--- title: Chapter III. MYTHOLOGICAL, part 3 — Russian Fairy Tales: A Choice Collection of Musc… · full text with trees description: Chapter III. MYTHOLOGICAL, part 3, «Russian Fairy Tales: A Choice Collection of Muscovite Folk-lore»: the whole chapter, every sentence with its dependency tree and pragmatics. It begins: "A bad fellow, that Ivan! now he's rich, he's abandoned us!" --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/37/) [home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [Russian Fairy Tales: A Choice Collecti…](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/) / Chapter III. MYTHOLOGICAL, part 3 # Chapter III. MYTHOLOGICAL, part 3 Chapter III. MYTHOLOGICAL, part 3 of «Russian Fairy Tales: A Choice Collection of Muscovite Folk-lore»: the whole text, 158 sentences and 2615 words. Every sentence has its own page with its syntax tree and pragmatics, parsed by Mova itself; 2 of them are in the tales treebank and were checked by a teacher model. **1** [2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/37/page/2/) - [1](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/37/1/) — "A bad fellow, that Ivan! now he's rich, he's abandoned us!" - [2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/37/2/) — "Who are you?" asks Ivan. " - [3](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/37/3/) — I don't know you a bit." - [4](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/37/4/) — "Not know us! you've forgotten our faithful service, it seems! - [5](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/37/5/) — Why, we're your Zluidni!" - [6](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/37/6/) — "God be with you!" says he. " - [7](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/37/7/) — I don't want you!" - [8](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/37/8/) — "No, no! we will never part from you now!" - [9](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/37/9/) — "Wait a bit!" thinks Ivan, and then continues aloud, "Very good, I'll take you; but only on condition that you bring home my mill-stones for me." - [10](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/37/10/) — So he laid the mill-stones on their backs, and made them go on in front of him. - [11](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/37/11/) — They all had to pass along a bridge over a deep river; the moujik managed to give the Zluidni a shove, and over they went, mill-stones and all, and sank straight to the bottom. - [12](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/37/12/) — \[242\] - [13](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/37/13/) — There is a very curious Servian story of two brothers, one of whom is industrious and unlucky, and the other idle and prosperous. - [14](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/37/14/) — The poor brother one day sees a flock of sheep, and near them a fair maiden spinning a golden thread. - [15](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/37/15/) — "Whose sheep are these?" he asks. - [16](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/37/16/) — "The sheep are his whose I myself am," she replies. - [17](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/37/17/) — "And whose art thou?" he asks. - [18](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/37/18/) — "I am thy brother's Luck," she answers. - [19](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/37/19/) — "But where is my Luck?" he continues - [20](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/37/20/) — "Far away from thee is thy Luck," she replies. - [21](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/37/21/) — "But can I find her?" he asks. - [22](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/37/22/) — "Thou canst; go and seek her," she replies. - [23](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/37/23/) — So the poor man wanders away in search of her. - [24](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/37/24/) — One day he sees a grey-haired old woman asleep under an oak in a great forest, who proves to be his Luck. - [25](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/37/25/) — He asks who it is that has given him such a poor Luck, and is told that it is Fate. - [26](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/37/26/) — So he goes in search of Fate. - [27](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/37/27/) — When he finds her, she is living at ease in a large house, but day by day her riches wane and her house contracts. - [28](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/37/28/) — She explains to her visitor that her condition at any given hour affects the whole lives of all children born at that time, and that he had come into the world at a most unpropitious moment; and she advises him to take his niece Militsa (who had been born at a lucky time) to live in his house, and to call all he might acquire her property. - [29](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/37/29/) — This advice he follows, and all goes well with him. - [30](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/37/30/) — One day, as he is gazing at a splendid field of corn, a stranger asks him to whom it belongs. - [31](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/37/31/) — In a forgetful moment he replies, "It is mine," and immediately the whole crop begins to burn. - [32](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/37/32/) — He runs after the stranger and cries, "Stop, brother! that field isn't mine, but my niece Militsa's," whereupon the fire goes out and the crop is saved. - [33](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/37/33/) — \[243\] - [34](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/37/34/) — On this idea of a personal Fortune is founded the quaint opening of one of the Russian stories. - [35](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/37/35/) — A certain peasant, known as Ivan the Unlucky, in despair at his constant want of