Slavonic Fairy Tales. John Theophilus Naaké

the entrance door spread out like two wings, but ran into one at the top; they were made of rare pearls. At that moment the beautiful Vasilisa was ​looking out of a window with golden bars, and recognising her brothers she screamed with delight. She then ordered them to be secretly admitted. Happily the Dragon was away, as the princess was greatly afraid lest he should see them; but no sooner had the princes come in than the silver pillar began to groan, the stairs to spread out, the roof to sparkle, and the whole castle to tremble and to turn round.

      "The Dragon is coming!" cried the terrified princess. "At his approach the palace turns round and round. Hide, brothers, hide!"

      No sooner had she uttered these words than the Dragon rushed hissing in, and demanded in a terrible voice, "Who is here?"

      "We are here!" answered the princes fearlessly. "We have come for our sister Vasilisa."

      "O-ho!" cried the Dragon, flapping his wings. "Since you have come to take your sister away, it will not be for nothing if I kill you. But, although you are the brothers of Vasilisa, you are no very terrible knights." And hissing and roaring he seized one of the brothers with his wings and hurled him against the other. The courtiers came in, took up the dead princes, and threw them into a deep ditch.

      The princess burst into tears. Vasilisa would neither eat, nor drink, nor look upon the beautiful world around ​her. Three days thus passed away; but as she did not die, her resolution failed her, and she determined to live; she regretted to lose her beauty; she listened to the calls of hunger, and on the fourth day took some food.

      The princess now began to think how she might possibly escape from the Dragon. One day she said to him coaxingly—

      "Dear Dragon, your strength is great, your wings far spreading and powerful; can no one withstand you?"

      "My time is not yet come," said the Dragon. "It was written at the hour of my birth that the only being who could withstand me would be Ivan the Pea, grown up from a pea."

      The Dragon laughed as he said this, not anticipating such an antagonist. The strong put confidence in their strength; but what is said in jest will sometimes become a truth.

      Meanwhile, the czarina sorrowed for the loss of her daughter and of her two sons. One day she went with her ladies-in-waiting into the garden to try to amuse herself. It was hot, and the czarina became very thirsty. In the garden there was a beautiful well of spring water, flowing into a white marble basin. The czarina dipped a golden cup into the basin, and, drinking hastily, swallowed a pea with the water. In the ​course of time the czarina had a son, and he was called Ivan the Pea. He grew up not by years but by hours. He was a handsome boy—strong and plump, full of spirit and play, ever laughing and springing on the sands, and daily increasing in strength.

      At ten years of age, Ivan the Pea was a tall, powerful knight. He asked whether he had any sisters or brothers; and upon hearing that his sister Vasilisa had been carried away by the wind, and that his two brothers who went to seek her had never returned, he begged his parents to permit him to go also in search of them all.

      "My dear son!" cried the czar and czarina, "you are still too young. Your brothers went away and never returned; if you leave us, you also will be lost."

      "No," answered Ivan the Pea; "I shall not be lost. I desire of all things to find my brothers and sister."

      His parents endeavoured to dissuade him from going, but all in vain. At last they gave their consent, blessed him with tears in their eyes, and bade him adieu.

      Ivan the Pea set forth on his journey. He travelled for one day, he travelled for two; towards evening he entered a gloomy forest. In this forest there was a hut on hen's legs, shaken by the wind, and turning round and round. Following old custom and nursery tradition, Ivan blew upon it, saying—

      ​"Hut, hut, turn about, with your back to the forest and your front to me."

      The hut immediately turned itself round with its front towards him. An old woman was looking out of the window, and she asked, "Whom have we here?"

      Ivan bowed to her, and enquired whether she had observed which way the wind was in the habit of carrying beautiful girls.

      "Ah, my son," said the old woman, coughing and looking hard at Ivan, "the wind has troubled me dreadfully. It is now a hundred and twenty years that I have lived in this hut, without ever once leaving it; it will kill me some day. You must know though that it is not the wind that is in fault, but the Dragon."

      "Which is the way to him?"

      "Take care; the Dragon will swallow you up."

      "We shall see."

      "Be mindful of your head, good knight," continued the old woman, shaking her toothless gums, "and promise me that, if you return safely, you will bring me some of the water from the Dragon's palace, in which, if I wash myself I shall be made young again."

      "I promise; I will bring you some of the water, grandmother."

      "I take your word for it. And now, my dear son, go towards the sunset; after a year's journeying you ​will arrive at the Fox's mountain; then ask the way to the Dragon's kingdom."

      "Farewell, grandmother."

      "Farewell, my son."

      Ivan went towards the setting sun. A story is soon told, but a difficult work is not so soon completed. Having passed through three kingdoms he arrived at the Dragon's dominions. Before the gates of the city he saw an old, blind, and lame beggar with a wallet. Having given the beggar some alms, Ivan the Pea asked him whether in that city there did not live a young princess, called Vasilisa with the Golden Tress?

      "Yes," said the beggar; "but we are forbidden to tell of it."

      Upon hearing that his sister was indeed there, Ivan went at once to the palace. At that moment the beautiful Vasilisa with the Golden Tress was watching for the coming of the Dragon from the window. Seeing a young knight approaching, she sent to him secretly to learn his name, and to know whether he was not sent by her father or mother. When she heard that it was Ivan, her youngest brother, whom she had never seen before, the princess rushed out of the palace, and called to him with tears in her eyes—

      "Run, dearest brother! Fly from this place. The Dragon will soon be here, and will kill you!"

      ​"Dearest sister, I am not afraid of the Dragon, nor of all his strength."

      "Are you then the Pea, and therefore able to withstand him?"

      "Wait a moment, sister; let me have something to drink first."

      "And what will you drink, brother?"

      "A bucketful of mead."

      Vasilisa ordered a bucket of mead to be brought in, and Ivan drank it at a draught, without even once stopping to take breath; he then asked for more. The surprised princess ordered some more mead to be brought in.

      "Now, brother," she said, "I believe that you are Ivan the Pea."

      "Give me something to eat, dear sister, and then let me rest after my journey."

      The princess then directed her servants to bring in a strong chair. Ivan sat down upon it, and it immediately broke into pieces. The attendants then brought another chair, still stronger, covered and joined together with iron. When Ivan sat down, it creaked and bent under him.

      "Oh brother!" cried the princess, "that is the Dragon's own seat."

      "It seems then," said Ivan smiling, "that I am heavier than he."

​He then got up, went to an old sage, who was smith to the court, and ordered an iron staff to be made, to weigh five hundred puds.^[1] The smiths set to work; hammered the iron night and day amid a shower of red-hot sparks, and in forty hours finished the staff. It required the united strength of fifty men to bring it to the castle. Ivan the Pea lifted it up with one hand, and threw it into the air. The air whistled as the staff passed through: it and disappeared in the clouds.