Note 337 — PART IV.
Reading edition
The Greek ballad is entitled "The Journey by Night," and begins thus:
The Greek ballad is entitled "The Journey by Night," and begins thus: Manna, me tous ennea sou uious, kai me tên mia sou korê.
'O mother, thou, with thy nine sons, and with thine only daughter.'
A Russian ballad also begins very similarly:
"At Kief, in that famous town, Resided a rich widow; Nine sons the widow of Kief had, The tenth was a daughter dear."
The story however is essentially different.
[337]
See above p. 306, n. 2.
[338]
This remarkable fact is mentioned by all Russian historians, on the good authority of the ancient annalist Nestor.
[339]
"The Tshuvashes have a Penate, which they call Erich. This Erich is nothing but a bundle of broom, cytisus, tied together in the middle with the inner bark of the linden. It consists of fifteen branches of equal size, about four feet long; above is a piece of tin attached to it. Each house has such an Erich, which usually stands in a corner of the entry. Nobody ventures to touch it. When it becomes dry, a new Erich is tied together, and the old one placed in running water with great reverence." See Stimmen des Russ. Volks, von P.v. Goetze, Stuttg. 1828, page 17.—The Tshuvashes, however, are not a Slavic, but a Finnish race, living under the Russian dominion.
[340]
Dobrovsky's Slavin, 1834, p. 113.
[341]
Werke, Ausgabe letzter Hand, Vol. XLVI. p. 332.
[342]
In those four of our Russian specimens marked P, the translation is by J.G. Percival.
[343]
Page 323.
[344]
See above, p. 64.
[345]
We say, 'to judge from the language.' But their coincidence with Bohemian ballads of the thirteenth century, and various other indications (e.g. their frequent mention of the Danube), seem to vindicate, for their groundwork at least, a very high antiquity.
[346]
Stimmen des Russischen Volkes, von P.v. Goetze, Stuttg. 1848.
[347]
Slavery in Russia is comparatively of modern date.
[348]
Pjesni Russkawo Naroda, St. Petersb. 1837-39, Vol. IV. p. 29.—We would remark here, that all our specimens are translated, not by means of the German, but from the original languages, and that all the originals are (or have been) in our possession. It would have been easy to embellish these simple songs by little additions or omissions, the rhymeless ones by rhyme, and the rhymed ones by more regularity; but we could not possibly have done it without impairing the fidelity of such a version.
[349]
Both these are bad omens for a Russian girl.
[350]
Names of the street and gate in Moscow, through which formerly criminals were led to execution.
[351]
Buinaya golowushka, that is, the fierce, rebellious, impetuous head, and mogutshiya pletsha, or strong shoulders, are standing expressions in Russia, in reference to a young hero; the former, especially, when there is allusion to some traitorous action.
[352]
Sacharof's Collection, Vol. IV. p. 218; see p. 346.
[353]
That is, the Russian governments Kief, Pultava, Tshernigof, Kharkof, and Yekatrinoslav. The latter, the cradle of the present population of Malo-Russia, belongs, according to the present geographical division of the Russian empire, to Southern Russia.
[354]
The Polish poet Bogdjanski is said to have collected in the government of Pultava alone towards 8000! A great many of these consist, of course, only in variations of the same theme, owing to the failing memory of the singer. Maximovitch's Collection contains several thousand pieces.
[355]
Volkslieder der Polen gesammelt und übersezt, von W.P. Leipzig 1833. It ought to have been called Songs of the Ruthenian people in Poland.
[356]
The origin of this polite appellation is its rise in the Ivanovskoi Lake.
[357]
Towards the close of the eighteenth century, Catharine II induced great numbers of the Zaporoguean Kozaks to move to the northern shore of the Kuban, east of the Black Sea or Tshernayamora, in order to protect the border against the Circassians. They are hence called Tshernomorskii, or Black Sea Kozaks.
[358]
These affectionate feelings were gradually extended towards all the rivers of their ancient establishments. Their ballads express a tender attachment to Mother Wolga, Mother Kamyshenka, Mother Tsarytzina, etc.
[359]
See above, p. 297.
[360]
Yessaul is the name of that officer among the Kozaks, who stands immediately under the Hetman. The ballad refers to an incident which happened before 1648. It is from Sreznevski's Starina Zaporoshnaya, i.e. History of the Zaporoguean Kozaks, Kharkof 1837.
[361]
Probably John Wihowski, Hetman after Chmielnicki. After the death of this latter, he fell off from Russia, and led the Kozaks back to Poland. It seems it was he who occasioned Pushkar's death.
