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Servia and the Servians 
 
SERVIA 
 
 AND THE SERVIANS 
 
 BY 
 
 CHEDO MIJATOVICH 
 
 VOKHEILV SEBVIAN UINISTEB AT THE COURT OV ST. JAMES'S 
 
 Author 0/ " Cyuragy Brankovich," 
 
 " Comtantine, tht last Emperor of the Greeks" 
 
 " A Soyal Tragedy " 
 
 WITH SIXTEEN ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 BOSTON 
 
 L. C PAGE & COMPANY 
 
 1908 
 
^!iS!7-C- 
 
 
 Press <rf /Mac Pitmcm & Sons, Batti, Engltmi. 
 
PREFACE 
 
 During the last thirty years Western Europe, 
 and more particularly England, had interested 
 itself for the Balkan nations — (Albans, Bulgars, 
 Greeks, Rumuns and Serbs) — only in their con- 
 nection with the poUtical events in their part of 
 the world. It had only a one-sided view of them, 
 certainly not sufficiently large and comprehensive 
 to form a correct opinion of the character of those 
 nations. 
 
 But as the Balkan Peninsula seems to be 
 predestined to press, in this new century, more 
 and more forward in the forefront of at least 
 European history — ^if not of the world's history — 
 it appeared to me that it would be worth while 
 that the pohtical students — still more the poUtical 
 actors and factors of Western Europe — should 
 acquaint themselves not only with the political 
 tendencies and facts, but with the inner constitu- 
 tion of the soul of those peoples. It is now 
 generally admitted, that poUticaUy they are very 
 interesting peoples. But I venture to say that 
 psychologically and ethnologically, they are not 
 less interesting. The past history, as well as the 
 coming history, of the Balkan Peninsula — which 
 is not only geographically but also poUtically and 
 morally, part and parcel of Europe — could be 
 
VI 
 
 tREFACg 
 
 thoroughly understood only after the full 
 acquaintance with the national psychology of 
 those peoples. 
 
 Without the sUghtest self-conceit I do not 
 hesitate to say : that the Serbs (or the Servians as 
 the EngUsh prefer to call them) are one of the 
 most gifted and interesting nations in South- 
 Eastern Europe. I say that, not overlooking the 
 weak points in their national character. I pay 
 them a great but well-deserved comphment, at 
 the same time hinting at the weak points of their 
 psychological constitution, when I say that they 
 are — the Irish of the Balkans ! Men with warm 
 heart, vivid imagination, brave soldiers, lovers of 
 poetry, music, song and wit, intelligent and 
 therefore easily accessible to progressive ideas, they 
 are one of the most sympathetic nations in the 
 Balkans. 
 
 I have not undertaken to give in this volume 
 a scientific Treatise on the Psychology of the 
 Servian people. All I wished to do was to supply 
 the readers with the material which eventually 
 will enable them to have a glimpse into the soul of 
 that people, and form their own judgment on its 
 character and abilities. 
 
 Even with such a modest task before me, I could 
 hardly have been just to it, if I had not at my 
 disposal the great collection of Servian National 
 Poems, Customs, Proverbs, etc., made by the 
 father of the modern Servian Literature, Vook 
 Stephanovich Karajich. Most useful to me was 
 
PREFACE vii 
 
 the work of my colleague in the Royal Servian 
 Academy, Mr. Milan Gy. Milichevich, " Zivot 
 Srba Selyaka " (" The Life of the Servian 
 Peasants "), in the edition of the Servian Royal 
 Academy (Belgrade, 1894). Also the work of a 
 brilUant young author, Professor V. Karich — 
 unfortunately lost to Servia and to Science by a 
 premature death — entitled " Srbiya, opis Zemlye, 
 Naroda i Drzave " (" Servia, Descriptions of 
 Country, People and State "), Belgrade, 1888. 
 
 My special thanks are due to Mr. George 
 Stanoyevich, Professor at the Belgrade University, 
 who gave me the permission to reproduce in this 
 book some of the photos which he exhibited in the 
 Exhibition of the Balkan States at Earl's Court 
 during the summer of 1907. A few other photos 
 are from a collection of photos made by the late 
 King Milan of Servia, and given to me by himself. 
 
 The specimens of Folk-Lore are taken from my 
 wife's Servian Folk-Lore (2nd edit., London, 1899), 
 and the Poem on Strahinya Ban from her book, 
 " Kossovo " (Wm. Isbister, London, 1881). 
 
 Chedo Mijatovich. 
 
 London, 
 
 January, 1908. 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 PREFACE ..... V-Vn 
 
 I. HISTORICAL RETROSPECT AND MODERN POLITICAL 
 
 PARTIES .... 1 
 
 II. RELIGION AND RELIGIOUSNESS OF THE SERVIANS. 38 
 
 III. SERVIAN PEASANTS' NOTIONS ABOUT HEAVEN AND 
 
 EARTH .... 54 
 
 IV. SERVIAN NATIONAL CUSTOMS . . .70 
 V. SERVIAN ANECDOTES . . . 115 
 
 VI. SERVIAN NATIONAL SONGS . . .134 
 
 VII. SERVIAN POPULAR MUSIC . . . 188 
 
 VIII. SERVIAN PROVERBS . . . .201 
 
 IX. SERVIAN LITERATURE . . . 206 
 
 X. ECONOMICAL FEATURES OF THE COUNTRY . 233 
 
 APPENDIX 
 
 I. THE LONDON IMPRESSIONS OF A FAMOUS SERVIAN 
 
 (A.D. 1785) .... 243 
 
 II. BAN STRAHINYA, A SPECIMEN OF THE SERVIAN 
 
 NATIONAL POEMS .... 256 
 
 III. SPECIMENS OF THE SERVIAN FOLK-LORE . 274 
 
 IV. STATISTICAL INFORMATION ABOUT SERVIA . 285 
 
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 SERVIANS AROUND A GOOSSLAR facing the title-page 
 
 BISHOP OF NISH STARTS ON A PROCESSION 
 
 THROUGH THE STREETS . . facing p. 38 
 
 CONVENT LYOOBOSTIN, BUILT BY TSARITSA 
 
 MILITSA, A.D. 1405 . . „ 50 
 
 A PEASANT WOMAN DRAWING WATER FROM A 
 
 WELL . . . ... 72 
 
 CAMP SCENE . . . . „ 98 
 
 A SERVANT GIRL GOING TO THE PUBLIC WELL 
 
 FOR WATER ... „ 103 
 
 A VILLAGE CHURCHYARD . . „ 114 
 
 GIPSIES AT NISH, SERVIA . . „ 129 
 
 SERVIAN PEASANTS (DISTRICT VRANYA) . . „ 139 
 
 PEASANT WOMEN FROM SHOOMADIYA (CENTRAL 
 
 SERVIA) . . . . „ 193 
 
 CROWD AT A NATIONAL FESTIVAL IN NISH „ 199 
 
 A VILLAGE SCHOOL ... „ 206 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF BELGRADE . . „ 231 
 
 A PEASANT WOMAN FROM SHOOMADIYA (CENTRAL 
 
 SERVIA) . . . . „ 241 
 
 SERVIAN OFFICERS IN A CAMP . „ 256 
 
 ROAD ALONG THE RIVER IBAR . . ,,285 
 
Servia and the Servians 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 HISTORICAL RETROSPECT AND MODERN POLITICAL 
 PARTIES 
 
 The Servians — or, as they call themselves : Srbi 
 in pi., Srbin in sing. — form a special national 
 individuality belonging to the great family of 
 Slavonic nations. Ethnographically they are first 
 cousins to the Russians, Poles, Czechs (Bohemians), 
 Slovaks, Slovens (in Istria and Carinthia) and the 
 Bulgarians. They are, so to say, twin brothers 
 with the Croats (Horvati, Hrvati), the difference 
 between them consisting only in the fact that 
 the Croats belong to the Roman Catholic, while 
 the Servians cling to the Greek Orthodox Church, 
 and that the Croats are using in their literature 
 the Latin characters, while the Servians use the 
 so-called C5nihan letters (based on the Greek 
 alphabet). Among their many cousins, the Malo- 
 Russians of the south-western portion of Russia 
 are nearest to the Servians with respect to their 
 language, temperament and folk-lore. 
 
 At the beginning of the seventh century of the 
 Christian era they were living on the northern 
 slopes of the Carpathians, from which their brother 
 Croats took their name (Carpati, Harvati, Hrvati). 
 It is not known what decided them to leave their 
 
 1 
 
2 SERVIA AND THE SERVIANS 
 
 old home, if it was not the pressure exercised by 
 the invasion of the Asiatic hordes ; but it is an 
 undoubted historical fact that with the permission 
 of the Byzantine Emperor Heraclius they came, in 
 637 A.D., to settle down in the depopulated north- 
 western corner of the Byzantine Empire of that 
 time. Since then they have occupied the territories 
 which are now known as : Servia (the kingdom), 
 Old Servia (otherwise Kossovo Vilayet,) Bosnia, 
 Hertsegovina, Montenegro and the north-western 
 part of Macedonia. Besides that they form now 
 the majority of the population of Dalmatia, part 
 of the population of Croatia, and occupy the 
 Hungarian territories known as Srem (Sjnrnia), 
 Banat, and Bachka (Southern Hungary). Their 
 total number is computed at about six millions. 
 
 Except about 250,000 Roman Catholics in 
 Bosnia and about 350,000 Mohammedans in the 
 same province and in Hertsegovina, all other 
 Servians belong to the Eastern Orthodox Church. 
 The church books are written and the church 
 services read in the Old Slavonic language, the 
 same which is used in the Russian and Bulgarian 
 churches. This circumstance forms an import- 
 ant link of union between the Balkan Slavs 
 (Servians and Bulgarians) and strengthens their 
 ethnographic relationship with the Russians. 
 
 Although the Byzantine provinces, into which 
 the Servians immigrated in the seventh century, 
 were practically depopulated, the Servians met 
 there Albanian settlements, Latin colonies and 
 
HISTORICAL SURVEY 3 
 
 the nomadising Wallachs (Welsh !). The mixture 
 with them in the course of centuries has somewhat 
 modified the Slavonic type of the Servians. There 
 are now to be found among them more Roman or 
 Greek dark eyes than the grey eyes of the pure 
 Slavs. The handsomest t5^es of the Servians 
 are to be found in Hertsegovina and Montenegro. 
 Ethnographically one nation, the Servians lived 
 politically divided into a number of independent 
 counties, or, as they called them, Zupaniyas. 
 When it happened that a Zupaniya had at its head 
 a more energetic Zupan (Count), he would try to 
 subdue and unite with his own some of the neigh- 
 bouring Zupaniyas. In this direction was promin- 
 ently active Visheslav (towards the end of the 
 eighth century), Zupan of Zagory6 (Lim, Tara, 
 Piva), and more especially his great-great-grandson 
 Zupan Chaslav (931-960), who succeeded in form- 
 ing a united Servian state stretching from Antibari 
 on the Adriatic, to the river Cetina in Dalmatia, 
 and from the Adriatic coast to the rivers Kolubara 
 and Ibar in the east. But after his death this 
 first union of Servian Zupaniyas broke down, 
 and the Servians came first under the rule of the 
 Bulgarian, and then (in the beginning of the 
 eleventh century) under the direct rule of the 
 Byzantine Emperors. Another attempt was made 
 towards the end of the eleventh century by the 
 Zupan Michael Visheslavich to unite Servian 
 provinces into one kingdom, but he also failed. 
 At last Stephan Nemanya, as Great Zupan of 
 
4 SERVIA AND THE SERVIANS 
 
 Rashka (the country around present Novi Bazar), 
 succeeded in the second half of the twelfth century 
 in uniting most of the Servian countries under his 
 sceptre, establishing his own family (Neman5dchi) 
 as the reigning dynasty of Servia (1169-1371). 
 Stephan Nemanya never took for himself the title 
 of King (" Krai " — the last consonant pronounced 
 as liquid), but his son Stephan was formally 
 crowned as the first Servian king, in the church 
 of Zicha, in 1222. 
 
 Servians under the Nemanyich Dynasty. — 
 The policy of the kings of the Neman5dch d5masty 
 was to profit by the disorganisation of the Greek 
 Empire, to conquer from the Greeks all the pro- 
 vinces inhabited by the Servians, to form a strong 
 kingdom of Servia, and to bring the same into 
 prosperous commercial relations with Venice and 
 Italy in general. They introduced into the country 
 the Saxon miners and made Servia, by their help, 
 one of the most important silver-producing coun- 
 tries of Europe during the Middle Ages. They 
 entered into political relations with Germany, 
 and once or twice made treaties of alliance with 
 France and with Venice. 
 
 The greatest of the Servian sovereigns during 
 the Middle Ages was Stephan Dooshan Nemanyich 
 (1331-1355). Perceiving the dangers which were 
 menacing the Balkan countries from the rising 
 power of the Turks in Asia Minor, and not less 
 from Venice and from Hungary, he conceived the 
 idea of uniting all the Balkan nations into one 
 
HISTORICAL SURVEY 5 
 
 empire and combining their powers of resistance. 
 He annexed Albania and the Greek provinces of 
 Macedonia (with the exclusion of Salonica), and 
 took the title of Emperor of the Greeks, Bulgarians 
 and Servians (proclamation at the end of 1345, 
 coronation on Easter-Day, 1346). He made the 
 Servian Church absolutely independent of the 
 Greek Patriarch in Constantinople and raised the 
 Archbishop of Servia to the dignity of a Patriarch 
 (who took the title of Patriarch of Ipek, his resi- 
 dence having been placed at Ipek, near the great 
 Monastery of Dechani). In 1349 he convoked 
 his Parliament at Skoplye (Uskub) and submitted 
 to the same for approval a Codex of civil and 
 criminal laws, known as " Zakonik " (Codex of 
 laws) of the Tsar Dooshan. The historians of the 
 evolution of civil and criminal laws in Europe 
 find that Dooshan's Zakonik compares favourably 
 with the laws in other European countries of that 
 time. He entered into an alliance with Venice 
 against Hungary, and was making preparations 
 to march on Constantinople when he suddenly 
 died (December, 1355), in the forty-sixth year of 
 his very active and successful Ufe. 
 
