“Thanks, my brothers,” said the man.
“What are you called?” asked Ivashka.
“Usunia,” said he.
“Well,” said Ivashka, “let us be friends.”
So, after some talk, the man agreed to join Ivashka and his companions.
The four went on, and at length they came to a forest, near to which they found a hut. Now the hut stood on a fowl’s legs, and kept turning round and round.
“Hut, hut,” cried Ivashka, “stand still with your back to the forest and your front towards us!”
The hut at once did what they told it, and the four travellers going in commenced to plan how they should live. They were very hungry, so they went into the forest, caught some game, and ate it.
The next day Dubunia stayed at home while the others went into the forest to look for game. He cooked the dinner, and waited for his companions to come back. They did not come, so Dubunia washed his head and sat combing his hair, and who should come into the hut but Baba Yaja. She came riding in an iron mortar, which she drove on with a pestle, and with her tongue she wiped out the marks the mortar made as it passed over the ground. As she came into the cabin—
“Ho, ho!” cried she, “I smell Russian flesh.”