Prince Ivan puts her in her own mortar, and proceeds to pound
her therein, until she tells him where the fragments of his comrade
are, and what he must do to restore them to life.

The Baba Yaga usually lives by herself, but sometimes she appears in
the character of the house-mother. One of the Skazkas[179] relates how
a certain old couple, who had no children, were advised to get a
number of eggs from the village--one from each house--and to place
them under a sitting hen. From the forty-one eggs thus obtained and
treated are born as many boys, all but one of whom develop into strong
men, but the forty-first long remains a poor weak creature, a kind of
"Hop-o'-my-thumb." They all set forth to seek brides, and eventually
marry the forty-one daughters of a Baba Yaga. On the wedding night she
intends to kill her sons-in-law; but they, acting on the advice of him
who had been the weakling of their party, but who has become a mighty
hero, exchange clothes with their brides before "lying down to sleep."
Accordingly the Baba Yaga's "trusty servants" cut off the heads of her
daughters instead of those of her sons-in-law. Those youths arise,
stick the heads of their brides on iron spikes all round the house,
and gallop away. When the Baba Yaga awakes in the morning, looks out
of the window, and sees her daughters' heads on their spikes, she
flies into a passion, calls for "her burning shield," sets off in
pursuit of her sons-in-law, and "begins burning up everything on all
four sides with her shield." A magic, bridge-creating kerchief,
however, enables the fugitives to escape from their irritated
mother-in-law.

In one story[180] the heroine is ordered to swing the cradle in which
reposes a Baba Yaga's infant son, whom she is ordered to address in
terms of respect when she sings him lullabies; in others she is told
to wash a Baba Yaga's many children, whose appearance is usually
unprepossessing. One girl, for instance, is ordered by a Baba Yaga to
heat the bath, but the fuel given her for the purpose turns out to be
dead men's bones. Having got over this difficulty, thanks to the
advice of a sparrow which tells her where to look for wood, she is
sent to fetch water in a sieve. Again the sparrow comes to her rescue
telling her to line the sieve with clay. Then she is told to wait upon
the Baba Yaga's children in the bath-room. She enters it, and
presently in come "worms, frogs, rats, and all sorts of insects."
These, which ar