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

[152] Khudyakof, No. 18.

[153]Zhidenok, strictly the cub of a zhid, a word which properly means a Jew, but is used here for a devil.

[154] Khudyakof, No. 118.

[155]Chort, a word which, as has been stated, sometimes means a demon, sometimes the Devil.

[156] Afanasief, viii. p. 343.

[157] “Old Deccan Days,” pp. 34-5. Compare with the conduct of the Cobra’s daughter that of Angaraka, the daughter of the Daitya who, under the form of a wild boar, is chased underground by Chandasena. Brockhaus’s “Mährchensammlung des Somadeva Bhatta,” 1843, vol. i. pp. 110-13.

[158] “Panchatantra,” v. 10.

[159] Upham’s “Sacred and Historical Books of Ceylon,” iii. 287.

[160] Afanasief says (P.V.S. iii. 588), “As regards the word yaga (yega, Polish jedza, jadza, jedzi-baba, Slovak, jenzi, jenzi, jezi-baba, Bohemian, jezinka, Galician yazya) it answers to the Sanskrit ahi = snake.”

Shchepkin (in his work on “Russian Fable-lore,” p. 109) says: “Yaga, instead of yagaya, means properly noisy, scolding, and must be connected with the root yagat’ = to brawl, to scold, still preserved in Siberia. The accuracy of this etymology is confirmed by the use, in the speech of the common people, of the designation Yaga Baba for a quarrelsome, scolding old woman.”

Kastorsky, in his “Slavonic Mythology,” p. 138, starts a theory of his own. “The name Yaga Baba, I take to be yakaya baba, nycyakaya baba, and I render it by anus quædam.” Bulgarin (Rossiya, ii. 322) refers the name to a Finnish root. According to him, “Jagga-lema, in Esthonian, means to quarrel or brawl, jagga-lemine means quarrelling or brawling.” There is some similarity between the Russian form of the word, and the Singalese name for a (male) demon, yaka, which is derived from the Pali yakkho, as is the synonymous term yakseya from the Sanskrit yaksha (see the valuable paper on Demonology in Ceylon by Dandris de Silva Gooneratne Modliar in the “Journal of the Ceylon Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society,” 1865-6). Some Slavonic philologists derive yaga from a root meaning to eat (in Russian yest’). This corresponds with the derivation of the word yaksha contained in the following legend: “The Vishnu Purāna, i. 5, narrates that they (the Yakshas) were produced by Brahmā as beings emaciate with hunger, of hideous aspect, and with long beards, and that, crying out ‘Let us eat,’ they were denominated Yakshas (fr. jaksh, to eat).” Monier Williams’s “Sanskrit Dictionary,” p. 801. In character the Yaga often resembles a Rákshasí.

[161] Afanasief, i. No. 3 b. From the Voroneje Government.

[162] Khudyakof, No. 60.

[163] See Grimm, KM. iii. 97-8. Cf. R. Köhler in “Orient und Occident,” ii. 112.

[164] Grimm, No. 79. “Die Wassernixe.”

[165] Asbjörnsen and Moe, No. 14. Dasent, p. 362. “The Widow’s Son.”

[166] Hahn, No. 1.

[167] Campbell’s “Tales of the West Highlands,” No. 2.

[168] Töppen’s “Aberglauben aus Masuren,” p. 146.

[169] Miss Frere’s “Old Deccan Days,” p. 63.

[170] “Kathásaritságara,” vii. ch. xxxix. Translated by Wilson, “Essays,” ii. 137. Cf. Brockhaus in the previously quoted “Berichte,” 1861, p. 225-9. For other forms, see R. Köhler in “Orient and Occident,” vol. ii. p. 112.

[171] See, however, Mr. Campbell’s remarks on this subject, in “Tales of the West Highlands,” i. pp. lxxvii-lxxxi.

[172] Afanasief, viii. No. 6.

[173] See the third tale, of the “Siddhi Kür,” Jülg’s “Kalm. Märchen,” pp. 17-19.

[174] Schleicher’s “Litauische Märchen,” No. 39. (I have given an analysis of the story in the “Songs of the Russian People,” p. 101.) In the variant of the story in No. 38, the comrades are the hero Martin, a smith, and a tailor. Their supernatural foe is a small gnome with a very long beard. He closely resembles the German “Erdmänneken” (Grimm, No. 91), and the “Männchen,” in “Der starke Hans” (Grimm, No. 166.)

[175] Hahn, No. 11. Schleicher, No. 20, &c., &c.

[176] Wenzig, No. 2.

[177] “Tales of the West Highlands,” ii. p. 15. Mr. Campbell says “I believe such a mode of torture can be traced amongst the Scandinavians, who once owned the Western Islands.” But the Gaelic “Binding of the Three Smalls,” is unknown to the Skazkas.

[178] Erlenvein, No. 3.

[179] Afanasief, vii. No. 30.

[180] Khudyakof, No. 97.

[181] Khudyakof, No. 14. Erlenvein, No. 9.

[182] Afanasief, iv. No. 44.

[183] The first krasavitsa or beauty.

[184]Chulanchik. The chulan is a kind of closet, generally used as a storeroom for provisions, &c.

[185]Prigovarivaya, the word generally used to express the action of a person who utters a charm accompanied by a gesture of the hand or finger.

[186] Became a nevyesta, a word meaning “a marriageable maiden,” or “a betrothed girl,” or “a bride.”

[187]Ishbushka, a little izba or cottage.

[188] “Phu, Phu! there is a Russian smell!” the equivalent of our own “Fee, faw, fum, I smell the blood of an Englishman!”

[189]Luchina, a deal splinter used instead of a candle.