success, goes to the king for advice. — checked by a teacher - [36](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/37/36/) — The king lays the matter before "his nobles and generals," but they can make nothing of it. - [37](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/37/37/) — At last the king's daughter enters the council chamber and says, "This is my opinion, my father. - [38](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/37/38/) — If he were to be married, the Lord might allot him another sort of Fortune." - [39](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/37/39/) — The king flies into a passion and exclaims: - [40](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/37/40/) — "Since you've settled the question better than all of us, go and marry him yourself!" - [41](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/37/41/) — The marriage takes place, and brings Ivan good luck along with it. - [42](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/37/42/) — \[244\] - [43](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/37/43/) — Similar references to a man's good or bad luck frequently occur in the skazkas. - [44](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/37/44/) — Thus in one of them (from the Grodno Government) a poor man meets "two ladies (\_pannui\_), and those ladies are--the one Fortune and the other Misfortune." - [45](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/37/45/) — \[245\] He tells them how poor he is, and they agree that it will be well to bestow something on him. " - [46](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/37/46/) — Since he is one of yours," says Luck, "do you make him a present." - [47](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/37/47/) — At length they take out ten roubles and give them to him. - [48](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/37/48/) — He hides the money in a pot, and his wife gives it away to a neighbor. - [49](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/37/49/) — Again they assist him, giving him twenty roubles, and again his wife gives them away unwittingly. - [50](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/37/50/) — Then the ladies bestow on him two farthings (\_groshi\_), telling him to give them to fishermen, and bid them make a cast "for his luck." - [51](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/37/51/) — He obeys, and the result is the capture of a fish which brings him in wealth. - [52](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/37/52/) — \[246\] - [53](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/37/53/) — In another story\[247\] a young man, the son of a wealthy merchant, is so unlucky that nothing will prosper with him. - [54](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/37/54/) — Having lost all that his father has left him, he hires himself out, first as a laborer, then as a herdsman. — checked by a teacher - [55](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/37/55/) — But as, in each capacity, he involves his masters in heavy losses, he soon finds himself without employment. - [56](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/37/56/) — Then he tries another country, in which the king gives him a post as a sort of stoker in the royal distillery, which he soon all but burns down. - [57](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/37/57/) — The king is at first bent upon punishing him, but pardons him after hearing his sad tale. " - [58](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/37/58/) — He bestowed on him the name of Luckless,\[248\] and gave orders that a stamp should be set on his forehead, that no tolls or taxes should be demanded from him, and that wherever he appeared he should be given free board and lodging, but that he should never be allowed to stop more than twenty-four hours in any one place." - [59](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/37/59/) — These orders are obeyed, and wherever Luckless goes, "nobody ever asks him for his billet or his passport, but they give him food to eat, and liquor to drink, and a place to spend the night in; and next morning they take him by the scruff of the neck and turn him out of doors." - [60](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/37/60/) — \[249\] - [61](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/37/61/) — We will now turn from the forms under which popular fiction has embodied some of the ideas connected with Fortune and Misfortune, to another strange group of figures--the personifications of certain days of the week. - [62](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/37/62/) — Of these, by far the most important is that of Friday. - [63](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/37/63/) — The Russian name for that day, \_Pyatnitsa\_,\[250\] has no such mythological significance as have our own Friday and the French \_Vendredi\_. - [64](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/37/64/) — But the day was undoubtedly consecrated by the old Slavonians to some goddess akin to Venus or Freyja, and her worship in ancient times accounts for the superstitions now connected with the name of Friday. - [65](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/37/65/) — According to Afanasief,\[251\] the Carinthian name for the day, \_Sibne dan\_, is a clear proof that it was once holy to Siva, the Lithuanian Seewa, the Slavonic goddess answering to Ceres. - [66](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/37/66/) — In Christian times the personality of the goddess (by whatever name she may have been known) to whom Friday was consecrated became merged in that of St. Prascovia, and she is now frequently addressed by the compound name of "Mother Pyatnitsa-Prascovia." - [67](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/37/67/) — As she is supposed to wander about the houses of the peasants on her holy day, and to be offended if she finds certain kinds of work going on, they are (or at