“This is the hunt after us,” said Vasilísa the Wise. And she at once turned the horses into a green meadow, Iván Tsarévich into an old shepherd, and herself into a brooding lamb.

The hunt passed by.

“Ho, old man, have you seen a doughty youth with a fair maiden galloping by?”

“No, good folk, I have not seen them,” said Iván Tsarévich. “It is forty years I have been pasturing on these fields; not one bird has ever flown by, not one wild beast has ever rambled by.”

So they returned home.

“Your Imperial Majesty, we saw no one on the road; we only saw a shepherd feeding a little sheep.”

“Why did you not take it? That was themselves!” said the Sea Tsar. And he sent out a second hunt.