--- title: Chapter III. MYTHOLOGICAL, part 4 — Russian Fairy Tales: A Choice Collection of Musc… · full text with trees description: Chapter III. MYTHOLOGICAL, part 4, «Russian Fairy Tales: A Choice Collection of Muscovite Folk-lore»: the whole chapter, every sentence with its dependency tree and pragmatics. It begins: In one of the Wallachian tales[260] the hero is assisted in his search after the dragon-stolen heroine by three --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/38/) [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 4 # Chapter III. MYTHOLOGICAL, part 4 Chapter III. MYTHOLOGICAL, part 4 of «Russian Fairy Tales: A Choice Collection of Muscovite Folk-lore»: the whole text, 149 sentences and 2619 words. Every sentence has its own page with its syntax tree and pragmatics, parsed by Mova itself; 3 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/pg22373/38/page/2/) - [1](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/38/1/) — In one of the Wallachian tales\[260\] the hero is assisted in his search after the dragon-stolen heroine by three supernatural females--the holy Mothers Friday, Wednesday, and Sunday. - [2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/38/2/) — They replace the three benignant Baba Yagas of Russian stories. - [3](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/38/3/) — In another,\[261\] the same three beings assist the Wallachian Psyche when she is wandering in quest of her lost husband. - [4](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/38/4/) — Mother Sunday rules the animal world, and can collect her subjects by playing on a magic flute. - [5](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/38/5/) — She is represented as exercising authority over both birds and beasts, and in a Slovak story she bestows on the hero a magic horse. - [6](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/38/6/) — He has been sent by an unnatural mother in search of various things hard to be obtained, but he is assisted in the quest by St. Ned\[)e\]lka, who provides him with various magical implements, and lends him her own steed Tatoschik, and so enables him four times to escape from the perils to which he has been exposed by his mother, whose mind has been entirely corrupted by an insidious dragon. - [7](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/38/7/) — But after he has returned home in safety, his mother binds him as if in sport, and the dragon chops off his head and cuts his body to pieces. - [8](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/38/8/) — His mother retains his heart, but ties up the rest of him in a bundle, and sets it on Tatoschik's back. - [9](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/38/9/) — The steed carries its ghastly burden to St. Ned\[)e\]lka, who soon reanimates it, and the youth becomes as sound and vigorous as a young man without a heart can be. - [10](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/38/10/) — Then the saint sends him, under the disguise of a begging piper, to the castle in which his mother dwells, and instructs him how to get his heart back again. - [11](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/38/11/) — He succeeds, and carries it in his hand to St. Ned\[)e\]lka. - [12](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/38/12/) — She gives it to "the bird Pelekan (no mere Pelican, but a magic fowl with a very long and slim neck), which puts its head down the youth's throat, and restores his heart to its right place." - [13](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/38/13/) — \[262\] - [14](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/38/14/) — St. Friday and St. Wednesday appear to belong to that class of spiritual beings, sometimes of a demoniacal disposition, with which the imagination of the old Slavonians peopled the elements. - [15](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/38/15/) — Of several of these--such as the Domovoy or House-Spirit, the Rusalka or Naiad, and the Vodyany or Water-Sprite--I have written at some length elsewhere,\[263\] and therefore I will not at present quote any of the stories in which they figure. - [16](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/38/16/) — But, as a specimen of the class to which such tales as these belong, here is a skazka about one of the wood-sprites or Slavonic Satyrs, who are still believed by the peasants to haunt the forests of Russia. - [17](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/38/17/) — In it we see reduced to a vulgar form, and brought into accordance with everyday peasant-life, the myth which appears to have given rise to the endless stories about the theft and recovery of queens and princesses. - [18](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/38/18/) — The leading idea of the story is the same, but the Snake or Koshchei has become a paltry wood-demon, the hero is a mere hunter, and the princely heroine has sunk to the low estate of a priest's daughter. - [19](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/38/19/) — THE LESHY. - [20](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/38/20/) — \[264\] - [21](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/38/21/) — A certain priest's daughter went strolling in the forest one day, without having obtained leave from her father or her mother--and she disappeared utterly. - [22](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/38/22/) — Three years went by. - [23](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/38/23/) — Now in the village in which her parents dwelt there lived a bold hunter, who went daily roaming through the thick woods with his dog and his gun. - [24](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/38/24/) — One day he was going through the forest; all of a sudden his dog began to bark, and the hair of its back bristled up. - [25](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/38/25/) — The sportsman looked, and saw lying in the woodland path before him a log, and on the log there sat a moujik plaiting a bast shoe. - [26](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/38/26/) — And as he plaited the shoe, he kept looking up at the moon, and saying with a menacing gesture:-- - [27](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/38/27/) — "Shine, shine, O bright moon!" - [28](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/38/28/) — The sportsman was astounded. " - [29](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/38/29/) — How comes it," thinks he, "that the moujik looks like that?