Page:RussianFolkTales Afanasev 368pgs.djvu/179

Rh and said: "The Lord bless me!" and set out on his way journeying forth. He went a little way, and he heard children crying: "Brother of Christ, speak of us to Christ, whether we must be long in pain?" And he went on a few steps farther; and he saw maidens ladling water out of one well into another. "Brother of Christ!" they said to him, "speak of us to Christ, how long we must remain in torture?" And he went on still farther, and saw a hedge, and beneath that hedge there became visible old men, and they were all covered with slime. And they said to him: "Brother of Christ, speak of us to Christ, how long shall we remain in pain?"

And so he went on and on. Then he saw the very old man with whom he had broken his fast. And the old man asked him: "What did you see on the way?"

And the youth recounted all that he had met.

"Well, do you recognise me?" said the old man. And it was only at this moment that the peasant boy understood that he was speaking to Jesus Christ Himself.

"Why, O Lord, are the children tortured?"

"Their mother cursed them in the womb, and they can never enter Paradise."

"And the maidens?"

"They traded in milk, and they mixed water with their milk; and now for all eternity they must ladle out water."

"And the old men?"

"They lived in the white world, and they used to say: 'How pleasant it really might be to live in this world! But, as it is, there is nothing worth caring about!' So they must bear up against the mire."

Then Christ led the boy into Paradise, and told him