 Under the reign of his son, " Oorosh Neyaki " 
 (Oorosh the youthful, or " the not strong one "), 
 Tsar Dooshan's empire went speedily into dissolu- 
 tion. The Greek provinces reverted to the Greek 
 Empire, Macedonia became a separate kingdom 
 with Vookashin, and after him with his son 
 Marko, as kings, the Adriatic coast with both 
 
6 SERVIA AND THE SERVIANS 
 
 Zetas (to-day Montenegro) acknowledging the 
 princes of the Franco-Servian house Balshas 
 (Balzos in Italian, de Baulx in French) as their 
 sovereigns, while the northern provinces acknow- 
 ledged Knez (Count) Lazar, the husband of 
 MiUtsa, a relation of the House of Neman5dch, as 
 their ruler. Knez Lazar (who never took the title 
 of " King," much less of Tsar, but in the national 
 ballads is always called " Tsar Lazar ") worked 
 to organise a coahtion of the Bulgarians, Rou- 
 manians, Bosnians and Hungarians with the 
 Servians against the Turks, but before this coah- 
 tion was organised, the Turks, under the Sultan 
 Moorad I, attacked Servia, and on the 15th of 
 June, 1389, defeated the Servian army under 
 Lazar on the field of Kossovo. Before the battle, 
 one of the Servian Voyvodas (generals), Milosh 
 Obihch by name, smarting under false accusa- 
 tions of his enemies that he had intended to betray 
 his chief and father-in-law, Knez Lazar, to the 
 Turks, went to the Turkish camp, Jisked an audi- 
 ence with Moorad, and assassinated him in 
 his own tent. As in the battle Knez Lazar was 
 made a prisoner and beheaded, and as on that 
 occasion the flower of the Servian aristocracy 
 perished, the battle of Kossovo made a deep 
 impression on the Servians, who to this day believe 
 that their independence and their liberty were 
 lost in that famous battle of Kossovo. In reality 
 the Servian state lived under Lazar's son Stephan, 
 and then under his grandson, George Brankovich, 
 
HISTORICAL SURVEY 7 
 
 up to 1459 A.D., when it came definitively under 
 the direct Turkish Government, while another 
 Servian kingdom, Bosnia, was subdued by the 
 Turks in a.d. 1462. 
 
 Servians under the Turkish Rule. — Prac- 
 tically from the middle of the fifteenth to the 
 beginning of the nineteenth century the entire 
 Servian nation, with the exception of a handful 
 of hardy mountaineers of Montenegro, was trans- 
 formed into the Turkish " Rayah," the " con- 
 quered infidels," who had no rights or privileges, 
 who paid to the Sultan " haratch," and a tenth of 
 the product of their labour, and who were at the 
 mercy of their Turkish landlords, Turkish officials 
 and warriors. The Ufe, the honour, the property 
 and possessions of the Servians had no protection 
 on the pzirt of Turkish rulers during nearly four 
 centuries. The only protection they had some- 
 times came from the " Hydooks." From the loss 
 of Servian independence to the first decades of 
 the nineteenth century, bands of armed Servians 
 moved through the Servian mountains and forests, 
 hurrying from one point to another, where a 
 specially brutal misdeed of Turks against the 
 Christian men and women was to be avenged. 
 The Hydooks were a sort of irregular national 
 force, insurgents who were permanently leading 
 a guerilla war against the Turks. They were the 
 original model of the Committadjis of our days, 
 only without a central leadership and without 
 committees. Fear of the Hydooks was the only 
 
8 SERVIA AND THE SERVIANS 
 
 consideration which restrained the Turkish law- 
 lessness, rapacity and violence. The Turks called 
 them " brigands," and whoever of them fell into 
 their hands was mercilessly impaled ahve. The 
 people called them the national heroes (narodni 
 yunatsi) and sang their deeds and glorified them 
 in ballads. At the same time, it ought to be 
 acknowledged that the Turks left the Servian 
 village autonomy intact, that they never did any- 
 thing to convert the Servians to the Islam, that 
 they gave them fuU Uberty to attend to their own 
 reUgion and their own church, except that as a 
 rule they did not allow them to build new churches 
 or repair the old ones. The Servian Church and 
 the municipal autonomy, together with the national 
 bards (Goosslari), helped the people to preserve the 
 remembrance of their old national independence 
 and of the remarkable incidents and glorious dee^s 
 of their past history. It is quite extraordinary 
 how the poorest and most iUiterate of the Servian 
 peasants knows much of the national history, 
 simply because on every fair and on every kirch- 
 mass he has heard the "goosslars" sing of Stephan 
 Niemanya, Tsar Dooshan, Knez Lazar, the Kossovo 
 heroes, and even of the exploits of the famous 
 leaders of the Hydooks during the dark ages of 
 Turkish oppression. 
 
 The remembrance of the past naturally nourished 
 hopes for a better future. These were increased 
 and intensified when, in the seventeenth and 
 eighteenth centuries, Austrian wars with Turkey 
 
HISTORICAL SURVEY d 
 
 showed the Servian Rayah that their Turkish 
 masters were not invincible. The occupation of 
 the Pashalik of Belgrade by the Austrian armies 
 and administration during some thirty years 
 gave the Servians to taste something of the peace- 
 ful and prosperous hfe in a well-regulated state. 
 The Servian Hydooks, as well as other Servians, 
 were always joining as volunteers the Austrian 
 armies whenever they made an invasion into the 
 Turkish provinces. And as volunteers, and acting 
 with an European army under famous generals 
 (Elector of Bavaria, Prince Eugen of Savoy, 
 General Loudon), the Servians learned something 
 of the miUtaxy art. 
 
 In that way the Servian National Church, the 
 municipal autonomy of the villages, the national 
 bards, the Hydooks, the Austrian wars with 
 Turkey, especially those towards the end of the 
 eighteenth century, and the general anarchy in 
 the Turkish Empire in the beginning of the 
 nineteenth century, aU combined to prepare the 
 Servian revolution against the Turks in the 
 beginning of that century. 
 
 The First Servian Rising against the Turks. 
 — By the Treaty of Peace of Swistow (1791), 
 Austria stipulated that no Janissaries should be 
 allowed to garrison Belgrade and other Servian 
 fortresses. The Sultan at first executed that 
 stipulation faithfully, and the Servians enjoyed 
 quite an unusual measure of freedom from moles- 
 tation and extortion from their Turkish masters. 
 
10 SERVIA AND THE SERVIANS 
 
 In grateful acknowledgment of the humane treat- 
 ment which they experienced at the hands of the 
 new Vizier of the Belgrade Pashalik, Hadji- 
 Mustapha Pasha, they gave him the sobriquet of 
 " Srpska Mayka " — The Mother of the Servians. 
 This Pasha had full confidence in the loyalty of 
 the Servians to such a degree that he organised 
 quite a little army from among them, and sent 
 it under the command of his own son to fight the 
 Sultan's rebel, Paswandji Oglu of Widin. 
 
 Then by an evil advice the Sultan, desiring to 
 weaken the same rebel, Paswandji, who gathered 
 around him aU the Janissaries expelled from Servia, 
 announced to the Janissaries that they were free 
 to return to Servia. This was an open infraction 
 of the Treaty of Swistow, but the Sultan and his 
 advisers did not care much about it. A certain 
 number of Janissaries really left Widin and 
 returned to Belgrade. They were commanded 
 by four captains, called " Dahees " (in the Servian 
 "Dahiye"). They managed to introduce them- 
 selves into the fortress of Belgrade, murdered the 
 kind-hearted and wise Vizier Mustapha, and the 
 four captains, forming a peculiar pohtical, miUtary 
 and commercial partnership, proclaimed them- 
 selves masters of the entire Pashalik of Belgrade. 
 They covered the country with a net of wooden 
 block-houses (Hans), which were occupied by their 
 armed agents, who hved there at the expense of 
 the neighbouring villages, and collected the in- 
 creased taxes and new imposts introduced by the 
 
HISTORICAL SURVEY 11 
 
 Dahees. Under this new oppression the Servians 
 showed themselves the more restless that for a few 
 years previous to this change they had enjoyed 
 fully the humane administration of Hadji-Mus- 
 tapha Pasha. They remonstrated against the inno- 
 vation and repeatedly wrote long petitions to the 
 Porte asking the Sultan's protection against the 
 tyrannies of the Dahees. The Grand Vizier, at 
 the order of the Sultan, wrote to the Dahees 
 advising them to be just and humane towards the 
 Rayah, and to return to their obedience to the 
 Subhme Porte, otherwise the Padishah would be 
 obliged to send against them an army that, not 
 being composed of Mohammedans, would proceed 
 against them mercilessly. " What army could 
 that be ? " the Dahees asked themselves, and came 
 to the conclusion that the Stdtan contemplated 
 arming the Servians against them. At the same 
 time rumours, or probably the reports of their 
 agents among the villages, came to state the 
 increasing restlessness among the people, frequent 
 meetings of their chief men, consultations and 
 preparations for a rising. At last some letters 
 (or probably only one letter) were intercepted, 
 from which it appeared that some of the Servian 
 chiefs were placing themselves in communication 
 with the Austrian Commander of the garrisons 
 on the Turkish frontiers. All this alarmed the 
 Dahees very much indeed. The danger of a 
 general insurrection seemed to them more immi- 
 nent and serious than it probably was in reality. 
 
12 SERVIA AND THE SERVIANS 
 
 They thought the safest and quickest way of 
 preventing the insurrection was to murder at 
 once and simultaneously all the more prominent 
 men who were, or could eventually be, the leaders 
 of the people. They made a hst of the Servians 
 who were to be killed and sent bands of their 
 Janissaries in all directions. Some of the more 
 important men were publicly beheaded, others 
 were surprised in their homes and killed. A few 
 of the proscribed ones escaped ; among them 
 was a chief of a band of Hydooks, the Black 
 George, or Kara-George, Uving in the village of 
 Topola. 
 
 The news of this massacre spread like wildfire 
 through the country. A panic seized the people, 
 who believed that the Dahees intended to kill 
 every Servian. All the able-bodied men, who had 
 some sort of arms (and since the last Austrian 
 war, and since Mustapha Pasha's organisation of 
 Servian miUtia, they had some arms), rushed to 
 the mountains and forests, met there with other 
 equally panic-stricken villagers, formed them- 
 selves into bands, resolved to defend their own 
 lives and revenge the murders of so many of their 
 best men. The leaders of these bands met at 
 the village of Orashats (in the centre of Servia), 
 decided to fight the Dahees and their Janissaries, 
 and chose George Petrovitch, of the village of 
 Topola, caUed Kara-George, or Black George 
 as their Commander-in-chief. This happened 
 about the middle of February, 1804. 
 
HISTORICAL SURVEY 13 
 
 Servians under the Leadership of Kara- 
 George (1804-1813). — Practically there were only 
 a few thousands of fighting Turks in Servia, 
 whereas the insurgents in the very beginning 
 numbered about 20,000 men. And as the Dahees 
 and their Janissaries were rebels against the 
 Sultan, and as the Servians declared that they 
 rose against these rebels, who were their tyrants, 
 and not against the Sultan, the Porte did not 
 help the Dahees, who were soon besieged in the 
 fortress of Belgrade by the Servians. The Dahees 
 found their situation hopeless, and tried to escape 
 by the Danube to Widin. But they were pursued 
 by the Servians and killed on the Danubian island, 
 Ada-Kaleh. 
 
 Thus the rising of the Servians against the 
 Dahees was quickly and completely successful, 
 and Servia was already liberated from them in the 
 summer of 1804. 
 
 But when the new Governor of the Belgrade 
 Pashalik (as Servia was then called), sent by the 
 Porte, requested the Servian insurgents to deUver 
 their arms to him and to disperse, the Servians 
 naturally desired to benefit by the new situation, 
 and not only refused to surrender their arms, but 
 formulated certain demands which practically 
 amounted to self-government. The Porte refused 
 to listen to such demands, and ordered the Pasha 
 of Nish to proceed with his army to Belgrade, 
 and, if need were, by force to disarm the Servians 
 and re-establish the old order of things in that 
 
14 SERVIA AND THE SERVIANS 
 
 province. The Servians, under the personal com- 
 mand of Kara-George, met the Sultan's army at 
 Parakin and defeated it. Thus they found them- 
 selves suddenly at war with the entire Turkish 
 Empire. 
 
 The Servian revolution against the Sultan 
 lasted from the beginning of 1805 to the autumn 
 of 1813. On the eve of a war with Russia the 
 Porte offered in 1807 to acknowledge Kara-George 
 as Prince of Servia, under the suzerainship of the 
 Sultan, and to grant the Servians internal auton- 
 omy. But on the advice of Russia, Kara-George 
 rejected those overtures, and refused to ratify an 
 arrangement embodying those concessions, which 
 his representative signed in Constantinople. He 
 and his Servians preferred to join the Russians 
 as their allies, hoping that the victorious Russia 
 would obtain for them full independence. But 
 in view of the approaching invasion by Napoleon's 
 armies, Russia had, in great haste and with many 
 sacrifices, to conclude peace with Turkey at 
 Bucharest in 1812, leaving Servia under the direct 
 rule of the Sultan, stipulating, however, that the 
 Porte was to make an equitable arrangement with 
 the Servians to secure their country from extortion 
 and abuses of the Turkish officials and the lawless 
 Turks in general. The Servians were terribly 
 disappointed at such a result of their alliance with 
 Russia. They tried to obtain better conditions 
 from the Turks by direct negotiations ; but the 
 Grand Vizier entered Servia during the summer of 
 
HISTORICAL SURVEY 15 
 
 1813 with a considerable force. The Servians, 
 who had been fighting without interruption since 
 1804, were practically exhausted, and their army, 
 disorganised by the dissensions amongst its leaders, 
 could not any longer resist the onslaught of 
 the Grand Vizier's superior force. On the 21st 
 September, 1813, Kara-George left the country, 
 accompanied by the more prominent chieftains. 
 The Turkish army occupied the fortresses, and in 
 the autumn of 1813 Servia became again the 
 " Pashalik of Belgrade," a Turkish province under 
 the direct rule of the Sultan. 
 
