Then Sadko said, "It is plain that the Water Tsar asks for Sadko himself." So he told his servants to fetch him his massive inkstand, his swan-quill pen, and his paper, and they did so. Whereupon Sadko seated himself in his folding chair at his table of oak and began to apportion his goods. He gave much to God's churches, much for the improvement of choir singing, much to the poor, and much to his young wife, and the remainder of his goods he divided among his faithful mariners. Having done this in due order he wept and said to those about him: "Ho, my brave mariners! Place an oaken plank upon the heaving dark-grey sea upon which I shall journey; and fill a bowl with red gold, another with white silver and a third with fine seed pearls and place them upon the plank." After that Sadko took in his right hand an iron image of a saint of God, and in his left hand his harp of maple-wood. He wore a mantle of rich sables over all, and he stepped upon the oaken plank and was borne away upon the waves while the dark-red ships sped on and flew as if they had been ravens over the field of the slain. Now as his strange raft floated turbulently upon the surface of the water, Sadko at first was greatly terrified, but after a while he fell into a gentle sleep, and when he awoke he was in the crystal kingdom of the Water Tsar. He looked about him and saw the red sun burning though it gave no heat, and he saw also before him a palace of white stone in which sat the Water Tsar with a head like a heap of yellow hay. "Welcome, Sadko, the Rich Guest of Novgorod," he said. "You have long sailed upon the waters, but have paid no tribute to the Water Tsar. I have sent for you that you may solve this riddle which is a matter of dispute between me and my Tsaritza. Which is now of greatest worth in Russia, gold or silver or damascened steel?" "Gold and silver are of great worth in Russia," said Sadko, "but damascened steel is of great value also. For without gold and silver a man may contrive to live, but without the ore of iron no man can live at ease." "What do you hold in your right hand and in your left?" asked the Water Tsar. "In my right hand is a holy image," replied Sadko, "and in my left my harp of maple-wood." "I am told," said the Water Tsar, whose memory must, of course, have been washed quite clean each day by living in the sea, "that you are, in spite of your trading, a master player upon the harp. Play for me upon your harp of maple-wood."