_Nightingale Robber._ Ilyá Múromet’s conquest of the Nightingale Robber is his most notable feat. He is a very difficult figure to explain. He is a gigantic bird who has been explained on the one hand as a highway robber who was a great bard, for the Russian _solovéy_ (nightingale) is applied to a minstrel. But it is more probable that there is a confusion of two other words in this one, and that the word _solovéy_, which has come to mean nightingale, is either derived from _sláva_, meaning fame, or from the same root as the hostile power whom Ilyá Múromets, in some of the ballads, fights, namely Solóvnik the Grey One. Be this as it may, the version which has come down is that the Nightingale Robber was an enormous bird, whose nest spread over seven oaks, who had needed no other weapon than his dreadful beast-like, lion-like, or dragon-like whistle on which every wall and every beast and every man fell down in sheer terror. The rest of this story may be gathered from the one which has been selected for this book. _The Pike._ The pike plays a peculiar part in Russian folk-lore. _Potán’ka._ The name of Potán’ka [in which the ‘n’ and ‘k’ are to be sounded separately as in pin-case], is also found in the Nóvgorod ballads where Potán’ka the Lame is one of the boon companions of Vasíli Busláyevich. _Prískazka._ Many of the tales begin with a conventional introduction which has no relation to the story. Such an instance may be found in ‘The Wolf and the Tailor.’ Also in ‘A Cure for Story-telling.’ And the tale of ‘The Dun Cow,’ ‘Princess to be Kissed at a Charge,’ etc. _The Realm of Stone._ For the episodes in this story of the kingdom turned to stone there seems strong evidence of adaptation or loan from the Arabian Nights. Cf. The Tale of the Young King of the Black Islands, and the Tale of the City of Brass, but the development is very different. _Sebezh._ A city in the Vitebsk Province bordering on Poland. _Shemyák._ The judge. Shemyákin Sud, the court of Shemyák, is a proverbial expression for arbitrary judgments. He was a prince of Galicia of the time of Vasíli II, 1425–62. He was also a leader of the unruly nobles of that time. This may be partly the reason that the name of the family has been given this unfortunate significance. _The Shovel._ Shovels are used to insert loaves and pots deep into the Russian stove, for which use see the long note on the ‘Dream.’ _The Sister of the Sun._ The Russian commentator in the compilation, from which these stories are drawn, states that this is the expression for the dawn.