x INTRODUCTION.

Ralston, I fancy, was the first to call the attention
of the West to these curious stories, though the want
at that time of a good Ruthenian dictionary (a want
since supplied by the excellent lexicon of Zhelekhovsky
and Nidilsky) prevented him from utilizing them.
Another Slavonic scholar, Mr. Morfill, has also fre-
quently alluded to them (most recently in his
interesting history of Poland) in terms of enthusiastic
but by no means extravagant praise.

The three chief collections of Ruthenian Folk-Lore
are those of Kulish, Rudchenko, and Dragomanov,
which represent, at least approximately, the three
dialects into which Ruthenian is generally divided.
It is from these three collections that the present
selection has been made. Kulish, who has the
merit of priority, was little more than a pioneer,
his contribution merely consisting of some dozen
hazki (mirchen) and kazochiki (miirchenlein), in-
corporated in the second volume of his: Zapishi o
yuzhnoi Rusi (Descriptions of South Russia), St.
Petersburg, 1856-7. Twelve years later Rudchenko
published at Kiev what is still, on the. whole, the
best collection of Ruthenian Folk-Tales, under the
title of Narodnuiya Yuzhnorusskiya Skazki (Popular
South Russian Mirchen). Like Linnrét among the
Finns, Rudchenko took down the greater part of
these tales direct from the lips of the people. Ina