ts
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 +daimonion+ is _skohsl_, 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 _skohsl_ 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 Nemcova, pp. 414-432, and a German story
in Musaeus, all referred to by Afanasief, viii. p. 662.)

[105] See Chap. IV.

[106] "Being by the advice of her father Haereeth given in marriage to
Offa, she left off her violent practices; and accordingly she appears
in Hygelac'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