Russian Fairy Tales: A Choice Collection of Muscovite Folk-lore. Anonymous

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[26] Afanasief, viii. p. 165.

[27] In West-European stories the devil frequently carries off a witch’s soul after death. Here the fiend enters the corpse, or rather its skin, probably intending to reappear as a vampire. Compare Bleek’s “Reynard the Fox in South Africa,” No. 24, in which a lion squeezes itself into the skin of a girl it has killed. I have generally rendered by “demon,” instead of “devil,” the word chort when it occurs in stories of this class, as the spirits to which they refer are manifestly akin to those of oriental demonology.

[28] For an account of which, see the “Songs of the Russian People,” pp. 333–334. The best Russian work on the subject is Barsof’s “Prichitaniya Syevernago Kraya,” Moscow, 1872.

[29] Afanasief, iv. No. 9.

[30] Professor de Gubernatis justly remarks that this “howling” is more in keeping with the nature of the eastern jackal than with that of its western counterpart, the fox. “Zoological Mythology,” ii. 130.

[31] Afanasief, vii. No. 45.

[32] Pope is the ordinary but disrespectful term for a priest (Svyashchennik), as popovich is for a priest’s son.

[33] “Father dear,” or “reverend father.”

[34] A phrase often used by the peasants, when frightened by anything of supernatural appearance.

[35] Afanasief, Skazki, vii. No. 49.

[36] The Russian expression is gol kak sokòl, “bare as a hawk.”

[37] In another story St. Nicolas’s picture is the surety.

[38] Another variant of this story, under the title of “Norka,” will be quoted in full in the next chapter.

[39] Afanasief, vii. p. 107.

[40] Afanasief, vii. p. 146.

[41] Or “The Seven-year-old.” Khudyakof, No. 6. See Grimm, No. 94, “Die kluge Bauerntochter,” and iii. 170–2.

[42] Voevoda, now a general, formerly meant a civil governor, etc.

[43] Afanasief. “Legendui,” No. 29.

[44] Diminutive of Peter.

[45] The word employed here is not chort, but diavol.

[46] Some remarks on the stories of this class, will be found in Chap. VI. The Russian peasants still believe that all people who drink themselves to death are used as carriers of wood and water in the infernal regions.

[47] In the sixty-fourth story of Asbjörnsen’s “Norske Folke-Eventyr,” (Ny Samling, 1871) the dispute between the husband and wife is about a cornfield—as to whether it should be reaped or shorn—and she tumbles into a pool while she is making clipping gestures “under her husband’s nose.” In the old fabliau of “Le Pré Tondu” (Le Grand d’Aussy, Fabliaux, 1829, iii. 185), the husband cuts out the tongue of his wife, to prevent her from repeating that his meadow has been clipped, whereupon she makes a clipping sign with her fingers. In Poggio’s “Facetiæ,” the wife is doubly aggravating. For copious information with respect to the use made of this story by the romance-writers, see Liebrecht’s translations of Basile’s “Pentamerone,” ii. 264, and of Dunlop’s “History of Literature,” p. 516.

[48] Afanasief, v. p. 16.

[49] Ibid., iii. p. 87.

[50] Chudinsky, No. 8. The proverb is dear to the Tartars also.

[51] Ibid. No. 23. The liulka, or Russian cradle, is suspended and swung, instead of being placed on the floor and rocked. Russian babies are usually swaddled tightly, like American papooses.

[52] “Panchatantra,” 1859, vol. i. § 212, pp. 519–524. I gladly avail myself of this opportunity of gratefully acknowledging my obligations to Dr. Benfey’s invaluable work.

[53] Afanasief, i. No. 9. Written down in the Novgorod Government. Its dialect renders it somewhat difficult to read.

[54] This story is known to the Finns, but with them the Russian Demon, (chortenok = a little chort or devil), has become the Plague. In the original Indian story the demon is one which had formerly lived in a Brahman’s house, but had been frightened away by his cantankerous wife. In the Servian version (Karajich, No. 37), the opening consists of the “Scissors-story,” to which allusion has already been made. The vixen falls into a hole which she does not see, so bent is she on controverting her husband.

[55] Afanasief, ii. No. 12. Written down by a “Crown Serf,” in the government of Perm.

[56] Afanasief, viii. No. 20. A copeck is worth about a third of a penny.

[57] The story is continued very little further by Afanasief, its conclusion being the same as that of “The Wise Wife,” in Book vii. No. 22, a tale of magic. For a Servian version of the tale see Vuk Karajich, No. 7.

[58] Afanasief, v. No. 3. From the Novgorod Government.

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