really like!" says he.

The old woman fell at his feet.

"Pray forgive me for scolding you," said she.

"God be with you," said he.[116]

So he went into the church and, finding his brothers had not
yet arrived, he stood up alongside of the bride and got married
to her. Then he and she were escorted back to the palace, and
as they went along, the proper bridegroom, his eldest brother,
met them. But when he saw that his bride and Prince Ivan were
being escorted home together, he turned back again ignominiously.

As to the king, he was delighted to see Prince Ivan again,
and when he had learnt all about the treachery of his brothers,
after the wedding feast had been solemnized, he banished the
two elder princes, but he made Ivan heir to the throne.

In the story of "Prince Arikad,"[117] the Queen-Mother is carried off
by the Whirlwind,[118] instead of by Koshchei. Her youngest son climbs
the hill by the aid of iron hooks, kills Vikhor, and lowers his mother
and three other ladies whom he has rescued, by means of a rope made of
strips of hide. This his brothers cut to prevent him from
descending.[119] They then oblige the ladies to swear not to betray
them, the taking of the oath being accompanied by the eating of
earth.[120] The same formality is observed in another story in which
an oath of a like kind is exacted.[121]

The sacred nature of such an obligation may account for the singular
reticence so often maintained, under similar circumstances, in stories
of this class.

In one of the descriptions of Koshchei's death, he is said to be
killed by a blow on the forehead inflicted by the mysterious egg--that
last link in the magic chain by which his life is darkly bound.[122]
In another version of the same story, but told of a Snake, the fatal
blow is struck by a small stone found in the yolk of an egg, which is
inside a duck, which is inside a hare, which is inside a stone, which
is on an island [_i.e._, the fabulous island Buyan].[123] In another
variant[124] Koshchei attempts to deceive his fair captive, pretending
that his "death" resides in a besom, or in a fence, both of which she
adorns with gold in token of her love. Then he confesses that his
"death" really lies in an egg, inside a duck, inside a log which is
floating on the sea. Prince Ivan gets hold of the egg and shifts it
from one hand to the other. Koshchei rushes wildly from side to side
of the room. At last the prince br