[362]
Manuscript.
[363]
From Czelakowski's Collection; see above, p. 216, n. 58.
[364]
From Sacharof's Collection, St. Petersb. 1839. Vol. IV. p. 497.
[365]
The reader will find an elaborate essay on the popular poetry of the Ukraine in the Foreign Quarterly Review, Vol. XXVI. No. 51. It was evidently written by one of the Polish exiles in England. In it, however, a singular mistake is made as to the derivation of the appellation of the Zaporoguean Kozaks. Porog does not mean "Island" in any Slavic language.
[366]
See a description of this national dance in Wilkinson, Dalmatia and Montenegro, I, p. 399.
[367]
A Servian woman never would sit down in the presence of her husband. At table she stands behind him, and waits on him and his guests. Even the wife of prince Milosh did so; only with the restriction that she confined her services to her husband. The Morlachians—who seem indeed to be the rudest part of the Servian population—do not mention their wives to a stranger without adding: "With your permission."
[368]
The reader will find a description of a Morlachian wedding in Wilkinson, Vol. II. p. 164 sq. For a fuller account, see Volkslieder der Serben, von Talvj, Vol. II. Introduction.
[369]
Servian popular poetry has properly no rhymes; but wherever a rhyme occasionally occurs, it appears to be welcome; so in this little piece, which is faithfully conformed to the original. All our specimens of the Servian "female" songs are taken from the first volume of Vuk's Collection. See above, p. 115.
[370]
For more specimens see Bowring's Servian Popular Poetry, Lond. 1827. These little songs are there made much more attractive by giving them an English dress with rhymes, and accommodating them to the English way of feeling and expressing feelings; a proceeding which we have purposely avoided, because our only object is a faithful translation. Dr. Bowring has moreover translated mainly from our German translation.
[371]
A mountainous region in the vicinity of Montenegro.
[372]
See the similar beginning of "Hassan Aga," p. 324 above.
[373]
See an account of this remarkable custom, from the Abbate Fortia, in Wilkinson, II. p. 178 sq.
[374]
This beautiful poem see in Vuk, III. p. 299 sq. Transl. by Talvi, II. p. 245.
[375]
As the best illustration of this remark we recommend, among other examples, the poem on the death of Meho Orugditch, Vuk, III. p. 333 sq, Transl. by Talvi, II. p. 279 sq.
[376]
From Czelakowsky's Collection; see above, p. 216, n. 58.
[377]
From Slowanske narodnj pjsne sebran. F.L. Czelakowskym, Prague 1822-27. The collection of Carniolan ballads by Achazel and Korytko, which appeared in 1839, we have not yet seen.
[378]
From Rukopis Kralodworsky, etc. wydan od W. Hanky, Prague 1835, p. 106.
[379]
Ibid. pp. 107 sq. 197 sq. 131 sq.
[380]
Taken down by Vuk from the lips of a peasant girl.
[381]
In the original, she was buried last week. The lover could hardly expect to find a new grave, if she had been buried long ago.
[382]
All our Bohemian and Slovakian specimens are taken from Czelakowsky's Collection, as we happened not to be in possession of Kollar's and Erben's later work of that kind. For the full title see p. 385, note.
[383]
See above p. 297.
[384]
Pjesni ludu Bialo Chrobatow, Mazurow i Russinow z nad Bugu zebr. przez K.W. Wojcickiego, i.e. Songs of the White Chrobatians, Masovians, and Russinians on the Bug, collected by K.W. Woicicki, Warsaw 1836. Vol. I. p. 85. See above, p. 297.
[385]
We have also two most exquisite Lithuanian ballads which treat of the same subject; one of them being the lament of a fatherless boy.
[386]
Pjesni ludu Polskiego w Galicyi zebr. Zegoia Pauli, Lemberg 1838, p. 57. See above, p. 297.
[387]
Pjesnicki hornich i delnich Luziskich Serbow, i, e, Songs of the Servians of Upper and Lower Lusatia, published by L. Haupt and J.E. Schmaler, Grimma 1844. Comp. p. 304, above.
[388]
A similar naïvete we find in a little Servian elegy. A poor girl sings: "Our Lord has of every thing his fill; but of poor people he seems to have greater plenty than of any thing else!"
[389]
There is only one letter in the Slavish Alphabet for V and W. In the personal names of those nations, which use the Cyrillic alphabet, we have written it V, according to the English pronunciation; in those belonging to nations which have adopted the Latin alphabet, we of course did not feel justified in making any alteration. The Slavic W is always pronounced like the English V.