Fairy tales and folk tales originally published in 1894 and translated from a dialect spoken in the area known to us today as western Ukraine.<\/p>\n
The translator Robert Nisbet Bain<\/a> (1854-1909) was a British historian and linguist who apart from his translations also wrote works on folklore and history.<\/p>\n The tales found in this volume are a selection of three different collections which Bain presents in the preface and include familiar characters and fairy tale tropes, such as a tale of a mysterious sack which grants food, a ram which gives gold, and a drum that summons henchmen who give people a good beating.<\/p>\n This last tale can also be found in a version called \u201cThe Wishing-Table, the Gold-Ass, and the Cudgel in the Sack\u201d by the brothers Grimm.<\/p>\n In \u201cThe Story of little Tsar Novishny, the False sister, and the Faitful Beasts\u201d and \u201cThe Vampire and St. Michael\u201d, the act of not crossing oneself before drinking or bathing in a stream or river leads to being possessed by the Devil, something we should all keep in mind.<\/p>\n This edition from 1916 is adorned with beautiful illustrations from Scottish artist Noel Laura Nisbet. Bain\u2019s book on Russian fairy tales, also illustrated by Nisbet, can be found here<\/a>.<\/p>\n