Front matter

"She gave him a touchstone and flint"

FOLK TALES FROM THE RUSSIAN

RETOLD BY

VERRA XENOPHONTOVNA KALAMATIANO DE BLUMENTHAL

Core Collection Books, inc.

GREAT NECK, NEW YORK

BOISE STATE UNIVERSITY LIBRARY

First Published 1903 Reprinted 1979

International Standard Book Number 0-8486-0216-1

Library of Congress Catalog Number 78-74512

PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

FOREWORD

In Russia, as elsewhere in the world, folklore is rapidly scattering before the practical spirit of modern progress. The traveling peasant bard or story teller, and the devoted "nyanya", the beloved nurse of many a generation, are rapidly dying out, and with them the tales and legends, the last echoes of the nation's early joys and sufferings, hopes and fears, are passing away. The student of folk-lore knows that the time has come when haste is needed to catch these vanishing songs of the nation's youth and to preserve them for the delight of future generations. In sending forth the stories in the present volume, all of which are here set down in print for the first time, it is my hope that they may enable American children to share with the children of Russia the pleasure of glancing into the magic world of the old Slavic nation.

THE AUTHOR.

THE TABLE OF CONTENTS

Foreword

A List of Illustrations

Dedication

Notes

FOLK TALES

The Tsarevna Frog

Seven Simeons

The Language of the Birds

Ivanoushka the Simpleton

Woe Bogotir

Baba Yaga

Dimian the Peasant

The Golden Mountain

Father Frost