 Servian Second Rising under Milosh Obre- 
 NOVICH. — Only one Servian chieftain (" Voy- 
 voda," as the Servians called them) did not leave 
 the country. This was the Voyvoda of Roodnik, 
 Milosh Obrenovich. When he was urged to join 
 Kara-George and other voyvodas in leaving the 
 country and crossing the river to Hungary, he 
 answered : "I prefer to share with the people 
 whatever happens." He thought it was not right 
 that the people should be abandoned by its chiefs. 
 He was soon rewarded for his patriotism. The 
 Turks, having re-conquered Servia, wished to 
 pacify the country. They wanted someone who 
 had some authority and influence with the people. 
 There was no other chieftain who had that author- 
 ity and influence but Voyvoda Milosh. He came 
 to Belgrade to offer to the Vizier the submission 
 of the people, and was at once recognised by the 
 Turks as the people's representative and chief. He 
 
i6 SERVIA AND THE SERVIANS 
 
 kept peace for about a year and a half, using that 
 time to pacify Turkish suspicions, and working 
 secretly amongst the people to prepare a new 
 rising. On Palm Sunday, 1815, a.d., he appeared 
 before an assembly of notables and crowds of 
 armed Servians gathered around the little wooden 
 church of Takovo, dressed in his costume of a 
 voyvoda, with the national standard in his hand, 
 and addressing the people laconically, " Here I am, 
 and here is the war with the Turks ! " proclaimed 
 a new insurrection against the Turkish authority. 
 After a few lost battles the Turks offered to 
 negotiate. Milosh, who was a born diplomatist 
 and statesman, entered into such negotiations, 
 and by his ability and moderation succeeded in 
 obtaining for his people practical autonomy in 
 1816. Matters were just beginning to settle down, 
 and the people had returned to their pacific and 
 rural occupations, when suddenly Kara-George 
 returned from Bessarabia to Servia, accompanied 
 only by a servant. He came to the Prefect of 
 Semendria district, one of the men to whom he 
 gave the rank of Voyvoda. This Prefect, how- 
 ever, considered it his duty to report to Milosh on 
 Kara-George's arrival. Milosh, on his part, in- 
 formed the Turkish Vizier of Belgrade, who at 
 once demanded the head of the famous leader of 
 the first Servian revolution. Probably Milosh 
 would have given orders for the assassination 
 of Kara-George, even if the Sultan's Vizier had not 
 demanded his head, but he emphasized his order 
 
HISTORICAL SURVEY 17 
 
 to the Prefect of Semendria by the peremptory 
 demand of that Vizier and by all the risks to which 
 the peace of the country, hardly secured after so 
 many sacrifices and difficulties, would be exposed 
 if the Vizier's order were not obeyed. In the early 
 morning of the 25th July (13th according to old 
 style), 1817, the famous leader of the first Servian 
 insurrection was murdered by a blow of an axe, 
 which severed his head, while he was sleeping. 
 The head was dehvered to the Vizier of Belgrade, 
 who sent it to Constantinople, where it was exposed 
 for a few days at the gates of the Seraglio. Of 
 course the national conscience reproached Milosh for 
 having been the author of Kara-George's death. It 
 may be said that from that day commenced the feud 
 between the House of Obrenovich and the House 
 of Kara-Georgevich, which, besides the assassina- 
 tion of Prince Michael Obrenovich in 1868, finished 
 on the 11th June, 1903, with the assassination 
 of King Alexander, the last Obrenovich. 
 
 In the autumn of 1817 the Servian National 
 Assembly proclaimed Milosh (who up to that time 
 was only leader or the first Voyvoda of the nation) 
 hereditary Prince of Servia. He succeeded in 
 obtaining from the Sultan the confirmation of that 
 dignity and position. He obtained it independently 
 of Russia and without the help or even the know- 
 ledge of the Russian diplomacy. This independent 
 establishment of a hereditary national throne in 
 the Balkan Peninsula was the first cause of Russia's 
 dissatisfaction with Milosh. Still Milosh felt that 
 
18 SERVIA AND THE SERVIANS 
 
 Russia was for that time the only country which 
 could help Servia, and directed all his efforts to 
 determine the Tsar to place the concessions, 
 which the Servians had already obtained, on an 
 international basis by an international act. Russia 
 entered into these views, and at the conference of 
 Akerman, in 1826, signed a convention by which 
 the vague Article VIII of the Treaty of Peace of 
 Bucharest was explained by more detailed con- 
 cessions in the interests of the Servians. The 
 Porte made these concessions not only because 
 she was pressed for them by Russia, but also 
 because Milosh, by his refusal to join the move- 
 ment of the Haeterists, succeeded in winning the 
 confidence and the benevolence of the Sultan. 
 
 Servia under Prince Milosh Obrenovich I. 
 — Milosh at once took in hand the organisation 
 of Servia as a modern European state. He suc- 
 ceeded rapidly in this task, as hundreds of educated 
 Servians came from Hungary and entered his 
 service. He estabhshed schools, organised the 
 administration of the country, a small regular 
 army, courts of justice and the Chxirch hierarchy. 
 He invited able lawyers from Hungarian Servia 
 and entrusted them with the task of writing the 
 civil and penal law. He organised the country's 
 finances and, being practically himself a farmer, 
 or rather an agriculturist, he greatly encouraged 
 agriculture. At the same time he never ceased 
 to work in Petersburg, in order that the Russiem 
 Court should place Servia's political acquisition 
 
HISTORICAL SURVEY 19 
 
 under the protection of an international act. 
 Russia did this by the Treaty of Adrianople, in 1 829, 
 obtaining for herself at the same time the right to 
 be called, and to act as, the Protector of Servia. 
 Russia's protectorate became very speedily a 
 source of great inconvenience to Servia. Russia 
 claimed, in virtue of it, the right to control the 
 inner administration of the country. When Milosh 
 gave his people the first constitution, in 1830, 
 Russia declared that he had no right to give such 
 a constitution without the previous consent of 
 the Protecting Court and of the Subhme Porte. 
 She forced him to withdraw that constitution, 
 and then she and the Porte imposed on the country 
 a constitution which the Russian Ambassador in 
 Constantinople and the Porte prepared, and which, 
 ignoring the popular and ancient institution of 
 the National Assembly, vested the legislative 
 power in a Senate whose seventeen members 
 could be deposed only by the Porte and not by 
 the Prince of Servia. It was only too natural 
 that the Prince and the Senate should soon come 
 into conflict. Milosh, having a strong individu- 
 ality, and accustomed to command and see his own 
 wiU done, could not easily bear the control and 
 interference of the seventeen oUgarchs. He tried 
 to get rid of that foreign constitution and, trying 
 to obtain Great Britain's support, worked for the 
 substitution of the exclusively Russian protec- 
 torate by a General Protectorate of all the Euro- 
 pean Powers. That was quite enough to seal his 
 
20 SERVIA AND THE SERVIANS 
 
 destiny in the eyes of Russia. As Milosh practi- 
 cally reigned as a despot he created many mal- 
 contents and even enemies, who, organised and 
 led by the Russian Consul, managed to force 
 him to abdicate in 1839. 
 
 Servia under Prince Alexander Kara- 
 GEORGEViCH (1842-1858). — Milosh's eldest son, 
 Milan Obrenovich II, having died a few weeks 
 after his father's abdication, his younger son, 
 Michael Obrenovich III, was called to the throne. 
 But men who sent away his father did not feel 
 safe with him, and thought it better to force him 
 to leave the country. They did that in 1842, and 
 called to the throne Prince Michael's aide-de-camp, 
 Alexander Karageorgevich, the younger son of 
 the leader of the first Servian Revolution. 
 
 Prince Alexander submitted to the ascendancy 
 of the Senate and followed its guidance meekly. 
 This secured to the country a number of years 
 of internal peace which was wisely used for 
 cultural and economical progress. His govern- 
 ment did not aspire to successes in the national 
 policy, and kept most friendly relations with the 
 Porte and with Austria. During the Hungarian 
 revolution in 1848 and 1849 Prince Alexander 
 allowed Servian volunteers to cross to Hungary 
 to assist the Hungarian Servians who were fighting 
 for Austria against the Magyars. On the eve of 
 the Crimean War the Servian Senate decided on 
 a strict neutraUty, contrary to the suggestions 
 of the Russian poUtical agents, who wished the 
 
HISTORICAL SURVEY 21 
 
 Servians to rise against the Turks and create an 
 important diversion. The defeat of Russia by the 
 Allies brought about the dechne of the Russian 
 and the increase of the Austrian influence in 
 Belgrade. Russia, sure of the devotion of the 
 Servians, decided to remove from the Servian 
 throne a Prince who never showed any spirit, 
 and who was considered a thorough Austrophil. 
 The friends of the Obrenovich dynasty eagerly 
 availed themselves of the Russian assistance and 
 managed to create a difficult and complicated 
 situation, which ended in Alexander Karageorge- 
 vich being dethroned by the Servian National 
 Assembly in December, 1858. The old Milosh 
 Obrenovich I was recalled from exile and placed 
 again on the Servian throne. 
 
 Servia Under the Second Reign of the 
 Obrenovich Dynasty (1859-1903). — Milosh was 
 much too old to mark his second reign by any 
 important deed. Besides, he died very soon 
 after his second accession. His son, Michael 
 Obrenovich III, succeeded him to the throne. 
 He immediately started a vigorous national 
 policy. He increased the regular army and or- 
 ganised and armed the national miUtia. He 
 reorganised Servia on a more modem basis, and 
 showed himself proudly independent of the Porte. 
 Early in his second reign the Turkish garrison of 
 the Belgrade fortress bombarded the city of Bel- 
 grade, on some trivial pretext (June, 1862). This 
 created for Prince Michael the first objective of 
 
22 SERVIA AND THE SERVIANS 
 
 his policy — to clear away all the Turkish garrisons 
 from the fortresses in Servia. When he had 
 strengthened his finances and had under his 
 command a hundred thousand armed Servians, 
 he demanded formally the withdrawal of the 
 Turkish garrisons from Servia. To prevent 
 war in the Balkans, the Great Powers advised 
 the Porte to surrender the Turkish fortresses 
 in Servia to the keeping of Prince Michael and the 
 Servian army. He followed that advice, and 
 on the 6/18 April, 1867, the fortresses of Belgrade, 
 Semendria, Shabats and Ujitse were delivered 
 to the Servians. 
 
 Hardly a year after this, Prince Michael was 
 cruelly assassinated in the Park of Koshutnyak, 
 near Belgrade, by some devotees of the dynasty 
 Karageorgevich (10 June, 1868). As he left no 
 sons by his wife, Julia Countess Hunyady, 
 the Servian National Assembly elected Milan, 
 the son of Prince Michael's first cousin Milosh 
 Yephrem Obrenovich, who, a boy of fourteen, 
 ascended the throne as Obrenovich IV. During 
 his minority his Regents gave a new and somewhat 
 more hberal constitution than the one which 
 Prince Michael gave. Milan came of age in 1871. 
 In the beginning he followed the guidance from 
 St. Petersburg. In 1876 he declared war on 
 Turkey. The Servian army was beaten by the 
 Turks, but that very circumstance forced the 
 hand of the peace-loving Tsar, Alexander II, 
 who in 1877 declared war on Turkey. After the 
 
HISTORICAL SURVEY 23 
 
 fall of Plevna, the Servians joined the Russians 
 as allies, and under the command of Prince Milan, 
 forced the Turkish garrison of Nish to capitulate. 
 They occupied Pirot, Procooplye, Kurshumlye, 
 Leskovats, Wranya, Koomanovo and part of the 
 Kossovo plain, when the armistice stopped their 
 further progress. 
 
 But at San Stefano, General Ignyatieff refused 
 to give the Servians anything more than an in- 
 significant " rectification of the frontier," while 
 at the same time creating a big Bulgaria envel- 
 oping in her Umits countries inhabited by the 
 Servians. At the Congress of Berlin Prince 
 Gortchakoff plainly told the Servian represen- 
 tatives that Russia could not do anything for 
 Servia, and that they should address themselves 
 to Austria. And the Servians had really to thank 
 Austria that Pirot, Leskovats and Wranya were, 
 together with the Toplitsa valley, added to the 
 territory of Servia, which at the same time was 
 declared an independent country. 
 
 After the experiences at San Stefano and at 
 the Berlin Congress, Prince Milan refused to 
 follow any longer the guiding from St. Peters- 
 burg, and arrived at a friendly understanding 
 with Austria. This displeased in the highest 
 degree Tsar Alexander III, who decided that 
 Milan the Austrophil should be by all and every 
 means removed from the Servian throne. This 
 was especially the case since in February, 1882, 
 Prince Milan assumed the title of King of Servia, 
 
24 SERVIA AND THE SERVIANS 
 
 proclaiming his country an independent kingdom. 
 Henceforth he had to struggle against the under- 
 ground work of the Russian Panslavists who 
 espoused the cause of Prince Peter, the eldest son 
 of Prince Alexander Karageorgevich, who was 
 naturally the Pretender to the throne of Servia. 
 
 King Milan might have continued successfully 
 to repel all the Russian attacks on his position, 
 but for two mistakes which gave his internal 
 and external enemies great opportunities. In 
 the autumn of 1885 he started a war against 
 Bulgaria to prevent her annexing Roumelia. 
 His army was repulsed by the Bulgarians at 
 SUvnitsa, and lost even the important town of 
 Pirot. The Bulgarian army under Prince Alex- 
 ander Battenberg might have marched into Nish 
 if Austria had not stopped its progress. Peace 
 was made, however, without any material loss 
 to Servia, except the loss of prestige. But 
 naturally the failure of King Milan's war against 
 Bulgaria somewhat damaged his political position. 
 Even more damage was caused by his unfortunate 
 attempt to get divorced from his wife. Queen 
 Nathalie. The European public opinion was 
 entirely against him in that case. At last he felt 
 tired of the long struggle, and after having given 
 the country the most radical constitution in Europe, 
 he abdicated the throne in favour of his only son, 
 Alexander (3 March, 1889). 
 
