“Ah, Prince Ivan! He is sure to catch us and hew you in pieces.”
“Let him hew away! I cannot live without you.”
Koshchei the Deathless was returning home when his good steed stumbled beneath him.
“Why stumblest thou? scentest thou any ill?”
“Prince Ivan has come and has carried off Marya Morevna.”
Koshchei galloped off, caught Prince Ivan, chopped him into little pieces, put them in a barrel, smeared it with pitch and bound it with iron hoops, and flung it into the blue sea. But Marya Morevna he carried off home.
At that very time, the silver turned black which Prince Ivan had left with his brothers-in-law.
“Ah!” said they, “the evil is accomplished sure enough!”
Then the Eagle hurried to the blue sea, caught hold of the barrel, and dragged it ashore; the Falcon flew away for the Water of Life, and the Raven for the Water of Death.