Note 105 — HISTORICAL, TRADITIONAL, AND RELIGIOUS BALLADS.

Of the Servian heroes, Marko (ob. 1392) is without comparison the most illustrious. He (says Goethe) is represented as holding almost equal intercourse with the Adrianople sultan, and appears like a coarser representation of the Grecian Hercules or the Persian Rustan, though indeed in a most Scythian and barbaric shape. He mounts a steed (Sharaz), aged a century and a half, himself being three centuries old. He perishes at last in all the plenitude of his strength; nor is it easy to discover why.