 King Alexander was most unfortunate. As a 
 little boy he grew up in a Court which was torn 
 
HISTORICAL SURVEY 25 
 
 by differences between his parents and all sorts 
 of scandal. As a boy of thirteen years he was left 
 on the thorny and shaky throne of Servia quite 
 alone, his mother and father Uving far away in 
 exile. No proper education was given to him. 
 The rough and not exactly highly-cultured officers, 
 who were attached to him, poisoned his mind with 
 distrust and the conviction that he was surrounded 
 by enemies, who were constantly compassing his 
 ruin, and who could be repelled only by the exhibi- 
 tion of merciless and unscrupulous force. When 
 he, as a young man of seventeen, by a cleverly 
 arranged but not honourable act, proclaimed him- 
 self of age, retaining his regents for one night as 
 prisoners in the palace, the Radical Party called by 
 him to form the Government, extolled him as a 
 genius, a ruler who was likely to echpse even Alex- 
 ander the Great of Macedonia. When, in 1894, 
 he suspended the radical constitution which his 
 father had given the country, and replaced it by 
 the old conservative constitution of 1869, Servia 
 congratulated him on his pluck and courage. 
 He played with cabinets and with the national 
 assemblies, and they all — Radicals, Liberals, Pro- 
 gressists and neutrals — bowed before his will, 
 and rather encouraged him to reign as a small 
 edition of the " Roi Soldi." He came to the 
 conclusion that he could do whatever he liked. He 
 was rapidly losing his popularity and was aliena- 
 ting from himself the most devoted friends of the 
 dynasty. This was especially the case when in June, 
 
26 SERVIA AND THE SERVIANS 
 
 1900, he, to the consternation of all the Servians, 
 married his mistress, Draga Mashin, the widow of a 
 mining engineer. He behaved cruelly to his father 
 and to his mother, as to most of his dynasty's 
 old friends. To harm his enemies, and seem- 
 ingly to fortify his position, he repeated one coup 
 d'Hat after the other. Although the Tsar con- 
 sented to act by a representative as best man 
 at Alexander's wedding with Draga, Russia had 
 no need of his services the moment King Milan 
 died unexpectedly in Vienna in January, 1902, 
 and withdrew from him her protecting arm. 
 Abandoned by Russia as well as by Austria, aban- 
 doned by many of the old friends of his dynasty, 
 he was attacked in the old palace in Belgrade by 
 a body of officers and most cruelly murdered 
 together with his Queen, Draga (11th June, 1903). 
 The revolutionary Government called the Senate 
 and the National Assembly together, and a few 
 days after the assassination of the last of the 
 Obrenoviches, Peter Karageorgevich, the grand- 
 son of the leader of the first revolution against 
 the Turks, was elected King of Servia. 
 
 A Glance at the History of Constitution- 
 alism AND THE Present Constitution of Servia. 
 — The Servian kingdom during the Middle Ages 
 had its own Parliament. There was only one 
 Chamber, composed of the great temporal Lords 
 (Velika Vlastela) and the representatives of the 
 Church. In the great struggle against the Turkish 
 Invasion, lasting practically for nearly a hundred 
 
HISTORICAL SURVEY 27 
 
 years (1371-1462), many noble families were 
 extinguished, others went into exile in Italy, 
 Hungary, Moldavia and Russia, where their 
 descendants are still to be found; some of them 
 (and especially many in Bosnia) embraced Islam 
 to preserve their estates, the present great Moham- 
 medan landlords of Bosnia being the descendants 
 of old Bosnian " VeUka Vlastela " (High Aris- 
 tocracy). The Turkish immediate rule completed 
 the process of social and political levelling, so that 
 at the beginning of the nineteenth century, on 
 the eve of the first rising, all the Servians in the 
 present kingdom of Servia were equally poor and 
 down-trodden peasants, filled with hatred against 
 their masters and oppressors. They were, and 
 they are still, the most democratic people in Europe. 
 
 The moment they began, after their military 
 successes, to organise their country (1806), they 
 wanted to limit the autocratic power of Kara- 
 George, who, being a successful commander-in- 
 chief in the battlefield, wished to act as such in 
 the political field. The struggle between Kara- 
 George on one side, and the Voy vodas and Senators 
 on the other, was one of the causes which prevented 
 the consolidation of Servia under his rule, and 
 which was in a great measure responsible for the 
 catastrophe in 1813. 
 
 Milosh, although himself, hke Kara-George, 
 inclined to the despotic autocracy, preferred to 
 act with the national representatives coming 
 together every year as the " Narodna Skupshtina" 
 
28 SERVIA AND THE SERVIANS 
 
 (National Assembly). As long as he had the 
 Narodna Skupshtina he was safe. The moment 
 Russia and the Porte discarded his constitution 
 and replaced it by their own creation of an inde- 
 pendent Oligarchical Senate, he was doomed. 
 Although a despot in his habits, yet he really 
 struggled to re-establish the right of the nation 
 to control the executive by a National Assembly. 
 
 Prince Alexander Karageorgevich convoked 
 a National Assembly only once, in 1848. But 
 the national representatives showed such dis- 
 satisfaction with his rule that he hurried to dissolve 
 it. Ten years later, in 1858, he convoked his 
 second National Assembly, which immediately 
 pronounced his dethronement. 
 
 Prince Michael replaced the old Turkish Con- 
 stitution by one of his own initiative, according 
 to which the freely-elected representatives of the 
 nation met every three years to hear the report 
 of the Government, make its own observations 
 and criticisms and express what the nation wished 
 to see done. Of course the young generation of 
 the politicians, most of them returning from the 
 French and German Universities, could not be 
 satisfied with such a small part played by the 
 nation against the bureaucratically-organised 
 state. Their dissatisfaction and agitation gave 
 the conspirators the idea that the extinction of 
 the dynasty of Obrenovich and the recall of the 
 Karageorgevich would be greeted with joy. 
 
 The demand for a more hberal constitution 
 
HISTORICAL SURVEY 29 
 
 having indirectly encouraged the murderers of 
 Prince Michael, the Regents for the young Milan 
 Obrenovich IV thought it to the interest of the 
 dynasty to grant a somewhat more liberal con- 
 stitution. Yovan Ristich, the second Regent 
 and the leader of the Liberal Party which, in 1858, 
 recalled the Obrenovich, was responsible for the 
 constitution of 1869. According to that con- 
 stitution the National Assembly, composed of 
 about 99 members elected by the people and 33 
 members elected by the Prince, met every year 
 to vote the budget and to consider, amend or 
 reject the bills proposed by the Government, but 
 had no right to propose any bill on its own ini- 
 tiative . This limitation, and especially the appoint- 
 ment of such a large proportion of the members 
 by the Government, constituted weak points in 
 Mr. Ristich's constitution, and the Opposition 
 did not hesitate to avail itself of them. But 
 practically that constitution worked well for 
 fuUy twenty years, until it was replaced by the 
 Radical constitution of King Milan in 1888. 
 
 To wipe away the painful impression which 
 his divorce from his wife. Queen Nathalie, made 
 in Servia as weU as in other countries. King Milan 
 convoked a great commission, with the best and 
 ablest men of all the three political parties 
 (Liberals, Radicals and Progressists) and together 
 with them elaborated a new, entirely Radical 
 constitution, which was submitted to and 
 accepted en bloc by the Great National Assembly 
 
30 SERVIA AND THE SERVIANS 
 
 in Belgrade, on the 12/24 December, 1888. Two 
 months later, King Milan, by his own initiative, 
 abdicated, leaving his young son in the hands of 
 a Liberal Regency and a Radical Cabinet. 
 
 The great civil and political liberties which the 
 Radical constitution of 1888 gave were used by 
 the political parties exclusively for themselves. 
 Citizens, who did not belong to the party of the 
 Government, were treated as a sort of conquered 
 race which had no rights whatsoever. Most unjust 
 pohtical persecutions were often enacted and the 
 country was torn by poUtical feuds and dissensions. 
 The Servians had one of the most hberal con- 
 stitutions in Eiirope, but they themselves lacked 
 as yet the true constitutional spirit. This state 
 of things gave King Alexander a plausible pretext 
 for the suspension of the Radical constitution, 
 replacing it by Mr. Ristich's constitution of 
 1869. Of course, the true motive for his action 
 was that the Radical constitution did not agree 
 with his autocratic proclivities. 
 
 To reconcile the people to his marriage with 
 Mme. Draga Mashin, he replaced in April, 1901, the 
 constitution of 1869 by a new constitution, which 
 on the whole was more hberal than that just men- 
 tioned, although not so liberal as that of 1888. 
 The new feature of King Alexander's constitution 
 was that it introduced, for the first time in the 
 Servian constitutional hfe, the representation of 
 the nation by two Chambers (the National 
 Assembly and the Senate). 
 
HISTORICAL SURVEY 31 
 
 When, after the assassination of King Alexander, 
 the National Assembly and the Senate unani- 
 mously elected Prince Peter Karageorgevich 
 King of Servia, they at the same time aboUshed 
 King Alexander's constitution of 1901, and 
 replaced it by the Radical constitution of 1888, 
 and by a few modifications made it rather more 
 radical than ever. King Peter, before he started 
 from Geneva for Belgrade, gave the Servians the 
 assurance that he would faithfully respect every 
 constitution the Servians gave themselves. He 
 accepted that one voted by the Congress and 
 since his accession has conducted himself really 
 as a strictly constitutional monarch. 
 
 The Political Parties of Servia. — The first 
 organisation of a political party in Servia was 
 made between 1836 and 1840. The Senators, 
 made immovable for life by virtue of the con- 
 stitution framed by Russia and Turkey, knew 
 that Prince Milosh was working for the abolition 
 of that constitution, and they formed a strong 
 political group which took the name of " Oostav- 
 obranitelyi," " the Defenders of the Constitution." 
 Although the Russo-Turkish constitution ignored 
 the rights of the mass of the nation, and 
 established an Oligarchy of seventeen Life- 
 Senators independent of the Prince, these Oligarchs 
 cajoled the peasants and were, on the whole, 
 behaving as demagogues. Their leader, Iliya 
 Voochich Perishich, succeeded in drawing the 
 peasants to the side of the Oostavobranitelyi by 
 
32 SERVIA AND THE SERVIANS 
 
 telling them that every one of them had a right to 
 kiU every state's officer who should come to claim 
 from them more than five thalers (about twenty 
 shillings) direct taxes per head. 
 
 But by and by these oligarchs formed a strong 
 body of state's employees (Chinovniks) and 
 identified themselves with the bureaucracy. When 
 the wave of Liberalism swept over Europe in 1848, 
 young Servian politicians began to aspire to more 
 freedom, and started an opposition against the 
 Oostavobranitelyi. The friends of the exiled 
 dynasty Obrenovich, at once took side with the 
 new movement and formed the Liberal Party, 
 which, supported by Russian underground work, 
 succeeded in 1858 in sending the Karageorgevich 
 dynasty into exile and recalling the Obrenovich 
 dynasty. 
 
 Prince Michael Obrenovich III (1860-1868), 
 however, refused to lean on the Liberal Party 
 and preferred to act with the old Conservatives 
 under Iliya Garashanin, afterwards under Yovan 
 Marinovich and Nicolas Christich. It was only 
 after his assassination in 1868 that the Liberals 
 with Yovan Ristich came to have the govern- 
 ment of Servia in their hands. They gave the 
 country a comparatively liberal constitution, 
 which unfortunately they themselves applied in 
 the most reactionary and almost despotic fjishion. 
 They governed the country from 1868 to 1880, 
 and, following always Russia's guidance and 
 inspiration in questions of foreign policy, made 
 
HISTORICAL SURVEY 33 
 
 war on Turkey in 1876, dragging Russia also into 
 the war with the Sultan. 
 
 Meanwhile a new generation of pohtical men 
 appeared on the scene : the Young Conservatives, 
 under the guidance of Pirotyanats and Garashanin, 
 and the Ultra- Liberals under the guidance of Pera 
 Todorovich and Nicolas Pashich. They acted 
 together in making opposition to the reactionary 
 home poUcy of the Liberal Party. They obtained 
 an enormous majority at the elections of 1880, 
 but they separated when Prince Milan Obreno- 
 vich IV entrusted Pirotyanats and Garashanin 
 with the formation of the Cabinet. The Young 
 Conservatives had meanwhile elaborated a very 
 liberal and progressive pohtical programme, and 
 taken the name of Progressists (Naprednyaci). 
 The Ultra- Liberals, separating themselves from the 
 Progressists, took the name of Radicals. The 
 ilite of the intelligent and well-to-do class of Servia 
 joined the Progressist party ; but Pera Todoro- 
 vich and Pashich captured for themselves almost 
 all the village priests and village teachers, and 
 obtained in them most indefatigable pohtical 
 agents. The Progressists constructed railways, 
 paid to the people all that the State took from 
 them during the Turkish war, established banks 
 and tried to transform Servia into a regular 
 European progressive State. But to construct 
 railways and expropriate the Turkish landlords 
 they had to borrow money, increase the expendi- 
 :ure, and naturally to increase the taxation. That 
 
34 SERVIA AND THE SERVIANS 
 
 made them unpopular with the mass of the 
 peasants, who joined the Radical party, believing 
 in their promises that they would reduce the 
 taxation when once they took the government 
 of the country into their hands. 
 
 There was another circumstance which very 
 much increased the attractiveness of the Radical 
 programme for the mass of the Servian people. 
 The Progressists showed themselves willing to keep 
 up the best relations with the neighbouring Austro- 
 Hungarian monarchy. The Radicals proclaimed 
 themselves friends of Russia and adversaries of 
 Austria, with which programme the Servian 
 peasants and small tradesmen and artisans in the 
 towns were in full sympathy. In that way the 
 Radicals became, and are still, numerically the 
 strongest party in Servia. 
 
 Between 1865 and 1870 severjd young Servians 
 who had studied in Russia returned to their 
 country inspired with rather Nihilistic theories. 
 The ablest and the most energetic of them, 
 Svetozar Markovich, translated and pubUshed 
 Marx's and Tchernishevsky's works, and began 
 to form a group of SociaUsts. He had made a 
 deep impression on the young Servians and would 
 have succeeded in organising a strong Socialistic 
 party, had not death carried him away (1874). 
 There was no man who could replace him, and 
 the party of Socialists was dissolved by most of 
 the late Markovich' s friends joining the Radical 
 Party when this one was, a few years later, formed. 
 
HISTORICAL SURVEY 35 
 
 But after the Radical constitution of 1888 came 
 into application fresh efforts were made to organise 
 a party of Socialists. Kragooyevats, in the centre 
 of the country, formed the headquarters of all 
 those efforts, as the military factories and the 
 Arsenal occupied great numbers of workmen. 
 As the School-teachers' College was also in that 
 town, and as even the Director of that college 
 was imbued with Socialistic principles, these 
 principles found a very favourable ground for 
 taking root and spreading. The Socialistic Party 
 is now organised and led by Mr. Milan Lapchevich, 
 an ex-professor of a Grammar-school. They 
 have two or three representatives in the National 
 Assembly, but their influence so far could not be 
 called successful. However, they have no mean 
 prospect of success, as unfortunately poverty is 
 spreading through the country, and as the Servians 
 are, so to say, constitutionally very democratic 
 and hate every distinction of classes and ranks. 
 
