Swallowing their confusion the three talesmen went on, wondering no longer that Diuk had mistaken the Princess Apraxia for the washerwoman of Prince Vladimir; and they fared in the same manner before the cook, the women of the bedchamber, the baker of cakes, and the nurse, until the last took pity upon their despair and told them that the lady mother of their lord had gone to High Mass, and that they would be able to distinguish her when she left the church by three certain signs. Before her would come a great army of men armed with shovels, and then another army with brooms to make all clean on the pathway, and then a third army laying cloth of brilliant scarlet upon the tawny sand. Last of all would come the mother of young Lord Diuk, with a great company of lovely maidens round about her. “And when you go into the town,” the nurse concluded, “you must not salute all the ancient ladies in fine raiment like mine, for there are so many of us thus arrayed that we pay little heed to it. And if you do reverence to all of us your back will remain bent like the bow of Ilya of Murom.”
The talesmen went on their wondering way and in due time met the mother of the young Lord Diuk, preceded and attended as the nurse had told, and dressed in garments of rich but quiet beauty. Before her the three men bowed, and in pleasant tones she asked why they had come to the city.
“Your son sent us as talesmen,” was the answer, “to make lists of all his possessions in treasure and goods and herds and flocks.”
“That is beyond your powers,” said the lady; “but come first of all to partake of my hospitality, and then I will show you whatever you choose to see.”
So they went to the feast of rich food and richer wine, and they ate of the fine wheaten cakes baked by the mother of the young Lord Diuk, and left no crumb behind. When they were well satisfied, the lady mother showed them her son’s horses; and they took parchment and tried to count up their value in roubles, but the figures confused their eyes and vexed them so that they gave up the task. Then she showed them the shoes of her son; and they took parchment again and tried to tell the tale of their value, but once more they gave up in despair. After that she led them to the wine-cellars and to the treasury of trappings for horses with the same result. At last Nikitich said: “Leave us here, seated before this single saddle ornamented with all the jewels of India, and let us compute the value of it alone.” The lady graciously gave her consent; and they stayed three years over their task of computation, but at the end of that time they had not finished one tenth of the work.
Then they sent a message to Vladimir which ran:
“Sell Kiev for parchment and Chernigof for ink, and then we shall perhaps be able to make a beginning of computing the possessions of the young Lord Diuk.”
When Vladimir had read this message he set out with a great company for India the Glorious, and Diuk went in his train; and when they came to the palace of the lady mother, they found that not one-tenth of its splendour had been told to them.
As they stood there, three men came before them whose forms were withered up like shavings; and they looked long upon them and very earnestly before they saw that these men were Nikitich and his companions, who had shrunken from grief at the greatness of their task and their inability to perform it. But the young Lord Diuk consoled them and feasted the company right well before they set out, still in quiet wonder, on their way back to Kiev town.
When they were gone the lady mother turned to her son and asked: