[Illustration: "_She gave him a touchstone and flint_"]



FOLK TALES



FROM THE RUSSIAN



RETOLD BY

VERRA XENOPHONTOVNA KALAMATIANO DE BLUMENTHAL




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