 In the home poUcy there was, within the last 
 twenty-five years, no essential difference among 
 the three political parties in Servia. All three 
 ivanted to see a truly constitutional and liberal 
 jovemment established. The Liberals and the 
 Progressists favoured at the same time the 
 itrengthening of what they called Drzavna 
 ^deya (the State's Idea), while the Radicals 
 vorshipped more the " Opshtinska Samouprava " 
 the municipal self-government). The Liberals 
 lemanded the centraUsation of the State power. 
 
36 SERVIA AND THE SERVIANS 
 
 while the Radicals wanted the decentralisation of 
 the administration. The Progressists tried to 
 follow a middle course. But after all, in the 
 practical appUcation of their home poUcy 
 programmes there was no essential difference. 
 
 In the foreign pohcy all the three parties boasted 
 that they were working for the realisation of the 
 " National Programme," viz : the liberation of 
 all the Servian provinces from foreign Governments 
 (Turkey, Austria) and their union into one inde- 
 pendent Servian kingdom or republic. The 
 Liberals and the Radicals believed that this pro- 
 gramme could be reahsed only by Servia following 
 faithfully and in everything the guidance of 
 Russia. The Progressists, having come to power 
 just after the unmasking of Russian plans in San 
 Stefano, distrusted Russia and tried to find support 
 rather in other European Powers. This gave the 
 occasion to the Russian Panslavists and to the 
 Servian Liberals and Radicals to call the Pro- 
 gressists an " Austrophil party," which in reality 
 they have not been, although there is no doubt 
 that King Milan, who for some time sup- 
 ported the Progressists, after the San Stefano 
 Treaty became and remained until his death an 
 anti-Panslavist and an Austrophil. 
 
 At the present time there are no Austrophils 
 in Servia, the Liberals and the Radicals being 
 fanatically devoted to Russia, their poUtical 
 leaders and their press considering it the duty ol 
 the Servians to devote themselves to the realisatior 
 
HISTORICAL SURVEY 37 
 
 of the " Slavonic Idea," the precise definition 
 of which they generally refuse to give, but which 
 is understood to mean the union of all the Slavonic 
 nations into one commonwealth, probably with 
 Constantinople as the capital, and the Russian 
 Tsar as the Emperor of all the Slavs. 
 
 At the present time the Radical Government 
 of King Peter beheves that, in consequence of 
 Russia's preoccupation in the Far East, Austria is 
 preparing to occupy at least the Sandjak of Novi 
 Bazar, if not the whole of the Kossovo Vilayet 
 (otherwise called " Stara Srbiya," " Old Servia "). 
 The occupation of Kossovo by the Austrians would 
 mean the death-blow to the poUcy of a Servian 
 National Programme, and naturally the Servians 
 are prepared to oppose it even by force of arms. 
 That is the principal motive of their recent efforts 
 to make an aUiance with Bulgaria and Montenegro, 
 the arrangement concerning Macedonia being 
 another. At the time of writing this the alUance 
 has not yet been concluded. Indeed, its prospects 
 have been rather weakened. 
 
 Within the last five years younger and more 
 cultured Radicals have separated themselves from 
 the bulk of the Old Radical party under Mr. 
 Pashich, and formed a separate political party 
 under the name of " Samostalci " (the Indepen- 
 dents), their programme being that of the Social 
 Democrats, and aiming at the raising up of the 
 moral plane of the nation. 
 
 4— (»3W) 
 
CHAPTER II 
 
 RELIGION AND THE RELIGIOUSNESS OF THE 
 SERVIANS 
 
 We do not know much of the religion of the 
 Servians in their pre-Christian period. But 
 according to the outward signs we are justified 
 in concluding that the old faith was very popular, 
 entering deeply into the Ufe of the people. The 
 Greek and the Roman CathoUc propagandas, 
 aggressive and powerful, backed by poUtical and 
 mihtary influences as they were, needed nearly 
 two centuries to decide the Servians to abandon 
 their old rehgion and accept the Christian faith. 
 Even then the Greek and Latin missionaries 
 could succeed only after they had made many 
 concessions to the people's attachment to their 
 old faith. The folk-lore of the Servians is re- 
 echome to this oav with religious sentiments and 
 ntes from their pre-Christian times. 
 
 All we know of their old rehgion is that it was a 
 Pol5rtheism. The forces and phenomena of nature 
 were personified and worshipped as gods. The 
 Sun and the Lightning accompanied by Thunder 
 naturally impressed the . primitive people most 
 deeply. " Daybog," or " Dabog," was the god 
 personifying the Sun and Sunshine. He was 
 the giver of hfe and of all good things, the god oi 
 prosperity, hght and every progress. " Peroon ' 
 
 38 
 
I/) 
 
 o 
 
 o 
 
 Co 
 
RELIGION IN SERVIA 39 
 
 personified the lightning and the thunder. He 
 did not die when the old faith was buried by the 
 new faith ; he only transformed himself into 
 Saint Elijah (Sveti Ihya), who is a Christian 
 saint specially deputed to manage the lightning 
 and the thunder. As, according to the belief of 
 the Servian peasants, Saint Iliya has a sister in 
 the person of the " Ognyena Maria " (Saint Mary 
 of the fire), we may guess that the old Peroon 
 had a sister too, probably " Moonya," the Ught- 
 ning. It seems that the Pagan Servians had a 
 special flower dedicated to God Peroon, as the 
 purple Iris is to these days called " Peroonica," 
 the flower of Peroon, without which there is no 
 garden in the Servian villages. Probably a part 
 of the worship of Peroon consisted in the cultiva- 
 tion of Peroonica. Another plant was dedicated 
 to the God the Protector of the houses. It is 
 called " Chooveir-Kutya," the house-guardian, is 
 planted on the house-roof and is believed to 
 protect it against the Ughtning strokes. The 
 botanical name of that plant is Sempervivum 
 tectorum, Linn. 
 
 There was a goddess who ruled the waters and 
 the rain. Her name was Doda, or Dodola. 
 When in om: own days the Servian peasants get 
 alarmed by the long-lasting drought and wish 
 rain to give reUef to the plants and animals, 
 recourse is taken to the Dodola. The Dodola 
 rite is quite a peculiar one. A young woman 
 (generally a gipsy girl), scantily dressed, or rather 
 
40 SERVIA AND THE SERVIANS 
 
 almost naked, having a thick wreath of green 
 branches of the willow mixed with field flowers 
 placed around her waist and hips, goes from 
 house to house in the village, and dances a pecvdiar 
 dance, while several other young women, who 
 accompany her, sing a special song with the 
 refrain, " Oy, Dodo, Dodole," after every verse : 
 
 Our Doda prays to God, 
 
 Oy, Dodo, Dodole ! 
 
 That the dewy rain may be falling, 
 
 Oy, Dodo, Dodole ! 
 
 While they are singing and while the Dodola 
 is dancing, some of the younger people of the 
 house pour out a vessel of water over the dancing 
 girl. 
 
 An old Servian goddess must have been Lada, 
 or Leda, probably the goddess of love. Her name 
 is invoked in certain national lyrical songs, coming 
 there as a refrain : " Lado, oy Lado-le ! " 
 
 Vishnyi, or Sve-Vishnyi, is used nowadays 
 as an adjective and epithet to God (Sve-Vishnyi 
 Bog=the Most High God), but in all likelihood 
 the name stood once for a supreme Divinity. It 
 reminds us forcibly of the Hindus' Vishnu. 
 
 The inner constitution of the old Servian 
 Olympus is re-echoed in one of the national ballads, 
 called " The Saints and the Blessed Miiria." 
 Evidently there was a place where the gods of 
 both sexes met, discussed the terrestrial affairs, 
 and brought their own decisions. That ballad 
 is remarkable in more than one point. It gives 
 
RELIGION IN SERVIA 41 
 
 us a picture of the old Servian Olympus, sub- 
 stituting only for the old gods the Christian Saints. 
 I give here in prose a faithful translation of the 
 bdlad : 
 
 " The Saints met at the gate of heaven, to 
 confer among themselves how to divide the gifts 
 which God gave them. Saint Peter received the 
 keys of the heavens, and together with him St. 
 Paul took (under their power and protection) 
 wine and wheat ; St. Elijah took as his own the 
 thunder; 'Mary of the Fire' took the lightning 
 and the arrows ; St. Thomas took the seal of the 
 clouds ; Archangel Michael got as his own the 
 weather of the autumn ; St. Nicholas the seas 
 and the rivers and the ships saiUng on them ; St. 
 Saviour was satisfied with the cornflower as his 
 portion ; St. Sava took to himself snow and ice ; 
 St. Pantheleymon took the scorching heats of 
 the summer ; St. John the Baptist took to him- 
 self the brotherhoods and ' koomships,' ♦ and St. 
 George was satisfied to take for himself the flowers 
 of the spring. — Just then the Blessed Maria — 
 tears running down her white cheeks, — stepped 
 into this assembly of saints. Elijah the Thun- 
 derer asked her : ' Our sister. Blessed Maria, what 
 great misfortune hast thou met, that thou shed- 
 dest now tears down thy white face ? ' And 
 
 • Koomstva. The Servians have a baptismal " Koom " or 
 Godfather, and a Wedding Koom, who is the principal witness at 
 the wedding, and who has to be the Godfather to the children of 
 the couple to whom he is the Wedding Koom. The " Koomship " 
 is a very sacred relationship amongst the Servians. 
 
42 SERVIA AND THE SERVIANS 
 
 the Blessed Maria answered : ' How can I help 
 shedding these tears when I am arriving from the 
 country of India, from India, a cursed country ! 
 There an extreme lawlessness is reigning, younger 
 men do not respect the older ones, nor the children 
 obey their parents, and the parents tread down 
 with their heels their children ! Koom prosecutes 
 his koom before judges, and brings against him 
 false witnesses without faith and without pure 
 souls, and convicts him in heavy damages ; a 
 brother provokes his brother to duel ; the brother- 
 in-law works to dishonour his sister-in-law, and 
 the brother does not call his sister a sister ! ' 
 
 " Thereupon the Thunderer Elijah consoled 
 their sister, the Blessed Maria, by telling her that 
 they all — after they had finished dividing the 
 treasures God had given them — would go together 
 to the ' true God ' to ask His permission to punish 
 that lawless and cursed country, India. The 
 Saints then went together to ' God's Council Hall.' 
 There they prayed for three days and three 
 nights without ceasing, and succeeded in obtain- 
 ing God's permission to punish the lawless people 
 of India. They began by closing (probably with 
 the keys of which St. Peter was the keeper) all 
 the seven heavens. Then St. Elijah began to 
 strike the sinners with his thunder, while the 
 Blessed Maria began to kill them with lightnings 
 and arrows. But all that hardly made an impres- 
 sion on the people of India. Thereupon St. 
 Archangel sent down bad weather, Peter and Paul 
 
RELIGION IN SERVIA 43 
 
 took away all the wine and wheat, and therewith 
 all prosperity, and for three years no wine and no 
 wheat grew on earth ; St. Thomas sealed the 
 clouds, so that not a drop of rain or of morning 
 dew watered the thirsty earth ; St. Pantheleymon 
 let loose the burning heat to scorch the earth for 
 fully three years, so that the brain was boiling in 
 the heads of the people, the rocks were burning 
 and breaking up, and the earth was bursting into 
 deep crevices into which men and horses were 
 disappearing. Then St. Sava let deep snows fall 
 and prevented them melting for three years, so 
 that the shepherds lost all their sheep, and even 
 the bees fled away from that country. But all 
 those terrible scourges did not move the people 
 of India to repentance. Then God sent a terrible 
 sickness which carried away young and old, and 
 separated those who were dear to each other. 
 Then at last those few who remained Eilive began 
 to repent and regain faith in God." 
 
 This is a curious remembrance of a great 
 catastrophe in India. It would be worth while to 
 examine how such a legend found its way among 
 the Servian people. But for my purpose here I 
 have quoted its contents (combining several 
 versions of the text) only to show how the heaven 
 of the Servians probably looked before they were 
 converted to Christianity. 
 
 After having been for nearly two hundred years 
 in contact with the Byzantine Christians on the 
 one side and with the Latin Christians on the 
 
44 SERVIA AND THE SERVIANS 
 
 other ; after the Greek and Roman Catholic 
 missionaries had made many individual converts, 
 the Servians as a nation accepted Christianity 
 and were baptised by the Greek priests, excepting 
 those of them who Uved along the Adriatic sea- 
 coast, who were baptised by the Roman Cathohc 
 priests, and acknowledged the Pope as their 
 spiritual head. Political interests of the country 
 demanded the Christianisation of the people, 
 and the energetic Servian Grand-Zupan Mootimir 
 (d. 891 A.D.), of the famous dynasty of Visheslavich, 
 proclaimed the Greek Orthodox Church as the 
 State Church of the country. Two facts faciU- 
 tated the spread of the new faith. One was the 
 translation of the Bible and the Church Service 
 by two saintly brothers, Cyrillus and Methodius 
 (a.d. 863), who are, because of that, called 
 " the Slavonic Apostles " ; the other fact was the 
 indulgent liberality of the Greek Church, which 
 allowed the Christianised Servians to retain many 
 of their ancient Pagan customs. 
 
 In fact, the Christianity of the Servians in the 
 early middle ages was not much better than 
 idolatry. The worship of the saints, and the 
 behef in the miraculous power of their bones and 
 other reUcs, had hidden as by a dark cloud the 
 spiritual teachings of the Gospels. Christ could 
 not be seen because of the major and minor 
 saints who blocked the way to Him. 
 
 Christ could not be approached but by the 
 intervention of a saint, and no saint could be 
 
RELIGION IN SERVIA 45 
 
 approached but by the intervention of a priest. 
 A regular commerce was organised, and the 
 Egyptian mummies were bought and sold as 
 genuine bodies of Christian martyrs and saints. 
 Constantinople, Alexandria and Venice have been 
 the principal markets for all sorts of saints and 
 rehcs. For the mummy which was represented 
 to be the body of Saint Luke, the Evangelist, 
 the Prince of Servia, George Brankovich, paid in 
 the middle of the fifteenth century thirty thousand 
 Venetian gold ducats, which amount would equal 
 the value of £12,000 in our present-day money. 
 In the case of illness, the people had to choose 
 between the " medicine women," so called 
 " Bayalitse," and the next monastery with some 
 wonder-working relic. More often the two treat- 
 ments were combined. It is difficult to decide on 
 which side was the grosser superstition and 
 ignorance. 
 
