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Then the Prince cried, "Little hut, stand the way my mother built you with your back away from me and your door before me." At once the hut whirled round and stood with the open door in front of him. Prince Ivan entered in, and saw a bony-legged Baba Yaga lying on the stove with her grey hair over her face. "Who are you? And what seek you here in the kingdom of Koshchei the Deathless?" she cried.
In a Russian variant of the Marquis of the Sun, to which I have already referred, the hero is in the power of the Water King. On his way to that potentate's palace he had, by the advice of the Baba Yaga, gone to the seashore and watched until twelve spoonbills alighted, and, turning into maidens, had unrobed for the purpose of bathing.
She dashed up to the fiery river, gave a glance, and said, 'A capital bridge! She drove on to the bridge, but had only got half-way when the bridge broke in two, and the Baba Yaga went flop into the river. There truly did she meet with a cruel death! Prince Ivan fattened up the colt in the green meadows, and it turned into a wondrous steed. Then he rode to where Marya Morevna was.
He was of a truth a most magnificent horse, big and strong, with eyes that flashed like lightning. He leapt up into the air as high as the clouds, and the next moment descended in the middle of a field, saying to his master: "As we have first to see old Yaga, from whom we are still a great way off, we can stop here for a short time: take food and rest, I will do the same.
And when the old man knew that the stepmother had sent his little daughter to be eaten by Baba Yaga, he was so angry that he drove her out of the hut, and ever afterwards lived alone with the little girl. Much better it was for both of them. "And the little mouse?" said Ivan.
Baba Yaga went out and called to her servant, "Go, make the bath hot and scrub my niece. Scrub her clean. I'll make a dainty meal of her." The servant came in for the jug. The little girl begged her, "Be not too quick in making the fire, and carry the water in a sieve." The servant smiled, but said nothing, because she was afraid of Baba Yaga.
Prince Junak cried: "Turn round, little house, turn round, I want to come inside; Let thy back to the forest be found, Thy door to me open wide." The little house turned round, and the prince entering saw old Yaga, who immediately cried out, "What, Prince Junak! How have you come here, where no one ever enters?"
'Please let us alone, Prince Ivan! begs the lioness; 'some time or other I'll do you a good turn. 'Very well; have it your own way, says he. Hungry and faint he wandered on, walked farther and farther, and at last came to where stood the house of the Baba Yaga.
In her great hurry she forgot to look for the towel and the comb, but jumped astride a broom and was off. The children heard her coming and threw the towel behind them. At once a river, wide and blue, appeared and watered the field. Baba Yaga hopped along the shore until she finally found a shallow place and crossed it.
On the road we overtook three Cossacks who were going out to bring back the colonists who were fleeing to the south. We joined them and, dismounting, we all led our horses over the ice. The Yaga was mad.
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