least they used to be) frequently suspended on Fridays. - [68](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/37/68/) — It is a sin, says a time-honored tradition, for a woman to sew, or spin, or weave, or buck linen on a Friday, and similarly for a man to plait bast shoes, twine cord, and the like. - [69](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/37/69/) — Spinning and weaving are especially obnoxious to "Mother Friday," for the dust and refuse thus produced injure her eyes. - [70](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/37/70/) — When this takes place, she revenges herself by plagues of sore-eyes, whitlows and agnails. - [71](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/37/71/) — In some places the villagers go to bed early on Friday evening, believing that "St. Pyatinka" will punish all whom she finds awake when she roams through the cottage. - [72](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/37/72/) — In others they sweep their floors every Thursday evening, that she may not be annoyed by dust or the like when she comes next day. - [73](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/37/73/) — Sometimes, however, she has been seen, says the popular voice, "all pricked with the needles and pierced by the spindles" of the careless woman who sewed and spun on the day they ought to have kept holy in her honor. - [74](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/37/74/) — As for any work begun on a Friday, it is sure to go wrong. - [75](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/37/75/) — \[252\] - [76](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/37/76/) — These remarks will be sufficient to render intelligible the following story of-- - [77](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/37/77/) — FRIDAY. - [78](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/37/78/) — \[253\] - [79](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/37/79/) — There was once a certain woman who did not pay due reverence to Mother Friday, but set to work on a distaff-ful of flax, combing and whirling it. - [80](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/37/80/) — She span away till dinner-time, then suddenly sleep fell upon her--such a deep sleep! - [81](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/37/81/) — And when she had gone to sleep, suddenly the door opened and in came Mother Friday, before the eyes of all who were there, clad in a white dress, and in such a rage! - [82](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/37/82/) — And she went straight up to the woman who had been spinning, scooped up from the floor a handful of the dust that had fallen out of the flax, and began stuffing and stuffing that woman's eyes full of it! - [83](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/37/83/) — And when she had stuffed them full, she went off in a rage--disappeared without saying a word. - [84](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/37/84/) — When the woman awoke, she began squalling at the top of her voice about her eyes, but couldn't tell what was the matter with them. - [85](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/37/85/) — The other women, who had been terribly frightened, began to cry out: - [86](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/37/86/) — "Oh, you wretch, you! you've brought a terrible punishment on yourself from Mother Friday." - [87](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/37/87/) — Then they told her all that had taken place. - [88](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/37/88/) — She listened to it all, and then began imploringly: - [89](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/37/89/) — "Mother Friday, forgive me! pardon me, the guilty one! - [90](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/37/90/) — I'll offer thee a taper, and I'll never let friend or foe dishonor thee, Mother!" - [91](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/37/91/) — Well, what do you think? - [92](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/37/92/) — During the night, back came Mother Friday and took the dust out of that woman's eyes, so that she was able to get about again. - [93](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/37/93/) — It's a great sin to dishonor Mother Friday--combing and spinning flax, forsooth! - [94](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/37/94/) — Very similar to this story is that about Wednesday which follows. - [95](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/37/95/) — Wednesday, the day consecrated to Odin, the eve of the day sacred to the Thundergod,\[254\] may also have been held holy by the heathen Slavonians, but to some commentators it appears more likely that the traditions now attached to it in Russia became transferred to it from Friday in Christian times--Wednesday and Friday having been associated by the Church as days sacred to the memory of Our Lord's passion and death. - [96](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/37/96/) — The Russian name for the day, \_Sereda\_ or \_Sreda\_, means "the middle," Wednesday being the middle of the working week. - [97](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/37/97/) — WEDNESDAY. - [98](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/37/98/) — \[255\] - [99](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/37/99/) — A young housewife was spinning late one evening. - [100](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/37/100/) — It was during the night between a Tuesday and a Wednesday. **1** [2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/37/page/2/) - ← previous: [Chapter III. MYTHOLOGICAL, part 2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/36/) - next →: [Chapter III. MYTHOLOGICAL, part 4](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/38/) - ↑ back to [Russian Fairy Tales: A Choice Collection of Muscovite Folk-lore](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/)