I shall be still more
glad if I succeed in interesting the general reader in the tales of
the Russian People, and through them, in the lives of those Russian
men and women of low degree who are wont to tell them, those Russian
children who love to hear them.

FOOTNOTES:

[424] Afanasief, _Legendui_, p. 6.

[425] These two stories are quoted by Buslaef, in a valuable essay on
"The Russian Popular Epos." "Ist. Och." i. 438. Another tradition
states that the dog was originally "naked," _i.e._, without hair; but
the devil, in order to seduce it from its loyalty, gave it a _shuba_,
or pelisse, _i.e._, a coat of hair.

[426] Buslaef, "Ist. Och," i. 147, where the Teutonic equivalents are
given.

[427] Tereshchenko, v. 48. For a German version of the story, see the
_KM._, No. 124, "Die Kornaehre."

[428] Afanasief, _P.V.S._ i. 482.

[429] Afanasief, _Legendui_, p. 19.

[430] Tereshchenko, v. p. 45. Some of these legends have been
translated by O. von. Reinsberg-Dueringsfeld in the "Ausland," Dec. 9,
1872.

[431] According to a Bohemian legend the Devil created the mouse, that
it might destroy "God's corn," whereupon the Lord created the cat.

[432] _Pit'_, = to drink.

[433] Tereshchenko, v. 47.

[434] Afanasief, _Legendui_, p. 13.

[435] Afanasief, _Legendui_, No. 3. From the Voroneje Government.

[436] Afanasief, _Legendui_, No. 8.

[437] Who thus becomes his "brother of the cross." This
cross-brothership is considered a close spiritual affinity.

[438] Afanasief, in his notes to this story, gives several of its
variants. The rewards and punishments awarded in a future life form
the theme of a great number of moral parables, apparently of Oriental
extraction. For an interesting parallel from the Neilgherry Hills, see
Gover's "Folk-Songs of Southern India," pp. 81-7.

[439] Afanasief, _Legendui_, No. 7.

[440] The icona, +eikon+ or holy picture.

[441] For some account of Perun--the Lithuanian Perkunas--whose name
and attributes appear to be closely connected with those of the Indian
Parjanya, see the "Songs of the Russian Nation," pp. 86-102.

[442] A Servian song, for instance, quoted by Buslaef ("Ist. Och." i.
361) states that "The Thunder" (_i.e._, the Thunder-God or Perun)
"began to divide gifts. To God (_Bogu_) it gave the heavenly heights;
to St. Peter the summer" (_Petrovskie_ so called after the Saint)
"heats; to St. John, the ice and snow; to Nicholas, power over the
waters, and to Ilya