The Witch and The Sun's Sister

The Witch And The Sun's Sister

THE WITCH AND THE SUN'S SISTER.[216]

In a certain far-off country there once lived a king and queen.

And they had an only son, Prince Ivan, who was dumb from

his birth. One day, when he was twelve years old, he went into

the stable to see a groom who was a great friend of his.

That groom always used to tell him tales [skazki], and on

this occasion Prince Ivan went to him expecting to hear some

stories [skazochki], but that wasn't what he heard.

"Prince Ivan!" said the groom, "your mother will soon

have a daughter, and you a sister. She will be a terrible witch,

and she will eat up her father, and her mother, and all their subjects.

So go and ask your father for the best horse he has--as

if you wanted a gallop--and then, if you want to be out of harm's

way, ride away whithersoever your eyes guide you."

Prince Ivan ran off to his father and, for the first time in his

life, began speaking to him.

At that the king was so delighted that he never thought of

asking what he wanted a good steed for, but immediately ordered

the very best horse he had in his stud to be saddled for the

prince.

Prince Ivan mounted, and rode off without caring where he

went.[217] Long, long did he ride.

At length he came to where two old women were sewing

and he begged them to let him live with them. But they said:

"Gladly would we do so, Prince Ivan, only we have now

but a short time to live. As soon as we have broken that trunkful

of needles, and used up that trunkful of thread, that instant

will death arrive!"

Prince Ivan burst into tears and rode on. Long, long did

he ride. At length he came to where the giant Vertodub was,[218]

and he besought him, saying:

"Take me to live with you."

"Gladly would I have taken you, Prince Ivan!" replied the

giant, "but now I have very little longer to live. As soon as I

have pulled up all these trees by the roots, instantly will come

my death!"

More bitterly still did the prince weep as he rode farther and

farther on. By-and-by he came to where the giant Vertogor

was, and made the same request to him, but he replied:

"Gladly would I have taken you, Prince Ivan! but I myself

have very little longer to live. I am set here, you know, to

level mountains. The moment I have settled matters with these

you see remaining, then will my death come!"

Prince Ivan burst into a flood of bitter tears, and rode on

still farther. Long, long did he ride. At last he came to the

dwelling of the Sun's Sister. She received him into her house,

gave him food and drink, and treated him just as if he had been

her own son.

The prince now led an easy life. But it was all no use; he

couldn't help being miserable. He longed so to know what was

going on at home.

He often went to the top of a high mountain, and thence

gazed at the palace in which he used to live, and he could see

that it was all eaten away; nothing but the bare walls remained!

Then he would sigh and weep. Once when he returned after

he had been thus looking and crying, the Sun's Sister asked

him:

"What makes your eyes so red to-day, Prince Ivan?"[219]

"The wind has been blowing in them," said he.

The same thing happened a second time. Then the Sun's

Sister ordered the wind to stop blowing. Again a third time

did Prince Ivan come back with a blubbered face. This time

there was no help for it; he had to confess everything, and then

he took to entreating the Sun's Sister to let him go, that he

might satisfy himself about his old home. She would not let

him go, but he went on urgently entreating.

So at last he persuaded her, and she let him go away to

find out about his home. But first she provided him for the

journey with a brush, a comb, and two youth-giving apples.

However old any one might be, let him eat one of these apples,

he would grow young again in an instant.

Well, Prince Ivan came to where Vertogor was. There was

only just one mountain left! He took his brush and cast it

down on the open plain. Immediately there rose out of the

earth, goodness knows whence,[220] high, ever so high mountains,

their peaks touching the sky. And the number of them was

such that there were more than the eye could see![221] Vertogor

rejoiced greatly and blithely recommenced his work.

After a time Prince Ivan came to where Vertodub was, and

found that there were only three trees remaining there. So he

took the comb and flung it on the open plain. Immediately from

somewhere or other there came a sound of trees,[222] and forth from

the ground arose dense oak forests! each stem more huge than

the other! Vertodub was delighted, thanked the Prince, and

set to work uprooting the ancient oaks.

