But Iván Tsarévich and Vasilísa the Wise were leaping far off on their swift steeds. “Now, Iván Tsarévich, put your head to the grey earth and listen whether there is no hunt from the Sea Tsar.”

Iván Tsarévich leapt off his horse, put his ear to the grey earth and said, “I hear the talk of people and the hoppety-hop of horses.”

“This is the chase, that is the steeds,” said Vasilísa the Wise; and she turned herself into a church, and Iván Tsarévich into an elderly pope and the horses into trees.

So the hunt went by.

“Ho, bátyushka , have you seen a shepherd with a little lamb passing by?”

“No, good people, I have not. I have been working for forty years in this church; not one bird has flown by, not one beast has rambled by.”