Myths and Folk-tales of the Russians, Western Slavs, and Magyars. Jeremiah Curtin
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own kingdom, and hired as a workman with a certain old man; and he sent him to the Tsar: “Go, grandfather, take this affair on thyself, and I will make the shoes for thee; but do not tell about me.”
The old man went to the Tsar. “I,” said he, “am ready to undertake the work.”
The Tsar gave him leather for a pair of shoes, and asked: “But canst thou do it, old man?”
“Never fear, Gosudár. I have a son who is a shoemaker.”
When he came home the old man gave the leather to Ivan Tsarevich, who cut it into bits and threw it out of the window; then he opened the Golden Kingdom and took out shoes already made. “Here, grandfather, take these and carry them to the Tsar.”
The Tsar was delighted, and urged the bride: “Shall we go to the crown soon?”
She answered: “I will marry thee if thou wilt make for me robes to fit without measure.”
The Tsar again was in trouble; he assembled all the dressmakers, and offered them much money if they would only make robes to fit without measuring the Tsaritsa.
Ivan Tsarevich said to the old man: “Grandfather, go to the Tsar, get cloth; I will sew robes for thee, but do not tell of me.”
The old man dragged himself off to the palace, took satin and velvet, came home, and gave it to the Tsarevich. Ivan Tsarevich took scissors straightway, and cut all the satin and velvet to pieces and threw them out of the window. Then he opened the Golden Kingdom and took out the most beautiful robes and gave them to the old man, saying, “Take these to the palace.”
The Tsar was delighted. “Well, my beloved bride, is it not time for us to go to the crown?”
The Tsaritsa answered: “I will marry thee when thou wilt take the son of that old man and command that he be boiled in milk.”
The Tsar thought awhile, then gave the command; and that day they collected three gallons of milk from each house, filled a great caldron, and boiled it on a hot fire. They brought Ivan Tsarevich. He took farewell of all, bowed to the earth, then threw himself into the caldron, dived once, dived twice, sprang out such a beauty that it could neither be told of in a tale nor described with a pen.
Said the Tsaritsa: “Look, Tsar! Whom shall I marry—thee, old man, or that gallant youth?”
The Tsar thought awhile. “If I bathe in the milk, I shall become just such a beauty as he.” He sprang into the caldron, and was cooked in a minute. But Ivan Tsarevich went to be crowned with the Tsaritsa of the Golden Kingdom; they were crowned, and began to live and live on, gaining wealth.
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