Note 199 — LYRICS, SONGS, AND OCCASIONAL POEMS.

The cuckoo (kukavitza) according to Servian tradition, was a maiden who mourned so unceasingly for a dead brother, that she was changed into a bird, and thence continues without rest her melancholy note. A Servian girl who has lost a brother never hears a cuckoo without shedding tears.—“I a poor cuckoo,” is equivalent to “woe is me!”