--he is still young; but his hair is grey as a badger's." - [30](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/38/30/) — \[265\] - [31](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/38/31/) — He only thought these words, but the other replied, as if guessing what he meant:-- - [32](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/38/32/) — "Grey am I, being the devil's grandfather!" - [33](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/38/33/) — \[266\] - [34](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/38/34/) — Then the sportsman guessed that he had before him no mere moujik, but a Leshy. - [35](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/38/35/) — He levelled his gun and--bang! he let him have it right in the paunch. - [36](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/38/36/) — The Leshy groaned, and seemed to be going to fall across the log; but directly afterwards he got up and dragged himself into the thickets. — checked by a teacher - [37](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/38/37/) — After him ran the dog in pursuit, and after the dog followed the sportsman. - [38](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/38/38/) — He walked and walked, and came to a hill: in that hill was a fissure, and in the fissure stood a hut. - [39](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/38/39/) — He entered the hut--there on a bench lay the Leshy stone dead, and by his side a damsel, exclaiming, amid bitter tears:-- - [40](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/38/40/) — "Who now will give me to eat and to drink?" - [41](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/38/41/) — "Hail, fair maiden!" says the hunter. " - [42](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/38/42/) — Tell me whence thou comest, and whose daughter thou art?" - [43](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/38/43/) — "Ah, good youth! - [44](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/38/44/) — I know not that myself, any more than if I had never seen the free light--never known a father and mother." - [45](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/38/45/) — "Well, get ready as soon as you can. - [46](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/38/46/) — I will take you back to Holy Russia." - [47](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/38/47/) — So he took her away with him, and brought her out of the forest. - [48](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/38/48/) — And all the way he went along, he cut marks on the trees. - [49](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/38/49/) — Now this damsel had been carried off by the Leshy, and had lived in his hut for three years--her clothes were all worn out, or had got torn off her back, so that she was stark naked but she wasn't a bit ashamed of that. - [50](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/38/50/) — When they reached the village, the sportsman began asking whether there was any one there who had lost a girl. - [51](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/38/51/) — Up came the priest, and cried, "Why, that's my daughter." - [52](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/38/52/) — Up came running the priest's wife, and cried:-- - [53](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/38/53/) — "O thou dear child! where hast thou been so long? - [54](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/38/54/) — I had no hope of ever seeing thee again." - [55](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/38/55/) — But the girl gazed and just blinked with her eyes, understanding nothing. - [56](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/38/56/) — After a time, however, she began slowly to come back to her senses. - [57](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/38/57/) — Then the priest and his wife gave her in marriage to the hunter, and rewarded him with all sorts of good things. - [58](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/38/58/) — And they went in search of the hut in which she had lived while she was with the Leshy. - [59](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/38/59/) — Long did they wander about the forest; but that hut they never found. - [60](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/38/60/) — To another group of personifications belong those of the Rivers. - [61](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/38/61/) — About them many stories are current, generally having reference to their alleged jealousies and disputes. - [62](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/38/62/) — Thus it is said that when God was allotting their shares to the rivers, the Desna did not come in time, and so failed to obtain precedence over the Dnieper. - [63](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/38/63/) — "Try and get before him yourself," said the Lord. - [64](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/38/64/) — The Desna set off at full speed, but in spite of all her attempts, the Dnieper always kept ahead of her until he fell