level of the dull and hard lives which they are forced to lead.

From among the stories which contain the most graphic descriptions of
Russian village life, or which may be regarded as specially
illustrative of Russian sentiment and humor those which the present
chapter contains have been selected. Any information they may convey
will necessarily be of a most fragmentary nature, but for all that it
may be capable of producing a correct impression. A painter's rough
notes and jottings are often more true to nature than the most
finished picture into which they may be developed.

The word skazka, or folk-tale, does not very often occur in the
Russian popular tales themselves. Still there are occasions on which
it appears. The allusions to it are for the most part indirect, as
when a princess is said to be more beautiful than anybody ever was,
except in a skazka; but sometimes it obtains direct notice. In a
story, for instance, of a boy who had been carried off by a Baba Yaga
(a species of witch), we are told that when his sister came to his
rescue she found him "sitting in an arm-chair, while the cat Jeremiah
told him skazkas and sang him songs."[15] In another story, a
_Durak_,--a "ninny" or "gowk"--is sent to take care of the children of
a village during the absence of their parents. "Go and get all the
children together in one of the cottages and tell them skazkas," are
his instructions. He collects the children, but as they are "all ever
so dirty" he puts them into boiling water by way of cleansing them,
and so washes them to death.[16]

There is a good deal of social life in the Russian villages during the
long winter evenings, and at some of the gatherings which then take
place skazkas are told, though at those in which only the young people
participate, songs, games, and dances are more popular. The following
skazka has been selected on account of the descriptions of a
_vechernitsa_, or village _soiree_,[17] and of a rustic courtship,
which its opening scene contains. The rest of the story is not
remarkable for its fidelity to modern life, but it will serve as a
good illustration of the class to which it belongs--that of stories
about evil spirits, traceable, for the most part, to Eastern sources.

THE FIEND.[18]

In a certain country there lived an old couple who had a daughter
called Marusia (Mary). In their village it was customary to
celebrate the feast of St. Andrew the First-Called (November