Here we have the same series of monsters found in Hesiod, in
Ragnarok, and in the legends of different nations; and the killing of
the third serpent is followed by a bright light throughout the whole
land--the conflagration.

And the Russians have the legend in another form. They tell of Ilia,
the peasant, the servant of Vladimir, _Fair Sun_. He meets the
brigand Soloveï, a monster, a gigantic bird, called the nightingale;
his claws extend for seven versts over the country. Like the dragon
of Hesiod, he was full of sounds--"he roared like a wild beast,
bowled like a dog, and whistled like a nightingale." Ilia bits him
with an arrow in the right eye, and he _tumbles_ headlong from his
lofty nest _to the earth_. The wife of the monster follows Ilia, who
has attached him to his saddle, and is dragging him away; she offers
cupfuls of gold, silver, and pearls--an allusion probably to the
precious metals and stones which were said to have fallen from the
heavens. The Sun (Vladimir) welcomes Ilia, and requests the monster
to howl, roar, and whistle for his entertainment; he contemptuously
refuses; Ilia then commands him and he obeys: the noise is so
terrible that the roof of the palace falls off, and the courtiers
_drop dead with fear_. Ilia, indignant at such an uproar, "cuts up
the monster into little pieces, which _he scatters over the
fields_"--(the Drift).[2]

Subsequently Ilia _hides away in a cave_, unfed by

[1. Poor, "Sanskrit and Kindred Literatures," p. 390.

2. Ibid., p. .281.]