“O Ilyá of Múrom! thou knowest not that danger is near thee. The hero Svyatogór is coming to his tent. Let me loose that I may flee across the open plain, and thou mayest climb up into the green oak tree.”
Ilyá untied his horse’s bridle and set the good horse free to gallop across the plain; and then he climbed up into the oak tree. From the oak tree he saw the hero Svyatogór coming on his great horse. The hero was taller than a standing forest, and his head nearly touched a moving cloud. On his shoulder he carried [[26]]a great chest of glass. He came down from his horse and placed the chest on the ground and opened it with a golden key. Out of the chest came the hero’s wife. So lovely was she that no such beauty had ever been seen or heard of in the whole white world.
Very tall she was and elegant, and delicately did she walk. She had eyes like the eyes of a bright falcon, eyebrows of black sable, and waving black hair. As soon as she came out of the great chest she set to work to lay the table for her husband’s dinner. She spread a bright chequered table-cloth and took from the chest a bottle of honey drink and a cup and sweetmeats full many, and placed them upon the chequered cloth.
After he had eaten and drunk, Svyatogór lay down to sleep on his great bed in the tent, but his wife went to walk on the open plain. She caught sight of Ilyá in the oak tree and would have him to come down and talk to her. When her husband suddenly woke up she put Ilyá into her husband’s pocket to hide him. Svyatogór stood up and put his wife back into the glass chest and lifted it on to his shoulder again. He called up his horse and got upon his back and set off to ride, but soon the horse stumbled, and Svyatogór was vexed and asked why he was stumbling.
“This morning,” said the horse in a human voice, “I was carrying a hero and a hero’s wife, but now I am carrying two heroes as well as the hero’s wife.” [[27]]
Svyatogór looked round and saw no one, but putting his hand into his pocket there he found Ilyá. The hero asked Ilyá whence he came. Ilyá told him the truth, and Svyatogór was exceeding angry and killed his wife for trying to deceive him.
That Ilyá had dealt straightly pleased the hero Svyatogór, and there arose a great friendship between them. Svyatogór exchanged crosses with Ilyá in token of friendship, and called Ilyá his younger brother. He taught Ilyá all the handling of weapons, how to use his mace and his bow and arrows and spear in fighting, and also all the ways of travel of the heroes. Ilyá had called up his good horse from the plain by a loud whistle, and the two heroes, the old Svyatogór and the younger Ilyá of Múrom, rode on together through the open plain till they came to a great tomb built of stone. Upon the tomb was written these words:—
“He who is fated to lie in this tomb will exactly fit it.”
Ilyá lay down in the tomb, but it was too long and too wide for him, and at once he sprang out of it.
The giant hero Svyatogór lay down there, and the tomb just fitted him.