[8] This book is now out of print, and copies fetch a very high price. I refer to it in my notes as "Afanasief, _Legendui_." [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._