e table, and gave him food and brought him a
little flask of the water of strength.

"Strong you are," says she, "but not strong enough for what is before
you. Drink this, and your strength will be greater than it is; for you
will need all the strength you have and can win, if you are to rescue
us and live."

Sunrise looked in her sweet eyes, and drank the water of strength in a
single draught, and felt gigantic power forcing its way throughout his
body.

"Now," thought he, "let come what may."

Instantly a violent wind rushed through the copper palace, and the
Princess trembled.

"The snake that holds me here is coming," says she. "He is flying
hither on his strong wings."

She took the great hand of the bogatir in her little fingers, and drew
him to another room, and hid him there.

The copper palace rocked in the wind, and there flew into the great
hall a huge snake with three heads. The snake hissed loudly, and
called out in a whistling voice,--

"I smell the smell of a Russian soul. What visitor have you here?"

"How could any one come here?" said the Princess. "You have been
flying over Russia. There you smelt Russian souls, and the smell is
still in your nostrils, so that you think you smell them here."

"It is true," said the snake: "I have been flying over Russia. I have
flown far. Let me eat and drink, for I am both hungry and thirsty."

All this time Sunrise was watching from the other room.

The Princess brought meat and drink to the snake, and in the drink she
put a philtre of sleep.

The snake ate and drank, and began to feel sleepy. He coiled himself
up in rings, laid his three heads in the lap of the Princess, told her
to scratch them for him, and dropped into a deep sleep.

The Princess called Sunrise, and the bogatir rushed in, swung his
glittering sword three times round his golden head, and cut off all
three heads of the snake. It was like felling three oak trees at a
single blow. Then he made a great fire of wood, and threw upon it the
body of the snake, and, when it was burnt up, scattered the ashes over
the open country.

"And now fare you well," says Sunrise to the Princess; but she threw
her arms about his neck.

"Fare you well," says he. "I go to seek your sisters. As soon as I
have found them I will come back."

And at that she let him go.

He walked on further through the underworld, and came at last to a
palace of silver, gleaming in the strange light.

He went in t