“Sister Alionushka and Brother Ivanushka." The falcon under the hat: Russian merry tales and fairy tales, Selected and translated by Guy Daniels, New York: Funk & Wagnalls; 1969, pp. 61-66.

Tale Summary

Once upon a time, an old man and his wife died, leaving their daughter Alionushka and her younger brother, Ivanushka, all alone in the world. The girl set out looking for work with her brother in tow, but all along the way he was thirsty. Ivanushka saw a cow hoofprint which had filled with rainwater and asked his sister for a drink from it. She told him he mustn’t, or he would turn into a calf. He obeyed, but was still very thirsty and soon found a horse hoof print and begged to drink from it, but she warned him that he would become a colt if he did. He then came upon a goat hoof print and was so thirsty that he drank from it, and immediately became a little goat. A merchant came by and asked Alionushka why she cried, and when she explained all that had happened, he asked her to marry him, telling her that she would be treated with riches and the goat could live with them. They were happy for a while, until a witch showed up when the merchant was away and tied a stone to her neck before throwing her in the river. The witch then turned herself into Alionushka, and putting on her clothes, returned to the house where only the little goat knew what had happened. Each morning and evening, he would go to the riverbank and cry: 

“Alionushka, sister dear!

Come out of the water, come here!”

When the witch heard of this, she ordered him slaughtered, and the goat begged the merchant to go once more to the river to drink. He agreed, and when the little goat made it to the water’s edge, he cried:

“Alionushka, sister dear!

Come out of the water, come here!

The flames leap high.

The cauldron is hot.

The knives are sharpened.

They’ll cut my throat.”

And Alionushka answered him:

“Oh Ivanushka, brother mine!

A heavy stone is weighing me down!

The silken grass has my legs entwined.

And my breast is buried in golden sands.”

A servant was sent by the witch to fetch the goat, and overheard the siblings talking to each other. He ran back to tell what he had heard, and soon everyone from the household was at the river. They brought Alionushka out of the water, took the stone from her neck, rinsed her in spring water, dressed her in fine clothes, and she came back to life. The goat did three somersaults out of joy, and was turned back into Ivanushka the boy, while the witch was tied to a horse’s tail and dragged through the fields.