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Ilya and the Boon Companions
FROM the city of Galich to Kief town ran a
broad road of forty fathoms: along that
road fared a pilgrim, and the road bent
beneath his weight. His smock was tattered with
use, and a rag was his girdle. His cap weighed
forty poods, his foot-gear was of bast, his crutch
was nine fathoms, and he leaned upon a hooked
staff.
The old man's beard was sprinkled with gray, his
head was all white. That aged pilgrim entered
Kief town, and craved refreshment after his long
journey, desiring to drink green wine in the royal
pot-house.
He entered very softly, trod very lightly, said a
prayer, crossing himself as enjoined and bowing
on all sides as prescribed.
"Hail, ye vintner's men," quoth he. "Pour
me a pail and a half of wine, to refresh me, a
wandering pilgrim."
But the vintners made answer: "Nay, thou old
dog, thou gray hound, we will not trust thee. We
will not give thee the green wine without thy
money."
But the pilgrim took from his neck an ancient
and wondrous cross, six poods and a half in weight,
of purest antique gold. "Take this cross as
surety," he said; but they dared not.
But the poor boon companions of the pot-house,
the peasants and villagers gave each a kopek, and
bought therewith a bucket and a half of green
wine for the pilgrim. The old man grasped it with
one hand, swallowed it in one breath, and said:
"I thank ye, boon companions, and peasants of
the village! Ye have given the old man wine to
drunkenness; but now it is late. Come ye therefore
to me to-morrow right early, and I will give
you all wine even to drunkenness, in return."
Then the aged man climbed upon the brick
oven, and slept. Very early on the morrow, as
the warm red sun arose, he descended to the
cellars, burst open the doors with his foot, took a
cask of forty under one arm, another of the same
under the other, and rolled a third before him with
his foot, into the green meadow, and so to the
market place. Then he shouted with all his heroic
might, in a piercing, thunderous voice:
"Ho, ye boon companions and ye peasants of
the village! Come to the old man's feast! I
will give ye all green wine even to drunkenness,
without price."
When the vintners heard that, they assembled,
eighty men in number, to take the green wine
from the aged pilgrim, but could do nothing, and
so went to petition Prince Vladimir against him.
They had told all their griefs, and Vladimir said:
"I will view this pilgrim, vintners, and I myself
will requite you."
All the boon companions and village peasants
had drunk their fill, when the old man said:
"Go now to your own homes, to your young
wives and little children; but I will return to the
royal pot-house, and sleep upon the oven of bricks."
This he did, and early on the morrow came
trusty servants from the Prince, who said:
"Come to Prince Vladimir, thou wandering
pilgrim."
But the old man answered: "In vain do ye
disquiet me, brothers! Let the old man sleep."
Then he descended from the oven, and went
through Kief, past the princely palace, and cried
in a mighty voice:
"Hey, Prince Vladimir of royal Kief! Receive
here thy money for the green wine from the Kazák
of the Don, from Ilya of Murom. I go now to
the open plain, to the heroic barriers, to the damp
oak." And therewith he departed.
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