Ghost Stories., part 5 Ghost Stories., part 5 of «Russian Fairy Tales: A Choice Collection of Muscovite Folk-lore»: the whole text, 105 sentences and 1032 words. Every sentence has its own page with its syntax tree and pragmatics, parsed by Mova itself.
1 [380] Afanasief, iv. 2 No. 7. 3 From the Archangel Government. 4 [381] _Zhornovtsui_, _i.e._ mill-stones, or a hand-mill. 5 [382] Pp. 6 341-349 of the first edition. 7 See, also, for some other versions of the story, as well as for an attempt to explain it, A. de Gubernatis, "Zoological Mythology," i. 243, 244. 8 [383] See _supra_, chap. 9 I. p. 36. 10 [384] Afanasief, iv. 11 No. 9. 12 [385] Ibid., iv. 13 No. 7. p. 34. 14 [386] _Prigovarivat'_ = to say or sing while using certain (usually menacing) gestures. 15 [387] Afanasief, iv. p. 35. 16 [388] Afanasief, vi. 17 No. 2. 18 [389] Afanasief, "Legendui," No. 33. 19 [390] Chudinsky, No. 9. 20 [391] Afanasief, v. No. 47. 21 From the Tver Government. 22 [392] "You have fallen here" _neladno_. 23 _Ladno_ means "well," "propitiously," &c., also "in tune." 24 [393] _Nenashi_ = not ours. 25 [394] _Gospodi blagoslovi! 26 _ exactly our "God bless us;" with us now merely an expression of surprise. 27 [395] _Iz adu kromyeshnago_ = from the last hell. 28 _Kromyeshnaya t'ma_ = utter darkness. 29 _Kromyeshny_, or _kromyeshnaya_, is sometimes used by itself to signify hell. 30 [396] _Ha pomin dushi. 31 _ _Pomin_ = "remembrance," also "prayers for the dead." 32 [397] Afanasief, vii. 33 No. 20. 34 In some variants of this story, instead of the three holy elders appear the Saviour, St. Nicholas, and St. Mitrofan. 35 [398] "Die Nelke," Grimm, _KM. 36 _, No. 76, and vol. iii. pp. 37 125-6. 38 [399] Wenzig, No. 17, pp. 39 82-6. 40 [400] See Chap. 41 I. p. 32. 42 [401] Afanasief, v. p. 144. 43 [402] Afanasief, vi, p. 322, 323. 44 [403] Evening gatherings of young people. 45 [404] Afanasief, v. No. 30 _a_, pp. 46 140-2. 47 From the Voroneje Government. 48 [405] _Obyednya_, the service answering to the Latin mass. 49 [406] At the end of the _obyednya_. 50 [407] The _kosa_ or single braid in which Russian girls wear their hair. 51 See "Songs of the Russian People," pp. 52 272-5. 53 On a story of this kind Goethe founded his weird ballad of "Der Todtentanz." 54 Cf. 55 Bertram's "Sagen," No. 18. 56 [408] Afanasief, v. pp. 57 142-4. 58 From the Tambof Government. 59 [409] Afanasief, vi. pp. 60 324, 325. 61 [410] _Chasovenka_, a small chapel, shrine, or oratory. 62 [411] Afanasief, vi. pp 321, 322. 63 [412] Afanasief, v. pp. 64 144-7. 65 From the Tambof Government. 66 [413] On this account Hanush believes that the Old Slavonians, as burners of their dead, must have borrowed the vampire belief from some other race. 67 See the "Zeitschrift fuer deutsche Mythologie," &c., vol. iv. p. 199. 68 But it is not certain that burial by cremation was universally practised by the heathen Slavonians. 69 Kotlyarevsky, in his excellent work on their funeral customs, arrives at the conclusion that there never was any general rule on the subject, but that some Slavonians buried without burning, while others first burned their dead, and then inhumed their ashes. 70 See "Songs of the Russian People," p. 325. 71 [414] See the strange stories in Maurer's "Islaendische Volkssagen," pp. 72 112, and 300, 301. 73 [415] As in the case of Glam, the terrible spectre which Grettir had so much difficulty in overcoming. 74 To all who appreciate a shudder may be recommended chap. xxxv. of "The Story of Grettir the Strong," translated from the Icelandic by E. Magnusson and W. Morris, 1869. 75 [416] The ordinary Modern-Greek word for a vampire, +vourkolakas+, he says, "is undoubtedly of Slavonic origin, being identical with the Slavonic name of the werwolf, which is called in Bohemian _vlkodlak_, in Bulgarian and Slovak, _vrkolak_, &c.," the vampire and the werwolf having many points in common. 76 Moreover, the Regular name for a vampire in Servian, he remarks, is _vukodlak_. 77 This proves the Slavonian nature (_die Slavicitaet_) of the name beyond all doubt.--"Volksleben der Neugriechen," 1871, p. 159. 78 [417] In Crete and Rhodes, +katachanas+; in Cyprus, +sarkomenos+; in Tenos, +anaikathoumenos+. 79 The Turks, according to Mr. Tozer, give the name of _vurkolak_, and some of the Albanians, says Hahn, give that of +vourvolak-ou+ to the restless dead. 80 Ibid, p. 160. 81 [418] Russian _vampir_, South-Russian _upuir_, anciently _upir_; Polish _upior_, Polish and Bohemian _upir_. 82 Supposed by some philologists to be from _pit'_ = drink, whence the Croatian name for a vampire _pijawica_. 83 See "Songs of the Russian People," p. 410. 84 [419] Afanasief, _P.V.S. 85 _ iii. 86
87 The story is translated in full in "Songs of the Russian People," pp. 88 411, 412 89 [420] In a most valuable article on "Vampirism" in the "Zeitschrift fuer deutsche Mythologie und Sittenkunde," Bd. iv. 90 1859, pp. 91 259-82. 92 [421] How superior our intelligence is to that of Slavonian peasants is proved by the fact that they still drive stakes through supposed vampires, whereas our law no longer demands that a suicide shall have a stake driven through his corpse. 93 That rite was abolished by 4 Geo. iv. c. 52. 94 [422] Compare with this belief the Scotch superstition mentioned by Pennant, that if a dog or cat pass over a corpse the animal must be killed at once. 95 As illustrative of this idea, Mr. Henderson states, on the authority of "an old Northumbrian hind," that "in one case, just as a funeral was about to leave the house, the cat jumped over the coffin, and no one would move till the cat was destroyed." 96 In another, a colly dog jumped over a coffin which a funeral party had set on the ground while they rested. " 97 It was felt by all that the dog must be killed, without hesitation, before they proceeded farther, and killed it was." 98 With us the custom survives; its explanation has been forgotten. 99 See Henderson's "Notes on the Folk Lore of the Northern Counties of England," 1866, p. 43. 100 [423] A great deal of information about vampires, and also about turnskins, wizards and witches, will be found in Afanasief, _P.V.S. ← previous Ghost Stories., part 4next → Chapter VI. LEGENDS, part 1↑ back to Russian Fairy Tales: A Choice Collection of Muscovite Folk-lore This page in Markdown → https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/55/