Russian, Czech, Polish and Magyar wonder-tales in one volume: Koshchei the Deathless, the Fire-Bird, the three kingdoms of copper, silver and gold, and the water of life. Jeremiah Curtin was a linguist who worked for the Smithsonian and translated Sienkiewicz into English. He took the stories down close to the way they were told, and his introduction explains what a Slavic tale does that a German one does not. Sixty plates by painters including Savrasov and Vasnetsov show the northern land, woodland and old Moscow streets that give these tales their weather and their ground.