[101] Afanasief, viii. No. 8. _Morevna_ means daughter of _More_, (the Sea or any great water). [102] _Grom._ It is the thunder, rather than the lightning, which the Russian peasants look upon as the destructive agent in a storm. They let the flash pass unheeded, but they take the precaution of crossing themselves when the roar follows. [103] _Zamorskaya_, from the other side of the water, strange, splendid. [104] In Afanasief, iv. No. 39, a father marries his three daughters to the Sun, the Moon, and the Raven. In Hahn, No. 25, a younger brother gives his sisters in marriage to a Lion, a Tiger, and an Eagle, after his elder brothers have refused to do so. By their aid he recovers his lost bride. In Schott, No. 1 and Vuk Karajich, No. 5, the three sisters are carried off by Dragons, which their subsequently-born brother kills. (See also Basile, No. 33, referred to by Hahn, and Valjavec, p. 1, Stier, No. 13, and Bozena Nêmcova, pp. 414-432, and a German story in Musæus, all referred to by Afanasief, viii. p. 662.) [105] See Chap. IV. [106] "Being by the advice of her father Hæreð given in marriage to Offa, she left off her violent practices; and accordingly she appears in Hygelác's court, exercising the peaceful duties of a princess. Now this whole representation can hardly be other than the modern, altered, and Christian one of a Wælcyrie or Swan-Maiden; and almost in the same words the Nibelungen Lied relates of Brynhild, the flashing shield-may of the Edda, that with her virginity she lost her mighty strength and warlike habits."--Kemble's Beowulf, p. xxxv. [107] Khudyakof, ii, p. 90. [108] Khudyakof, No. 20. [109] Afanasief, i. No. 14. [110] Khudyakof, No. 62. [111] Erlenvein, No. 31. [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.