The older two say that if he married them, they would sew him a marvelous shirt; the youngest says she would bear him three sons with the sun on the forehead, the moon on the back of their heads, and stars to each side.
The older sisters envied her and bribed her servants; when she bore the sons she had said, they stole them and hid them an arbor in the garden; then they presented the prince with first a puppy, then a kitten, then an ordinary child.
[3] Folklorist Lev Barag [ru] noted the commonest form of East Slavic variants is the following: the mother of the wonder children is cast in the sea in a barrel.
[4] This tale was collected by Russian folklorist Alexander Afanasyev, along with six other variants, and comprises a subtype named Up to the Knee in Gold, Up to the Elbow in Silver.
[9] The plot is as follows:[10] the mother is cast out with the babies into the sea in a box or barrel, after the king is tricked into thinking his wife did not deliver her promised wonder children.
There, the child (or children) magically grows up in hours or days and builds an enchanted castle or house that attracts the attention of the common folk (or merchants, or travellers).