By-and-by Prince Ivan reached the old women, and gave

each of them an apple. They ate them, and straightway became

young again. So they gave him a handkerchief; you only had

to wave it, and behind you lay a whole lake! At last Prince

Ivan arrived at home. Out came running his sister to meet him,

caressed him fondly.

"Sit thee down, my brother!" she said, "play a tune on the

lute while I go and get dinner ready."

The Prince sat down and strummed away on the lute [gusli].

Then there crept a mouse out of a hole, and said to him in a

human voice:

"Save yourself, Prince. Run away quick! your sister has

gone to sharpen her teeth."

Prince Ivan fled from the room, jumped on his horse, and

galloped away back. Meantime the mouse kept running over

the strings of the lute. They twanged, and the sister never

guessed that her brother was off. When she had sharpened

her teeth she burst into the room. Lo and behold! not a soul

was there, nothing but the mouse bolting into its hole! The

witch waxed wroth, ground her teeth like anything, and set off

in pursuit.

Prince Ivan heard a loud noise and looked back. There was

his sister chasing him. So he waved his handkerchief, and a

deep lake lay behind him. While the witch was swimming across

the water, Prince Ivan got a long way ahead. But on she came

faster than ever; and now she was close at hand! Vertodub

guessed that the Prince was trying to escape from his sister.

So he began tearing up oaks and strewing them across the road.

A regular mountain did he pile up! there was no passing by for

the witch! So she set to work to clear the way. She gnawed,

and gnawed, and at length contrived by hard work to bore her

way through; but by this time Prince Ivan was far ahead.

On she dashed in pursuit, chased and chased. Just a little

more, and it would be impossible for him to escape! But Vertogor

spied the witch, laid hold of the very highest of all the mountains,

pitched it down all of a heap on the road, and flung

another mountain right on top of it. While the witch was

climbing and clambering, Prince Ivan rode and rode, and found

himself a long way ahead. At last the witch got across the

mountain, and once more set off in pursuit of her brother. By-and-by

she caught sight of him, and exclaimed:

"You sha'n't get away from me this time!" And now she is

close, now she is just going to catch him!

At that very moment Prince Ivan dashed up to the abode of

the Sun's Sister and cried:

"Sun, Sun! open the window!"

The Sun's Sister opened the window, and the Prince bounded

through it, horse and all.

Then the witch began to ask that her brother might be given

up to her for punishment. The Sun's Sister would not listen

to her, nor would she give him up. Then the witch said:

"Let Prince Ivan be weighed against me, to see which is the

heavier. If I am, then I will eat him; but if he is, then let him

kill me!"

This was done. Prince Ivan was the first to get into one of

the scales; then the witch began to get into the other. But no

sooner had she set foot in it than up shot Prince Ivan in the air,

and that with such force that he flew right up into the sky, and

into the chamber of the Sun's Sister.

But as for the Witch-Snake, she remained down below on

earth.

  [The word _terem_ (plural _terema_) which occurs twice

  in this story (rendered the second time by "chamber")

  deserves a special notice. It is defined by Dahl, in

  its antique sense, as "a raised, lofty habitation, or

  part of one--a Boyar's castle--a Seigneur's house--the

  dwelling-place of a ruler within a fortress," &c. The

  "terem of the women," sometimes styled "of the girls,"

  used to comprise the part of a Seigneur's house, on

  the upper floor, set aside for the female members of

  his family. Dahl compares it with the Russian

  _tyurma_, a prison, and the German _Thurm_. But it

  seems really to be derived from the Greek τέρεμνον,

  "anything closely shut fast or closely covered, a

  room, chamber," &c.



  That part of the story which refers to the Cannibal

  Princess is familiar to the Modern Greeks. In the

  Syriote tale of "The Strigla" (Hahn, No. 65) a

  princess devours her father and all his subjects. Her

  brother, who had escaped while she was still a babe,

  visits her and is kindly received. But while she is

  sharpening her teeth with a view towards eating him, a

  mouse gives him a warning which saves his life. As in

  the Russian story the mouse jumps about on the strings

  of a lute in order to deceive the witch, so in the

  Greek it plays a fiddle. But the Greek hero does not

  leave his sister's abode. After remaining concealed

  one night, he again accosts her. She attempts to eat

  him, but he kills her.



