we breathe in them is that of
Fairy-land; the conditions of existence, the relations between the
human race and the spiritual world on the one hand, the material world
on the other, are totally inconsistent with those to which we are now
restricted. There is boundless freedom of intercourse between mortals
and immortals, between mankind and the brute creation, and, although
there are certain conventional rules which must always be observed,
they are not those which are enforced by any people known to
anthropologists. The stories which are common to all Europe differ, no
doubt, in different countries, but their variations, so far as their
matter is concerned, seem to be due less to the moral character than
to the geographical distribution of their reciters. The manner in
which these tales are told, however, may often be taken as a test of
the intellectual capacity of their tellers. For in style the folk-tale
changes greatly as it travels. A story which we find narrated in one
country with terseness and precision may be rendered almost
unintelligible in another by vagueness or verbiage; by one race it may
be elevated into poetic life, by another it may be degraded into the
most prosaic dulness.

Now, so far as style is concerned, the Skazkas or Russian folk-tales,
may justly be said to be characteristic of the Russian people. There
are numerous points on which the "lower classes" of all the Aryan
peoples in Europe closely resemble each other, but the Russian peasant
has--in common with all his Slavonic brethren--a genuine talent for
narrative which distinguishes him from some of his more distant
cousins. And the stories which are current among the Russian peasantry
are for the most part exceedingly well narrated. Their language is
simple and pleasantly quaint, their humor is natural and unobtrusive,
and their descriptions, whether of persons or of events, are often
excellent.[13] A taste for acting is widely spread in Russia, and the
Russian folk-tales are full of dramatic positions which offer a wide
scope for a display of their reciter's mimetic talents. Every here and
there, indeed, a tag of genuine comedy has evidently been attached by
the story-teller to a narrative which in its original form was
probably devoid of the comic element.

And thus from the Russian tales may be derived some idea of the
mental characteristics of the Russian peasantry--one which is very
incomplete, but, within its narrow limits, sufficie