Page:RussianFolkTales Afanasev 368pgs.djvu/224



there was in the city of Filuyán a Tsar named Angéy, who was very famous. And, in course of time, it came upon him to stand in the church at the Divine Service at the reading of the sacred Gospel by the priest, when the priest was reading those verses in the Gospel in which it is said: He hath put down the mighty from their seat, and hath exalted the humble and meek. And when the Tsar heard this he grew angry, and the Tsar spoke: "This writing is falsely written; the word of the Gospel is untrue." And the Tsar said: "I am very rich and famous. How shall I be put down from my seat and the humble and meek be exalted?" And then he was filled with fear. And the Tsar bade the priest be confined in a dungeon, and he bade that page be torn out of the Gospel Book. And the Tsar went to his palace and began to eat and drink and be merry.

When the Tsar saw a deer in the fields, he went up and he took his young men with him, and he hunted him and almost captured the deer; and the deer was very beautiful. And the Tsar spoke to his champions: "Do ye stand here. I will go, and I alone will take the deer alive." And he hunted after him, and they swam across the stream. The Tsar tied his horse to an oak, and tied his garments around him, and swam naked across the stream. Then the deer became invisible, and an angel of God stood by the Tsar's horse in the image of Tsar