K181A. Place your hand on the horse's back. .27.28.32.

When a man puts his hand on a horse's back, it bends and falls. This is a sign of heroic strength.

Romanians, Russians (Arkhangelsk {Winter Coast, Pinega}, Western Siberia), Chuvash.

The Balkans. Romanians [a sorcerer promises the king and queen that they will have a son, Fat-Frumos, but this will only bring them grief; the newborn cries when he is promised a beauty, but stops when he is promised youth without old age and life without death; FF quickly grows up, refuses the throne, goes to the land of immortality; as soon as he puts his hand on the horse's back, it falls down ; the pitiful little horse says that he has finally waited for his master; orders to feed him oats boiled in milk for 6 weeks; FF found his father's rusty weapon, cleaned it, it sparkled; the horse became four-winged; they flew into the domain of the witch Genoaia; she attacked, FF cut off her leg with an arrow; then G. greeted him, he put her leg back; refused to take one of her three beautiful daughters; they flew into the domain of the three-headed witch Scorpia; she spews resin and flame; FF cut off her head, she accepted him even more generously than G., he returned the head; the horse carried them through the forest with monsters and they found themselves in the palace of the mistress of the land of immortality; her two older sisters are just as young; they forbade going to the Valley of Tears; FF chased a hare and got there; immediately felt homesick; his wife does not allow him to go back there; the horse warns that when he gets there, he will immediately turn back; he insists on FF; where G. and S. lived, nothing of the old way remains; his father's palace has collapsed; the horse galloped back; FF is weak, his beard reaches his knees, his eyelids need to be lifted with his hands; in the basement he found a chest with dried-up death in it; if he had been late, it would have come to an end; FF crumbled to dust]: Sadetsky 1972: 117-127.