  In a variant from Epirus (Hahn, ii. p. 283-4) the

  cannibal princess is called a Chursusissa. Her brother

  climbs a tree, the stem of which she gnaws almost

  asunder. But before it falls, a Lamia comes to his aid

  and kills his sister.



  Afanasief (viii. p. 527) identifies the Sun's Sister

  with the Dawn. The following explanation of the skazka

  (with the exception of the words within brackets) is

  given by A. de Gubernatis ("Zool. Myth." i. 183).

  "Ivan is the Sun, the aurora [or dawn] is his [true]

  sister; at morning, near the abode of the aurora, that

  is, in the east, the shades of night [his witch, or

  false sister] go underground, and the Sun arises to

  the heavens; this is the mythical pair of scales. Thus

  in the Christian belief, St. Michael weighs human

  souls; those who weigh much sink down into hell, and

  those who are light arise to the heavenly paradise."]

As an illustration of this story, Afanasief (P.V.S. iii. 272) quotes

a Little-Russian Skazka in which a man, who is seeking "the Isle in

which there is no death," meets with various personages like those

with whom the Prince at first wished to stay on his journey, and at

last takes up his abode with the moon. Death comes in search of him,

after a hundred years or so have elapsed, and engages in a struggle

with the Moon, the result of which is that the man is caught up into

the sky, and there shines thenceforth "as a star near the moon."

The Sun's Sister is a mythical being who is often mentioned in the

popular poetry of the South-Slavonians. A Servian song represents a

beautiful maiden, with "arms of silver up to the elbows," sitting on a

silver throne which floats on water. A suitor comes to woo her. She

waxes wroth and cries,

Whom wishes he to woo?

The sister of the Sun,

The cousin of the Moon,

The adopted-sister of the Dawn.

Then she flings down three golden apples, which the

"marriage-proposers" attempt to catch, but "three lightnings flash

from the sky" and kill the suitor and his friends.

In another Servian song a girl cries to the Sun--

O brilliant Sun! I am fairer than thou,

Than thy brother, the bright Moon,

Than thy sister, the moving star [Venus?].

In South-Slavonian poetry the sun often figures as a radiant youth.

But among the Northern Slavonians, as well as the Lithuanians, the sun

was regarded as a female being, the bride of the moon. "Thou askest me

of what race, of what family I am," says the fair maiden of a song

preserved in the Tambof Government--

My mother is--the beauteous Sun,

And my father--the bright Moon;

My brothers are--the many Stars,

And my sisters--the white Dawns.[223]

A far more detailed account might be given of the Witch and her near

relation the Baba Yaga, as well as of those masculine embodiments of

that spirit of evil which is personified in them, the Snake, Koshchei,

and other similar beings. But the stories which have been quoted will

suffice to give at least a general idea of their moral and physical

attributes. We will now turn from their forms, so constantly

introduced into the skazka-drama, to some of the supernatural figures

which are not so often brought upon the stage--to those mythical

beings of whom (numerous as may be the traditions about them) the

regular "story" does not so often speak, to such personifications of

abstract ideas as are less frequently employed to set its conventional

machinery in motion.

FOOTNOTES:

[72] "Songs of the Russian People," pp. 160-185.

[73] In one story (Khudyakof, No. 117) there are snakes with

twenty-eight and twenty-nine heads, but this is unusual.

[74] Afanasief, ii. No. 30. From the Chernigof Government. The accent

falls on the second syllable of Ivan, on the first of Popyalof.

[75] Popyal, provincial word for pepel = ashes, cinders, whence

the surname Popyalof. A pood is about 40lbs.

[76] On slender supports.

[77] Pod mostom, i.e., says Afanasief (vol. v. p. 243), under the

raised flooring which, in an izba, serves as a sleeping place.

[78] Zatvelyef, apparently a provincial word.

[79] The Russian word krof also signifies blood.

[80] The last sentence of the story forms one of the conventional and

meaningless "tags" frequently attached to the skazkas. In future I

shall omit them. Kuzma and Demian (SS. Cosmas and Damian) figure in

Russian folk-lore as saintly and supernatural smiths, frequently at

war with snakes, which they maltreat in various ways. See A. de

Gubernatis, "Zoological Mythology," vol. ii. p. 397.

