lar Fictions."

[352] _Nijnie_, lower. Thus Nijny Novgorod is the lower (down the
Volga) Novgorod. (Dahl.)

[353] _Kukova_, a stick or cudgel, one end of which is bent and
rounded like a ball.

[354] _Tak de ego ne vzat'._

[355] There are numerous variants of this story among the Skazkas. In
one of these (Afanasief, vii. No. 31) the man on whom the pike has
bestowed supernatural power uses it to turn a Maiden princess into a
mother. This renders the story wholly in accordance with (1) the
Modern Greek tale of "The Half Man," (Hahn, No. 8) in which the magic
formula runs, "according to the first word of God and the second of
the fish shall such and such a thing be done!" (2) The Neapolitan
story of "Pervonto" (Basile's "Pentamerone," No. 3) who obtains his
magic power from three youths whom he screens from the sun as they lie
asleep one hot day, and who turn out to be sons of a fairy. Afanasief
compares the story also with the German tale of "The Little Grey
Mannikin," in the "Zeitschrift fuer Deutsche Mythologie," &c., i. pp.
38-40. The incident of wishes being fulfilled by a fish occurs in many
stories, as in that of "The Fisherman," in the "Arabian Nights," "The
Fisherman and his Wife," in Grimm (_KM._, No. 19). A number of stories
about the Pike are referred to by A. de Gubernatis ("Zoolog.
Mythology," ii. 337-9).

[356] Quoted by Afanasief from Siemienski's "Podania," Posen, 1845, p.
42.

[357] "Songs of the Russian People," pp. 387-427.

[358] Afanasief, vii. No. 36 _a_. This story has no special title in
the original.

[359] The rural police. _Sotnick_ = centurion, from _sto_ = 100.
_Desyatnik_ is a word of the same kind from _desyat_ = 10.

[360] A Ponomar is a kind of sacristan.

[361] "Der Werwolf, Beitrag zur Sagengeschichte," Stuttgart, 1862. For
Russian ideas on the subject see "Songs of the Russian people," pp.
403-9.

[362] "Polnische Volkssagen" (translated by Lewestam), p. 61.

[363] Brockhaus's "Maehrchensammlung des Somadeva Bhatta," ii. p. 24.

[364] Afanasief, vii. No. 36 _b_. This story, also, is without special
title.

[365] In Mr. Hain Friswell's collection of "Ghost Stories," 1858.

[366] Afanasief, vii. No. 36 _c_. Also without special title.

[367] The Russian _skovoroda_ is a sort of stew-pan, of great size,
without a handle.

[368] From Professor Brockhaus's summary in the "Berichte der phil.
hist. Classe der Koenigl. Saechs. Gesellschaft der Wissenschaften,"
1861, pp