Welcome to a special Halloween edition of the Russian Ruler's History Podcast.

Today we'll be reading an old story, a popular legend called The Blacksmith and The Dell.

Once upon a time there was a blacksmith and he had a son, a smart and clever lad,

who was about six years old. One time the old man went to church and stood before an image

of the last judgment and he sees a picture of the devil and such a frightful one,

black with horns in a tail. Would you look at that he thought,

I ought to paint a copy of this for myself back in the shop.

So he found himself a painter and told him to draw the devil's likeness on the doors of his smith shop,

just as he had seen in church. The painter drew, from that time on,

whenever the old man entered his workshop, he would always glance up at the devil and say,

your health, my countryman, and after that he would go over to the hearth and get to work.

The blacksmith lived like this in harmony with the devil for about ten years,

but then he became ill and died. His son took over the smithy in his place,

but he didn't wish to honor the devil this way his old man had done.

When he came to work in the morning he would never exchange greetings with him.

In place of these endearing words he would grab hold of his hammer and smash it into the devil's forehead three times,

and then he would start to work. And on every religious holiday he would go to church and place a candle before each saint,

but when he came to the devil he would spit in its eye.

Three whole years passed, and every morning he would entertain the devil in this fashion,

first with the hammer, then with the spitting. The devil put up with it again and again,

until finally he lost his patience. He just couldn't stand it anymore.

He thinks I'm prepared to put up with such profane abuse from him while I'm a crafty one,

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