Page:RussianFolkTales Afanasev 368pgs.djvu/110

94 ! He pumped his lungs out, but nothing happened. It was all to no purpose. So he put all the fragments back into the water, rinsed and scoured them through, fitting the pieces together, and breathed on them. It was all of no good.

"Oh, whatever shall I do?" the pope thought. "This is simply horrible!"

In the morning the Tsar went to him and saw that the doctor had had no luck. He had mixed up the whole body on the floor. So the Tsar ordered the doctor to the gallows.

The pope then began to beg. "Tsar! Tsar! I am a free man. Give me a short space of time. I will go and look out for another old man who can really cure the Tsarévna." So the pope went to look for the old man, found him, and said: "Old man, I am a depraved sinner. The fiends tempted me. I wanted to cure the Tsar's daughter all by myself, and I was not able, and they are now going to hang me. Do come and help me!"

So the old man went with the pope, and the noose was put round the pope's neck. Then the old man said to the pope: "Pope, who ate up my wafers?"

"I really didn't; I swear I didn't!"

So they made him mount one rung higher, and again the old man said to him: "Pope, who ate my wafers up?"

"I really didn't; I swear I didn't!"

So he went up the third rung, and again said he didn't. This time he had his head in the noose tight, and still he said: "I did nothing of the sort!"

So the old man said to the Tsar: "I am a free man. Will you let me cure the Tsarévna, and if I do not succeed, have a second noose got ready for my neck: one for me and one for the pope."

Then the old man took the morsels of the Tsarévna's