The Russian Garland, Being Russian Folk Tales #249481

It is hardly necessary to dilate on the peculiar expressions here to be found; how that a child grows not day by day, but hour by hour, how that when the Tsar wants to drink beer is not brewed nor brandy distilled, seeing he is served at once, how the hero passes through thrice nine lands to the thirtieth country, how brothers are always in threes, and how the youngest always succeeds where his elders fail. Students of folk lore will know all about them, and the rest of us must take them on trust. Do you know why you must never go under a ladder?