I regret my inability to include Polish myth-tales in this collection, owing to want of space. Should the present volume meet with favor, it will be followed during the coming year by another, in which a good deal of attention will be given the Poles,—a most interesting and, in very truth, a little known people.
JEREMIAH CURTIN.
Smithsonian Institution, Bureau of Ethnology.
Washington, D. C., October 29, 1890.
[!-- unnumbered blank in original --]
RUSSIAN MYTHS AND FOLK-TALES.
THE THREE KINGDOMS,—THE COPPER, THE SILVER, AND THE GOLDEN.
IN a certain kingdom in a certain land lived a Tsar,—Bail Bailyanyin. He had a wife, Nastasya, Golden Tress, and three sons,—Pyotr Tsarevich, Vassili Tsarevich, and Ivan Tsarevich. The Tsaritsa went with her maidens and nurses to walk in the garden. All at once such a mighty Whirlwind rose that, God save us! it caught the Tsaritsa and bore her it was unknown whither.