RUSSIAN GARLAND
him to try his courage; but the cripple said: "Ah, Iliya of Murom, do you not remember me, and how we studied together at the same school? And have you now the heart to slay me, a poor helpless cripple? Know you not that a great calamity has befallen the famous city of Kiev? An unbelieving knight, with a head as big as a beer-barrel, eyebrows a span apart, and shoulders six feet broad, has entered it? He devours a whole ox at a time, and drinks off a barrel of beer at a draught. The Prince is lamenting your absence."
Then Iliya of Murom drew the cripple's cloak around him, rode off to the city of Kiev, and going straight up to the Prince's palace, cried aloud, "Ho there, Prince of Kiev! give alms to a poor cripple." And when the Prince heard this he said: "Come into my palace, and I will give you meat and drink, and money for your journey." Then Iliya went into the palace, and seated himself near the stove; and close by sat the idolater, who called for food and drink. Thereupon the attendants brought him a whole roasted ox, which he ate up, bones and all; and seven-and-twenty men brought him a barrel of beer, which he emptied at a draught. Then said Iliya of Murom: "My father had once a greedy horse, which ate so much that he burst." At this the idolater knight fell into
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