[81] Afanasief, Skazki, vol. vii. p. 3.

[82] Chudo = prodigy. Yudo may be a remembrance of Judas, or it

may be used merely for the sake of the rhyme.

[83] In an Indian story ("Kathásaritságara," book vii. chap. 42),

Indrasena comes to a place in which sits a Rákshasa on a throne

between two fair ladies. He attacks the demon with a magic sword, and

soon cuts off his head. But the head always grows again, until at last

the younger of the ladies gives him a sign to split in half the head

he has just chopped off. Thereupon the demon dies, and the two ladies

greet the conqueror rapturously. The younger is the demon's sister,

the elder is a king's daughter whom the demon has carried off from her

home, after eating her father and all his followers. See Professor

Brockhaus's summary in the "Berichte der phil. hist. Classe der K.

Sächs. Gesellschaft der Wissenschaften," 1861. pp. 241-2.

[84] Khudyakof, No. 46.

[85] Afanasief, vol. i. No. 6. From the Chernigof Government. The

Norka-Zvyer' (Norka-Beast) of this story is a fabulous creature, but

zoologically the name of Norka (from nora = a hole) belongs to the

Otter.

[86] Literally "into that world" as opposed to this in which we

live.

[87] This address is a formula, of frequent occurrence under similar

circumstances.

[88] Literally "seated the maidens and pulled the rope."

[89] Some sort of safe or bin.

[90] Khudyakof, ii. p. 17.

[91] "Kathásaritságara," bk. vii. c. xxxix. Wilson's translation.

[92] Genesis, xxxvii. 3, 4.

[93] "Zoological Mythology," i. 25.

[94] Quoted from the "Nitimanjari," by Wilson, in his translation of

the "Rig-Veda-Sanhita," vol. i. p. 142.

[95] See also Jülg's "Kalmukische Märchen," p. 19, where Massang, the

Calmuck Minotaur, is abandoned in the pit by his companions.

[96] Khudyakof, No. 42.

[97] Erlenvein, No. 41. A king's horses disappear. His youngest son

keeps watch and discovers that the thief is a white wolf. It escapes

into a hole. He kills his horse at its own request and makes from its

hide a rope by which he is lowered into the hole, etc.

[98] Afanasief, v. 54.

[99] The word koshchei, says Afanasief, may fairly be derived from

kost', a bone, for changes between st and shch are not

uncommon--as in the cases of pustoi, waste, pushcha, a wild wood,

or of gustoi, thick, gushcha, sediment, etc. The verb

okostenyet', to grow numb, describes the state into which a skazka

represents the realm of the "Sleeping Beauty," as being thrown by

Koshchei. Buslaef remarks in his "Influence of Christianity on

Slavonic Language," p. 103, that one of the Gothic words used by

Ulfilas to express the Greek δαιμόνιον is skôhsl, which "is purely

Slavonic, being preserved in the Czekh kauzlo, sorcery; in the

Lower-Lusatian-Wendish, kostlar means a sorcerer. (But see Grimm's

"Deutsche Mythologie," pp. 454-5, where skôhsl is supposed to mean a

forest-sprite, also p. 954.) Kost' changes into koshch whence our

Koshchei." There is also a provincial word, kostit', meaning to

revile or scold.

[100] Bezsmertny (bez = without, smert' = death).

[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.

[121] Khudyakof, No. 44.

[122] Erlenvein, No. 12, p. 67. A popular tradition asserts that the

Devil may be killed if shot with an egg laid on Christmas Eve. See

Afanasief, P.V.S. ii. 603.

[123] Afanasief, i. No. 14, p. 92. For an account of Buyan, see "Songs

of the Russian People," p. 374.

[124] Afanasief, vii. No. 6, p. 83.

[125] Some of these have been compared by Mr. Cox, in his "Mythology

of the Aryan Nations," i. 135-142. Also by Professor A. de Gubernatis,

who sees in the duck the dawn, in the hare "the moon sacrificed in the

morning," and in the egg the sun. "Zoological Mythology," i. 269.

[126] Asbjörnsen and Moe, No. 36, Dasent, No. 9, p. 71.

