--- title: Opening, part 24 — Russian Folk-Tales · full text with trees description: Opening, part 24, «Russian Folk-Tales» by A. N. Afanas'ev: the whole chapter, every sentence with its dependency tree and pragmatics. It begins: So they started, and off they went. --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg62509/24/) [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 24 # Opening, part 24 Opening, part 24 of «Russian Folk-Tales» by A. N. Afanas'ev: the whole text, 137 sentences and 2537 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/pg62509/24/page/2/) So they started, and off they went.[1](1/ "tree and pragmatics") Koshchéy the Deathless came back home, and his good horse stumbled under him.[2](2/ "tree and pragmatics") “Why, you sorry jade, are you stumbling, or is it some evil thing which you fear?”[3](3/ "tree and pragmatics") And the horse answered, “Iván Tsarévich has again arrived, and has taken Márya Moryévna away.”[4](4/ "tree and pragmatics") “Can one catch them up?”[5](5/ "tree and pragmatics") “It would be possible to sow barley and to wait until it grows up, reap it, thresh it, to brew beer, drink it until you were drunk, sleep out your sleep and then to go on the hunt, and we should still succeed.”[6](6/ "tree and pragmatics") Koshchéy leaped on his horse, caught up Iván Tsarévich, and said, “I said you were not to see anything more of Márya Moryévna!” and he took her away with him.[7](7/ "tree and pragmatics") So Iván Tsarévich was again left alone, and he wept bitterly; and once again he returned to Márya Moryévna, and this time too Koshchéy was not at home.[8](8/ "tree and pragmatics") “Let us go, Márya Moryévna!”[9](9/ "tree and pragmatics") “Oh, Iván Tsarévich, he will catch us up and he will tear you to bits.”[10](10/ "tree and pragmatics") “Let him tear me to bits; I cannot live without you.”[11](11/ "tree and pragmatics") So they got ready, and off they went.[12](12/ "tree and pragmatics") Koshchéy the Deathless returned home, and under him his good horse stumbled.[13](13/ "tree and pragmatics") “Why do you stumble, you sorry jade, or is it some evil that you fear?”[14](14/ "tree and pragmatics") “Iván Tsarévich has arrived, and has taken Márya Moryévna with him.”[15](15/ "tree and pragmatics") Koshchéy leaped on his horse, caught up Iván Tsarévich, broke him up into tiny bits, put them into a tar cask, took this cask, locked it with iron bolts and threw it into the blue sea.[16](16/ "tree and pragmatics") And he took Márya Moryévna away with him.[17](17/ "tree and pragmatics") At the same time the brothers-in-law of Iván Tsarévich looked at their silver ornaments and found they had turned black.[18](18/ "tree and pragmatics") “Oh,” they said, “evidently some disaster has befallen him!”[19](19/ "tree and pragmatics") The Eagle rushed into the blue sea, dragged out the cask to the shore, and the Hawk flew for the Water of Life, and the Crow flew for the Water of Death.[20](20/ "tree and pragmatics") Then they all three met at a single spot and broke up the cask, took out the bits of Iván Tsarévich, washed them, laid them together as was fit: then the Crow sprinkled him with the Water of Death, and the body grew together and was one; and the Hawk sprinkled him with the Water of Life, and Iván Tsarévich shivered, sat up and said, “Oh, what a long sleep I have had!”[21](21/ "tree and pragmatics") “But your sleep would have been very much longer if we had not been there,” answered the brothers-in-law.[22](22/ "tree and pragmatics") “Now you must come and be our guest!”[23](23/ "tree and pragmatics") “No, brothers, I must go and seek Márya Moryévna.”[24](24/ "tree and pragmatics") So he came to her and said, “Go and find out from Koshchéy the Deathless where he got such a fine horse!”[25](25/ "tree and pragmatics") Then Márya Moryévna looked out for a good opportunity, and asked Koshchéy the Deathless.[26](26/ "tree and pragmatics") Koshchéy answered, “Beyond thrice-nine lands, in the thrice-tenth kingdom, beyond the river of fire, lives the Bába Yagá.[27](27/ "tree and pragmatics") She has a mare on which every day she rides round the whole of the world.[28](28/ "tree and pragmatics") She has many splendid mares.[29](29/ "tree and pragmatics") I was there for three days as a herd, and she would not let me have the mare; but she gave me one of the foals.”[30](30/ "tree and pragmatics") “How can one cross the river of fire?”[31](31/ "tree and pragmatics") “I have a kerchief: if you shake it to the right three times a lofty bridge rises and the fires cannot overreach it.”[32](32/ "tree and pragmatics") Márya Moryévna listened, told Iván Tsarévich all about it, and he took the cloth away.[33](33/ "tree and pragmatics") Iván Tsarévich crossed the river of fire and he reached the Bába Yagá: but journeying afar, neither eating nor drinking.[34](34/ "tree and pragmatics") A sea-bird came to meet him with her young.[35](35/ "tree and pragmatics") Iván Tsarévich asked if he might eat one of her chicks.[36](36/ "tree and pragmatics") “Do not eat it,” the sea-bird said; “at some time I shall be of service to you, Iván Tsarévich.”