“Why, Koschei Who Never Dies,” said Peerless Beauty clasping her hands, “you have been flying through Russia and have caught up the odour of the country on your own garments. Where should I see Ivan Tsarevich?” Then they sat down to supper, and Koschei saw the gilded broom lying across the threshold. “What does this mean?” he asked sternly.
“See how I honour you,” said Peerless Beauty, “for I gild even Death for you.”
“Little simpleton, I fooled you,” said Koschei. “My death is not in the broom, but is concealed in the oak fence.”
Next day it fell out as before. Peerless Beauty, helped by Ivan Tsarevich, gilded the fence, and when Koschei saw it burning like fire in the evening sun, he laughed and said to Peerless Beauty:
“Little simpleton, I fooled you. My death is in an egg, the egg is in a downy duck, and the duck is in the stump of a tree which floats upon the open sea.”
Next day Peerless Beauty rose very early, before the sun was up, and went to the stove in the kitchen. “I must send Ivan Tsarevich,” she said, “on the long search for that downy duck. He has a long way to go, so I must bake him a love cake.” So she baked him not one love cake but three, and as she kneaded the dough, she spoke a love-spell into it so that Ivan Tsarevich should fare well on his journey. The cakes were browned and buttered and wrapped in a napkin of fine white linen, with edges of drawn thread-work, when Ivan came into the kitchen just as the sun rose. Then he put his arms about the cake-baker, and she whispered into his ear where to look for the death of Koschei. And Ivan kissed her honey mouth and went out with the cakes in his pouch.
Onward he went and ever onward, until he came to the margin of the ocean sea, and then he knew not how to go farther. He had eaten all the cakes and was very hungry, so very hungry that when a hawk flew up above his head, he cried: “Hawk, hawk, I will shoot you dead and eat you without cooking.”
“Why eat me?” asked the hawk in the speech of Holy Russia, “I can be of good service to you.”
Then a great bear came shambling along with its fore-paws turned inwards to show that it was a bear of good breeding. “Bear, bear,” said Ivan, “I will shoot you dead and eat you without cooking.”
“Why eat me?” asked the bear in the speech of Holy Russia, “I can be of good service to you.”