Page:Russian Wonder Tales.djvu/340

292 the way he had come. When he came to the arm of the sea-ocean and began to cross on the whale-fish, the monster saw him and opening its wide jaws, called out: "Well, friend, didst thou serve me the service with Tzar Zmey?"

"Yes," said Wassily.

"And what said he?" asked the whale-fish.

"Wait till I am over," said Wassily, "and I will tell thee." So he crossed, and as soon as he came to the other side he mounted on its tail and cried with a loud voice: "O ye villagers and wayfarers, ye who would not be suddenly overwhelmed, leave this place without delay, for the sea-ocean is about to cover it!" Hearing, the wayfarers hastened and the peasants left their plowing and the children their playing and mushroom-gathering, and ran to their houses and loaded their carts with all their belongings and carried them to a distance, till the whale-fish was as deserted as if the Tartars were coming.

Then Wassily the Unlucky shouted: "O whale-fish! this punishment has been thine because three years since thou didst swallow, without Tzar Zmey's permission, twelve ships in the blue sea-ocean, and thou shalt be set free only when thou dost vomit them forth unharmed." So saying, he spurred his