--- title: Opening, part 14 — Russian Folk-Tales · full text with trees description: Opening, part 14, «Russian Folk-Tales» by A. N. Afanas'ev: the whole chapter, every sentence with its dependency tree and pragmatics. It begins: “Now, sisters, our watchman has gone to sleep: it is time we set out on our promenade: it is time.” --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg62509/14/) [home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [Russian Folk-Tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg62509/) / Opening, part 14 # Opening, part 14 Opening, part 14 of «Russian Folk-Tales» by A. N. Afanas'ev: the whole text, 157 sentences and 2533 words. The small number after every sentence leads to its own page with its syntax tree and pragmatics, parsed by Mova itself. **1** [2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg62509/14/page/2/) “Now, sisters, our watchman has gone to sleep: it is time we set out on our promenade: it is time.”[1](1/ "tree and pragmatics") So they all put on their best clothes, and the elder sister went to her bedside, moved the bed, and an entrance into the subterranean realm instantly opened up beneath, leading to the home of the Accursèd Tsar.[2](2/ "tree and pragmatics") They all went down a flight of stairs, and the poor nobleman quietly got off his bed, put on the cap of invisibility, and followed them.[3](3/ "tree and pragmatics") He, without noticing, touched the youngest princess’s dress: she was frightened and said to her sisters, “O my sisters, somebody has stepped on my dress.[4](4/ "tree and pragmatics") This is a foretokening of woe.”[5](5/ "tree and pragmatics") “Nonsense; it does not mean anything of the sort!”[6](6/ "tree and pragmatics") So they all went down the flight of steps into a grove, and in that grove there were golden flowers.[7](7/ "tree and pragmatics") Then the poor nobleman broke off and plucked a single sprig, and the entire grove rustled.[8](8/ "tree and pragmatics") “Oh, sisters,” said the youngest sister, “some unfortunate thing is injuring us.[9](9/ "tree and pragmatics") Did you hear how the grove rustled?”[10](10/ "tree and pragmatics") “Do not fear; this is the music in the Accursèd Tsar’s realm.”[11](11/ "tree and pragmatics") So they went into the Tsar’s palace.[12](12/ "tree and pragmatics") He, with his lacqueys, met them; music sounded; and they began dancing: and they danced until their shoes were worn thin.[13](13/ "tree and pragmatics") Then the Tsar bade wine to be served to his guests.[14](14/ "tree and pragmatics") The poor nobleman took a single goblet from under his nose, poured out the wine, and put the cup into his pocket.[15](15/ "tree and pragmatics") At last the rout was over, and the princesses bade farewell to their cavaliers, promised to come another night, turned back home, undressed and lay down to sleep.[16](16/ "tree and pragmatics") Then the king summoned the poor nobleman, and asked him, “Did you keep watch on my daughters?”[17](17/ "tree and pragmatics") “Yes, I did, your Majesty.”[18](18/ "tree and pragmatics") “Where did they go?”[19](19/ "tree and pragmatics") “Into the subterranean realm, to the Accursèd Tsar, where they danced all night long.”[20](20/ "tree and pragmatics") So the king summoned his daughters, and began cross-examining them.[21](21/ "tree and pragmatics") “Where do you go at night?”[22](22/ "tree and pragmatics") So the princesses tried a feint: “We have not been anywhere.”[23](23/ "tree and pragmatics") “Were you not with the Accursèd Tsar?[24](24/ "tree and pragmatics") There is this poor nobleman who can turn evidence on you.[25](25/ "tree and pragmatics") He is able to convict you.”[26](26/ "tree and pragmatics") “What do you mean, bátyushka?[27](27/ "tree and pragmatics") He can convict us when all night he slept the sleep of the dead?”[28](28/ "tree and pragmatics") Then the poor nobleman brought the golden flower out of his pocket, and the goblet, and said, “There is the testimony.”[29](29/ "tree and pragmatics") What could they do?[30](30/ "tree and pragmatics") The princesses had to acknowledge their guilt, and the king bade the entrance to the subterranean realm be slated up.[31](31/ "tree and pragmatics") And he married the poor nobleman to the youngest daughter, and they lived happily ever after.[32](32/ "tree and pragmatics") VASILÍSA THE FAIR[33](33/ "tree and pragmatics") Once upon a time there was a merchant who had been married for twelve years and had only one daughter, Vasilísa the Fair.[34](34/ "tree and pragmatics") When her mother died the girl was eight years old.[35](35/ "tree and pragmatics") On her death-bed the mother called the maiden to her, took a doll out of her counterpane, said: “Vasilísushka, hear my last words.[36](36/ "tree and pragmatics") I am dying, and I will leave you my mother’s blessing and this doll.[37](37/ "tree and pragmatics") Keep this doll always by you, but show it to nobody, and no misfortune can befall you.[38](38/ "tree and pragmatics") Give it food and ask it for advice.[39](39/ "tree and pragmatics") After it has eaten, it will tell you how to avoid your evil.”[40](40/ "tree and pragmatics") Then the wife kissed her daughter and died.