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142 "To the war." "On this sorry nag you will not do much, and still less if you go in your present guise. Just come and visit me."

He took him into his hut and gave him a glass of vódka. Then the King's son drank it. "Do you feel strong?" asked the Woodsprite.

"If there were a log there fifty puds, I could throw it up and allow it to fall on my head without feeling the blow."

So he was given a second glass of vódka.

"How strong do you feel now?"

"If there were a log here one hundred puds, I could throw it higher than the clouds on high."

Then he was given a third glass of vódka.

"How strong are you now?"

"If there were a column stretching from heaven to earth, I should turn the entire universe round."

So the Woodsprite took vódka out of another bottle and gave the King's son yet more drink, and his strength was increased sevenfold. They went in front of the house; and he whistled loud, and a black horse rose out of the earth, and the earth trembled under its hoofs. Out of its nostrils it breathed flames, columns of smoke rose from its ears, and as its hoofs struck the ground sparks arose. It ran up to the hut and fell on its knees.

"There is a horse!" said the Woodsprite. And he gave Iván Tsarévich a sword and a silken whip.

So Iván Tsarévich rode out on his black steed against the enemy. On the way he met his servant, who had climbed a birch-tree and was trembling for fear. Iván Tsarévich gave him a couple of blows with his whip, and started out against the hostile host. He slew many people with the sword, and yet more did his horse trample down. And he cut off the seven heads of the monster.

Now Marfa Tsarévna was seeing all this, because she