sacrifice which the Sea King requires.
Sadko's lot persists in sinking, whether he makes it of hop-flowers or
of blue damaskeened steel, four hundred pounds in weight; and all the
other lots swim, whether heavy or light. Accordingly Sadko perceives
that he is the destined victim, and taking his harp, a holy image of St.
Nicholas (the patron of travelers), and bowls of precious things with
him, he has himself abandoned on an oaken plank, while his ships sailed
off, and "flew as they had been black ravens." He sinks to the bottom,
and finds himself in the palace of the Sea King, who makes him play,
while he, the fair sea-maidens, and the other sea-folk dance violently.
But the Tzaritza warns Sadko to break his harp, for it is the waves
dancing on the shore, and creating terrible havoc. The Tzar Morskoy then
requests Sadko to select a wife; and guided again by the Tzaritza's
advice, Sadko selects the last of the nine hundred maidens who file
before him--a small, black-visaged maiden, named Tchernava. Had he
chosen otherwise, he is told, he would never again behold "the white
world," but must "forever abide in the blue sea." After a great feast
which the Sea King makes for him, Sadko falls into a heavy sleep, and
when he awakens from it, he finds himself on the bank of the Tchernava
River, and sees his dark red ships come speeding up the Volkhoff River.
Sadko returns to his palace and his young wife, builds two churches, and
roams no more, but thereafter takes his ease in his own town.

Between these cycles of epic songs and the Moscow, or Imperial Cycle
there is a great gap. The pre-Tatar period is not represented, and the
cycle proper begins with Ivan the Terrible, and ends with the reign of
Peter the Great. Epic marvels are not wholly lacking in the Moscow
cycle, evidently copied from the earlier cycles. But these songs are
inferior in force. Fantastic as are some of the adventures in these
songs, there is always a solid historical foundation. Ivan the Terrible,
for instance, is credited with many deeds of his grandfather (his father
being ignored), and is always represented in rather a favorable light.
The conquest of Siberia, the capture of Kazan and Astrakhan, the wars
against Poland, and the Tatars of Crimea, and so forth, are the
principal points around which these songs are grouped. But the Peter the
Great of the epics bears only a faint resemblance to the real Peter.

Perhaps the most famous hero of epic song in