--- title: Opening, part 25 — Russian Folk-Tales · full text with trees · page 2 description: Opening, part 25, «Russian Folk-Tales» by A. N. Afanas'ev: the whole chapter, every sentence with its dependency tree and pragmatics. It begins: When he came to himself he got up and he looked, and he found himself in the subterranean world, where there was the same light as was here. --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg62509/25/page/2/) [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 25 # Opening, part 25 · page 2 [1](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg62509/25/) **2** And the Tsarítsa spoke to the angel who was taking the shape of the Tsar: “Thou, my dear lord, for one year hast not slept with me.[82](../../82/ "tree and pragmatics") How can I, then, be thine?”[83](../../83/ "tree and pragmatics") And the Tsar spake to her: “I have made a covenant with God that for three years I will not sleep with thee nor share thy bed.”[84](../../84/ "tree and pragmatics") And he left her and went into the Tsar’s palace.[85](../../85/ "tree and pragmatics") Angéy the Tsar arrived in an unknown town and engaged himself with a peasant to reap the harvest; and he did not know how to do a peasant’s work; and the peasant discharged him, and he began to weep and sob, and went on his way from that city.[86](../../86/ "tree and pragmatics") And poor men met him on the road.[87](../../87/ "tree and pragmatics") He said to them: “Will ye take me up with ye?[88](../../88/ "tree and pragmatics") I am now a poor man, and do not know how to work, and I am ashamed to beg.[89](../../89/ "tree and pragmatics") What ye bid of me I will do.[90](../../90/ "tree and pragmatics") I will work for you.”[91](../../91/ "tree and pragmatics") And they accepted him and gave him a burden to carry.[92](../../92/ "tree and pragmatics") And they went to lie at night, and they bade him heat the bath, carry water, and lay the bed.[93](../../93/ "tree and pragmatics") And Tsar Angéy wept bitterly: “Woe to me\![94](../../94/ "tree and pragmatics") What have I done\![95](../../95/ "tree and pragmatics") I was wroth with the Sovereign, and He has deprived me of my kingdom and has brought me to ruin, and I have suffered all this through the word of the Gospel.”[96](../../96/ "tree and pragmatics") In the morning the poor men got up, and they arrived at his own city of Filuyán.[97](../../97/ "tree and pragmatics") And they reached the abode of the Tsar and began to beg for alms.[98](../../98/ "tree and pragmatics") At this time the Tsar was holding a mighty feast, and he bade the poor be summoned into the palace, bade them be fed sufficiently, and he bade the food of the poor men be taken into the Tsar’s palace and put into a special room.[99](../../99/ "tree and pragmatics") And, when the Tsar’s feast was over and the \_boyárs\_\[31\] and the guests had all separated, the angel who had taken the form of the Tsar Angéy came to him in the palace where Angéy the Tsar was dining with the beggars: “Dost thou know of a proud and mighty Tsar, how he profaned the word of the Gospel?”[100](../../100/ "tree and pragmatics") And he began to teach him and to instruct him before all of the world, that he must not profane the word of the Gospel, and must show respect for the priests, and must not upraise himself, but must be kindly and inclined to the ways of peace.[101](../../101/ "tree and pragmatics") THE FEAST OF THE DEAD[102](../../102/ "tree and pragmatics") Some girls were out at night for the evening, and arranged for an evening party.[103](../../103/ "tree and pragmatics") They went out to get some \_vódka\_.[104](../../104/ "tree and pragmatics") There were bones lying on the road.[105](../../105/ "tree and pragmatics") “Ho!” they said, “bones, bones, come and be our guests: we are having an evening party.”[106](../../106/ "tree and pragmatics") So, they went back home, brought the \_vódka\_, and stepped in over the threshold.[107](../../107/ "tree and pragmatics") But the bones came and sat at the table just like men, and said to the maidens, “Now give us the brandy.”[108](../../108/ "tree and pragmatics") So the girls gave them brandy.[109](../../109/ "tree and pragmatics") “Give us bread!”[110](../../110/ "tree and pragmatics") So they gave them bread.[111](../../111/ "tree and pragmatics") They all sat down to eat, and one maiden dropped the meat.[112](../../112/ "tree and pragmatics") Then the bones began lifting and stretching their legs under the bench.[113](../../113/ "tree and pragmatics") The girls tried to run away; and the bones raced after them.[114](../../114/ "tree and pragmatics") The bones caught one girl up, and broke her across their knees.[115](../../115/ "tree and pragmatics") The other girls made their escape into the loft; one girl hid behind the water-butt.[116](../../116/ "tree and pragmatics") The bones ran up to the loft and asked: “What is there up there?”[117](../../117/ "tree and pragmatics") “God’s taper.”