 The priests and monks were a most privileged 
 class of the society of the middle ages. The 
 churches and monasteries were large land pro- 
 prietors. The peasants had to work for the Church 
 just as they had to work for the secular landlords. 
 As the privileged class the priests and monks 
 were hated early enough by the unprivileged mass 
 of people. On social and pohtical, as weU as 
 on spirituad grounds, a reaction against the 
 official Church and against the priests and monks 
 was started as early as the eleventh century. The 
 first Protestant movement on the European 
 
46 SERVIA AND THE SERVIANS 
 
 territory took place in Bulgaria. There arose in 
 that country, in the beginning of the twelfth 
 century, a priest by the name of Bogoomil, who 
 began to preach against the established State 
 Church. He condemned publicly the conduct 
 of the bishops, priests and monks. He preached 
 that the communion of a man's heart with God 
 needed no mediators, and certainly not the priests 
 and monks. He repudiated the worship of the 
 Madonna and the Saints as a gross superstition 
 and idolatry. He thought that the Bible, more 
 especially the Gospels, ought to be the exclusive 
 foundation of the Christian faith, and encouraged 
 the people to read the Bible for themselves. He 
 taught that rehgious meetings ought to be held 
 without priests, and the prayers to be said in the 
 language of the people. He had no sympathy 
 with the aristocracy, and every sympathy with 
 the poor. The cross ought not to be worshipped, 
 being in fact only a sort of gallows. There is no 
 need for churches, as faithful people could meet 
 for prayer anywhere. Marriage was no sacrament 
 at all, being only a civil institution. The faithful 
 ought to live earnest and virtuous Uves, in order 
 to save their souls, ought to help each other, to 
 be charitable to every one and on all occasions, 
 and, above all : never to kill, and therefore never 
 to go to war. 
 
 The preaching of Bogoomil had immense success. 
 The Slavonic, essentially democratic, soul of the 
 Bulgarians and the Servians, was quite open to 
 
RELIGION IN SERVIA 47 
 
 such teachings. It was a natural reaction against 
 the abuses of the official ecclesiasticism. The 
 followers of this first Protestant preacher on 
 European ground took their leader's name and 
 called themselves "Bogoomili " ("The dear ones 
 to God "). Their bitterest enemies acknow- 
 ledged that they lived pure and virtuous lives, 
 that they were a truth-loving and moral people. 
 But their principles were directed against the 
 teachings of the Established Church, which was 
 intimately allied with Royalty and with the 
 aristocracy (Vlastela). The bishops had no great 
 difficulty in proving to the kings and the privileged 
 class of noblemen that the heretical sect of the 
 Bogoomili was a very serious danger, not only 
 to the Official State Chxirch, but to the Monarchy 
 and the Aristocracy too. No wonder that all the 
 three great, well-organised and powerful interests 
 joined together to extirpate such a dangerous sect. 
 A fierce persecution of Bogoomili was started in 
 the twelfth century, and continued more or less 
 vigorously up to the fifteenth century. The 
 energetic Stephen Nemanya, the founder of 
 the Servian Kingdom, won the support of the 
 Orthodox Church by his ruthless suppression of 
 Bogoomilism in his State. The history of this 
 long-lasting struggle between the Official Church 
 and the first dissenters in the Balkans has not yet 
 been written. The Bogoomilism was especially 
 tenacious and strong in Bosnia, where for some 
 time it was far the most popular " religion," and 
 
48 SERVIA AND THE SERVIANS 
 
 took to calling itself " The Bosnian faith " 
 (Bossanska Vera). 
 
 The consequence of that long and cruel struggle 
 was to disorganise the national forces, to exhaust 
 them and therefore to weaken the national capacity 
 of resisting the foreign attacks. The remarkably 
 speedy and complete success of the Turkish 
 conquest of the Bulgarian and Servian countries 
 can be — at least partially — explained by the 
 exhaustion and disorganisation caused by the 
 long-lasting strife of the Official Church against 
 the popular sect of BogoomiU. That strife, in 
 conjunction with the more or less permanent 
 struggle for supremacy between the Roman Catho- 
 lic and the Greek Church, had another, more 
 spiritual but not less deplorable effect. It 
 deadened the religious sentiment of the Servian 
 people. In Bosnia, where that struggle raged 
 fiercest, we have in the second half of the fifteenth 
 century the astounding fact that the greatest 
 number of the Bosnian aristocrats did not hesitate 
 to give up Christianity and embrace Islam ! 
 
 The deadening effect of that struggle was 
 intensified by the fact that thousands of orthodox 
 churches and hundreds of thousands of praying 
 priests and monks were unable to save Bulgaria, 
 Servia, and Bosnia from the conquest by Mahomme- 
 dan Turks . Still more by the fact that those prayers 
 were of no avail through centuries ! It is quite 
 true that the Servians, during the four centuries 
 they were Turkish " Rayah," found in the old 
 
RELIGION IN SERVIA 49 
 
 chiirches, built up by their national kings and great 
 noblemen, not only a religious centre but even a 
 political rallying-point, and that the orthodox 
 clergy keeping up the old faith in the people kept 
 up the old political traditions, and thereby also 
 their undying faith in the poUtical resurrection of 
 their country. It is quite true that the Servian 
 priests and monks sided always with the people 
 and showed themselves true patriots. But their 
 providential mission was more a poUtical than a 
 religious one. They have not done much — indeed, 
 hardly anything — to deepen and intensify the 
 religiousness of the people. No doubt that during 
 the centuries of Tiurkish oppression the people were 
 praying more and keeping the prescribed fasts 
 more regularly and more strictly than the Servians 
 of our own times do. But there is no evidence 
 that their religiousness was deeper and more 
 intense. 
 
 The circumstances which were working for the 
 dulness of the religious sentiment among the 
 Servians in the past were, in the nineteenth 
 century, reinforced by the tendencies of the 
 practically secular schools through which the 
 young generations have passed since the middle 
 of the last century. The reUgious hfe was pushed 
 backwards by the priests themselves, in order 
 that they could devote themselves more entirely 
 to political tasks and to agitations in the service 
 of their poUtical parties. The wonderful organi- 
 sation of the Radical party in Servia is principally 
 
50 SERVIA AND THE SERVIANS 
 
 the work of the village priests and teachers. In 
 the second half of the nineteenth century there 
 was really no one to attend to the needs of the 
 religious life of the Servians, as the priests gave 
 themselves con amore to the task of acting as 
 poUtical agents. Under such circumstances, it 
 is no wonder that the religiousness of the modern 
 Servians is only skin-deep. 
 
 To illustrate the dulness of the rehgious senti- 
 ment of the Servians of our day, I wiU adduce 
 here a few personal incidents. 
 
 In 1889 I was travelling through Servia with a 
 few distinguished EngHsh gentlemen, some of 
 them correspondents of influential papers in 
 London. I took them to see the Monastery of 
 Lyoobostin, built by Tsaritsa Militsa. I was 
 pleased to find there the Bishop of Nish, Hierony- 
 mus, who, although an extreme Liberal in politics, 
 was beUeved to be more pious than others, having 
 been educated in a Russian theological seminary. 
 After a pleasant talk, he asked our Enghsh visitors 
 to take a message from him to our friends in 
 England, which astonished me greatly. " Please, 
 tell our friends that it would he much better if, instead 
 of sending us Bibles, they were to send us some guns 
 and cannons I " 
 
 My Scotch friend, the late Francis H. Mackenzie 
 of Ross-shire, — one of the most rehgious men whom 
 I ever met — expressed once to me the wish to be 
 acquainted with a typical Servian clergjnnan of 
 modem times. I have always thought that my 
 
RELIGION IN SERVIA 51 
 
 friend, the Archmandrite Nikanor Duchich, was 
 an ideal Servian Churchman, and consequently 
 I invited him to meet my Scotch friend at my 
 house. They met, had a long, interesting and 
 satisfactory talk, until Mr. Mackenzie touched 
 on the question of the efl&cacy of prayer and our 
 duty to pray. 
 
 " I have travelled much about your country," 
 my Scotch friend said to the Archmandrite, " and 
 I was rejoiced to see on every side and on every 
 occasion proofs of the great intelligence of your 
 people. But I must add that I was saddened 
 to see your churches empty and your people 
 praying so rarely. You ought to teach your 
 I)eople to pray more ! " 
 
 " I beg your pardon ! " answered my ideal 
 Servian clergyman. " I do not think our people 
 should pray more, or even as much as they do 
 now I Our people have been praying to God for 
 more than four centuries to deliver them from 
 the Turks, but God never answered their prayers ! 
 What we want nowadays is not prayer, but 
 good education, good schools, good soldiers, good 
 ofi&cers and good arms ! " 
 
 Mr. Mackenzie turned to me with deeply 
 saddened face, and soUo voce asked me : "Is this 
 your ideal Servian clergyman ? " I was myself 
 astonished and saddened by the unexpected 
 answer of my " mitre-bearing " friend, but I had 
 by a nod to confirm that he was so ! 
 
 A friend of mine was present at the examination 
 
52 SERVIA AND THE SERVIANS 
 
 at a National School of Boys in " The Science of 
 Religion." The teacher asked a boy : " What does 
 the Bible say about the creation of the world ? " 
 The boy answered quickly : " The Holy Writ 
 (Sveto Pismo) says that God created this worid 
 in six days." " But what do wise men say about 
 that ? " asked the teacher again. " The wise men 
 say that that is not true. On the contrary, the 
 world has created itself slowly through hundreds of 
 thousands of years," said the boy. " Very good ! " 
 exclaimed the teacher, with evident pride. 
 
 As I mentioned, the rehgious sentiment of the 
 Servians is neither deep nor warm. The churches 
 are generally empty, except on very great Church 
 festivals (Good Friday, Easter Day, Whit-Sunday), 
 and on poUtical festivals (Palm Sunday, the day 
 of the second and successful rising against the 
 Turks, the birthday of the King). ' The Servians 
 of our days consider the Church as a pohtical 
 institution, in some mysterious manner connected 
 with the existence of the nation. They do not 
 allow anyone to attack her, nor to compromise 
 her, although, when she is not attacked, they 
 themselves neglect her. They object to every 
 religious propaganda, and more especially to the 
 Roman Cathohc propaganda. That is the reason 
 why there exists no Concordat between Servia 
 and the Holy See, although during the last twenty- 
 five years the Popes repeatedly tried to negotiate 
 one. In general, it can be safely said that the 
 Servians are far from being a deeply rehgious 
 
RELIGION IN SERVIA 53 
 
 people. Among them only the Mohammedan 
 Servians of Bosnia, who even through the nine- 
 teenth century were well known throughout the 
 Ottoman Empire for their religious fanaticism, 
 are somewhat deeply reUgious. 
 
 But that the Servians as a race are not incap- 
 able of religious fervour can be proved not only 
 by their old history and by the just -mentioned 
 fact concerning the Mohammedan Servians of 
 Bosnia, but also by the reUgious fanaticism of 
 the Servian Nazarenes. These are a Christian 
 sect which, about the middle of the last century, 
 originated in Hungary and spread rapidly among 
 the Servians of that country and less rapidly 
 among the people of the Kingdom of Servia. 
 They have several points of resemblance to the 
 old BogoomUi. They have no churches and no 
 priests ; they repudiate the worship of the 
 Madonna and the Saints as idolatry, and they 
 consider it as the greatest sin to kill a man, and 
 therefore they refuse to bear arms and serve in 
 the Army. In Servia some of them have been 
 condemned to twenty years' imprisonment for 
 having refused to comply with the lawful duty of 
 every citizen to serve in the Army. They have 
 cheerfully undergone that heavy sentence for con- 
 science' sake, never murmuring a word of protest. 
 They are absolutely honest and truth-loving people. 
 I have been present at some of their prayer- 
 meetings, and can testify to the earnestness and 
 fervour of their improvised prayers. 
 
 5— (3397) 
 
CHAPTER III 
 
 SERVIAN peasants' NOTIONS ABOUT GOD, HEAVEN, 
 
 EARTH, ANGELS, FAIRIES, WITCHES, DRAGONS, 
 
 AND SAINTS 
 
 The Servian peasant has his own views on God 
 and the world. He has inherited them from his 
 parents who lived before the fiery breath of modern 
 culture began to bum down old beUefs. 
 
 He knows that the " self-made "—or, as he 
 prefers to say, " the SeH-created God " (Samosaz- 
 dani Bog) — has created the world, angels and 
 men. One of the Angels rebelled against God 
 and became the Satan (" Sotona," or " Dyavo "). 
 God does good without ceasing, and tries to induce 
 men and women to do good also. The Devil 
 tries to frustrate God's good intentions and works, 
 and to induce men and women to do only what is 
 displeasing to God. To every man and woman 
 God has given a good angel, who, although 
 invisible, sits on their right shoulder, and whispers 
 to them, into their right ear, his good advice. 
 The Devil immediately placed on the left shoulder 
 of every man and woman one of his httle devils, 
 who unceasingly whispers to them, into their left 
 ear, evil advice. When a man does something 
 that is good and right, the angel on his right 
 shoulder rejoices, and with his invisible wings 
 touches caressingly the man's right cheek. But 
 
 64 
 
PEASANTS' NOTIONS ABOUT GOD 55 
 
 when the man does something that is evil and 
 wrong, then the angel is saddened and sheds 
 tears, while at the same time the devil dances 
 from pleasure, and in exultation shouts to the 
 angel : " Ha ! you see, he is mine, and not yours ! 
 His soul is mine, mine, mine own ! " When a 
 man of his own free will cedes or sells his soul to 
 the Satan, then even the Almighty God cannot 
 save him from that slavery. 
 
 The earth is resting on the back of a giant bull. 
 He is generally quite quiet, sleeping in a sort of 
 torpor. But sometimes he moves one of his ears, 
 as if to get rid of a harassing fly, and that causes 
 a more or less slight shaking of the earth, or the 
 earthquakes. According to another popular 
 theory, the earth reposes on water, the water 
 stands on fire, and this on another fire, which 
 is called the Dragon's Fire. 
 
 Besides the men and animals there live on earth 
 some other creatures powerful for good or evil, 
 as for instance : Veshtitse (the witches), Veele 
 (the fairies). 
 
