"now that he's got his feet
back again, I must act straight-forwardly with him for the
future."

And she began to beseech him and the Prince to pardon
her. She confessed all her sins, and swore an oath always to
love Prince Ivan, and to obey him in all things. Prince Ivan
forgave her, and began to live with her in peace and concord.
The hero who had been blind remained with them, but Katoma
and his wife went to the house of [her father] the rich merchant,
and took up their abode under his roof.

[There is a story in the "Panchatantra" (v. 12) which,
in default of other parallels, may be worth comparing
with that part of this Skazka which refers to the
blind man and the cripple in the forest. Here is an
outline of it:--

To a certain king a daughter is born who has three
breasts. Deeming her presence unfortunate, he offers a
hundred thousand purses of gold to anyone who will
marry her and take her away. For a long time no man
takes advantage of the offer, but at last a blind man,
who goes about led by a hunchback named Mantharaka or
Cripple, marries her, receives the gold, and is sent
far away with his wife and his friend. All three live
together in the same house. After a time the wife
falls in love with the hunchback and conspires with
him to kill her husband. For this purpose she boils a
snake, intending to poison her husband with it. But he
stirs the snake-broth as it is cooking, and the steam
which rises from it cures his blindness. Seeing the
snake in the pot, he guesses what has occurred, so he
pretends to be still blind, and watches his wife and
his friend. They, not knowing he can see, embrace in
his presence, whereupon he catches up the "cripple" by
the legs, and dashes him against his wife. So violent
is the blow that her third breast is driven out of
sight and the hunchback is beaten straight. Benfey
(whose version of the story differs at the end from
that given by Wilson, "Essays," ii. 74) in his remarks
on this story (i. p. 510-15), which he connects with
Buddhist legends, observes that it occurs also in the
"Tuti-Nameh" (Rosen, ii. 228), but there the hunchback
is replaced by a comely youth, and the similarity with
the Russian story disappears. For a solar explanation
of the Indi