“Behind us there is a beauteous house.”
“It is the house of my younger sister that glitters,” said the eagle. “Now we will fly where my mother and eldest sister live.”
So they flew thither, and the mother and eldest sister were ever so glad to see them, and they received the Tsar with honour and affection.
“Now, Tsar my master,” said the eagle, “come and rest with us, and afterwards I will give you a ship, and I will repay you all I ate up whilst I was with you; and go home with God’s aid.” So he gave the Tsar a ship and two coffers, one was red and the other green. And he said, “Take heed, do not open the coffers until you reach home: open the red coffer in the back courtyard and the green coffer in the front courtyard.”
So the Tsar took the two coffers, bade farewell to the eagle, and went on the blue sea: and he went on and he arrived at an island, where the ship stopped. He got out on the shore, and he remembered the two coffers, and began to wonder what was in them, and why the eagle had bidden him not to open them; and he thought and thought, and his patience gave way. He so badly wanted to know, and so he took the red coffer, put it on the ground and opened it, and out of it all sorts of cattle came out, so many that the eye could not count, and they almost filled the entire island. When the Tsar saw this he was grieved, and began to weep and say, “Whatever shall I do now? how shall I collect all of this herd into such a tiny coffer?”
And then he saw that out of the water came a man, who went up to him and asked him, “Why are you weeping so bitterly, Tsar my master?”
“Why should I not weep?” answered the Tsar. “How can I put all this great herd into this tiny coffer?”
“If you will I can aid you in your trouble; I will collect all this herd, only on condition that you give me what you do not know of at home.”
So the Tsar began to ponder, “What do I not know of at home? It seems to me that I know of everything.” So he thought, and he considered it, and he said, “Go and collect them together, and I will give you what I do not know of at home.”
Then the man collected all of the cattle into the box, and the Tsar went on board and sailed on his own journey.