was the dull roar of a tempest and whirlwind, all the palace trembled, and the Monster of the Forest appeared; but Ivan the Tsarevich put on his little invisible cap and became invisible. And the Forest Monster said, "Where then is thy guest who climbed over the wall?"--"I have no guest here at all," replied the Tsarevna Neotsyenaya, "but perhaps the sparrows have been flying over it and stuck to it with their wings!"--"Sparrows indeed! Methinks I smell the smell of a Russian soul here!"--"What are you dreaming about? You run about the wide world and do nothing but harass souls, and now you would vex other souls also!"--"Don't be angry, Tsarevna Neotsyenaya, I do no harm to thy happiness, only I have now a desire to eat, and I should like to eat up this unknown," said the Forest Monster. Ivan the Tsarevich, however, took off his invisible cap, bowed to the Forest Monster, and said, "Why do you want to eat me? Don't you see what a lean and bony morsel I am! Rather let me regale you with a breakfast such as you have never eaten since the day of your birth, only take care that you don't swallow your tongue and all!" Then Ivan the Tsarevich spread out his little bread-and-salt table-cloth, the twelve youths and the twelve damsels appeared, and began to regale the Forest Monster with as much as ever he could eat. The Forest Monster ate and ate and ate, then he drank, and then he ate again, till he was unable to stir from the spot; he fell asleep in the very place where he sat. "And now farewell, my beloved sister!" said the Tsarevich Ivan; "yet tell me, dost thou not know the place where our sister the Tsarevna Beztsyenaya dwells?"--"I know it," replied the Tsarevna Neotsyenaya; "thou must go to her along the great sea Ocean, there she dwells in the very whirlpool of the ocean with her old husband the Sea Monster; but the way thither is hard. Far, very far must thou swim, and if thou gettest there it will boot thee little, for he will devour thee!"--"Well," said the Tsarevich Ivan, "he may chew me perhaps, but he will find me a hard morsel to swallow. Farewell, sister!" And Ivan the Tsarevich began to stride onwards, and he came to the great sea Ocean. By the shore stood a boat such as the Russian people use when they go a-fishing; the shrouds and gear were of linden bast, the sails of fine hair mats, and the boat itself was not welded with nails, but sown fast with birch-bark. On this ship the mariners were getting ready to go to sea, to sail to the Rock-Salt Island. "Won't you take me with you?" said the Tsarevich Ivan; "I will pay you nothing for my passage, but I will tell you tales so that you will never notice how long the journey is." The ship-folk agreed, and they sailed away upon the great sea Ocean, they sailed past the Rock-Salt Island; the Tsarevich Ivan told them tales, and they sailed and sailed. Suddenly, whence they knew not, a tempest came flying up, the thunder began to growl, and the ship began to quake. "Alas!" shrieked the ship's