Page:RussianFolkTales Afanasev 368pgs.djvu/143

Rh And Ilyá took the sword, but had not the strength to lift it up.

"Come, my sworn brother, I will give you strength."

Ilyá then went into the pit and Svyatogór breathed on him with his knightly breath. Then Ilyá took that sword, and wherever he made a stroke, iron hoops arose around.

"Come to me a second time, my sworn brother; I will give you more strength."

Ilyá Múromets said at once: "If I come down to you again, then our mother the grey earth will not be able to bear it: I have enough strength."

But Svyatogór answered: "If you had come down again I should have breathed on you with a fatal breath, and you would have lain down to sleep beside me."

So there Svyatogór the knight remains to this day.