The book contains studies, essays, publications of ancient texts and records of folk stories, which are united by a common theme - a reflection of the spiritual life of the people in ancient bookishness and oral (partly written) folk tradition; introduces wide reading circles to the treasures of Russian folk literature, and in most cases the form of presentation of the material is subordinated to this task. Four sections of the book include both new author's research in the field of linguistics and retrospective ethnolinguistics, and previously published, most of which are presented in this edition in an expanded and modified form.