on his
neck, crying:--

"By what means has God brought you back to life?"

"Thus and thus," says he. "Now come along with me."

"I am afraid, Prince Ivan! If Koshchei catches us, you will
be cut in pieces again."

"No, he won't catch us! I have a splendid heroic steed now;
it flies just like a bird." So they got on its back and rode
away.

Koshchei the Deathless was returning home when his horse
stumbled beneath him.

"What art thou stumbling for, sorry jade? dost thou scent
any ill?"

"Prince Ivan has come and carried off Marya Morevna."

"Can we catch them?"

"God knows! Prince Ivan has a horse now which is better
than I."

"Well, I can't stand it," says Koshchei the Deathless. "I
will pursue."

After a time he came up with Prince Ivan, lighted on the
ground, and was going to chop him up with his sharp sword.
But at that moment Prince Ivan's horse smote Koshchei the
Deathless full swing with its hoof, and cracked his skull, and the
Prince made an end of him with a club. Afterwards the Prince
heaped up a pile of wood, set fire to it, burnt Koshchei the
Deathless on the pyre, and scattered his ashes to the wind.
Then Marya Morevna mounted Koshchei's horse and Prince Ivan
got on his own, and they rode away to visit first the Raven, and
then the Eagle, and then the Falcon. Wherever they went they
met with a joyful greeting.

"Ah, Prince Ivan! why, we never expected to see you again.
Well, it wasn't for nothing that you gave yourself so much trouble.
Such a beauty as Marya Morevna one might search for all the
world over--and never find one like her!"

And so they visited, and they feasted; and afterwards they
went off to their own realm.[104]

With the Baba Yaga, the feminine counterpart of Koshchei and the
Snake, we shall deal presently, and the Waters of Life and Death will
find special notice elsewhere.[105] A magic water, which brings back
the dead to life, plays a prominent part in the folk-lore of all
lands, but the two waters, each performing one part only of the cure,
render very noteworthy the Slavonic stories in which they occur. The
Princess, Marya Morevna, who slaughters whole armies before she is
married, and then becomes mild and gentle, belongs to a class of
heroines who frequently occur both in the stories and in the "metrical
romances," and to whom may be applied the remarks made by Kemble with
reference to a simi