THE JOURNEY TO JERUSALEM
An archimandrite one day got up for matins; and, whilst laving his hands, saw an unclean spirit in the Holy Water, seized him and crossed him.
The devil besought him: “Let me go, Father, I will do you any service I can; I will, I will!”
So the Archimandrite said: “Will you take me to Jerusalem between High Mass and matins?”
The Archimandrite released him, and after matins was transported to Jerusalem, and was back in time for High Mass. Then inquiries were set going how this might be, and every one was astonished how he could get to Jerusalem and back so fast. They asked him about it, and he told them the story.
VAZÚZA AND VÓLGA
The Vólga and the Vazúza had a long argument whether who was the wiser and the stronger and the more honourable of the two. They contended and quarrelled, and could not decide it. So they resolved at last: “Let us both go to sleep at the same time, and the one which wakes up earlier and first reaches the Khvalýnsk Sea is wiser and stronger and the more honourable.”
So the Vólga went to sleep, and so did the Vazúza.
But at night the Vazúza got up quietly and ran away from the Vólga; she took the next nearest way and flowed off.
When the Vólga woke up she went neither hurriedly nor lagging, but in an ordinary fashion. At Zubtsov she overtook the Vazúza, and looked so threatening that the Vazúza was frightened, and owned she was the younger daughter, and begged the Vólga to take her in her arms into the Sea of Khvalýnsk.