[127] Asbjörnsen's "New Series," No. 70, p. 39.

[128] Haltrich's "Deutsche Volksmärchen aus dem Sachsenlande in

Siebenbürgen," p. 188.

[129] Wenzig's "Westslawischer Märchenschatz," No. 37, p. 190.

[130] Campbell's "Tales of the West Highlands," i. No. 4, p. 81.

[131] Hahn, No. 26, i. 187.

[132] Ibid., vol. ii. pp. 215, 294-5.

[133] Vuk Karajich, No. 8. The monster is called in the Servian text

an Ajdaya, a word meaning a dragon or snake. It is rendered by

Drache in the German translation of his collection of tales made by

his daughter, but the word is evidently akin to the Sanskrit ahi,

the Greek ἐχιρ ἐχιδνα, the Latin anguis, the Russian ujak, the

Luthanian angis, etc. The Servian word snaga answers to the

Russian sila, strength.

[134] Miss Frere's "Old Deccan Days," pp. 13-16.

[135] Castren's "Ethnologische Vorlesungen über die Altaischen

Völker," p. 174.

[136] The story has been translated by M. de Rougé in the "Revue

Archéologique," 1852-3, p. 391 (referred to by Professor Benfey,

"Panchatantra," i. 426) and summarized by Mr. Goodwin in the

"Cambridge Essays" for 1858, pp. 232-7, and by Dr. Mannhardt in the

"Zeitschrift für deutsche Mythologie," &c., vol. iv. pp. 232-59. For

other versions of the story of the Giant's heart, or Koshchei's death,

see Professor R. Köhler's remarks on the subject in "Orient und

Occident," ii. pp. 99-103. A singular parallel to part of the Egyptian

myth is offered by the Hottentot story in which the heart of a girl

whom a lion has killed and eaten, is extracted from the lion, and

placed in a calabash filled with milk. "The calabash increased in

size, and in proportion to this, the girl grew again inside it."

Bleek's "Reynard the Fox in South Africa," p. 55. Cf. Radloff, i. 75;

ii. 237-8, 532-3.

[137] Khudyakof, No. 109.

[138] Khudyakof, No. 110.

[139] Afanasief, v. No. 42. See also the Zagovor, or spell, "to give

a good youth a longing for a fair maiden," ("Songs of the Russian

People," p. 369,) in which "the Longing" is described as lying under a

plank in a hut, weeping and sobbing, and "waiting to get at the white

light," and is desired to gnaw its way into the youth's heart.

[140] For stories about house snakes, &c., see Grimm "Deutsche

Mythologie," p. 650, and Tylor, "Primitive Culture," ii. pp. 7,

217-220.

[141] Or Ujak. Erlenvein, No. 2. From the Tula Government.

[142] Grimm, "Deutsche Mythologie," 456. For a description of the

Rusalka and the Vodyany, see "Songs of the Russian People," pp.

139-146.

[143] Afanasief, v. No. 23. From the Voroneje Government.

[144] Three of the well-known servants of Fortunatus. The eater-up

(ob'egedat' = to devour), the drinker-up (pit' = to drink,

opivat'sya, to drink oneself to death), and "Crackling Frost."

[145] Opokhmyelit'sya, which may be rendered, "in order to drink off

the effects of the debauch."

[146] The Russian bath somewhat resembles the Turkish. The word here

translated "to scrub," properly means to rub and flog with the soft

twig used in the baths for that purpose. At the end of the ceremonies

attended on a Russian peasant wedding, the young couple always go to

the bath.

[147] A sort of pudding or jelly.

[148] Afanasief, v. No. 28. In the preceding story, No. 27, the king

makes no promise. He hides his children in (or upon) a pillar, hoping

to conceal them from a devouring bear, whose fur is of iron. The bear

finds them and carries them off. A horse and some geese vainly attempt

their rescue; a bull-calf succeeds, as in the former case. In another

variant the enemy is an iron wolf. A king had promised his children a

wolf. Unable to find a live one, he had one made of iron and gave it

to his children. After a time it came to life and began destroying all

it found, etc. An interesting explanation of the stories of this class

in which they are treated as nature-myths, is given by A. de

Gubernatis in his "Zoological Mythology," chap. i. sect. 4.

