Russian Fairy Tales: A Choice Collection of Muscovite...

[112] Afanasief, ii. No. 24. From the Perm Government.

[113] A conventional expression of contempt which frequently occurs in the Skazkas.

[114]Do chugunnova kamnya, to an iron stone.

[115] “Russkaya kost’.” I have translated literally, but the words mean nothing more than “a man,” “something human.” Cf. Radloff, iii. III. 301.

[116]Bog prostit = God will forgive. This sounds to the English ear like an ungracious reply, but it is the phrase ordinarily used by a superior when an inferior asks his pardon. Before taking the sacrament at Easter, the servants in a Russian household ask their employers to forgive them for any faults of which they may have been guilty. “God will forgive,” is the proper reply.

[117] Khudyakof, No. 43.

[118]Vikhor’ (vit’ = to whirl), an agent often introduced for the purpose of abduction. The sorcerers of the present day are supposed to be able to direct whirlwinds, and a not uncommon form of imprecation in some parts of Russia is “May the whirlwind carry thee off!” See Afanasief, P.V.S. i. 317, and “Songs of the Russian People,” p. 382.

[119] This story is very like that of the “Rider of Grianaig,” “Tales of the West Highlands,” iii. No. 58.

[120] Cf. Herodotus, bk. iv. chap. 172.

[121] Khudyakof, No. 44.

[122] Erlenvein, No. 12, p. 67. A popular tradition asserts that the Devil may be killed if shot with an egg laid on Christmas Eve. See Afanasief, P.V.S. ii. 603.

[123] Afanasief, i. No. 14, p. 92. For an account of Buyan, see “Songs of the Russian People,” p. 374.

[124] Afanasief, vii. No. 6, p. 83.

[125] Some of these have been compared by Mr. Cox, in his “Mythology of the Aryan Nations,” i. 135-142. Also by Professor A. de Gubernatis, who sees in the duck the dawn, in the hare “the moon sacrificed in the morning,” and in the egg the sun. “Zoological Mythology,” i. 269.

[126] Asbjörnsen and Moe, No. 36, Dasent, No. 9, p. 71.

[127] Asbjörnsen’s “New Series,” No. 70, p. 39.

[128] Haltrich’s “Deutsche Volksmärchen aus dem Sachsenlande in Siebenbürgen,” p. 188.

[129] Wenzig’s “Westslawischer Märchenschatz,” No. 37, p. 190.

[130] Campbell’s “Tales of the West Highlands,” i. No. 4, p. 81.

[131] Hahn, No. 26, i. 187.

[132] Ibid., vol. ii. pp. 215, 294-5.

[133] Vuk Karajich, No. 8. The monster is called in the Servian text an Ajdaya, a word meaning a dragon or snake. It is rendered by Drache in the German translation of his collection of tales made by his daughter, but the word is evidently akin to the Sanskrit ahi, the Greek ἐχιρ ἐχιδνα, the Latin anguis, the Russian ujak, the Luthanian angis, etc. The Servian word snaga answers to the Russian sila, strength.

[134] Miss Frere’s “Old Deccan Days,” pp. 13-16.

[135] Castren’s “Ethnologische Vorlesungen über die Altaischen Völker,” p. 174.

[136] The story has been translated by M. de Rougé in the “Revue Archéologique,” 1852-3, p. 391 (referred to by Professor Benfey, “Panchatantra,” i. 426) and summarized by Mr. Goodwin in the “Cambridge Essays” for 1858, pp. 232-7, and by Dr. Mannhardt in the “Zeitschrift für deutsche Mythologie,” &c., vol. iv. pp. 232-59. For other versions of the story of the Giant’s heart, or Koshchei’s death, see Professor R. Köhler’s remarks on the subject in “Orient und Occident,” ii. pp. 99-103. A singular parallel to part of the Egyptian myth is offered by the Hottentot story in which the heart of a girl whom a lion has killed and eaten, is extracted from the lion, and placed in a calabash filled with milk. “The calabash increased in size, and in proportion to this, the girl grew again inside it.” Bleek’s “Reynard the Fox in South Africa,” p. 55. Cf. Radloff, i. 75; ii. 237-8, 532-3.

[137] Khudyakof, No. 109.

[138] Khudyakof, No. 110.

[139] Afanasief, v. No. 42. See also the Zagovor, or spell, “to give a good youth a longing for a fair maiden,” (“Songs of the Russian People,” p. 369,) in which “the Longing” is described as lying under a plank in a hut, weeping and sobbing, and “waiting to get at the white light,” and is desired to gnaw its way into the youth’s heart.

[140] For stories about house snakes, &c., see Grimm “Deutsche Mythologie,” p. 650, and Tylor, “Primitive Culture,” ii. pp. 7, 217-220.

[141] Or Ujak. Erlenvein, No. 2. From the Tula Government.

[142] Grimm, “Deutsche Mythologie,” 456. For a description of the Rusalka and the Vodyany, see “Songs of the Russian People,” pp. 139-146.

[143] Afanasief, v. No. 23. From the Voroneje Government.

[144] Three of the well-known servants of Fortunatus. The eater-up (ob’egedat’ = to devour), the drinker-up (pit’ = to drink, opivat’sya, to drink oneself to death), and “Crackling Frost.”

[145]Opokhmyelit’sya, which may be rendered, “in order to drink off the effects of the debauch.”

[146] The Russian bath somewhat resembles the Turkish. The word here translated “to scrub,” properly means to rub and flog with the soft twig used in the baths for that purpose. At the end of the ceremonies attended on a Russian peasant wedding, the young couple always go to the bath.

[147] A sort of pudding or jelly.

[148]Afanasief, v. No. 28. In the preceding story, No. 27, the king makes no promise. He hides his children in (or upon) a pillar, hoping to conceal them from a devouring bear, whose fur is of iron. The bear finds them and carries them off. A horse and some geese vainly attempt their rescue; a bull-calf succeeds, as in the former case. In another variant the enemy is an iron wolf. A king had promised his children a wolf. Unable to find a live one, he had one made of iron and gave it to his children. After a time it came to life and began destroying all it found, etc. An interesting explanation of the stories of this class in which they are treated as nature-myths, is given by A. de Gubernatis in his “Zoological Mythology,” chap. i. sect. 4.

[149] Khudyakof, No. 17.

[150] It has already been observed that the word chudo, which now means a marvel or prodigy, formerly meant a giant.

[151] Erlenvein, No. 6, pp. 30-32. The Russian word idol is identical with our own adaptation of ειδωλου.