KOSHCHEI THE DEATHLESS 295 
heavily with mythical incident. He finds her several 
times, and carries her off; but Koshchei the Death- 
less has a magic horse, belonging to the same breed 
with Pegasus, the horses of Achilleus, the enchanted 
steed of the Arabian Nights, and the valiant hip- 
pogriff of Ariosto, and with this wonderful horse 
Koshchei always overtakes and baffles the fugitives. 
Prince Ivan’s game is hopeless unless he can find out 
where Koshchei obtained his incomparable steed. By 
dint of industrious coaxing Marya Morevna learns that 
there is a Baba Yaga, or witch, who lives beyond a 
river of fire, and keeps plenty of mares; one time 
Koshchei tended the mares for three days without los- 
ing any, and the witch gave him a foal for his services. 
The way to get across the fiery river was to wave a 
certain magic handkerchief, when a lofty but narrow 
bridge would instantly span the stream. Here we 
have Es-Sirat, the rainbow bridge of the Moslem, over 
which the good pass safely to heaven, while the wicked 
fall into the flames of hell below. Marya Morevna 
obtained the handkerchief, and so Ivan contrived to 
get across the river. Now comes the grateful-beast 
incident. The prince is faint with hunger, and is suc- 
cessively tempted by a chicken, a bit of honeycomb, 
and a lion’s cub; but on the intercession of the old 
hen, the queen bee, and the lioness, he refrains from 
meddling with their treasures, and arrives half starved 
at the horrible hut of the Baba Yaga, enclosed within 
a circle of twelve poles, on eleven of which are stuck 
human heads. The old hag gives him the mares to 
look after, with the friendly warning that if he loses a 
single one he needn't feel annoyed at finding his own 
head stuck on the twelfth pole. On each of the three 
