X 
KOSHCHEI THE DEATHLESS 
Amonc the folk-tales which amuse our children and 
afford matter of speculation for philosophers, few are 
more widely known than the story of “The Town 
Musicians of Bremen,” which is Number 27 of the 
Grimm collection, the story that tells how a party of 
robbers, who had cosily ensconced themselves in a house 
in the forest, were driven forth in a panic by the music 
of a quartet of beasts that brayed, barked, caterwauled, 
and crowed in weird and grewsome concert. The 
story is perhaps most generally known from the 
Grimm version, but it is found in one shape or another 
in all the Teutonic and Keltic parts of Europe. It 
appears as indigenous in Ireland, under the title of 
“Jack and his Comrades,” where some features are 
added which bring it within the large class of stories 
relating to grateful beasts. Jack is the young hero 
who figures so conspicuously in nursery literature, who 
starts out to seek his fortune. He drags the ass out 
of a bog in which he is floundering, and afterward 
rescues the dog from some naughty boys who are 
tormenting him. The accession of the cat to the 
company is marked by no special adventure, but the 
cock is saved by the dog’s prowess from the clutches 
of a red fox which is carrying it off. When they all 
reach the house in the wood, it is Jack who creeps up 
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