The Magic Egg

THERE was once upon a time a lark who was the Czar among the birds, and he took unto himself as his Czaritsa a little shrew mouse. They had a field all to themselves, which they sowed with wheat, and when the wheat grew up they divided it between them. When they found that there was one grain over, the mouse said:

“Let me have it!”

But the lark said:

“No, let me have it!”

“What’s to be done?” thought they.

They would have liked to take counsel of some one; but they had no parents or kinsmen—nobody at all to whom they could go and ask advice in the matter. At last the mouse said:

“At any rate, let me have the first nibble!”

The lark Czar agreed to this; but the little mouse fastened her teeth in it, and ran off into her hole with it, and there ate it all up. At this the lark Czar was wroth, and collected all the birds of the air to make war upon the mouse Czaritsa; but the Czaritsa called together all the beasts to defend her, and so the war began. Whenever the beasts came rushing out of the wood to tear the birds to pieces, the birds flew up into the trees; but the birds kept in the air, and hacked and pecked the beasts wherever they could. Thus they fought the whole day, and in the evening they lay down to rest. Now when the Czaritsa looked around upon her forces she saw that the ant was taking no part in the war. She immediately went and commanded the ant to be there by evening, and when the ant came the Czaritsa ordered her to climb up the trees with her kinsmen, and bite off the feathers around the birds’ wings.

Next day, when there was light enough to see by, the mouse Czaritsa cried:

“Up, up, my warriors!”

Thereupon the birds also rose up, and immediately fell to the ground, where the beasts tore them to bits. So the Czaritsa overcame the Czar. But there was one eagle who saw there was something wrong, so he did not try to fly, but remained sitting on the tree. And lo! there came an archer along that way, and seeing the eagle on the tree, he took aim at it; but the eagle besought him and said:

“Do not kill me, and I’ll be of great service to thee!”

The archer aimed a second time, but the eagle besought him still more and said:

“Take me down rather and keep me, and thou shalt see that it will be to thy advantage.”

The archer, however, took aim a third time, but the eagle began to beg of him most piteously:

“Nay, kill me not, but take me home with thee, and thou shalt see what great advantage it will be to thee!”

The archer believed the bird. He climbed up the tree, took the eagle down, and carried it home. Then the eagle said to him:

“Put me in a hut, and feed me with flesh till my wings have grown again.”

Now this archer had two cows and a steer, and he at once killed and cut up one of the cows for the eagle. The eagle fed upon this cow for a full year, and then he said to the archer:

“Let me go, that I may fly. I see that my wings have already grown again!”

Then the archer let him loose from the hut. The eagle flew around and around, he flew about for half a day, and then he returned to the archer and said:

“I feel I have but little strength in me, slay me another cow!”

And the archer obeyed him, and slew the second cow, and the eagle lived upon that for yet another year. Again the eagle flew around and around in the air. He flew around and about the whole day till evening, when he returned to the archer and said:

“I am stronger than I was, but I have still but little strength in me, slay me the steer also!”

Then the man thought to himself:

“What shall I do? Shall I slay it, or shall I not slay it?”

At last he said:

“Well! I’ve sacrificed more than this before, so let this go too!” and he took the steer and slaughtered it for the eagle.

Then the eagle lived upon this for another whole year longer, and after that he took to flight, and flew high up right to the very clouds. Then he flew down again to the man and said to him:

“I thank thee, brother, for that thou hast been the saving of me! come now and sit upon me!”

“Nay, but,” said the man, “what if some evil befall me?”

“Sit on me, I say!” cried the eagle.

So the archer sat down upon the bird.

Then the eagle bore him nearly as high as the big clouds, and then let him fall. Down plumped the man; but the eagle did not let him fall to the earth, but swiftly flew beneath him and upheld him, and said to him:

“How dost thou feel now?”

“I feel,” said the man, “as if I had no life in me.”

Then the eagle replied:

“That was just how I felt when thou didst aim at me the first time.”

Then he said to him:

“Sit on my back again!”

The man did not want to sit on him, but what could he do? Sit he must. Then the eagle flew with him quite as high as the big clouds, and shook him off, and down he fell headlong till he was about two fathoms from the ground, when the bird again flew beneath him and held him up. Again the eagle asked him:

“How dost thou feel?”

And the man replied:

“I feel just as if all my bones were already broken to bits!”

“That is just how I felt when thou didst take aim at me the second time,” replied the eagle. “But now sit on my back once more.”

The man did so, and the eagle flew with him as high as the small fleecy clouds, and then he shook him off, and down he fell headlong; but when he was but a hand’s breadth from the earth, the eagle again flew beneath him and held him up, and said to him: