--- title: Chapter VI. LEGENDS, part 1 — Russian Fairy Tales: A Choice Collection of Musc… · full text with trees description: Chapter VI. LEGENDS, part 1, «Russian Fairy Tales: A Choice Collection of Muscovite Folk-lore»: the whole chapter, every sentence with its dependency tree and pragmatics. It begins: I --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/56/) [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 VI. LEGENDS, part 1 # Chapter VI. LEGENDS, part 1 Chapter VI. LEGENDS, part 1 of «Russian Fairy Tales: A Choice Collection of Muscovite Folk-lore»: the whole text, 136 sentences and 2588 words. Every sentence has its own page with its syntax tree and pragmatics, parsed by Mova itself. **1** [2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/56/page/2/) - [1](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/56/1/) — I - [2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/56/2/) — \_About Saints. - [3](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/56/3/) — \_ - [4](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/56/4/) — As besides the songs or \_pyesni\_ there are current among the people a number of \_stikhi\_ or poems on sacred subjects, so together with the \_skazki\_ there have been retained in the popular memory a multitude of \_legendui\_, or legends relating to persons or incidents mentioned in the Bible or in ecclesiastical history. - [5](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/56/5/) — Many of them have been extracted from the various apocryphal books which in olden times had so wide a circulation, and many also from the lives of the Saints; some of them may be traced to such adaptations of Indian legends as the "Varlaam and Josaphat" attributed to St. John of Damascus; and others appear to be ancient heathen traditions, which, with altered names and slightly modified incidents, have been made to do service as Christian narratives. - [6](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/56/6/) — But whatever may be their origin, they all bear witness to the fact of their having been exposed to various influences, and many of them may fairly be considered as relics of hoar antiquity, memorials of that misty period when the pious Slavonian chronicler struck by the confusion of Christian with heathen ideas and ceremonies then prevalent, styled his countrymen a two-faithed people. - [7](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/56/7/) — \[424\] - [8](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/56/8/) — On the popular tales of a religious character current among the Russian peasantry, the duality of their creed, or of that of their ancestors, has produced a twofold effect. - [9](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/56/9/) — On the one hand, into narratives drawn from purely Christian sources there has entered a pagan element, most clearly perceptible in stories which deal with demons and departed spirits; on the other hand, an attempt has been made to give a Christian nature to what are manifestly heathen legends, by lending saintly names to their characters and clothing their ideas in an imitation of biblical language. - [10](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/56/10/) — Of such stories as these, it will be as well to give a few specimens. - [11](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/56/11/) — Among the legends borrowed from the apocryphal books and similar writings, many of which are said to be still carefully preserved among the "Schismatics," concealed in hiding-places of which the secret is handed down from father to son--as was once the case with the Hussite books among the Bohemians--there are many which relate to the creation of the world and the early history of man. - [12](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/56/12/) — One of these states that when the Lord had created Adam and Eve, he stationed at the gates of Paradise the dog, then a clean beast, giving it strict orders not to give admittance to the Evil One. - [13](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/56/13/) — But "the Evil One came to the gates of Paradise, and threw the dog a piece of bread, and the dog went and let the Evil One into Paradise. - [14](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/56/14/) — Then the Evil One set to work and spat over Adam and Eve--covered them all over with spittle, from the head to the little toe of the left foot." - [15](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/56/15/) — Thence is it that spittle is impure (\_pogana\_). - [16](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/56/16/) — So Adam and Eve were turned out of Paradise, and the Lord said to the dog: - [17](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/56/17/) — "Listen, O Dog! thou wert a Dog (\_Sobaka\_), a clean beast; through all Paradise the most holy didst thou roam. - [18](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/56/18/) — Henceforward shalt thou be a Hound (\_Pes\_, or \_Pyos\_), an unclean beast. - [19](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/56/19/) — Into a dwelling it shall be a sin to admit thee; into a church if thou dost run, the church must be consecrated anew." - [20](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/56/20/) — And so--the story concludes--"ever since that time it has been called not a dog but a hound--skin-deep it is unclean (\_pogana\_), but clean within." - [21](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/56/21/) — According to another story, when men first inhabited the earth, they did not know how to build houses, so as to keep themselves warm in winter. - [22](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/56/22/) — But instead of asking aid from the Lord, they applied to the Devil, who taught them how to make an \_izba\_ or ordinary Russian cottage. - [23](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/56/23/) — Following his instructions, they made wooden houses, each of which had a door but no window. - [24](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/56/24/) — Inside these huts it was warm; but there was no living in them, on account of the darkness. " - [25](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/56/25/) — So the people went back to the Evil