there are to be lions moulded on to the buttons, and there are to be shepherds[1] embroidered on to the button-holes that should have sung and warbled. How am I to set about it? It would be better for me to drink vódka behind the counter."
Then the old woman, with her patched skirt, said, "Oh, I am now 'Bábushka' and your 'little dove'! Do you go to the border of the blue sea, and stand in front of the grey oak: at the hour of midnight the blue sea will boil over and Chúdo-Yúda, he Old Man of the Sea, will come out to you: he has no hands, no feet, and he has a grey beard. Take hold of him by his beard and beat him until he asks you, 'Why do you beat me, Danílo the Unfortunate?' Then you are to answer, 'I am beating you for this reason: let me see the Swan,[2] the fair maiden; let her body glint through her wings, and through her body let her bones appear, and from bone to bone let the marrow run like a flowing string of pearls.'"
Then Danílo the Unfortunate went to the blue sea, and he stood in front of the dusky oak: and at midnight the blue sea was disturbed and Chúdo-Yúda, the Old Man of the Sea, appeared before him. He had no hands, he had no feet, and his beard was grey. Danílo seized him by his beard and began to beat him on to the grey earth. Then at last Chúdo-Yúda asked him: "Why do you beat me, Danílo the Unfortunate?" "For this reason: let me see the Swan, the fair maiden; let her body glint through her wings, and through her body let her bones appear, and from bone to bone let the marrow run like a flowing string of pearls."
Very soon the Swan, the fair maiden, swam up to the shore, and she spoke in this wise:
"Is it work on your way,
Or for sloth do you stay?"
