[9] This work is always referred to in my notes as “Afanasief, P.V.S.”
[10] There is one other recent collection of skazkas—that published last year at Geneva under the title of “Russkiya Zavyetnuiya Skazki.” But upon its contents I have not found it necessary to draw.
CONTENTS.
| CHAPTER I. | |
| INTRODUCTORY. | |
| PAGE. | |
| The Folk-tale in general, and the Skazka in particular—Relation of Russian Popular Tales to Russian Life—Stories about Courtship, Death, Burial and Wailings for the Dead—Warnings against Drink, Jokes about Women, Tales of Simpletons—A rhymed Skazka and a Legend | [15] |
| CHAPTER II. | |
| MYTHOLOGICAL. | |
| Principal Incarnations of Evil. | |
| On the “Mythical Skazkas”—Male embodiments of Evil: 1. The Snake as the Stealer of Daylight; 2. Norka the Beast, Lord of the Lower World; 3. Koshchei the Deathless, The Stealer of Fair Princesses—his connexion with Punchkin and “the Giant who had no Heart in his Body”—Excursus on Bluebeard’s Chamber; 4. The Water King or Subaqueous Demon—Female Embodiments of Evil: 1. The Baba Yaga or Hag, and 2. The Witch, feminine counterparts of the Snake | [75] |
| CHAPTER III. | |
| MYTHOLOGICAL. | |
| Miscellaneous Impersonations. | |
| One-eyed Likho, a story of the Polyphemus Cycle—Woe, the Poor Man’s Companion—Friday, Wednesday, and Sunday personified as Female Spirits—The Léshy or Wood-Demon—Legends about Rivers—Frost as a Wooer of Maidens—The Whirlwind personified as a species of Snake or Demon—Morfei and Oh, two supernatural beings | [186] |
| CHAPTER IV. | |
| MAGIC AND WITCHCRAFT. | |
| The Waters of Life and Death, and of Strength and Weakness—Aid given to Children by Dead Parents—Magic Horses, Fish, &c.—Stories about Brides won by a Leap, &c.—Stories about Wizards and Witches—The Headless Princess—Midnight Watchings over Corpses—The Fire Bird, its connexion with the Golden Bird and the Phœnix | [237] |
| CHAPTER V. | |
| GHOST STORIES. | |
| Slavonic Ideas about the Dead—On Heaven and Hell—On the Jack and the Beanstalk Story—Harmless Ghosts—The Rip van Winkle Story—the attachment of Ghosts to their Shrouds and Coffin-Lids—Murderous Ghosts—Stories about Vampires—on the name Vampire, and the belief in Vampirism | [295] |
| CHAPTER VI. | |
| LEGENDS. | |
| 1. Saints, &c. | |
| Legends connected with the Dog, the Izba, the Creation of Man, the Rye, the Snake, Ox, Sole, &c.; with Birds, the Peewit, Sparrow, Swallow, &c.—Legends about SS. Nicholas, Andrew, George, Kasian, &c. | [329] |
| 2. Demons, &c. | |
| Part played by Demons in the Skazkas—On “Hasty Words,” and Parental Curses; their power to subject persons to demoniacal possession—The dulness of Demons; Stories about Tricks played upon them—Their Gratitude to those who treat them with Kindness and their General Behavior—Various Legends about Devils—Moral Tale of the Gossip’s Bedstead | [361] |
STORY-LIST.
| PAGE. | ||
| I. | The Fiend | [24] |
| II. | The Dead Mother | [32] |
| III. | The Dead Witch | [34] |
| IV. | The Treasure | [36] |
| V. | The Cross-Surety | [40] |
| VI. | The Awful Drunkard | [46] |
| VII. | The Bad Wife | [52] |
| VIII. | The Golovikha | [55] |
| IX. | The Three Copecks | [56] |
| X. | The Miser | [60] |
| XI. | The Fool and the Birch-Tree | [62] |
| XII. | The Mizgir | [68] |
| XIII. | The Smith and the Demon | [70] |
| XIV. | Ivan Popyalof | [79] |
| XV. | The Norka | [86] |
| XVI. | Marya Morevna | [97] |
| XVII. | Koshchei the Deathless | [111] |
| XVIII. | The Water Snake | [126] |
| XIX. | The Water King and Vasilissa the Wise | [130] |
| XX. | The Baba Yaga | [148] |
| XXI. | Vasilissa the Fair | [158] |
| XXII. | The Witch | [171] |
| XXIII. | The Witch and the Sun’s Sister | [178] |
| XXIV. | One-Eyed Likho | [186] |
| XXV. | Woe | [193] |
| XXVI. | Friday | [207] |
| XXVII. | Wednesday | [208] |
| XXVIII. | The Léshy | [213] |
| XXIX. | Vazuza and Volga | [215] |
| XXX. | Sozh and Dnieper | [216] |
| XXXI. | The Metamorphosis of the Dnieper, the Volga, and the Dvina | [217] |
| XXXII. | Frost | [221] |
| XXXIII. | The Blind Man and the Cripple | [246] |
| XXXIV. | Princess Helena the Fair | [262] |
| XXXV. | Emilian the Fool | [269] |
| XXXVI. | The Witch Girl | [274] |
| XXXVII. | The Headless Princess | [276] |
| XXXVIII. | The Soldier’s Midnight Watch | [279] |
| XXXIX. | The Warlock | [292] |
| XL. | The Fox-Physician | [296] |
| XLI. | The Fiddler in Hell | [303] |
| XLII. | The Ride on the Gravestone | [308] |
| XLIII. | The Two Friends | [309] |
| XLIV. | The Shroud | [311] |
| XLV. | The Coffin-Lid | [314] |
| XLVI. | The Two Corpses | [316] |
| XLVII. | The Dog and the Corpse | [317] |
| XLVIII. | The Soldier and the Vampire | [318] |
| XLIX. | Elijah the Prophet and Nicholas | [344] |
| L. | The Priest with the Greedy Eyes | [355] |
| LI. | The Hasty Word | [370] |