Page:Russian Wonder Tales.djvu/271

Rh for advice. Go first to the Tzar and ask for a purse of money sufficient for a year and come back to me."

Taraban did so, and returned with the purse to his wife, when she gave him a crystal ball and a silken handkerchief. "After thou art well out of the city," she said, "throw this ball upon the ground, and follow whither it rolls. It will lead thee to my little mother. As for the handkerchief, as often as thou dost wash, dry thy face upon it and upon no other."

So the archer bade her farewell and set out. He threw down the ball, which rolled always before him, and it led him across three times nine countries till he had journeyed for the space of a whole year.

Now when he had been absent three months, the Tzar called his Ministers and said: "The archer has been gone a fourth part of a year, and no doubt he will never return. I see not why I should wait longer. Go ye, therefore, and bring his wife to the Palace." They went, accordingly, and brought her to him and he straightway began to speak endearing words to her; but she repulsed him and cried out upon him, saying: "Though thou art a great Tzar, yet I am a wife and Taraban thy archer is my husband, and I will have no other!"