into the sea, where the Desna was obliged to join him. - [65](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/38/65/) — \[267\] - [66](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/38/66/) — About the Volga and its affluent, the Vazuza, the following story is told:-- - [67](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/38/67/) — VAZUZA AND VOLGA. - [68](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/38/68/) — \[268\] - [69](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/38/69/) — Volga and Vazuza had a long dispute as to which was the wiser, the stronger, and the more worthy of high respect. - [70](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/38/70/) — They wrangled and wrangled, but neither could gain the mastery in the dispute, so they decided upon the following course:-- - [71](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/38/71/) — "Let us lie down together to sleep," they said, "and whichever of us is the first to rise, and the quickest to reach the Caspian Sea, she shall be held to be the wiser of us two, and the stronger and the worthier of respect." - [72](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/38/72/) — So Volga lay down to sleep; down lay Vazuza also. - [73](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/38/73/) — But during the night Vazuza rose silently, fled away from Volga, chose the nearest and the straightest line, and flowed away. - [74](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/38/74/) — When Volga awoke, she set off neither slowly nor hurriedly, but with just befitting speed. - [75](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/38/75/) — At Zubtsof she came up with Vazuza. - [76](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/38/76/) — So threatening was her mien, that Vazuza was frightened, declared herself to be Volga's younger sister, and besought Volga to take her in her arms and bear her to the Caspian Sea. - [77](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/38/77/) — And so to this day Vazuza is the first to awake in the Spring, and then she arouses Volga from her wintry sleep. - [78](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/38/78/) — In the Government of Tula a similar tradition is current about the Don and the Shat, both of which flow out of Lake Ivan. - [79](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/38/79/) — Lake Ivan had two sons, Shat and Don. - [80](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/38/80/) — Shat, contrary to his father's wishes, wanted to roam abroad, so he set out on his travels, but go whither he would, he could get received nowhere. - [81](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/38/81/) — So, after fruitless wanderings, he returned home. - [82](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/38/82/) — But Don, in return for his constant quietness (the river is known as "the quiet Don"), obtained his father's blessing, and he boldly set out on a long journey. - [83](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/38/83/) — On the way, he met a raven, and asked it where it was flying. — checked by a teacher - [84](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/38/84/) — "To the blue sea," answered the raven. - [85](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/38/85/) — "Let's go together!" - [86](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/38/86/) — Well, they reached the sea. - [87](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/38/87/) — Don thought to himself, "If I dive right through the sea, I shall carry it away with me." - [88](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/38/88/) — "Raven!" he said, "do me a service. - [89](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/38/89/) — I am going to plunge into the sea, but do you fly over to the other side and as soon as you reach the opposite shore, give a croak." - [90](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/38/90/) — Don plunged into the sea. - [91](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/38/91/) — The raven flew and croaked--but too soon. - [92](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/38/92/) — Don remained just as he appears at the present day. - [93](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/38/93/) — \[269\] - [94](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/38/94/) — In White-Russia there is a legend about two rivers, the beginning of which has evidently been taken from the story of Jacob and Esau:-- - [95](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/38/95/) — SOZH AND DNIEPER. - [96](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/38/96/) — There was once a blind old man called Dvina. - [97](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/38/97/) — He had two sons--the elder called Sozh, and the younger Dnieper. - [98](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/38/98/) — Sozh was of a boisterous turn, and went roving about the forests, the hills, and the plains; but Dnieper was remarkably sweet-tempered, and he spent all his time at home, and was his mother's favorite. - [99](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/38/99/) — Once, when Sozh was away from home, the old father was deceived by his wife into giving the elder son's blessing to the younger son. - [100](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/38/100/) — Thus spake Dvina while blessing him:-- **1** [2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/38/page/2/) - ← previous: [Chapter III. MYTHOLOGICAL, part 3](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/37/) - next →: [Chapter III. MYTHOLOGICAL, part 5](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/39/) - ↑ back to [Russian Fairy Tales: A Choice Collection of Muscovite Folk-lore](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/)