The talesmen were so much struck with wonder and amazement that it was a long time before they could summon up their courage to enter the palace garden, at whose gates no guards were set. At last they did so, and came to the first of the three-and-thirty towers, where they found an aged woman who looked as if she was the mother of a goodly son. Her dress was of silver thread mixed with a little silk, and her bearing had so much dignity that the visitors from Kiev found themselves bowing down before her almost without knowing what they were doing. "Hail to thee!" said Nikitich, "thou honourable mother of the young Lord Diuk." "I am not my lord's mother," said the ancient woman, "I am the keeper of his cows." Then the talesmen were so much filled with vexation and shame that they left the palace garden and went out into the open plain, where they pitched a tent and went to bed without saying a word to each other. On the next morning they came again and drew near to the second of the three-and-thirty towers, where they found an aged woman of comely face clad in cloth of silver and gold. "Hail to thee!" said Nikitich brightly, "thou honourable mother of the young Lord Diuk." "I am not my lord's mother," said the aged woman, "I am his washerwoman." Swallowing their confusion the three talesmen went on, wondering no longer that Diuk had mistaken the Princess Apraxia for the washerwoman of Prince Vladimir; and they fared in the same manner before the cook, the women of the bedchamber, the baker of cakes, and the nurse, until the last took pity upon their despair and told them that the lady mother of their lord had gone to High Mass, and that they would be able to distinguish her when she left the church by three certain signs. Before her would come a great army of men armed with shovels, and then another army with brooms to make all clean on the pathway, and then a third army laying cloth of brilliant scarlet upon the tawny sand. Last of all would come the mother of young Lord Diuk, with a great company of lovely maidens round about her. "And when you go into the town," the nurse concluded, "you must not salute all the ancient ladies in fine raiment like mine, for there are so many of us thus arrayed that we pay little heed to it. And if you do reverence to all of us your back will remain bent like the bow of Ilya of Murom." The talesmen went on their wondering way and in due time met the mother of the young Lord Diuk, preceded and attended as the nurse had told, and dressed in garments of rich but quiet beauty. Before her the three men bowed, and in pleasant tones she asked why they had come to the city. "Your son sent us as talesmen," was the answer, "to make lists of all his possessions in treasure and goods and herds and flocks." "That is beyond your powers," said the lady; "but come first of all to partake of my hospitality, and then I will show you whatever you choose to see."