[198] Very like these puppets are the images which reply for the sleeping prince in the opening scene of "De beiden Künigeskinner" (Grimm, No. 113). A doll plays an important part in one of Straparola's stories (Night v. Fable 2). Professor de Gubernatis identifies the Russian puppet with "the moon, the Vedic Râkâ, very small, but very intelligent, enclosed in the wooden dress, in the forest of night," "Zoological Mythology," i. 207-8. [199] Afanasief, ii. No. 31. [200] Khudyakof, No. 55. [201] Ibid., No. 83. [202] Wojcicki's "Polnische Volkssagen," &c. Lewestam's translation, iii. No. 8. [203] The germ of all these repulsive stories about incestuous unions, proposed but not carried out, was probably a nature myth akin to that alluded to in the passage of the Rigveda containing the dialogue between Yama and Yami--"where she (the night) implores her brother (the day) to make her his wife, and where he declines her offer because, as he says, 'they have called it sin that a brother should marry his sister.'" Max Müller, "Lectures," sixth edition, ii. 557. [204] Afanasief, vii. No. 18. [205] Her name _Vyed'ma_ comes from a Slavonic root _véd_, answering to the Sanskrit _vid_--from which springs an immense family of words having reference to knowledge. _Vyed'ma_ and _witch_ are in fact cousins who, though very distantly related, closely resemble each other both in appearance and in character. [206] Afanasief, i. No. 4 _a_. From the Voroneje Government. [207] Ivashko and Ivashechko, are caressing diminutives of Ivan. [208] "Some storytellers," says Afanasief, "substitute the word snake (_zmei_) in the Skazka for that of witch (_vyed'ma_)." [209] Diminutive of Elena. [210] _Gusi--lebedi_, geese--swans. [211] Afanasief, i. No. 4. [212] Kulish, ii. 17. [213] Khudyakof, No. 53. [214] Ibid. No. 52. [215] The demonism of Ceylon "represents demons as having _human_ fathers and mothers, and as being born in the ordinary course of nature. Though born of human parents, all their qualities are different from those of men. They leave their parents sometime after their birth, but before doing so, they generally take care to try their demoniac powers on them." "Demonology and Witchcraft in Ceylon," by Dandris de Silva Gooneratne Modliar. "Journal of Ceylon Branch of Royal Asiatic Society," 1865-6, p. 17. [216] Afanasief, vi. No. 57. From the Ukraine. [217] "Whither [his] eyes look." [218] Vertodub, the Tree-extractor (_vertyet'_ = to twirl, _dub_ = tree or oak) is the German _Baumdreher_ or _Holzkrummacher_; _Vertogor_ the Mountain leveller (_gora_ = mountain) answers to the _Steinzerreiber_ or _Felsenkripperer_. [219] Why are you just now so _zaplakannoi_ or blubbered. (_Zalplakat'_, or _plakat'_ = to cry.) [220] _Otkuda ni vzyalis._ [221] _Vidimo--nevidimo_, visibly--invisibly. [222] _Zashumyeli_, they began to produce a _shum_ or noise.