y species of fiends for which, in Christian parlance, the
generic name is that of "devils."

There is no great richness of invention manifested in the stories
which deal with the outwitting of evil spirits. The same devices are
in almost all cases resorted to, and their effect is invariable. The
leading characters undergo certain transmutations as the scene of the
story is shifted, but their mutual relations remain constant. Thus, in
a German story[474] we find a schoolmaster deceiving the devil; in one
of its Slavonic counterparts[475] a gypsy deludes a snake; in another,
current among the Baltic Kashoubes, in place of the snake figures a
giant so huge that the thumb of his glove serves as a shelter for the
hero of the tale--one which is closely connected with that which tells
of Thor and the giant Skrymir.

The Russian stories in which devils are tricked by mortals closely
resemble, for the most part, those which are current in so many parts
of Europe. The hero of the tale squeezes whey out of a piece of cheese
or curd which he passes off as a stone; he induces the fleet demon to
compete with his "Hop o' my Thumb" the hare; he sets the strong demon
to wrestle with his "greybeard" the bear; he frightens the
"grandfather" of the fiends by proposing to fling that potentate's
magic staff so high in the air that it will never come down; and he
persuades his diabolical opponents to keep pouring gold into a
perforated hat or sack. Sometimes, however, a less familiar incident
occurs. Thus in a story from the Tambof Government, Zachary the
Unlucky is sent by the tailor, his master, to fetch a fiddle from a
wolf-fiend. The demon agrees to let him have it on condition that he
spends three years in continually weaving nets without ever going to
sleep. Zachary sets to work, but at the end of a month he grows
drowsy. The wolf asks if he is asleep. "No, I'm not asleep," he
replies; "but I'm thinking which fish there are most of in the
river--big ones or little ones." The wolf offers to go and enquire,
and spends three or four months in solving the problem. Meanwhile
Zachary sleeps, taking care, however, to be up and at work when the
wolf returns to say that the big fishes are in the majority.

Time passes, and again Zachary begins to nod. The wolf enquires if he
has gone to sleep, but is told that he is awake, but engrossed by the
question as to "which folks are there most of in the world--the living
or the dead." The wolf goes o