GREAT RUSSIA 371

And so it was in famous Novgorod,

and such a player on the lyre was Sadko,

but to him there was no store of boundless wealth,

but he merely attended noble banquets,

so made he merry for merchants and for boyars,

he gave them pleasure in their noble banquets*

For one whole day Sadko was invited to no noble banquet,

for a second day also he was not invited to a noble banquet,

and for a third day was he not invited to a noble banquet.

So now this is what occurred to Sadko,

Sadko betook him to Ilmen, to the lake,

and sat him down on a blue burning stone,

and began to play upon his clear-sounding lyre,

and played from morn till eventide, (GiTferding 70,)

When we remember that the Finnish magicians were accustomed
to sit on a special stone to work enchantment, we are the less sur-
prised that the tsar of the lake should appear to Sadko and make
him the richest man in Novgorod. Collecting this wealth for a
great trading venture, Sadko took ship with his companions, and
a storm burst upon them. To calm the tempest, Sadko was cast
overboard with his 'gusli', and sank to the temple of the Tsar of the
Sea. The Tsar asked him to play, and Sadko's playing is the
Russian version of the widespread motif of the power of music:

And so began Sadko to play on his clear-sounding lyre,

and so now began the Tsar of the Sea to dance in the blue sea,

and all the blue sea went a-capering with him,

and a wave swept down on the blue sea

and began to shatter so many black ships on the blue sea,

and many rich merchants perished on the blue sea.

As for Vasilii Buslaev, he stands for the civil strife endemic in
Novgorod. An overbearing noble, he gathered a meinie (druzina)*
and insulted the rich citizens at his banquets. A revolt against him
was led by his godfather, a monk from the Andronova monastery.
The description of this personage, wearing the huge monastery
bell for a helmet, and of the encounter with his godson,, is an
excellent sample of Russian ballad humour:

Then seized he a bell, four hundredweights heavy,

seized it and clamped it on his head,

and sat him then upon his goodly steed,

so went he out to the little stream the Volhov,