306 KOSHCHEI THE DEATHLESS 
dawn nymph, with her robe of crimson twilight, and, 
according to the German version, yields her up whole 
and sound when he is cut open next day. But the 
fish who devours the sun is more often a water-snake, 
or sea-dragon, and we have seen that Koshchei the 
Deathless is connected by ties of kinship with these 
mythical animals. In the readiness with which Kosh- 
chei and the water fiend of the Bohemian legend 
undergo metamorphosis we are reminded of the clas- 
sic Proteus. But in the suddenness with which their 
giant strength is acquired we seem to have a reminis- 
cence of the myth of Hermes, the god of the winds in 
the Homeric Hymn, who, while yet an infant in the 
cradle, becomes endowed with giant powers, and works 
mischief with the cloud cattle of Apollo, retreating 
afterward through the keyhole, and shrinking back 
into his cradle with a mocking laugh. This mythical 
conception duly reappears in the Arabian story of the 
Efreet whom the fisherman releases from a bottle, who 
instantly grows into a gigantic form that towers among 
the clouds. 
- Thus in these curious stories, to which our children 
listen to-day with breathless interest, we have the old 
mythical notions of primitive people most strangely 
distorted and blended together. We may fairly regard 
them as the alluvial refuse which the stream of tradi- 
tion has brought down from those distant highlands of 
mythology where our primeval ancestors recorded their 
crude and childlike impressions of the course of natural 
events. Out of the mouths of babes comes wisdom; 
and so from this quaint medley of nursery lore we 
catch glimpses of the thoughts of mankind in ages 
of which the historic tradition has utterly vanished. 
- nee mine iS eS Bo ee ~ 
