Vasilisa and the Skull of Fire

Vasilisa's dying mother left her a small wooden doll, whispering: 'Feed it, and it will help you.' When her cruel stepmother let the household fire die, Vasilisa was sent into the black forest to Baba Yaga — the witch who devours the unwary.

The hut stood on great chicken legs, ringed by a fence of bones with glowing skulls for lamps. Baba Yaga cackled: 'Do my work, or I eat you.' She demanded the impossible — to sort poppy seeds from soot, to clean the whole hut by dawn.

But each night Vasilisa fed her doll a crumb, and it labored while she slept. Every task was done. Baffled and impressed, the witch asked how — and Vasilisa answered only, 'By my mother's blessing.'

At the word 'blessing,' Baba Yaga shrieked and drove her out — she would keep no blessed thing. But she gave Vasilisa a parting gift: a skull with burning eyes, mounted on a stick.

Vasilisa carried it home. When she entered, the skull's fiery gaze fixed upon her stepmother and stepsisters, and burned them to ash for their cruelty. Vasilisa, blessed and unburned, walked free — and in time married the Tsar.