[41](41/ "tree and pragmatics") After the wife’s death the merchant mourned as it behoved, and then he thought of a second wife.[42](42/ "tree and pragmatics") He was a handsome man and found many brides, but he liked one widow more than any one.[43](43/ "tree and pragmatics") She was no longer young, and had two daughters of about the same age as Vasilísa.[44](44/ "tree and pragmatics") So she was an experienced housewife and mother.[45](45/ "tree and pragmatics") The merchant married her, but he had made a mistake, for she was no good mother to his own daughter.[46](46/ "tree and pragmatics") Vasilísa was the fairest damsel in the entire village, and the stepmother and the sisters envied her therefore.[47](47/ "tree and pragmatics") And they used to torture her by piling all the work they could on her, that she might grow thin and ugly, and might be tanned by the wind and the sun. And the child lived a hard life.[48](48/ "tree and pragmatics") Vasilísa, however, did all her work without complaining, and always grew more beautiful and plumper, while the stepmother and her daughters, out of sheer spite, grew thinner and uglier.[49](49/ "tree and pragmatics") Yet there they sat all day long with their hands folded, just like fine ladies.[50](50/ "tree and pragmatics") How could this be?[51](51/ "tree and pragmatics") It was the doll that had helped Vasilísa.[52](52/ "tree and pragmatics") Without her the maiden could never have done her task.[53](53/ "tree and pragmatics") Vasilísa often ate nothing herself, and kept the tastiest morsels for the doll; and when at night they had all gone to bed, she used to lock herself up in her cellaret below, give the doll food to eat, and say, “Dollet, eat and listen to my misery.[54](54/ "tree and pragmatics") I am living in my father’s house, and my lot is hard.[55](55/ "tree and pragmatics") My evil stepmother is torturing me out of the white world.[56](56/ "tree and pragmatics") Teach me what I must do in order to bear this life.”[57](57/ "tree and pragmatics") Then the doll gave her good advice, consoled her, and did all her morning’s work for her.[58](58/ "tree and pragmatics") Vasilísa was told to go walking, plucking flowers; and all her flowerbeds were done in time, all the coal was brought in, and the water-jugs carried in, and the hearthstone was hot.[59](59/ "tree and pragmatics") Further, the doll taught her herb-lore; so, thanks to her doll, she had a merry life; and the years went by.[60](60/ "tree and pragmatics") Vasilísa grew up, and all the lads in the village sought her.[61](61/ "tree and pragmatics") But the stepmother’s daughters nobody would look at; and the stepmother grew more evil than ever and answered all her suitors: “I will not give my youngest daughter before I give the elders.”[62](62/ "tree and pragmatics") So she sent all the bargainers away, and to show how pleased she was, rained blows on Vasilísa.[63](63/ "tree and pragmatics") One day the merchant had to go away on business for a long time; so the stepmother in the meantime went over to a new house near a dense, slumbrous forest.[64](64/ "tree and pragmatics") In the forest there was a meadow, and on the meadow there was a hut, and in the hut Bába Yagá lived, who would not let anybody in, and ate up men as though they were poultry.[65](65/ "tree and pragmatics") Whilst she was moving, the stepmother sent her hated stepdaughter into the wood, but she always came back perfectly safe, for the doll showed her the way by which she could avoid Bába Yagá’s hut.[66](66/ "tree and pragmatics") So one day the harvest season came and the stepmother gave all three maidens their task for the evening: one was to make lace and the other to sew a stocking, and Vasilísa was to spin.[67](67/ "tree and pragmatics") Each was to do a certain amount.[68](68/ "tree and pragmatics") The mother put all the fires out in the entire house, and left only one candle burning where the maidens were at work, and herself went to sleep.[69](69/ "tree and pragmatics") The maidens worked on.[70](70/ "tree and pragmatics") The candle burned down, and one of the stepmother’s daughters took the snuffers in order to cut down the wick.[71](71/ "tree and pragmatics") But the stepmother had told her to put the light out as though by accident.[72](72/ "tree and pragmatics") “What is to be done now?” they said.[73](73/ "tree and pragmatics") “There is no fire in the house and our work is not finished.[74](74/ "tree and pragmatics") We must get a light from the Bába Yagá.”[75](75/ "tree and pragmatics") “I can see by the needles,” said the one who was making lace.[76](76/ "tree and pragmatics") “I also am not going,” said the second, “for my knitting needles give me light enough.[77](77/ "tree and pragmatics") You must go and get some fire.[78](78/ "tree and pragmatics") Go to the Bába Yagá!”[79](79/ "tree and pragmatics") And they turned Vasilísa out of the room.[80](80/ "tree and pragmatics") **1** [2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg62509/14/page/2/) - ← previous: [Opening, part 13](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg62509/13/) - next →: [page 2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg62509/14/page/2/) - ↑ back to [Russian Folk-Tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg62509/)