166

The Judgment of Shemyaka 183

Story of Prince Peter with the Golden Keys, and the
Princess Magilene 187

Sila Tsarevich and Ivashka with the White Smock 194

Story of the Knight Yaroslav Lasarevich and the
Princess Anastasia 202

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

PAGE
The Horse grew restive, reared higher than the
waving forest _Frontispiece_

Instantly upstarted Lyubim Tsarevich, put on his
armour and leapt upon his steed 4

At length they fell in with a cripple on the road 64

"Alas! my gracious mother, why have you put me in
prison?" 74

The Judge thought that the bundle was full of roubles 184

And so saying, he stretched out his hand to take the
sword 226

FOREWORD

The special interest of this volume of Russian Folk Tales is that it
is a translation from a collection of peasant Chap-books of all sorts
made in Moscow about 1830, long before the Censorship had in great
measure stopped the growth of popular literature. It is not necessary
to dilate upon the peculiarities of Chap-books and their methods: in
the conditions of their existence many of the finest qualities of the
primitive stories are eliminated, but on the other hand certain
essentials are enforced. The story must be direct, the interest
sustained, and the language however fine, simple and easily
understood.

It is to be hoped that some of these merits have been preserved in
this translation: for this book is intended to appeal to a class of
severe and incorruptible critics--the children of to-day. To older
critics the matter is also interesting. Who on earth would ever expect
to find in a Russian Chap-book printed in Slavonic type on a coarse
broadside sheet the Provencal legend of "Pierre et Maguelonne" or the
Old English tale of "Bevis of Hampton." And the mystery deepens when
one is told that Bevis of Hampton is ages old in Russia, however the
names have been re-furbished by the printer to--not the English,
but--the Italian form. Some of the tales are evidently of German
origin--a