One. - [26](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/56/26/) — The Evil one strove and strove, but nothing came of it, the izba still remained pitch dark. - [27](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/56/27/) — Then the people prayed unto the Lord. - [28](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/56/28/) — And the Lord said: 'Hew out a window!' - [29](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/56/29/) — So they hewed out windows, and it became light." - [30](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/56/30/) — \[425\] - [31](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/56/31/) — Some of the Russian traditions about the creation of man are closely connected with Teutonic myths. - [32](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/56/32/) — The Schismatics called \_Dukhobortsui\_, or Spirit-Wrestlers, for instance, hold that man was composed of earthly materials, but that God breathed into his body the breath of life. " - [33](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/56/33/) — His flesh was made of earth, his bones of stone, his veins of roots, his blood of water, his hair of grass, his thought of the wind, his spirit of the cloud." - [34](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/56/34/) — \[426\] Many of the Russian stories about the early ages of the world, also, are current in Western Europe, such as that about the rye--which in olden days was a mass of ears from top to bottom. - [35](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/56/35/) — But some lazy harvest-women having cursed "God's corn," the Lord waxed wroth and began to strip the ears from the stem. - [36](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/56/36/) — But when the last ear was about to fall, the Lord had pity upon the penitent culprits, and allowed the single ear to remain as we now see it. - [37](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/56/37/) — \[427\] - [38](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/56/38/) — A Little-Russian variant of this story says that Ilya (Elijah), was so angry at seeing the base uses to which a woman turned "God's corn," that he began to destroy all the corn in the world. - [39](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/56/39/) — But a dog begged for, and received a few ears. - [40](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/56/40/) — From these, after Ilya's wrath was spent, mankind obtained seed, and corn began to grow again on the face of the earth, but not in its pristine bulk and beauty. - [41](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/56/41/) — It is on account of the good service thus rendered to our race that we ought to cherish and feed the dog. - [42](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/56/42/) — \[428\] - [43](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/56/43/) — Another story, from the Archangel Government, tells how a certain King, as he roamed afield with his princes and boyars, found a grain of corn as large as a sparrow's egg. - [44](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/56/44/) — Marvelling greatly at its size, he tried in vain to obtain from his followers some explanation thereof. - [45](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/56/45/) — Then they bethought them of "a certain man from among the old people, who might be able to tell them something about it." - [46](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/56/46/) — But when the old man came, "scarcely able to crawl along on a pair of crutches," he said he knew nothing about it, but perhaps his father might remember something. - [47](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/56/47/) — So they sent for his father, who came limping along with the help of one crutch, and who said: - [48](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/56/48/) — "I have a father living, in whose granary I have seen just such a seed." - [49](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/56/49/) — So they sent for his father, a man a hundred and seventy years old. - [50](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/56/50/) — And the patriarch came, walking nimbly needing neither guide nor crutch. - [51](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/56/51/) — Then the King began to question him, saying: - [52](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/56/52/) — "Who sowed this sort of corn?" - [53](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/56/53/) — "I sowed it, and reaped it," answered the old man, "and now I have some of it in my granary. - [54](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/56/54/) — I keep it as a memorial. - [55](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/56/55/) — When I was young, the grain was large and plentiful, but after a time it began to grow smaller and smaller." - [56](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/56/56/) — "Now tell me," asked the King, "how comes it, old man, that thou goest more nimbly than thy son and thy grandson?" - [57](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/56/57/) — "Because I lived according to the law of the Lord," answered the old man. " - [58](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/56/58/) — I held mine own, I grasped not at what was another's." - [59](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/56/59/) — \[429\] - [60](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/56/60/) — The existence of hills is accounted for by legendary lore in this wise. - [61](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/56/61/) — When the Lord was about to fashion the face of the earth, he ordered the Devil to dive into the watery depths and bring thence a handful of the soil he found at the bottom. - [62](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/56/62/) — The Devil obeyed, but when he filled his hand, he filled his mouth also. - [63](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/56/63/) — The Lord took the soil, sprinkled it around, and the Earth appeared, all perfectly flat. - [64](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/56/64/) — The Devil, whose mouth was quite full, looked on for some time in