[118](../../118/ "tree and pragmatics") “But down there?”[119](../../119/ "tree and pragmatics") “The Devil’s poker,” she answered.[120](../../120/ "tree and pragmatics") So the bones hauled the second girl out and strangled her.[121](../../121/ "tree and pragmatics") THE QUARRELSOME WIFE[122](../../122/ "tree and pragmatics") “Father, I should like to marry\![123](../../123/ "tree and pragmatics") Mother, I should like to marry, I should really,” said the youth.[124](../../124/ "tree and pragmatics") “Well then, my child—marry.”[125](../../125/ "tree and pragmatics") So he married, and chose a lanky, black, squinting wife.[126](../../126/ "tree and pragmatics") She would have pleased Satan more than the clear-eyed hawk, and it was no good frothing at anybody: he was the only person in the wrong.[127](../../127/ "tree and pragmatics") So he lived with her and wrung his tears out with his fist.[128](../../128/ "tree and pragmatics") One day he went out where audiences were being given, stood there, and came home.[129](../../129/ "tree and pragmatics") “Wherever have you been sauntering?” asked his squint-eyed wife.[130](../../130/ "tree and pragmatics") “What have you seen?”[131](../../131/ "tree and pragmatics") “Oh, they say that a new Tsar has come on the throne and has issued a new \_úkaz\_ that wives are to command their husbands!”[132](../../132/ "tree and pragmatics") He only meant to joke, but she sprang up, pulled his whiskers and said, “Go to the stream and wash the shirts, take the broom and sweep the house, then go and sit by the cradle and rock the child, cook the supper and grill and bake the cakes.”[133](../../133/ "tree and pragmatics") The man wanted to answer, “What are you talking about, woman?[134](../../134/ "tree and pragmatics") That is not a man’s work.”[135](../../135/ "tree and pragmatics") Then he looked at her, and he froze cold and his tongue clave to his throat.[136](../../136/ "tree and pragmatics") So he got the washing together, baked the cakes, swept the cottage, and was no good for anything.[137](../../137/ "tree and pragmatics") One year went by, and a second, and the good youth got rather weary of the yoke.[138](../../138/ "tree and pragmatics") But what on earth was he to do?[139](../../139/ "tree and pragmatics") He had married and he had tied himself for all eternity, and, may-be, his entire life would go by in this misery.[140](../../140/ "tree and pragmatics") From sheer wretchedness he contrived himself this contrivance.[141](../../141/ "tree and pragmatics") In the forest there was a deep pit of which neither end nor bottom could be seen.[142](../../142/ "tree and pragmatics") So he took and closed it up on the top with stakes, and strewed it over with straw.[143](../../143/ "tree and pragmatics") Then he came up to his wife: “My dear wife, you don’t know that there is a treasure in the forest.[144](../../144/ "tree and pragmatics") It simply moans and groans with gold, and will not give itself up to me.[145](../../145/ "tree and pragmatics") It said, ‘Send for your wife.’”[146](../../146/ "tree and pragmatics") “Ha, ha! let us go: I will take it, and you say nothing about it.”[147](../../147/ "tree and pragmatics") So they went into the wood.[148](../../148/ "tree and pragmatics") “Sssh, woman, that is hollow ground out of which the treasure comes forth.”[149](../../149/ "tree and pragmatics") “Oh, what a fool you are of a peasant, frightened of everything\![150](../../150/ "tree and pragmatics") This is how I run up to it.”[151](../../151/ "tree and pragmatics") So she ran up to the straw and was precipitated into the pit.[152](../../152/ "tree and pragmatics") “Now, off you go,” said the peasant; “I am now going to have a rest.”[153](../../153/ "tree and pragmatics") So he had a rest for a month, and a second month, but he soon became melancholy without his squint-eyed wife.[154](../../154/ "tree and pragmatics") So he went into the forest, and he went into the field, and he went to the river, and he could only think of her.[155](../../155/ "tree and pragmatics") “Possibly by now she has become quiet.[156](../../156/ "tree and pragmatics") Possibly I will take her out again.”[157](../../157/ "tree and pragmatics") So he took a withy, let it into the ground, and he listened: she was sitting there.[158](../../158/ "tree and pragmatics") He drew it up, looked at it very near, looked very carefully, and in the basket there was a little devil sitting.[159](../../159/ "tree and pragmatics") At this the peasant was frightened, and almost let the cord fall out of his hands.[160](../../160/ "tree and pragmatics") [1](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg62509/25/) **2** - ← previous: [page 1](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg62509/25/) - next →: [Opening, part 26](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg62509/26/) - ↑ back to [Russian Folk-Tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg62509/)