Historical View of the Languages and Literature of the Slavic Nations Part 32

[Footnote 2: _De Bello Gothico_, lib. iii. c. 14.]

[Footnote 3: Vol. I. p. 69.]

[Footnote 4: _Geschichte der Slavischen Sprache und Literatur_, p.

52.]

[Footnote 5: This song is among the few, which Russian critics think as ancient as the sixteenth century. See Karamzin's _History of Russia_, Vol. X, p. 264.]

[Footnote 6: Bowring'a translation.]

[Footnote 7: The piece to which we allude was in the possession of the Cardinal Albani, at Rome; but has since been carried to England. A fine copy in plaster is in the Museum at Paris; from which numerous drawings have been taken, now scattered all over Europe.]

[Footnote 8: _Kunst und Alterthum_, Vol. II. p. 49.]

[Footnote 9 _Narodne Srpske Pjesme skup. i izd. Vuk_ etc. Leipz. 1824.

Vol. I. p. 55. _Volkslieder der Serben, von Talvj_, Halle 1825. Vol.

I. p. 46.]

[Footnote 10: p.r.o.nounced _Yelitza_.]

[Footnote 11: The whole of this tale is translated in Bowring's little volume of "Servian Popular Poetry."]

[Footnote 12: The Greek ballad is ent.i.tled "The Journey by Night," and begins thus:

Manna, me tous ennea sou uious, kai me ten mia sou kore.

'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.]

[Footnote 13: See above p. 306, n. 2.]

[Footnote 14: This remarkable fact is mentioned by all Russian historians, on the good authority of the ancient annalist Nestor.]

[Footnote 15: "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. n.o.body 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.]

[Footnote 16: Dobrovsky's _Slavin_, 1834, p. 113.]

[Footnote 17: _Werke_, _Ausgabe letzter Hand_, Vol. XLVI. p. 332.]

[Footnote 18: In those four of our Russian specimens marked P, the translation is by J.G. Percival.]

[Footnote 19: Page 323.]

[Footnote 20: See above, p. 64.]

[Footnote 21: 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.]

[Footnote 22: _Stimmen des Russischen Volkes_, von P.v. Goetze, Stuttg. 1848.]

[Footnote 23: Slavery in Russia is comparatively of modern date.]

[Footnote 24: _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.]

[Footnote 25: Both these are bad omens for a Russian girl.]

[Footnote 26: Names of the street and gate in Moscow, through which formerly criminals were led to execution.]

[Footnote 27: _Buinaya golowushka_, that is, the _fierce, rebellious, impetuous head_, and _moguts.h.i.+ya 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.]

[Footnote 28: Sacharof's Collection, Vol. IV. p. 218; see p. 346.]

[Footnote 29: 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.]

[Footnote 30: 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.]

[Footnote 31: _Volkslieder der Polen gesammelt und ubersezt, von W.P._ Leipzig 1833. It ought to have been called _Songs of the Ruthenian people in Poland_.]

[Footnote 32: The origin of this polite appellation is its rise in the Ivanovskoi Lake.]

[Footnote 33: Towards the close of the eighteenth century, Catharine II induced great numbers of the Zaporoguean Kozaks to move to the northern sh.o.r.e of the Kuban, east of the Black Sea or _Tshernayamora_, in order to protect the border against the Circa.s.sians. They are hence called Tshernomorskii, or Black Sea Kozaks.]

[Footnote 34: 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.]

[Footnote 35: See above, p. 297.]

[Footnote 36: 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.]

[Footnote 37: 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.]

[Footnote 38: Ma.n.u.script.]

[Footnote 39: From Czelakowski's Collection; see above, p. 216, n.

58.]

[Footnote 40: From Sacharof's Collection, St. Petersb. 1839. Vol. IV.

p. 497.]

[Footnote 41: 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.]