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198 Koshchéy leaped on his horse, caught up Iván Tsarévich, and said, "I said you were not to see anything more of Márya Moryévna!" and he took her away with him.

So Iván Tsarévich was again left alone, and he wept bitterly; and once again he returned to Márya Moryévna, and this time too Koshchéy was not at home. "Let us go, Márya Moryévna!"

"Oh, Iván Tsarévich, he will catch us up and he will tear you to bits."

"Let him tear me to bits; I cannot live without you."

So they got ready, and off they went.

Koshchéy the Deathless returned home, and under him his good horse stumbled. "Why do you stumble, you sorry jade, or is it some evil that you fear?"

"Iván Tsarévich has arrived, and has taken Márya Moryévna with him."

Koshchéy leaped on his horse, caught up Iván Tsarévich, broke him up into tiny bits, put them into a tar cask, took this cask, locked it with iron bolts and threw it into the blue sea. And he took Márya Moryévna away with him.

At the same time the brothers-in-law of Iván Tsarévich looked at their silver ornaments and found they had turned black. "Oh," they said, "evidently some disaster has befallen him!" The Eagle rushed into the blue sea, dragged out the cask to the shore, and the Hawk flew for the Water of Life, and the Crow flew for the Water of Death. Then they all three met at a single spot and broke up the cask, took out the bits of Iván Tsarévich, washed them, laid them together as was fit: then the Crow sprinkled him with the Water of Death, and the body grew together and was one; and the Hawk sprinkled him with the Water of Life, and Iván Tsarévich shivered, sat up and said, "Oh, what a long sleep I have had!"