a Waelcyrie or Swan-Maiden; and almost in
the same words the Nibelungen Lied relates of Brynhild, the flashing
shield-may of the Edda, that with her virginity she lost her mighty
strength and warlike habits."--Kemble's Beowulf, p. xxxv.

[107] Khudyakof, ii, p. 90.

[108] Khudyakof, No. 20.

[109] Afanasief, i. No. 14.

[110] Khudyakof, No. 62.

[111] Erlenvein, No. 31.

[112] Afanasief, ii. No. 24. From the Perm Government.

[113] A conventional expression of contempt which frequently occurs in
the Skazkas.

[114] _Do chugunnova kamnya_, to an iron stone.

[115] "_Russkaya kost'._" I have translated literally, but the words
mean nothing more than "a man," "something human." Cf. Radloff, iii.
III. 301.

[116] _Bog prostit_ = God will forgive. This sounds to the English ear
like an ungracious reply, but it is the phrase ordinarily used by a
superior when an inferior asks his pardon. Before taking the sacrament
at Easter, the servants in a Russian household ask their employers to
forgive them for any faults of which they may have been guilty. "God
will forgive," is the proper reply.

[117] Khudyakof, No. 43.

[118] _Vikhor'_ (_vit'_ = to whirl), an agent often introduced for the
purpose of abduction. The sorcerers of the present day are supposed to
be able to direct whirlwinds, and a not uncommon form of imprecation
in some parts of Russia is "May the whirlwind carry thee off!" See
Afanasief, _P.V.S._ i. 317, and "Songs of the Russian People," p. 382.

[119] This story is very like that of the "Rider of Grianaig," "Tales
of the West Highlands," iii. No. 58.

[120] Cf. Herodotus, bk. iv. chap. 172.

[121] Khudyakof, No. 44.

[122] Erlenvein, No. 12, p. 67. A popular tradition asserts that the
Devil may be killed if shot with an egg laid on Christmas Eve. See
Afanasief, _P.V.S._ ii. 603.

[123] Afanasief, i. No. 14, p. 92. For an account of Buyan, see "Songs
of the Russian People," p. 374.

[124] Afanasief, vii. No. 6, p. 83.

[125] Some of these have been compared by Mr. Cox, in his "Mythology
of the Aryan Nations," i. 135-142. Also by Professor A. de Gubernatis,
who sees in the duck the dawn, in the hare "the moon sacrificed in the
morning," and in the egg the sun. "Zoological Mythology," i. 269.

[126] Asbjoernsen and Moe, No. 36, Dasent, No. 9, p. 71.

[127] Asbjoernsen's "New Series," No. 70, p. 39.

[128] Haltrich's "Deutsche Volksmaerchen aus dem Sachsenlande in
Siebenbuergen," p. 188.