silence. - [65](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/56/65/) — At last he tried to speak, but choked, and fled in terror. - [66](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/56/66/) — After him followed the thunder and the lightning, and so he rushed over the whole face of the earth, hills springing up where he coughed, and sky-cleaving mountains where he leaped. - [67](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/56/67/) — \[430\] - [68](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/56/68/) — As in other countries, a number of legends are current respecting various animals. - [69](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/56/69/) — Thus the Old Ritualists will not eat the crayfish (\_rak\_), holding that it was created by the Devil. - [70](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/56/70/) — On the other hand the snake (\_uzh\_, the harmless or common snake) is highly esteemed, for tradition says that when the Devil, in the form of a mouse, had gnawed a hole in the Ark, and thereby endangered the safety of Noah and his family, the snake stopped up the leak with its head. - [71](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/56/71/) — \[431\] The flesh of the horse is considered unclean, because when the infant Saviour was hidden in the manger the horse kept eating the hay under which the babe was concealed, whereas the ox not only would not touch it, but brought back hay on its horns to replace what the horse had eaten. - [72](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/56/72/) — According to an old Lithuanian tradition, the shape of the sole is due to the fact that the Queen of the Baltic Sea once ate one half of it and threw the other half into the sea again. - [73](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/56/73/) — A legend from the Kherson Government accounts for it as follows. - [74](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/56/74/) — At the time of the Angelical Salutation, the Blessed Virgin told the Archangel Gabriel that she would give credit to his words "if a fish, one side of which had already been eaten, were to come to life again. - [75](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/56/75/) — That very moment the fish came to life, and was put back in the water." - [76](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/56/76/) — With the birds many graceful legends are connected. - [77](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/56/77/) — There is a bird, probably the peewit, which during dry weather may be seen always on the wing, and piteously crying \_Peet, Peet\_,\[432\] as if begging for water. - [78](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/56/78/) — Of it the following tale is told. - [79](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/56/79/) — When God created the earth, and determined to supply it with seas, lakes and rivers, he ordered the birds to convey the waters to their appointed places. - [80](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/56/80/) — They all obeyed except this bird, which refused to fulfil its duty, saying that it had no need of seas, lakes or rivers, to slake its thirst. - [81](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/56/81/) — Then the Lord waxed wroth and forbade it and its posterity ever to approach a sea or stream, allowing it to quench its thirst with that water only which remains in hollows and among stones after rain. - [82](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/56/82/) — From that time it has never ceased its wailing cry of "Drink, Drink," \_Peet, Peet\_. - [83](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/56/83/) — \[433\] - [84](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/56/84/) — When the Jews were seeking for Christ in the garden, says a Kharkof legend, all the birds, except the sparrow, tried to draw them away from his hiding-place. - [85](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/56/85/) — Only the sparrow attracted them thither by its shrill chirruping. - [86](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/56/86/) — Then the Lord cursed the sparrow, and forbade that men should eat of its flesh. - [87](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/56/87/) — In other parts of Russia, tradition tells that before the crucifixion the swallows carried off the nails provided for the use of the executioners, but the sparrows brought them back. - [88](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/56/88/) — And while our Lord was hanging on the cross the sparrows were maliciously exclaiming \_Jif! - [89](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/56/89/) — Jif! - [90](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/56/90/) — \_ or "He is living! - [91](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/56/91/) — He is living!" in order to urge on the tormentors to fresh cruelties. - [92](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/56/92/) — But the swallows cried, with opposite intent, \_Umer! - [93](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/56/93/) — Umer! - [94](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/56/94/) — \_ "He is dead! - [95](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/56/95/) — He is dead." - [96](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/56/96/) — Therefore it is that to kill a swallow is a sin, and that its nest brings good luck to a house. - [97](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/56/97/) — But the sparrow is an unwelcome guest, whose entry into a cottage is a presage of woe. - [98](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/56/98/) — As a punishment for its sins, its legs have been fastened together by invisible bonds, and therefore it always hops, not being able to run. - [99](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/56/99/) — \[434\] - [100](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/56/100/) — A great number of the Russian legends refer to the visits which Christ and his Apostles are supposed to pay to men's houses at various times, but especially during the period between Easter Sunday and Ascension Day. **1** [2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/56/page/2/) - 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