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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
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