nuiya
Predonyia i Razkazui_ ("Little-Russian Popular Traditions and Tales"),
an edition of as many manuscript collections of Ruthenian folk-lore
(including poems, proverbs, riddles, and rites) as it could lay its
hands upon. This collection, though far less rich in variants than
Rudchenko's, contained many original tales which had escaped him, and
was ably edited by Michael Dragomanov, by whose name, indeed, it is
generally known.

The present attempt to popularize these Cossack stories is, I
believe, the first translation ever made from Ruthenian into
English. The selection, though naturally restricted, is fairly
representative; every variety of folk-tale has a place in it, and it
should never be forgotten that the Ruthenian _kazka_ (_Maerchen_),
owing to favourable circumstances, has managed to preserve far more of
the fresh spontaneity and naive simplicity of the primitive folk-tale
than her more sophisticated sister, the Russian _skazka_. It is
maintained, moreover, by Slavonic scholars that there are peculiar
and original elements in these stories not to be found in the
folk-lore of other European peoples; such data, for instance, as the
magic handkerchiefs (generally beneficial, but sometimes, as in the
story of Ivan Golik, terribly baleful), the demon-expelling
hemp-and-tar whips, and the magic cattle-teeming egg, so mischievous
a possession to the unwary. It may be so, but, after all that Mr
Andrew Lang has taught us on the subject, it would be rash for any
mere philologist to assert positively that there can be anything
really new in folk-lore under the sun. On the other hand, the
comparative isolation and primitiveness of the Cossacks, and their
remoteness from the great theatres of historical events, would seem
to be favourable conditions both for the safe preservation of old
myths and the easy development of new ones. It is for professional
students of folk-lore to study the original documents for themselves.

R. N. B.

OH: THE TSAR OF THE FOREST

The olden times were not like the times _we_ live in. In the olden
times all manner of Evil Powers[1] walked abroad. The world itself was
not then as it is now: now there are no such Evil Powers among us.
I'll tell you a _kazka_[2] of Oh, the Tsar of the Forest, that you may
know what manner of being he was.

[1] _Div._ This ancient, untranslatable word (comp. Latin _deus_) is
probab