my sisters, the Tsarevnas. ”

“ There are three great towns between the Moscow and Vologhda—that is to say, Yereslava, Rostave, and Pereslava. Upon one side of Yereslava runneth a famous river, which is called Volga. It runneth into the Caspian Sea, and it divideth itself, before it come into the Mare Caspium, in fifty parts or more: and near unto the same sea there stands a great city called Boghare; the inhabitants of the which are called by the same name.
The people of the said city do traffic in the city of Moscow: their commodities are spices, musk, ambergris, rhubarb, with other drugs. ”

“ The town of Vologda is meetest for our merchants, because it lieth amongst all the best towns of Russia, and there is no town in Russia but trades with it; also the water is a great commodity to it. If they plant themselves in Moscow or Novogrod their charge will be great and wonderful, but not so in Vologda, for all things will there be had better cheap by the one-half ”

“ Not suspecting that Filya had been terribly beaten, they marched back rejoicing, but, instead of finding Filya in possession of the battle-field, they came upon Mystislav’s warriors, who rushed at them savagely. Meanwhile Vladimir had turned, and with him came the Polovtsi. A great slaughter set in. The Polovtsi took captive all the Poles who were not slain, taking from them their arms and horses. But Mystislav’s men touched no booty. Following the enemy, as they scattered in every direction, they slew without mercy. ”