a meal, and then, "after washing his
head, sits down by the window to comb his hair." Suddenly a stone is
lifted, and from under it appears a Baba Yaga, driving in her mortar,
with a dog yelping at her heels. She enters the hut and, after some
short parley, seizes her pestle, and begins beating the hero with it
until he falls prostrate. Then she cuts a strip out of his back, eats
up the whole of the viands he has prepared for his companions, and
disappears. After a time the beaten hero recovers his senses, "ties up
his head with a handkerchief," and sits groaning until his comrades
return. Then he makes some excuse for not having got any supper ready
for them, but says nothing about what has really happened to him.

On the next day the second hero is treated in the same manner by the
Baba Yaga, and on the day after that the third undergoes a similar
humiliation. But on the fourth day it falls to the lot of the young
Ivan to stay in the hut alone. The Baba Yaga appears as usual, and
begins thumping him with her pestle; but he snatches it from her,
beats her almost to death with it, cuts three strips out of her back,
and then locks her up in a closet. When his comrades return, they are
surprised to find him unhurt, and a meal prepared for them, but they
ask no questions. After supper they all take a bath, and then Ivan
remarks that each of his companions has had a strip cut out of his
back. This leads to a full confession, on hearing which Ivan "runs to
the closet, takes those strips out of the Baba Yaga, and applies them
to their backs," which immediately become cured. He then hangs up the
Baba Yaga by a cord tied to one foot, at which cord all the party
shoot. At length it is severed, and she drops. As soon as she touches
the ground, she runs to the stone from under which she had appeared,
lifts it, and disappears.[173]

The rest of the story is very similar to that of "Norka," which has
already been given, only instead of the beast of that name we have the
Baba Yaga, whom Ivan finds asleep, with a magic sword at her head.
Following the advice of her daughters, three fair maidens whom he
meets in her palace, Ivan does not attempt to touch the magic sword
while she sleeps. But he awakes her gently, and offers her two golden
apples on a silver dish. She lifts her head and opens her mouth,
whereupon he seizes the sword and cuts her head off. As is usual in
the stories of this class, his comrades, after hoisting the maide