Central Europe. Russians (Arkhangelsk: Winter Coast of the White Sea) [ And if Ilya puts his hand, that heroic one, / The horse won’t fall off his feet ]: Marfa Kryukova 1953: 18; Russians (Arkhangelsk: Pinega) [Tsar Dalmat has not allowed his wife to go out for fun for 30 years; three sons, Fyodor, Vasily, and Ivan the Blockhead, persuaded her to allow it; Vikhor Vikhorevich carried her off; F. and V. went looking for her, but disappeared; the Tsar let I. go; the horse cannot be found: if he puts his hand on the back of it, it will go knee-deep into the ground ; he twice answers the backwoods grandmother rudely; the third time he listens to the advice: D. has a 30-year-old horse in chains in his cellar; he still needs to find a craftsman to make a 300-fathom chain weighing 30 poods and throw it onto the Vikhorev Mountains; the horse orders to let him go first at three dawns to spray his nostrils; I. rode, found his brothers, they began to throw the chain over the mountains; I. rose, came to the hut on the chicken leg; "Turn to the wood goblin with your balls, and to me with your gates." He prayed for her and hammered himself in. Immediately a maiden came out to him, who is not more beautiful in the world, Elena the Beautiful. She led him into the warmth of the bedroom to the pussycat crib - on it a down feather bed, a silk pillow, a black sable blanket. ... She agreed, fell on the bed. However, he grabbed her by the sarafan. And wanted to tear her apart. .. (she asks to wait) Go to Vikhor Vikhorevich first. As soon as you return, I will be yours. He is still his, does not calm down. She grabbed him in her armful, pressed him to her obesity, to her white breast. Ivan Tsarevich immediately fell asleep, snored, wheezed like a cart; EP does not know about the kidnapped queen, in the morning he sends to Marfa the Beautiful; she is even more beautiful (same episode), sends to Alexandra the Beautiful, she is even more beautiful (same); in the morning he gives a kotka-bayunka, he brings him to Vikhryov's house; there are 0 pegs, eight of them with a human head; the mother shows where the sword-kladenets is, hides Ivan in a chest; looks for Vikhryov's head; when he fell asleep, Ivan cut off his head and put it on the ninth peg; they took the gold, burned the house; on the way back, each of the three beauties rolled her hut into an egg, gives it to Ivan, goes with him; Ivan lowers his mother and the beauties down the mountain; Alexandra: if you stay, then hide in the hollow of the oak tree; Vikhoreva's sister will fly in on a flying carpet, start crying, and then fall asleep; you need to "get tangled up with the carpet"; when she comes down from the mountains, cut off her head; the brothers pulled off the chain; they fight over the women; they tell their mother to tell them that they are the saviors; I.'s horse ran away; I. went down, as advised, killed Vikhoreva's sister, the horse brought him to the house; ran into the reeds, and I. stayed with the old man and the old woman; she says that F. wants to get married, but the bride demands a special ring, shoes, and dress; I. sends the old man to say that he will undertake to do everything; I. went out as if to urinate, clicked an egg against an egg - the desired ring was made; the same with the dress and shoes; at the wedding Alexandra recognized I.; "and made the brothers princes"]: Ozarovskaya 1931, No. 26: 218-238; Russian (Arkhangelskaya: Pinega) [The three princes and their sister enter the twelfth garden, where they are forbidden to walk. It suddenly gets dark around, the brothers do not see how Voronovich Voronovich, Kogot Kogotovich carries away their sister. They tell their father about what happened. The eldest brother Stepan asks to let him go for a walk in the field, the father allows him, at the crossroads he chooses neither the right nor the left road, but "go wherever you want". He meets Kalagir the hero, together they cannot lift the iron ladder. The middle brother goes to the field, gets to his brother and the hero, but even the three of them cannot lift the ladder. The father does not want to let the youngest son Ivan go into the field, but he rides away. He does not find the horse right away - they bend under his hand . Ivan reaches the brothers and the hero, mocks them. One lifts a ladder, climbs it, finds himself at a crossroads, takes the right road. He enters a copper hut, it spins on chicken legs, a beautiful girl feeds him, asks about the way, says that his sister is married to her brother, promises to help if Ivan takes her as his wife. She gives him an egg, which leads Ivan to a silver hut, where an even more beautiful girl sits, everything is repeated, the egg leads him to a golden hut to the most beautiful girl, he promises to marry her and receives 2 pieces of meat and a key. She advises him to go visit Voron Voronovich, and when he leads him across the ford, to let Voron go ahead and hit the key only once ("the hero's hand hits once"). Ivan does so, throws meat to the lions at the gates of the golden courtyard, goes into the house, finds the sister of the hero Kalagir and his sister among the cooks. She is sorry to give up the "good life", but Ivan insists, she collects her life in a chicken egg. On the way back, three girls are taken, each rolls up her life in a chicken egg. They lowered the sister of the hero Kalagir - he takes her away, the girls from the golden and silver kingdoms are taken by Ivan's brothers. The girl from the golden kingdom persuades Ivan to go down first, but he sends her away. The brothers argue about who will get her, remove the ladder and Ivan cannot go down. The brothers tell their father that they saved their sister and the girls. Ivan finds himself under an oak tree on which firebirds live, he