‘I will set out in search of my sisters.’
He got ready for the journey, he rode and rode, and one day he saw a whole army lying dead on the plain. He cried aloud, ‘If there be a living man there, let him make answer! Who has slain this mighty host?’
There replied unto him a living man:
‘All this mighty host has been slain by the fair Princess Marya Morevna.’
Prince Ivan rode further on, and came to a white tent, and forth came to meet him the fair Princess Marya Morevna.
‘Hail, Prince!’ says she; ‘whither does God send you? and is it of your free will or against your will?’
Prince Ivan replied, ‘Not against their will do brave youths ride!’
‘Well, if your business be not pressing, tarry awhile in my tent.’
Thereat was Prince Ivan glad. He spent two nights in the tent, and he found favour in the eyes of Marya Morevna, and she married him. The fair Princess, Marya Morevna, carried him off into her own realm.
They spent some time together, and then the Princess took it into her head to go a warring. So she handed over all the house-keeping affairs to Prince Ivan, and gave him these instructions: