This book is published in memory Nikita Il"ich Tolstoi (1923-1996), an outstanding Slavicist of the second half of the 20th century. The collection of his colleagues and pupils covers the areas of Tolstoi"s academic interests: folk culture, mythology, ethnolinguistics. Also available by N. Tolstoi: Iazyk i Narodnaia Kul"tura: Ocherki po Slavianskoi Mifologii i Etnolingvistike (1995); N.I. Tolstoi. Izbrannye Trudy v 3-kh Tomakh (1997-1999).