Beyond the fence, she saw the strange hut that stood on chicken legs. The skulls were mounted on top of a high fence. Although it was now getting quite dark, she had no trouble seeing – for this neck of the woods was lit by skulls with blazing eyes. After about an hour of walking, Vasilisa came to a clearing in the forest. Its rider wore a cloak that was as black as night. A little further on, she once again heard the sound of galloping hooves, and this time a rider in a cloak of dazzling white sped past her and down the road that led to Baba Yaga’s hut. “I wonder who that was?” Thought Vasilisa before setting off on a her way once more. After a while, the young girl heard the sound of galloping hooves coming up behind her, and she stepped off the road to let a horse ridden by a rider in a blazing red cloak shoot past her. Vasilisa mustered up all her courage and walked down the path that led through the woods to the hut of Baba Yaga. Go to Baba Yaga’s hut and no harm will come to you.” The little doll looked up at Vasilisa and said: “Be as brave as you are beautiful. I must go to Baba Yaga, and everyone knows that she is a dreadfully wicked witch.
“My mother told me that if I fed and looked after you, you would be ready to help me if I was ever in trouble. She walked forlornly to the corner of the street and took the little doll out of her coat pocket where it had been sleeping. The stepmother shooed Vasilisa out of the house so fast that she hardly had time to put on her hat and gloves.
We don’t want you to get caught in the dark now do we.” And Vasilisa dear, go to Baba Yaga’s hut in the forest and ask her to lend us some lights. Katya,” the youngest, “go to the kitchen table and roll some pastry so that it’s nice and flat. “Tanya,” that was the oldest, “go in my room, please my dear, and sew a button on my red dress. The first night after the father had left, the stepmother gathered the three girls together in the parlour and spoke as such: “Now my dears, I have a little task for each of you. Vasilisa begged him to take her with him, but he just laughed and said he was travelling on business, and the girl would find the journey tiresome and dull. When Vasilisa had recently passed her sixteenth birthday, her father said that he had to go away on a journey that would last at least a month. So long as Vasilisa’s father remained at home, the stepmother and stepsisters had to pretend that they liked her, but every now and then one of the sisters would whisper in Vasilisa’s ear, “Just you wait until your dear papa leaves us alone with you. In fact, they were jealous of Vasilisa and they hated her terribly. His second wife had two daughters of her own, neither of whom could touch Vasilisa for beauty or sweetness of character. Every night the little rag doll sat up and drank a little milk, and ate a little biscuit before smiling at Vasilisa and then going back to sleep.Īs time went by, the girl’s father decided to marry again. Every night she must feed it a little milk and a little biscuit, and so long as she did so, the doll would always be ready to help her – no matter how much trouble she found herself in. The girl’s mother told Vasilisa that she should take special care of the doll.
Before she died, she gave Vasilisa a wonderful gift – It was a little rag doll that did not look so different from any other. The girl’s mother had sadly died some years before the start of this story. They know her, and they fear her, for it has long been rumoured that she likes to eat children.Ī long time ago, a man lived in this village with his beautiful daughter, who was called Vasilisa. On the edge of Baba Yaga’s forest, there is a little village, and everyone who lives there knows about the strange hut and the lady who lives inside it. I don’t advise that you knock at the door of Baba Yaga’s hut, no matter how much you have lost your way through the forest – for Baba Yaga is a witch. It’s a wooden hut, but it’s like no other that you have ever seen, for it stands on giant chicken legs – and quite often it walks about, just like a monstrous farm yard bird. If you are ever brave, foolish or ignorant enough to go wandering through that forest, there is a good chance that you might come across a peculiar house. Somewhere in the eastern part of Europe, where it gets bitterly cold in winter, there is a dark forest.
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