Vasilisa's Doll
Small wooden doll given to Vasilisa by her dying mother in the Russian fairy tale, which eats a morsel of the girl's food and helps her perform impossible tasks so that she survives her cruel stepmother and Baba Yaga. Recorded in Afanasyev's collection as 'Vasilisa the Beautiful', the doll is the helper-object of the tale, a folk counterpart to the magical helpers of later European fairy tales. The mother's blessing is essential: the doll works only for Vasilisa, must be fed a little food, and loses its power if others discover it. When Baba Yaga sets the impossible tasks of sorting grain, cle