zi_,
_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 quaedam_." 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 Pur[=a]na, i. 5,
narrates that they (the Yakshas) were produced by Brahm[=a] 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 Rakshasi.

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

[162] Khudyakof, No. 60.

[163] See Grimm, _KM._ iii. 97-8. Cf. R. Koehler in "Orient und
Occident," ii. 112.

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

[165] Asbjoernsen 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] Toeppen's "Aberglauben aus Masuren," p. 146.

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

[170] "Kathasaritsagara," 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. Koehler in "Orient and
Occident," vol. ii.