[149] Khudyakof, No. 17.

[150] It has already been observed that the word chudo, which now

means a marvel or prodigy, formerly meant a giant.

[151] Erlenvein, No. 6, pp. 30-32. The Russian word idol is

identical with our own adaptation of ειδωλου.

[152] Khudyakof, No. 18.

[153] Zhidenok, strictly the cub of a zhid, a word which properly

means a Jew, but is used here for a devil.

[154] Khudyakof, No. 118.

[155] Chort, a word which, as has been stated, sometimes means a

demon, sometimes the Devil.

[156] Afanasief, viii. p. 343.

[157] "Old Deccan Days," pp. 34-5. Compare with the conduct of the

Cobra's daughter that of Angaraka, the daughter of the Daitya who,

under the form of a wild boar, is chased underground by Chandasena.

Brockhaus's "Mährchensammlung des Somadeva Bhatta," 1843, vol. i. pp.

110-13.

[158] "Panchatantra," v. 10.

[159] Upham's "Sacred and Historical Books of Ceylon," iii. 287.

[160] Afanasief says (P.V.S. iii. 588), "As regards the word yaga

(yega, Polish jedza, jadza, jedzi-baba, Slovak, jenzi,

jenzi, jezi-baba, Bohemian, jezinka, Galician yazya) it

answers to the Sanskrit ahi = snake."

Shchepkin (in his work on "Russian Fable-lore," p. 109) says: "Yaga,

instead of yagaya, means properly noisy, scolding, and must be

connected with the root yagat' = to brawl, to scold, still preserved

in Siberia. The accuracy of this etymology is confirmed by the use, in

the speech of the common people, of the designation Yaga Baba for a

quarrelsome, scolding old woman."

Kastorsky, in his "Slavonic Mythology," p. 138, starts a theory of his

own. "The name Yaga Baba, I take to be yakaya baba, _nycyakaya

baba_, and I render it by anus quædam." Bulgarin (Rossiya, ii. 322)

refers the name to a Finnish root. According to him, "Jagga-lema, in

Esthonian, means to quarrel or brawl, jagga-lemine means quarrelling

or brawling." There is some similarity between the Russian form of the

word, and the Singalese name for a (male) demon, yaka, which is

derived from the Pali yakkho, as is the synonymous term yakseya

from the Sanskrit yaksha (see the valuable paper on Demonology in

Ceylon by Dandris de Silva Gooneratne Modliar in the "Journal of the

Ceylon Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society," 1865-6). Some Slavonic

philologists derive yaga from a root meaning to eat (in Russian

yest'). This corresponds with the derivation of the word yaksha

contained in the following legend: "The Vishnu Purāna, i. 5,

narrates that they (the Yakshas) were produced by Brahmā as beings

emaciate with hunger, of hideous aspect, and with long beards, and

that, crying out 'Let us eat,' they were denominated Yakshas (fr.

jaksh, to eat)." Monier Williams's "Sanskrit Dictionary," p. 801. In

character the Yaga often resembles a Rákshasí.

[161] Afanasief, i. No. 3 b. From the Voroneje Government.

[162] Khudyakof, No. 60.

[163] See Grimm, KM. iii. 97-8. Cf. R. Köhler in "Orient und

Occident," ii. 112.

[164] Grimm, No. 79. "Die Wassernixe."

[165] Asbjörnsen and Moe, No. 14. Dasent, p. 362. "The Widow's Son."

[166] Hahn, No. 1.

[167] Campbell's "Tales of the West Highlands," No. 2.

[168] Töppen's "Aberglauben aus Masuren," p. 146.

[169] Miss Frere's "Old Deccan Days," p. 63.

[170] "Kathásaritságara," vii. ch. xxxix. Translated by Wilson,

"Essays," ii. 137. Cf. Brockhaus in the previously quoted "Berichte,"

1861, p. 225-9. For other forms, see R. Köhler in "Orient and

Occident," vol. ii. p. 112.

[171] See, however, Mr. Campbell's remarks on this subject, in "Tales

of the West Highlands," i. pp. lxxvii-lxxxi.

[172] Afanasief, viii. No. 6.

