Maennlein" (Grimm, No.
147), in the latter of which our Lord, accompanied by
St. Peter, spends a night in a Smith's house, and
makes an old beggar-man young by first placing him in
the fire, and then plunging him into water. After the
departure of his visitors, the Smith tries a similar
experiment on his mother-in-law, but quite
unsuccessfully. In the corresponding Norse tale of
"The Master-Smith," (Asbjoernsen and Moe, No. 21,
Dasent, No. 16) an old beggar-woman is the victim of
the Smith's unsuccessful experiment. In another Norse
tale, that of "Peik" (Asbjoernsen's New Series, No.
101, p. 219) a king is induced to kill his wife and
his daughter in the mistaken belief that he will be
able to restore them to life. In one of the stories of
the "Dasakumaracharita," a king is persuaded to jump
into a certain lake in the hope of obtaining a new and
improved body. He is then killed by his insidious
adviser, who usurps his throne, pretending to be the
renovated monarch. In another story in the same
collection a king believes that his wife will be able
to confer on him by her magic skill "a most celestial
figure," and under that impression confides to her all
his secrets, after which she brings about his death.
See Wilson's "Essays," ii. 217, &c., and 262, &c.
Jacob's "Hindoo Tales," pp. 180, 315.]

II.

_About Demons._

From the stories which have already been quoted some idea may be
gained of the part which evil spirits play in Russian popular fiction.
In one of them (No. 1) figures the ghoul which feeds on the dead, in
several (Nos. 37, 38, 45-48) we see the fiend-haunted corpse hungering
after human flesh and blood; the history of _The Bad Wife_ (No. 7)
proves how a demon may suffer at a woman's hands, that of _The Dead
Witch_ (No. 3) shows to what indignities the remains of a wicked woman
may be subjected by the fiends with whom she has chosen to associate.
In the _Awful Drunkard_ (No. 6), and the _Fiddler in Hell_ (No. 41),
the abode of evil spirits is portrayed, and some light is thrown on
their manners and customs; and in the _Smith and the Demon_ (No. 13),
the portrait of one of their number is drawn in no unkindly spirit.
The difference which exists between the sketches of fiends contained
in these stories is clearly marked, so much so that it would of itself