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long beard something to do with it?”
    The brothers grew red, and laughed, and told him the whole truth.
    Meanwhile Sunrise had been looking at the end of the beard, the end of the half beard that was left, and he saw that it had been torn out by the roots, and that drops of blood from the little man’s chin showed the way he had gone.
    Quickly the brothers went back to the hut and ate up the sheep. Then they leapt on their horses, and rode off into the green forest, following the drops of blood that had fallen from the little man’s chin. For three days they rode through the green forest, until at last the red drops of the trail led them to a deep pit, a black hole in the earth, hidden by thick bushes and going far down into the underworld.
    Sunrise left his brothers to guard the hole, while he went off into the forest and gathered bast, and twisted it, and made a strong rope, and brought it to the mouth of the pit, and asked his brothers to lower him down.
    He made a loop in the rope. His brothers kissed him on both cheeks, and he kissed them back. Then he sat in the loop, the Evening and Midnight lowered him down into the darkness. Down and down he went, swinging in the dark, till he came into a world under the world, with a light that was neither that of the sun, nor of the moon, nor of the stars. He stepped from the loop in the rope of twisted bast, and set out walking through the underworld, going whither his eyes led him, for he found no more drops of blood, nor any other traces of the little old man.
    He walked and walked, and came at last to a palace of copper, green and ruddy in the strange light. He went into that palace, and there came to meet him in the copper halls a maiden whose cheeks were redder than the aloe and whiter than the snow. She was the youngest daughter of the King, and the loveliest of the three princesses, who were the loveliest in all the world. Sweetly she curtsied to Sunrise, as he stood there with his golden hair and his eyes blue as the sky at morning, and sweetly she asked him,—
    â€œHow have you come hither, my brave young man—of your own will or against it?”
    â€œYour father has sent to rescue you and your sisters.”
    She bade him sit at the table, and gave him food and brought him a little flask of the water of strength.
    â€œStrong you are,” says she, “but not strong enough for what is before you. Drink this, and your strength will be greater than it is; for you will need all the strength you have and can win, if you are to rescue us and live.”
    Sunrise looked in her sweet eyes, and drank the water of strength in a single draught, and felt gigantic power forcing its way throughout his body.
    â€œNow,” thought he, “let come what may.”
    Instantly a violent wind rushed through the copper palace, and the Princess trembled.
    â€œThe snake that holds me here is coming,” says she. “He is flying hither on his strong wings.”
    She took the great hand of the bogatir in her little fingers, and drew him to another room, and hid him there.
    The copper palace rocked in the wind, and there flew into the great hall a huge snake with three heads. The snake hissed loudly, and called out in a whistling voice,—
    â€œI smell the smell of a Russian soul. What visitor have you here?”
    â€œHow could any one come here?” said the Princess. “You have been flying over Russia. There you smelt Russian souls, and the smell is still in your nostrils, so that you think you smell them here.”
    â€œIt is true,” said the snake: “I have been flying over Russia. I have flown far. Let me eat and drink, for I am both hungry and thirsty.”
    All this time Sunrise was watching from the other room.
    The Princess brought meat and drink to the snake, and in the drink she put a philtre of sleep.
    The snake ate and drank, and began to feel sleepy. He coiled himself up in rings, laid his three heads in the