Turkic amulets, not only were these egg-shaped, but they would often contain arrowheads (cf. the needle in Koschei's egg). It is thought that many of the negative aspects of Koschei's character are distortions of a more nuanced relationship of Khan Konchak with the Christian Slavs, such as his rescuing of Prince Igor from captivity, or the marriage between Igor's son and Konchak's daughter. Konchak, as a pagan, could have been demonised over time as a stereotypical villain. Naming and etymology In the dictionary of V. I. Dal, the name Kashchei is derived from the verb "cast" - to harm, to dirty: "probably from the word to cast, but remade into koshchei, from bone, meaning a man exhausted by excessive thinness". Vasmer notes that the word koshchei has two meanings that have different etymologies: "thin, skinny person, walking skeleton" or "miser" - the origin of the word "bone". Old Russian "youth, boy, captive, slave" from the Turkic košči "slave", in turn from koš "camp, parking lot". Koschei, as the name of the hero of a fairy tale and as a designation for a skinny person, Max Vasmer in his dictionary considers the original Slavic word (homonym) and associates with the word bone (common Slavic * kostь), that is, it is an adjective form koštіі (nominative adjective in the nominative case singular), declining according to the type "God". Numerous variant names and spellings have been given to Koschei – these include Kashchei, Koshchai, Kashshei, Kovshei, Kosh, Kashch, Kashel, Kostei, Kostsei, Kashshui, Kozel, Koz'olok, Korachun, Korchun bessmertnyi, Kot bezsmertnyi, Kot Bezmertnyi, Kostii bezdushnyi; in bylinas he also appears as Koshcheiushko, Koshcheg, Koshcherishcho, Koshchui, Koshel. Kachtcheï is the standard French transliteration. The term Koshey appears in Slavic chronicles as early as the 12th century to refer to an officer or official during a military campaign. Similar terms include the Ukrainian Кошовий (Koshovyi) for the head of the 'Kish' (military) (see also Kish otaman.) In Old Russian 'Kosh' means a camp, while in Belarusian a similar term means 'to camp' and in Turkic languages a similar term means 'a wanderer'. The use as a personal name is recorded as early as the 15th century on Novogrodian birch bark manuscripts. In The Tale of Igor's Campaign a similar sounding term is used, recorded being inscribed on coins, deriving from the Turkic for 'captive' or 'slave'. The same term also appears in the Ipatiev Chronicle, meaning 'captive'.