As the perch leaped he changed himself into a ruby ring and fell into the basket.
The damsel was very much astonished to see the ring in her basket. She did not know where it had come from. She looked up, and she looked down, but she could see no one who could have thrown the ring.
Then she took it up and slid it upon her finger, and at once she loved it as she had never loved anything in all her life before.
She carried it to her father and said to him, “Look what a pretty ring I have found!”
“Yes,” answered her father, “but where did you find it?”
“I found it in my basket, but how it came there I do not know.”
The Tsaritsa’s mother also admired the ring very much. Never had they seen such a brilliant and flashing ruby before.
Now at first, after the perch leaped out of the river and into the Tsaritsa’s basket, Oh did not know what had become of him. He was obliged to go home and get out his magic books, and then he soon learned where the lad was.
He then changed himself into a venerable merchant, clothed in velvet robes and with a long white beard. He broke a stick from an ash tree and changed it into a horse, and mounted on it and rode away to the Tsar’s palace.
Then he asked to speak with the Tsar, and so old and venerable did he look that they would not refuse him, but brought him before the Tsar.