[173] See the third tale, of the "Siddhi Kür," Jülg's "Kalm. Märchen,"

pp. 17-19.

[174] Schleicher's "Litauische Märchen," No. 39. (I have given an

analysis of the story in the "Songs of the Russian People," p. 101.)

In the variant of the story in No. 38, the comrades are the hero

Martin, a smith, and a tailor. Their supernatural foe is a small gnome

with a very long beard. He closely resembles the German "Erdmänneken"

(Grimm, No. 91), and the "Männchen," in "Der starke Hans" (Grimm, No.

166.)

[175] Hahn, No. 11. Schleicher, No. 20, &c., &c.

[176] Wenzig, No. 2.

[177] "Tales of the West Highlands," ii. p. 15. Mr. Campbell says "I

believe such a mode of torture can be traced amongst the

Scandinavians, who once owned the Western Islands." But the Gaelic

"Binding of the Three Smalls," is unknown to the Skazkas.

[178] Erlenvein, No. 3.

[179] Afanasief, vii. No. 30.

[180] Khudyakof, No. 97.

[181] Khudyakof, No. 14. Erlenvein, No. 9.

[182] Afanasief, iv. No. 44.

[183] The first krasavitsa or beauty.

[184] Chulanchik. The chulan is a kind of closet, generally used

as a storeroom for provisions, &c.

[185] Prigovarivaya, the word generally used to express the action

of a person who utters a charm accompanied by a gesture of the hand or

finger.

[186] Became a nevyesta, a word meaning "a marriageable maiden," or

"a betrothed girl," or "a bride."

[187] Ishbushka, a little izba or cottage.

[188] "Phu, Phu! there is a Russian smell!" the equivalent of our own

"Fee, faw, fum, I smell the blood of an Englishman!"

[189] Luchina, a deal splinter used instead of a candle.

[190] Chernushka, a sort of wild pea.

[191] Krasnoe solnuischko, red (or fair) dear-sun.

[192] Equivalent to saying "she liked to wash her dirty linen at

home."

[193] I break off the narrative at this point, because what follows is

inferior in dramatic interest, and I am afraid of diminishing the

reader's admiration for one of the best folk-tales I know. But I give

an epitome of the remainder within brackets and in small type.

[194] From the Poltava Government. Afanasief, vi. No. 28 b.

[195] Grimm, No. 65. The Wallachian and Lithuanian forms resemble the

German (Schott, No. 3. Schleicher, No. 7). In all of them, the heroine

is a princess, who runs away from an unnatural father. In one of the

Modern Greek versions (Hahn, No. 27), she sinks into the earth. For

references to seven other forms of the story, see Grimm, KM., iii.

p. 116. In one Russian variant (Khudyakof, No. 54), she hides in a

secret drawer, constructed for the purpose in a bedstead; in another

(Afanasief, vi. No. 28 a), her father, not recognising her in the

pig-skin dress, spits at her, and turns her out of the house. In a

third, which is of a very repulsive character (ibid. vii. No. 29), the

father kills his daughter.

[196] Afanasief, vi. No. 18.

[197] The Russian word is zakukovali, i.e., "They began to

cuckoo." The resemblance between the word kukla, a puppet, and the

name and cry of the cuckoo (Kukushka) may be merely accidental, but

that bird has a marked mythological character. See the account of the

rite called "the Christening of the Cuckoos," in "Songs of the Russian

people," p. 215.

[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.

[223] Afanasief, P.V.S., i. 80-84. In the Albanian story of "The

Serpent Child," (Hahn, No. 100), the heroine, the wife of the man whom

forty snake-sloughs encase, is assisted in her troubles by two

subterranean beings whom she finds employed in baking. They use their

hands instead of shovels, and clean out the oven with their breasts.

They are called "Sisters of the Sun."

CHAPTER III.

MYTHOLOGICAL.

Miscellaneous Impersonifications.

Somewhat resembling the picture usually drawn of the supernatural

Witch in the Skazkas, is that which some of them offer of a

personification of evil called Likho.[224] The following story,

belonging to the familiar Polyphemus-cycle, will serve to convey an

idea of this baleful being, who in it takes a female form.