e come, sir, to beg of thee a place where I may build me
a hut."--"A place for a hut, eh? Good, very good. Go home, and
I'll speak to my overseer, and he shall appoint thee a place."--So
he returned from the nobleman's castle, and his wife said to him, "Go
now into the forest and cut down an oak, a young oak, that thou
canst span round with both arms." So he cut down such an oak as his
wife had told him of, and she built a hut of the oak, for the overseer
had come and shown them a place where they might build their hut. But
when the overseer returned home he praised loudly to his master the
wife of this Ivan. "She is such and such," said he. "Fair she may
be," replied the nobleman, "but she is another's."--"She need not be
another's for long," replied the overseer. "This Ivan is in our
hands; let us send him to see why it is the sun grows so red when he
sets."--"That's just the same as if you sent him to a place whence he
can never return."--"All the better."--Then they sent for Ivan, and
gave him this errand, and he returned home to his wife, weeping
bitterly. Then his wife asked him all about it, and said, "Well, I
can tell thee all about the ways of the sun, for I am the sun's
own daughter. So now I'll tell thee the whole matter. Go back to this
nobleman and say to him that the reason why the sun turns so red as
he sets is this: Just as the sun is going down into the sea, three
fair ladies rise out of it, and it is the sight of them which makes
him turn so red all over!" So he went back and told them. "Oh-ho!"
cried they, "if you can go as far as that, you may now go a little
farther"; so they told him to go to hell and see how it was there.
"Yes," said his wife, "I know the road that leads to hell also very
well; but the nobleman must let his overseer go with thee, or else
he never will believe that thou really didst go to hell."--So the
nobleman told his overseer that he must go to hell too, so they
went together; and when they got there the rulers of hell laid
hands upon the overseer straightway. "Thou dog!" roared they,
"we've been looking out for thee for some time!" So Ivan returned
without the overseer, and the nobleman said to him, "Where's my
overseer?"--"I left him in hell," said Ivan, "and they said there that
they were waiting for you, sir, too." When the nobleman heard this
he hanged himself, but Ivan lived happily with his wife.

[22] _Lit._ Big billy-goats, the name given by the clean-shaved