296 KOSHCHEI THE DEATHLESS 
days the mares scamper off in all directions, leaving 
Ivan in despair; but each night they are safely driven 
home, first by a flock of outlandish birds, next by a 
lot of wild beasts, and lastly by a swarm of angry bees. 
In the dead of night Prince Ivan laid hands on a 
magic colt, and rode off on it across the fairy bridge. 
The Baba Yaga followed in hot pursuit, driving along 
in an iron mortar, brushing the trail with a broom, 
and sweeping cobwebs from the sky, like the “old 
woman, whither so high,” of our own nurseries. She 
drove fearlessly on to the bridge, but when she was 
midway it broke in two, and a savage death overtook 
her in the fiery stream. Then all was up with Kosh- 
chei the Deathless, in spite of his surname; for straight- 
way came Ivan and carried off Marya Morevna on his 
heroic steed; and when Koshchei caught up with 
them they just cracked his skull, and built a funeral 
pyre, and burned him to ashes on it. 
Of the mythical incidents with which this wild 
legend is crowded, we must go back and pick up one 
or two which we could not conveniently notice on the 
way. We observed that Marya Morevna is like the 
Norse Brynhild in her character of an Amazon; she is 
like her also in being separated from her lover, who 
has to go through long wanderings and many trials 
before he can recover her. The theme, with many 
variations, is most elaborately worked out in the classic 
story of Odysseus, and it is familiar to every one in the 
Arabian tales of “ Beder and Johara” and of “ Kama- 
ralzaman and Budoor.” Another and more curious 
feature is the sudden recovery of gigantic strength by 
Koshchei the Deathless as soon as he has taken a 
drink of water. This notion is illustrated in many 
