| Show spirits of the witter water the russians believe that the Rus alkas or water spirits are beautiful maidens who allure passersby passers by and if they catch them tickle them to death in their cr crystal ay halls below the waves during one week in the year they come to men for clothes and rags and threads are accordingly hung on the trees for their benefit during that week for fear of offending tho the RuS alkas kaa and being PU punished dished by the loss of poultry or cattle no one must work or sew or wash linen when girls ire re drowned they become Rus alkas and the wives of the watery Vod yany and when snow enow melts into floods or mill dams are carried away by swollen torrents men know that it is due to the matrimonial revelry that always attends tho the celebration of marriage between a mortal and a spirit of the waters this idea of possible relations between vater spirits and human beings seems a very obvious corollary of the idea of humanlike manlike a beings resident in the water the idea of their marrying mortals is at least as reasonable as the idea of their drowning them or tickling them to death and with the idea of such madriago mar riago it would be natural to connect the idea of some benefit to accrue to the water spirit as well as of curious conditions involved in the tha marriage contract thus would arise such stories as those of undine or melusina isina |
