Page:RussianFolkTales Afanasev 368pgs.djvu/270

254 on these fields; not one bird has ever flown by, not one wild beast has ever rambled by."

So they returned home. "Your Imperial Majesty, we saw no one on the road; we only saw a shepherd feeding a little sheep."

"Why did you not take it? That was themselves!" said the Sea Tsar. And he sent out a second hunt.

But Iván Tsarévich and Vasilísa the Wise were leaping far off on their swift steeds. "Now, Iván Tsarévich, put your head to the grey earth and listen whether there is no hunt from the Sea Tsar."

Iván Tsarévich leapt off his horse, put his ear to the grey earth and said, "I hear the talk of people and the hoppety-hop of horses."

"This is the chase, that is the steeds," said Vasilísa the Wise; and she turned herself into a church, and Iván Tsarévich into an elderly pope and the horses into trees.

So the hunt went by.

"Ho, bátyushka, have you seen a shepherd with a little lamb passing by?"

"No, good people, I have not. I have been working for forty years in this church; not one bird has flown by, not one beast has rambled by."

So the hunt went back and reached home.

"Your Imperial Majesty, we could not find the shepherd with the little lamb: the only thing we saw on the road was a church and an old man as pope."

"Why did you not break down the church and capture the pope? That was themselves!" the Sea Tsar exclaimed, and he himself leapt out to hunt after Iván Tsarévich and Vasilísa the Wise.

So they went far, and again Vasilísa the Wise said, "Iván Tsarévich, put your ear to the ground; can you hear any hunt?" Then the Tsarévich leapt down, put his ear to the