At the same time the brothers-in-law of Iván Tsarévich looked at their silver ornaments and found they had turned black. “Oh,” they said, “evidently some disaster has befallen him!” The Eagle rushed into the blue sea, dragged out the cask to the shore, and the Hawk flew for the Water of Life, and the Crow flew for the Water of Death. Then they all three met at a single spot and broke up the cask, took out the bits of Iván Tsarévich, washed them, laid them together as was fit: then the Crow sprinkled him with the Water of Death, and the body grew together and was one; and the Hawk sprinkled him with the Water of Life, and Iván Tsarévich shivered, sat up and said, “Oh, what a long sleep I have had!” “But your sleep would have been very much longer if we had not been there,” answered the brothers-in-law. “Now you must come and be our guest!” “No, brothers, I must go and seek Márya Moryévna.” So he came to her and said, “Go and find out from Koshchéy the Deathless where he got such a fine horse!” Then Márya Moryévna looked out for a good opportunity, and asked Koshchéy the Deathless. Koshchéy answered, “Beyond thrice-nine lands, in the thrice-tenth kingdom, beyond the river of fire, lives the Bába Yagá. She has a mare on which every day she rides round the whole of the world. She has many splendid mares. I was there for three days as a herd, and she would not let me have the mare; but she gave me one of the foals.” “How can one cross the river of fire?” “I have a kerchief: if you shake it to the right three times a lofty bridge rises and the fires cannot overreach it.” Márya Moryévna listened, told Iván Tsarévich all about it, and he took the cloth away. Iván Tsarévich crossed the river of fire and he reached the Bába Yagá: but journeying afar, neither eating nor drinking. A sea-bird came to meet him with her young. Iván Tsarévich asked if he might eat one of her chicks. “Do not eat it,” the sea-bird said; “at some time I shall be of service to you, Iván Tsarévich.” Then he went farther, and he was in a wood, and he saw a bee-hive. “Perhaps,” he said, “I may take a little honey.” Then the queen-bee answered him, “Do not touch my honey, Iván Tsarévich; at some time or other I shall be of service to you.” So he did not touch the honey, but went farther. Then he met a lioness with her whelps. “May I eat this lion-whelp? I am so hungry!” “Do not touch it, Iván Tsarévich,” the lioness said; “at some time or other I shall be of service to you.” “Very well; it shall be as you will.” So he went on hungry, and he went on and on and on, and at last he reached the house of the Bába Yagá. Round the house there were twelve poles, and on eleven of the poles there were the skulls of men: only one as yet was untenanted. “Hail, _bábushka_!” he said. “Hail, Iván Tsarévich!” she replied: “what have you come for? By your own good will or for need?” “I have come to earn of you a knightly horse.”