“Take a draught of the water that stands on the right hand.” Prince Ivan drank of it.
“Now then, how strong do you feel?” said she.
“So strong that I could upset the whole palace with one hand,” he replied.
“Come now, drink again.”
The Prince drank once more.
“How strong do you feel now?” she asked.
“Why now, if I wanted, I could give the whole world a jolt.”
“Oh that’s plenty then! Now make these tubs change places—that which stands on the right, set on the left: and that which is on the left, change to the right.”
Prince Ivan took the tubs and made them change places. Says the Queen—
“See now, my dear son; in one of these tubs is the ‘Water of Strength,’ in the other is the ‘Water of Weakness.’[313] He who drinks of the former becomes a mighty hero, but he who drinks of the second loses all his vigor. Vikhor always quaffs the Strong Water, and places it on the right-hand side; therefore you must deceive him, or you will never be able to hold out against him.”