 Veshtitsa is an old woman possessed by an evil 
 spirit. That spirit lives in her and teaches her 
 how to do all sorts of black magic. When at 
 night the woman goes to sleep, the evil spirit, the 
 true witch, leaves her body, takes the shape of a 
 hen, or more frequently of a night moth, and flies 
 about, entering more especially those houses 
 where there are many young children and babies, 
 because witphes Uke to feed on children's hearts. 
 
56 SERVIA AND THE SERVIANS 
 
 Of course, the child whose heart has been eaten up 
 by a witch dies. Therefore, the peasants, who 
 have children, are frightened when they see a 
 big black or brown moth entering their room at 
 night. The only safe method to secure your 
 children is to catch that moth, burn its wings 
 slightly in the candle, pronouncing these words : 
 "This evening thou hast flown into this house, 
 but I want to know who thou art ; therefore 
 come to-morrow in thy natural form to us and 
 ask to borrow some salt or some sugar." If the 
 next morning a woman from the village or from 
 the neighbourhood comes to the house to ask to 
 borrow that particular thing which was specially 
 mentioned in the conjuring formula of the night 
 before, then the proof has been given who is the 
 witch. This often led to very tragic affairs. 
 The trials of witches by an improvised jury of 
 peasants were not rare happenings in the Servian 
 villages, even in the beginning of the nineteenth 
 century, especially when an epidemic had been 
 for some time carrying away the children. The 
 infallible method to discover the witch was to 
 throw the suspected old woman into a river. If 
 she should float and not sink, she was a witch, 
 in which case she was, in earlier times, taken from 
 the water to the stake and burnt aUve. 
 
 The witches are sociable creatures among 
 themselves. They Uke to meet together. Some- 
 times they take their supper together, generally 
 among the branches of a big walnut tree, or on 
 
PEASANTS' NOTIONS ABOUT GOD 51 
 
 the levelled ground on which the peasants thresh 
 their wheat. The woman who is a witch can, 
 in her own person, go to these meetings and 
 suppers. She needs only to rub a little of a special 
 grease into her armpits, and then immediately 
 she can fly through the air to the place appointed 
 for the meeting. Once a man noticed where his 
 wife, a notorious witch, kept her flying grease, 
 and after she flew away he rose up, rubbed some 
 grease into his own armpits, pronouncing the 
 formula which he had heard his wife pronounce : 
 " Evade the thornbush, evade the trees, and 
 carry me straight to the meeting ! " Before he 
 quite finished the formula, he was carried as by 
 a hurricane through the air to a large walnut tree 
 on a high hill, and dropped there in the midst of a 
 great number of witches, among whom he at once 
 recognised his own wife and several of her intimate 
 " lady friends." They were all sitting around a 
 golden table and drinking wine from golden cups. 
 In his great astonishment to have discovered so 
 many " lady friends " as witches, he exclaimed 
 " Oh, may the Anathema be with all of you ! " 
 whereupon the witches flew away like black birds, 
 and the curious husband fell from the top of the 
 tree down to the hard ground, breaking his ribs. 
 The golden table disappeared, but the golden 
 cups fell down with him to the ground. Not- 
 withstanding his pain, he began to gather them, 
 when, to his utter disgust, he found them to be 
 — hoofs of dead horses and cattle ! 
 
58 SERVIA AND THE SERVIANS 
 
 For some reason or other the witches are 
 specially active on the night of Shrove Tuesday. 
 On that night the Servian peasants sleep with a 
 piece of garlic under their pillow, or wear it in a 
 small amulet around the neck, as the strong 
 smell of that vegetable is supposed to drive away 
 the witches. It is very important that the shells 
 of a boiled egg should be carefully crushed, 
 because otherwise the witches may use those 
 shells as little boats to cross rivers, lakes and 
 seas and visit distant countries. 
 
 " Veele " (in singular, Veela) are far more 
 poetical and sympathetic creatures. They are 
 eternally young and beautiful fair girls, robed in 
 white gauze, with long golden hair, milk-white 
 complexions and white wings. They sing beau- 
 tifully and like to dance, especially during the 
 moonlights. Some of them dwell near the streams 
 and fords (Veele Brodaritse) ; others on high 
 mountains ; but there are some who prefer to 
 live in the clouds (Veele Oblakinye). They are 
 not only harmless generally, but they are dis- 
 tinctly patriotic and take a lively interest in 
 national heroes and national affairs. Veela of 
 Avala is more particularly interested in pubUc 
 affairs of Servia, that of Vitosh in the Bulgarian 
 events, while Veela of Lovtyen is a particularly 
 Montenegrin Veela. The national hero, Kralye- 
 vich Marco, had a Veela for his " posestrima," or 
 the adopted sister. But men irritate them some- 
 times, and then they are revengeful. For instance, 
 
PEASANTS' NOTIONS ABOUT GOD 59 
 
 when the Veelas are dancing " Kolo " (a circle) on 
 a moonHt night, and a man insists on walking 
 through their circle, he may be killed by them, or 
 only more or less severely wounded. But they 
 know the heeding power of plants and herbs, 
 and can quickly heal their wounded victims, 
 and even recall them from death to life. 
 
 Almost every Servian peasant knows the 
 national ballad on Kralyevich Marco and Veela 
 Raviyoyla. That national hero was one day 
 riding on his famous piebald (Sharats) through 
 the mountain of Miroch. He was accompanied 
 by his " pobratim " (adopted brother) Voyvoda 
 Milosh. Feehng somewhat heavy and drowsy, 
 Marco asked his pobratim to sing something to 
 ( refresh him. Milosh, who, besides being a great 
 hero, was renowned for his beautiful voice, told 
 Marco not to ask him to sing whilst they were 
 still crossing the Miroch mountain, because Ravi- 
 yoyla, the Veela of Miroch, had warned him that 
 if he should ever dare to sing while passing through 
 her domain, she would kill him. But Marco 
 insisted that Milosh should sing, and reassured 
 him, saying, " Be not afraid of the Veela, when I 
 am at thy side with my golden mace and riding 
 my clear-sighted piebald." Milosh then began 
 to sing about old kings who were masters of 
 Macedonia. His song was heard by Raviyoyla, 
 who echoed his singing by her own. But recog- 
 nising that Milosh's voice was far more beautiful 
 than hers, jealousy moved her to passion, she 
 
60 SERVIA AND THE SERVIANS 
 
 grasped an arc and sent an arrow to pierce the 
 singing throat of Milosh, and with the second 
 arrow she pierced the heart of the hero. Then 
 the ballad goes on to describe how Marco pursued 
 Veela through the mountain, what wonderful 
 feats his famous piebald did to catch the Veela, 
 how Raviyoyla tried to escape, flying towards 
 the sky, and how, struck by Marco's golden mace, 
 she fell back to the grasses of the mountain. 
 Afraid of being killed by the angry Marco, she 
 implored him by the name of God and Saint 
 John to be to her as a brother, promising to find 
 in the mountains herbs which would heal Milosh's 
 wounds. And so she did, so quickly and success- 
 fully that Milosh rose up with his heart healthier 
 than ever and with his voice more beautiful than 
 ever. Meeting the other Veelas that night, 
 Raviyoyla advised them to refrain from wounding 
 the heroes as long as they heard that Marco 
 Kralyevich, with his clear-sighted piebald and 
 his golden mace, was about. 
 
 According to the Servian popular belief, there 
 are some other creatures which move between 
 the earth and the sky. 
 
 " Halla " seems to be a female dragon. She 
 is a mischievous and very powerful creature. She 
 deUghts to lead the hail-carrying clouds on the 
 cornfields, orchards and vineyards, in order to 
 destroy them and cause the peasants to suffer. 
 Sometimes she tries to eat up the moon, and even 
 the sun, or at least a part of them, as you can see 
 
PEASANTS' NOTIONS ABOUT GOD 61 
 
 with your own eyes when what you scholarly people 
 call echpses take place. In such cases the duty 
 of men is to rush out and fire their rifles and pistols 
 at the sun and moon, let aU church bells ring, let 
 the women and children come out to the streets 
 and beat iron pans and copper casseroles, and in 
 general, by all and every means, make as infernal 
 a noise as possible, in order to frighten the Halla 
 and force her to desist from her intention of 
 swallowing the moon or the sun. 
 
 Then we have the male dragon, the " Zmay." 
 His name seems to have some etymological 
 connection with Zmiya, the snake. He is in 
 usual appearance like a short and thick snake, 
 but with very strong wings, which can carry him 
 high up to the stars. When he flies through the 
 air in the night he emits from his body fiery sparks, 
 which the " ignorant people " caU shooting stars. 
 He dwells generally on the top of very high 
 mountains, or in the deep mountain lakes. But 
 the dragon's form is oiily a misleading m^k. In 
 his innermost essence he is a handsome young 
 man, generally more powerful than any other 
 mortal in the world. He does not belong to the 
 species of the St. George's dragon, which was a 
 vulgar monster feeding on young girls. The 
 Servian Zmay dehghts only in being the sweet- 
 heart and lover of handsome women, more 
 especially queens and princesses. In old time his 
 prowess, and probably his gallantry, was so great 
 that the name of Zmay is given by the Servians 
 
62 SERVIA AND THE SERVIANS 
 
 to the greatest of their heroes. A brave man is 
 called " yunak " (the hero) ; if he is a superior 
 hero, then he is called " Soko " (the falcon, but 
 if his heroism is something quite extraordinary, 
 then he gets the name of Zmay (the dragon). 
 
 With the Veele we have soared as high as the 
 clouds, with the Zmay we can fly up to the firma- 
 ment of the sky. According to the cosmography 
 of the Servian peasant, the blue sky, which we 
 see with our eyes, is only the lowest floor of the 
 heavens. There are altogether seven skies, or 
 seven heavens placed at some distance one above 
 the other. When a man dies — a man who, 
 although a sinner, has not exactly sold his soul 
 to Satan — then two angels take charge of his soul 
 and carry it through all the seven heavens to the 
 region where God with his saints dwells. Passing 
 from one lower heaven to a higher one, the angels 
 have to stop with their " chent " at nimierous 
 stations, or, as the Servians call them, " Tsarine " 
 (Custom-houses), where the special Custom 
 ofl&cers demand not exactly a regular import duty, 
 but payments of certain compensations for par- 
 ticular sins which that soul has committed on 
 earth, and of which on that particular station a 
 detailed account has been kept. According to 
 some, there are twelve such heavenly Custom- 
 houses, according to others not less than 
 twenty-four ! 
 
 Once a year the sky opens itself for a few 
 moments, and " God shows Himself." That 
 
PEASANTS' NOTIONS ABOUT GOD 63 
 
 happens on the night of the Epiphany, which in 
 Servia is called " Bogoyavlyenye," viz. : " The 
 appearance of God." It is exactly at midnight 
 that the sky opens itself to show God for a few 
 moments. Whatever wish a man expresses in 
 the moment he sees the heaven open, God will 
 immediately fulfil it. A poor man once made up 
 his mind to wait for the opening of the sky, and 
 ask from God a barrel of gold coins. But in the 
 moment he saw the sky opened he was so agitated 
 that in his confusion he said and prayed : " Give 
 me, O God ! a head hke a barrel ! " and im- 
 mediately his head swelled to the size of a barrel, 
 so that it was necessary to break the wall around 
 the window to enable him to bring in his head. 
 
 Every man has his own star in the sky. It is 
 placed there and Mt at the moment of his birth, 
 and put out at his death. On the seventh day 
 after the birth of every child, a fairy, by name 
 Usud {Sententia or Decisia) comes to its cradle 
 to fix the child's destiny. Servian peasant women 
 as mothers watch most anxiously on the seventh 
 night after their confinement. They cannot see 
 the Usud, but they beUeve that it is possible some- 
 times to hear what a fairy decides that the destiny 
 of the child shall be. The Serviai;s believe 
 decidedly in predestination. " There is no death 
 without the appointed day," they say. When 
 something very disagreeable happens, they con- 
 sole the sufferer : " What could' st thou do ? It 
 had been so appointed to be ! " 
 
64 SERVlA AND THE SERVIANS 
 
 They believe firmly in ghosts and apparitions 
 {Avet and Avetinye). They believe in sorceries, 
 more especially in sorceresses. The profession 
 of sorceress is exercised principally by old gipsy 
 women (Tsiganke) and by Wallach women 
 (Vlahinye). " Vrach " is the Russian word for 
 " Doctor of Medicine." The word " Vrachara " 
 in the Servian means a woman who by certain 
 formulas or incantations and certain acts can 
 charm away or charm in anything you like. They 
 can make you be liked by anyone you wish, or 
 they can make your enemy be hated by every- 
 body and confounded in anything he under- 
 takes. They are supposed to be able to exercise 
 great power in all the questions of love and 
 hatred. 
 
 Besides Angels in heaven, Hallas and Dragons 
 between the heaven and earth ; besides men, 
 fairies, witches, apparitions and Satan on the earth, 
 there are saints who generally hve in heaven, but 
 sometimes roam about the earth. " Svetsi " (the 
 saints) are real and hving persons to the Servian 
 peasants. They are generally willing to help 
 those who in great need reverently invoke their 
 names, and especially those who worship them 
 as their particular patrons. When they are dis- 
 pleased they punish more or less severely those 
 who have done something wrong, or have offended 
 them by neglect or otherwise. Besides fifty-two 
 Sundays and thirty-four great Church festivals, 
 the Servian peasants have yet sixty-five days on 
 
PEASANTS' NOTIONS ABOUT GOD 65 
 
 which they honour some minor saints by not 
 working at all. 
 
 Some labourers in Belgrade almost succeeded 
 in convincing my friend Mr. Frank Mackenzie, 
 an astute Scotchman, that it is, at least sometimes, 
 desirable to honour the saints by abstaining from 
 work. He had a large farm at the gates of 
 Belgrade. One day in April his labourers came 
 to tell him that he must dispense with their work 
 that day. " Why ? " he asked them. " To-day 
 is Saint Marc," they answered, " and although 
 his name is not printed in red letters in the almanac, 
 he is a powerful saint." " If he is powerful or 
 not, I do not know, but I know that a certain 
 amount of work must be done on my fields to-day, 
 and if no one of you wiU work, I will work myself," 
 said my friend. His workmen, who liked him 
 personally very much, strongly advised him not 
 to do so, lest he should offend the saint and pro- 
 voke his retaliation. Mr. Mackenzie laughed, 
 and with a few Nazarenes (who do not believe in 
 saints) went and worked in the fields. But 
 towards the evening, returning home on horseback, 
 his horse got suddenly shy at something, and 
 threw him so badly to the ground that he broke 
 his collar-bone, and had to be carried to his 
 cottage. His labourers came next morning to 
 express their sympathy with him. " But, after 
 all," they added, " did we not warn you that it is 
 not safe to offend the saint by working on his 
 day ? Better send now at once a wax candle and 
 
66 SERVIA AND THE SERVIANS 
 
 some incense to the church, to show that you are 
 grateful that the saint has not treated you worse 
 than that ! " He did not send either candle or 
 the incense to the church, but he often spoke 
 about that accident as inexpUcable to him. 
 