sits on one of them and it brings Ivan to his native kingdom. He does not let the bird go until he takes the crutch from under its right wing. Ivan touches the stone, Ermoshka jumps out, asks what Ivan wants, at first he does not ask for anything, then orders him to take it home. He stops at an old soldier with an old woman, learns that the tsar has given the order to sew the bride of the eldest tsarevich stockings and wedding boots without measurements, orders the old soldier to undertake the task. He receives money for the stockings and boots, together with the old woman they eat and drink their fill. Ivan orders Ermoshka to bring unworn stockings and shoes from the tsar's chest. He gives them to the soldier, who gives them to the tsar. He gives the soldier the rank of polovnik. The bride asks to sew a wedding dress without measurements - Ivan carries out the order in the same way, the tsar gives the soldier the rank of general. The bride refuses to marry unless a silver bridge with crystal railings, a pond and birds is built. Ivan fulfills this too (Yermoshka summons the 12 Ermoshka brothers, and together they manage to build it). The Tsar invites the soldier and his wife to move to live in the palace. Ivan comes to an empty house by the bridge, when the bride's carriage passes by, Yermoshka and his brothers throw stones at it, she brings Ivan to the Tsar, calls him a true groom, and they get married]: Karnaukhova 1934, No. 124: 230-236; Russian(Western Siberia, Tavda) [Ilya Muromets has been legless for thirty years with his father and mother. When his parents have gone to mass, an old man comes, asks for a drink, and orders Ilya to get up. He begins to walk and comes to the church to his parents, who rejoice. The father goes to the ploughed field to dig hummocks, gets tired, and lies down to rest. While he sleeps, Ilya makes a large clearing, blocking the river with trees. He puts his hand on his horses - they cannot bear his weight. He goes to look for a horse. An old man he meets advises him to buy an unhealthy horse. Ilya buys an unhealthy foal from another old man. On the advice of the old man, he leads it through the dew and nurses it back to health. He goes to see people, to show himself off. He goes to Rarat Mountain. Yegor Svyatogor comes along, takes Ilya prisoner and puts him in his pocket. Yegor's horse stumbles because he is carrying two heroes with a horse. They are riding. There is a coffin. He offers Ilya to try it on - it is too big for Ilya. It fits Yegor, he asks to put the lid on. Then he asks to take it off, but Ilya cannot. Ilya hits him with his club - the hoops jump off. Yegor asks to hit him with the club, but the hoops jump off again. Svyatogor says that this is his death, and when the yellow foam comes out, Ilya should not touch it, but lick it when he comes out for the second time. Ilya feels such a force that if there was a pillar in the ground, he would turn the whole earth upside down. He leaves. On the road on twelve oak trees sits Nightingale the Robber, no one can pass. He whistles, but his whistle has no effect on Ilya. Ilya shoots, Nightingale falls like a sheaf of oats from an oak tree, Ilya ties him to his stirrup and rides on. Nightingale has Dobrynya Nikitich and Olyosha Popovich captive. When Ilya rides up to the yard, one of Nightingale's daughters says that it is her father who is carrying the hero, and the other replies that it is the hero who is carrying his father. They lift a board with iron teeth in the gate, but Ilya breaks it with a club. When he enters the chambers, the chambers are shaking. Nightingale's father is a filthy mother. His eyebrows do not rise, his eyes are sunken. He asks Nightingale if the hero is well built, asks to feel his hand. Dobrynya Nikitich and Olyosha Popovich warn Ilya that he will hurt his hand. They heat up the club and hand it to him. He squeezes so hard that the juice runs. He asks to raise his eyebrows so that he can see what kind of physique Ilyusha has. They raise their eyebrows, he grabs a knife and throws it at Ilya. Olyosha catches the knife in mid-air. Ilya takes his hat, hits Father Nightingale, Mamaishsho falls apart. Ilya asks Nightingale to whistle half a whistle. Dobrynya Nikitich and Olyosha Popovich cannot stay on their feet. Then Nightingale whistles with all his might to deafen them. Ilya finishes him off and leaves with Dobrynya and Olyosha]: Onchukov 2000, No. 31: 101-102.

Volga - Perm. Chuvash [Ilya was a sitter until he was 30; everyone went to uproot the forest; before dinner the great God comes and asks for a drink; Ilya: there is no one to bring it; God: bring it yourself; Ilya stood up with the ease of a boy; God tells him to drink himself; Ilya drank two buckets, and only half of the third; God: do you have the strength? Ilya: if the earth had a bracket, I would lift it up; he came to uproot the forest, threw trees into the river, the river overflowed; began to look for a horse; as soon as he put his hand on its back, the horse stumbled ; found a foal; overnight it grew into a horse; Ilya made himself an iron cap weighing 40 poods and a stick weighing 10 poods, and rode off; on the way there was a blind old man, he asked to give him a hand; Ilya gave him a stick, he shook it, the stick flattened; Ilya gave the old man his hat; he hugged it - it wouldn't budge; the old man: you will be a pattyr (hero); the nightingale's nest is on 7 willows, the whistle can be heard 7 miles away; Ilya beat off his wing with a stick, pressed it down with his hat, cut it into pieces, from each piece of meat grew birds the size of which depended on the size of the piece; from the fat - yellow ones; Ilya did not live long on earth, went to heaven, now he chases the shaitan]: Magnitsky 1881: 251-253.