. 215, 16.

[369] For an account of this mythological bird, see the note on next
page. Ornithologically, the _Zhar-ptitsa_ is the Cassowary.

[370] Khudyakof, No. 110. From the Nijegorod Government.

[371] _Zhar_ = glowing heat, as of a furnace; _zhar-ptitsa_ = the
glow-bird. Its name among the Czekhs and Slovaks is _Ptak Ohnivak_.
The heathens Slavonians are said to have worshipped Ogon or Agon,
Fire, the counterpart of the Vedic Agni. _Agon_ is still the ordinary
Russian word for fire, the equivalent of the Latin _ignis_.

[372] Afanasief, vii. No. 11. See also the notes in viii. p. 620, etc.

[373] Grimm's _KM._, No. 57. See the notes in Bd. iii. p. 98.

[374] Afanasief, vii. No. 12.

[375] Khudyakof, No. 104. From the Orel Government.

[376] The _kholodnaya izba_--the "cold izba," as opposed to the "warm
izba" or living room.

[377] The etymology of the word _koldun_ is still, I believe, a moot
point. The discovery of the money in the warlock's coffin seems an
improbable incident. In the original version of the story the wizard
may, perhaps, have turned into a heap of gold (see above, p. 231, on
"Gold-men").

[378] Campbell, No. 13, vol. i. p. 215.

CHAPTER V.

GHOST STORIES.

The Russian peasants have very confused ideas about the local
habitation of the disembodied spirit, after its former tenement has
been laid in the grave. They seem, from the language of their funeral
songs, sometimes to regard the departed spirit as residing in the
coffin which holds the body from which it has been severed, sometimes
to imagine that it hovers around the building which used to be its
home, or flies abroad on the wings of the winds. In the food and money
and other necessaries of existence still placed in the coffin with the
corpse, may be seen traces of an old belief in a journey which the
soul was forced to undertake after the death of the body; in the
_pomniki_ or feasts in memory of the dead, celebrated at certain short
intervals after a death, and also on its anniversary, may be clearly
recognized the remains of a faith in the continued residence of the
dead in the spot where they had been buried, and in their subjection
to some physical sufferings, their capacity for certain animal
enjoyments. The two beliefs run side by side with each other,
sometimes clashing and producing strange results--all the more strange
when they show signs of an attempt having been made to reconcile them
with Christian ide