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130 again afoot for the Castle of the Wizard, where Maria Morevna wept tears of joy that he was still alive, and to her he said: "Find out, if thou canst, where Kastchey obtained his good horse, and tell me to-morrow."

So that night the beautiful Tzar's daughter said to Kastchey: "All things are open to thee, wise Wizard! Tell me, I pray, where was foaled thy marvelous steed which thrice overtook Tzarevich Alexis to his death?"

Kastchey said: "On the shore of the blue sea-ocean there is a meadow, and upon it there courses up and down a wonderful mare. Twelve hay-cutters reap the grass of the meadow, and as many more with rakes turn it. The mare follows them, devouring the grass they cut. When she bathes the sea rises in huge waves, and when she rubs her sides against the oak-trees they fall to the ground like sheaves of oats. Every month she brings forth a foal, and twelve fierce wolves follow her to devour them. Every three years the mare bears a she-colt with a white star on its forehead, and he who, at the moment it is born, snatches away this foal, fights off the wolves from it and brings it safely away, will possess a steed like to mine."