ABSTRACT
There lived and dwelt this widowed king. He had twelve daughters, each more beautiful than the other. Every night these tsarevnas went away somewhere, but where—nobody knew. But every night each one of them wore out a new pair of slippers. The king couldn’t get enough slippers to satisfy their needs, and he really wanted to find out where they were going in the evenings and what they were doing there. So he held a feast and summoned the kings and princes from all the lands, and the gentry, and the merchants, and the simple folk, and he asked them, “Would you be able to answer this riddle? Whoever can figure it out can marry my favorite daughter and I’ll give him half the tsardom as a dowry.”
