d by a drunken priest, become the prey of
demons. This idea has given rise in Russia, as well as elsewhere, to a
large group of stories. The Russian peasants believe, it is said, that
in order to rescue from the fiends the soul of a babe which has been
suffocated in its sleep, its mother must spend three nights in a
church, standing within a circle traced by the hand of a priest. When
the cocks crow on the third morning, the demons will give her back her
dead child.[460]

Great stress is laid in the skazkas and legends upon the terrible
power of a parent's curse. The "hasty word" of a father or a mother
will condemn even an innocent child to slavery among devils, and when
it has once been uttered, it is irrevocable. It might have been
supposed that the fearful efficacy of such an imprecation would have
silenced bad language, as that of the _Vril_ rendered war impossible
among the Vril-ya of "The Coming Race;" but that such was not the case
is proved by the number of narratives which turn on uncalled-for
parental cursing. Here is an abridgment of one of these stories.

There was an old man who lived near Lake Onega, and who supported
himself and his wife by hunting. One day when he was engaged in the
pursuit of game, a well-dressed man met him and said,

"Sell me that dog of yours, and come for your money to the Mian
mountain to-morrow evening."

The old man sold him the dog, and went next day to the top of the
mountain, where he found a great city inhabited by devils.[461] There
he soon found the house of his debtor, who provided him with a banquet
and a bath. And in the bath-room he was served by a young man who,
when the bath was over, fell at his feet, saying,

"Don't accept money for your dog, grandfather, but ask for me!"

The old man consented. "Give me that good youth," said he. "He shall
serve instead of a son to me."

There was no help for it; they had to give him the youth. And when the
old man had returned home, the youth told him to go to Novgorod, there
to enquire for a merchant, and ask him whether he had any children.

He did so, and the merchant replied,

"I had an only son, but his mother cursed him in a passion, crying,
'The devil take thee!'[462] And so the devil carried him off."

It turned out that the youth whom the old man had saved from the
devils was that merchant's son. Thereupon the merchant rejoiced
greatly, and took the old man and his wife to live with him in his
house.[463]