[37](37/ "tree and pragmatics") Then he went farther, and he was in a wood, and he saw a bee-hive.[38](38/ "tree and pragmatics") “Perhaps,” he said, “I may take a little honey.”[39](39/ "tree and pragmatics") Then the queen-bee answered him, “Do not touch my honey, Iván Tsarévich; at some time or other I shall be of service to you.”[40](40/ "tree and pragmatics") So he did not touch the honey, but went farther.[41](41/ "tree and pragmatics") Then he met a lioness with her whelps.[42](42/ "tree and pragmatics") “May I eat this lion-whelp?[43](43/ "tree and pragmatics") I am so hungry!”[44](44/ "tree and pragmatics") “Do not touch it, Iván Tsarévich,” the lioness said; “at some time or other I shall be of service to you.”[45](45/ "tree and pragmatics") “Very well; it shall be as you will.”[46](46/ "tree and pragmatics") So he went on hungry, and he went on and on and on, and at last he reached the house of the Bába Yagá.[47](47/ "tree and pragmatics") Round the house there were twelve poles, and on eleven of the poles there were the skulls of men: only one as yet was untenanted.[48](48/ "tree and pragmatics") “Hail, \_bábushka\_!” he said.[49](49/ "tree and pragmatics") “Hail, Iván Tsarévich!” she replied: “what have you come for?[50](50/ "tree and pragmatics") By your own good will or for need?”[51](51/ "tree and pragmatics") “I have come to earn of you a knightly horse.”[52](52/ "tree and pragmatics") “Very well, Iván Tsarévich: you are to serve me not one year, but only three days.[53](53/ "tree and pragmatics") If you can guard my mares, I will give you a knightly horse; if you cannot, do not be angry, but your head must also lie on the last of the stakes.”[54](54/ "tree and pragmatics") Iván Tsarévich agreed, and Bába Yagá gave him drink and food and bade him set to work.[55](55/ "tree and pragmatics") As soon as ever he had driven the mares into the field, they all turned their tails and ran in the meadows so far that the Tsarévich could not trace them with his eyes: and thus they were all lost.[56](56/ "tree and pragmatics") Then he sat down and wept, and became melancholy, and sat down on a stone and went to sleep.[57](57/ "tree and pragmatics") The sun was already setting when the sea-bird flew to him, woke him up and said, “Arise, Iván Tsarévich—all the mares have gone home.”[58](58/ "tree and pragmatics") The Tsarévich got up, turned back home; but Bába Yagá was angry with her mares.[59](59/ "tree and pragmatics") “Why have you all come home?”[60](60/ "tree and pragmatics") “Why should we not come home? the birds flew down from every quarter of the sky and almost clawed out our eyes.”[61](61/ "tree and pragmatics") “Well, to-morrow do not stray in the meadows, but scatter into the dreamy forest.”[62](62/ "tree and pragmatics") So Iván Tsarévich passed that night; and next day Bába Yagá said to him, “Look, Iván Tsarévich, if you do not keep the mares well, if you lose one, then your false head shall nod up and down on the stake.”[63](63/ "tree and pragmatics") So then he drove all the mares to the field, and this time they turned their tails, and they ran into the dreamy woods.[64](64/ "tree and pragmatics") And once again the Tsarévich sat on the stone and wept and wept and went to sleep, and the sun began to rest on the woods when the lioness ran up and said, “Get up, Iván Tsarévich—all the mares have been collected.”[65](65/ "tree and pragmatics") Then Iván Tsarévich got up and went home.[66](66/ "tree and pragmatics") And Bába Yagá was angry that the mares had come home, and she called out to her mares, “Why have you all come home?”[67](67/ "tree and pragmatics") And they answered, “How should we not come home?—wild beasts from all the four quarters of the world assembled round us and almost tore us to bits.”[68](68/ "tree and pragmatics") “Well, you go to-morrow into the blue sea.”[69](69/ "tree and pragmatics") Once again Iván passed the night there, and the next day Bába Yagá sent her mares to feed.[70](70/ "tree and pragmatics") “If you do not guard them, then your bold head shall hang on the pole.”[71](71/ "tree and pragmatics") He drove the mares into the field, and they at once turned tail and vanished from his eyes and ran into the blue sea and stood up to their necks in the water.[72](72/ "tree and pragmatics") So Iván Tsarévich sat on the stone, wept and went to sleep.[73](73/ "tree and pragmatics") And the sun was already setting on the woods when the bee flew up to him and said: “Get up, Iván Tsarévich—all the mares have been gathered together.[74](74/ "tree and pragmatics") But, when you return home, do not appear before Bába Yagá; go into the stable and hide behind the crib.[75](75/ "tree and pragmatics") There there is a mangy foal who will be rolling in the dung: steal him; and, at the deep of midnight, leave the house.”[76](76/ "tree and pragmatics") **1** [2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg62509/24/page/2/) - ← previous: [Opening, part 23](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg62509/23/) - next →: [page 2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg62509/24/page/2/) - ↑ back to [Russian Folk-Tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg62509/)