 Every Servian family has a special saint as its 
 particular patron. When the Servians were con- 
 verted to Christianity in the ninth century, on 
 their baptism every clan received a special 
 Christian saint to replace the old Pagan patron. 
 They celebrate the day of their patron saint with 
 special ceremonies and festivities, of which we 
 will speak in detail somewhere else. They call 
 that " to celebrate the baptismal name " (" slaviti 
 krsno ime ") or simply "to celebrate" {"Slaviti"). 
 Families who have the same saint for patron 
 consider themselves as distantly related. In old 
 times such famihes did not intermarry. The 
 most popular saints — the saints who have most 
 " chents " — are : St. Nicholas, St. John the 
 Baptist, St. George and St. Archangel Michael. 
 
 Among the Servians there are numerous 
 anecdotes and short stories about the patron 
 saints. 
 
 A Servian fell by accident into a river, and 
 shouted : " O Saint Nicholas, my patron saint, 
 help me ! " The saint immediately appeared, and 
 said: "Here I am; but move a Uttle with your 
 own hands and feet and swim out by yourself, 
 and do not wait for me to drag you out ! " 
 
 And here is another story of that popular saint. 
 
PEASANTS' NOTIONS ABOUT GOD 67 
 
 A poor man felt most unhappy because the 
 festival of St. Nicholas was approaching, and he 
 had no money to celebrate it in the orthodox 
 fashion. His good wife was sorry to see him so 
 distressed, and, taking the only valuable ornament 
 that remained to her, the silver clasps of her belt, 
 she gave them to her husband, saying, "Go to 
 town and sell this, and let us celebrate our saint 
 properly. If by his help you remain in good 
 hezdth, you wiU one day be able to buy me other 
 clasps." The husband then went to the neigh- 
 bouring town and there he was soon accosted by 
 a young merchant, who asked him if he had 
 something to sell. " Yes," he answered, " I 
 should like to sell these silver belt-clasps, if I 
 could get a fair price for them." They bargained 
 for some time, and at last came to terms. With 
 the money he received for the sold clasps the man 
 bought a big wax candle, some incense, oil, wine 
 and all other things necessary for the proper 
 celebration of the patron saint, and returned 
 home quite happy. His wife, seeing him loaded 
 with purchased goods, asked in astonishment : 
 " But how did you get the money to buy all this ? " 
 " How ? Simply by seUing at a rather good 
 price your belt -clasps." " My belt-clasps ? " 
 she asked in still greater astonishment ; " but 
 they are here ! " And she ran to her room and 
 brought the clasps to show him, and said : " A 
 man came here and told me that you had asked 
 him to bring me back my clasps, as you had no 
 
68 SERVIA AND THE SERVIANS 
 
 need to sell them." And then both the husband 
 and the wife came to the conclusion that the man 
 who bought the clasps in town from him and 
 brought them back to the wife was no one else 
 but — St. Nicholas himself. 
 
 The Servians beUeve that, beginning on the 
 Easter Sunday, for seven days the gates of Para- 
 dise are open, and whoever dies during those 
 seven days can go straight to Paradise, even if he 
 has hved here on earth the life of the blackest 
 sinner. The reason why the gates of Paradise 
 are open during that week is curiously explained 
 by the Servian peasants. The keepers of those 
 gates are St. Peter, of course, and — St. Elijah. 
 They are generally more than careful and strict 
 and scrutinise very sharply the passports, hcences 
 and admission-cards which those who wish to 
 enter Paradise must bring with them from the 
 proper quarter. But on the Easter Sunday both 
 old gatekeepers, rejoicing in the Resurrection of 
 the Lord, take a Uttle more wine than is good for 
 them. Indeed, they take so much that they are 
 overcome by sleep, and do not awaken for fuU 
 seven days, leaving the gates of Paradise aU the 
 time quite open ! 
 
 There are many stories about St. Peter, all 
 representing him as a sort of rather jolly good 
 fellow. EUjah is — according to the Servian 
 peasants' knowledge — of somewhat riotous dispo- 
 sition. He drives in a sort of motor-car across 
 the uneven pavement of the sky, and the rattling 
 
PEASANTS' NOTIONS ABOUT GOD 69 
 
 of his carriage produces the thundering. For- 
 tunately for the world, he never knows exactly 
 on which day the people on earth celebrate his 
 name day. He often asks his sister, the Saint 
 Mary of the Fire : " Dear sister, tell me when is 
 my name day ? I should like to enjoy myself 
 by giving an extra thundering performance on that 
 day ! " But the good and merciful Mary of the 
 Fire (Ognyena Maria), out of pity for the people 
 of our planet, answers him in the first half-year, 
 " Oh, your day is not yet come," and in the second 
 half-year : " Oh, but your day has passed." 
 Because if EUjah knew which is his name day on 
 earth (the 20th of July), he would then, to enjoy 
 himself, fire all the big guns of thunder, so that 
 both the earth and the sky would break in pieces 
 from the shock. 
 
 «— (a3«) 
 
CHAPTER IV 
 
 NATIONAL CUSTOMS 
 
 Choice of the Building Ground for a House — ^Marriage 
 Customs — Slava — ^Zavetina — Christmas — Burial Customs. 
 
 1. When a Servian peasant decides to build for 
 himself, or for his Zadruga, a house, his first 
 preoccupation is how to find " the lucky spot," 
 where such a house should be built. The Servians 
 believe that there are lucky and unlucky spots and 
 places, just as there are lucky and unlucky days. 
 
 They have several methods by which they 
 believe they can find out which place is lucky 
 for a house. One is : to place four stones on the 
 four spots on which eventually the four comers 
 of the building wUl be placed, and leave them 
 there for a night. Early next morning they go 
 to raise these stones up one after the other. If 
 they discover at least under one of them a hving 
 insect, they consider that as a sure indication 
 that the place is a lucky one. If, on the contrary, 
 they found no insect, they would move the stones 
 for the next night to some other place, and repeat 
 the search after an insect the morning after, and 
 so on until they found one. In case they have 
 not found one after several attempts, they would 
 rather give up the building of a house altogether, 
 than build it on a spot for which they had no 
 indication that it was a lucky one. 
 
 70 
 
NATIONAL CUSTOMS 71 
 
 The other method is : to place a glass filled 
 with wine and a certain number of wheat to 
 remain for the night on a certain spot. If the 
 next morning they find the glass still full of wine 
 and all the wheat intact, they beheve the proof 
 has been obtained that the spot is lucky. 
 
 The third method consists in this : several 
 sheep are driven into an enclosed field to spend 
 the night there. The place which the sheep 
 chose themselves to he down in for the night is 
 considered as healthy and lucky. 
 
 Besides, the Servians say that every ground 
 on which a plum tree can grow and bear fruit is 
 healthy and lucky. 
 
 2. Most of the Servian peasant houses have 
 only one floor — ^the ground floor. It consists of a 
 large kitchen, with a square and low hearth, and 
 of one or two adjoining rooms. Practically the 
 kitchen is the sitting-room and the dining-room 
 for the Servian peasant. Under the house there 
 is generally a cellar, in which barrels with wine 
 and whisky, and during the winter store of vege- 
 tables (cabbage, sauer-kraut, potatoes, onions, 
 capsicum, called in the Servian " paprika ") are 
 kept. In the kitchen, in the wide open chimney 
 above the hearth, fhtches, hams and dried salted 
 meat (beef and pork) are hanging. 
 
 In the yard, generally around the principal 
 house, are to be found several wooden structures, 
 called " Vayati," with one or two rooms, in which 
 the married sons and nephews hve with their 
 
72 SERVIA AND THE SERVIANS 
 
 wives. The well-to-do peasant has often a special 
 little house, reserved for visitors and guests. Such 
 a guests' house has generally an upper floor with 
 a small kitchen, a large room and an open balcony 
 (doxat). 
 
 The Servian peasant likes to place on the roof 
 of his house a peculiar plant, called in the Servian 
 " Chuvarkutya," "the Guardian of the House" 
 (sempervivum tectorum, Linn.), which, he believes, 
 prevents the hghtning striking the house. A 
 narrow strip, adjoining generally the southern 
 side of the house, is reserved for the flower garden. 
 The most popular flowers with the Servian 
 peasant girls and women are : Basilicum, which 
 is considered as a sacred flower, the Iris, called 
 by them Peroonika, the flower of the old Slavonic 
 god Peroon, — Carnetia, which is called generally 
 by the Turkish name, " Karanfil," Stocks, and 
 Sunflower. All these flowers (except the Sun- 
 flower) are frequently mentioned in the Ijrric 
 songs of the Servian peasant women. In the 
 Western part of Servia most peasant houses are 
 surrounded by an orchard, consisting principally 
 of plum, apple, pear and walnut trees. 
 
 3. Marriage Customs. — Having satisfied his 
 ambition to have his own house and family, the 
 Servian peasant considers it his sacred duty to see 
 his children well married. He is generally some- 
 what in a hurry to see his son married. This 
 hurry is prompted by economical reasons : the 
 peasant wants to add a new working hand to his 
 
[To face page 72 
 
 A Peasant Woman Drawing Water from a Well 
 
NATIONAL CUSTOMS 73 
 
 farm. Hardly arrived at his eighteenth year, the 
 Servian peasant boy has to marry at the desire, 
 and generally according to the choice of his father. 
 Not only has he to marry while yet very young, 
 but usually he has to marry a woman who is at 
 least a few years older than he is himself. 
 
 The Servian marriage is somewhat costly. 
 Poorer peasants can hardly comply with the 
 many expenses which the observance of all the 
 traditions and old customs would imply. Not 
 rarely, therefore, it happens that the parents 
 of the bridegroom and the bride arrange that the 
 fiancee flees away (odbegne) to the house of the 
 fianci. The wedding then takes place at once, 
 with the omission of all unnecessary expense. 
 But such cases are only exceptions to the rule, 
 and generally the Servian peasant is proud to see 
 his son married properly and in fuU national style. 
 
 It is the duty and the privilege of every Servian 
 to choose the wife for his son, or respectively to 
 choose the husband for his daughter. The sons 
 and daughters consider that the natural order of 
 things, an institution ordained by God. It hap- 
 pens very rarely that a young peasant marries 
 against the will of his parents. As soon as his 
 son has attained the eighteenth year, if not 
 earlier, the Servian peasant asks his friends, 
 confidentially, to help him to find a proper wife 
 for him. He himself visits assiduously all the 
 " Sabors " in his own and in the neighbouring 
 districts, dresses himself better than usual, and 
 
74 SERVIA AND THE SERVIANS 
 
 watches the girls dancing " Kolo." He makes 
 careful enquiries about the families who have 
 marriageable daughters but Uve at some distance. 
 In some parts of Servia the young unmarried 
 women carry a special mark in their headgear — 
 generally a red feather — indicating that they are 
 open to formal proposals. 
 
 When a Servian peasant has already chosen a 
 proper girl for his son, he tries in a confidential 
 manner, through some intimate friend, to ascer- 
 tain if the parents of the girl would consent to 
 give her to his son. When he receives an encour- 
 aging answer, he invites one or two of his relatives 
 or friends to go with him on the " requesting 
 errand " (prossidba). They start together, 
 dressed as well as they can be. The father carries 
 with him a flat wheat cake and a bunch of flowers. 
 It is necessary that at least one of this company 
 should carry with him a rifle or a pistol, because 
 it is customary to announce every joyous event 
 by firing rifles or pistols. They arrange to 
 start at such a time as will enable them to 
 arrive at the girl's house in the evening, before 
 supper. 
 
 When they enter the hall (or rather the kitchen) 
 of the house, and while one of them is greeting 
 the host, another of the party tries to shut the 
 kitchen door with his shoulders. This is to 
 symbolise that the girl is shut in, that there is no 
 escape for her. The host invites them to take 
 seats around the hearth, while the women folk 
 
NATIONAL CUSTOMS 75 
 
 axe preparing the table for the supper in the 
 adjoining room. 
 
 At the supper-table only the host, his brother, 
 or some other elderly male member of the family, 
 and the party which came to ask the girl in 
 marriage, take places. After they have been 
 eating and drinking for some time, one of the 
 guests, who is considered the best speaker among 
 his party, will address the host in some such 
 words as these : 
 
 " Brother, thou dost not ask us, and we do not 
 volunteer to tell you, the real object of our visit 
 this evening. We are not come to eat and to 
 drink, but we came to make a certain arrange- 
 ment, if it should please God, and if it should be 
 agreeable to you." 
 
 The host will then answer : 
 
 " Brother, certainly I do not know the object 
 of your visit. I thought you would yourself tell 
 why you came. I have no doubt that you came 
 with some good purpose, and therefore you are 
 heartily welcome to me." 
 
 " Indeed," continues the first speaker, " we 
 came for a good purpose, if God's will orders 
 it so. We would be pleased to enter into family 
 relationship with you in God's name! Our 
 brother Ivan, here present, would like to take 
 your daughter Militsa for his son Rayko, if it is 
 God's wiU that it should be so, and if it should be 
 agreeable to yourself." 
 
76 SERVIA AND THE SERVIANS 
 
 Thereupon the father of the prospective bride- 
 groom opens his bag, draws from it the flat wheaten 
 cake, puts on it the small bunch of flowers, and 
 places it on the table. Then he takes out from 
 his breast pocket his money bag, selects from 
 among a handful of coins a few gold pieces or 
 several silver coins, and places them on the cake 
 too. These coins are the first present which the 
 future father-in-law gives to his daughter-in-law. 
 
 The girl's father will then say : " Brother, 
 let us not precipitate the matter. Let me first 
 find out what my daughter would have to say. 
 You know, as the proverb says : ' The world 
 remains with the younger generation. ' " 
 
 He then goes out to consult his wife. This is 
 done only pro forma and to save appearances, 
 because practically that was settled already before 
 the other man had been encouraged to come to 
 " ask," or rather to " beg," (prossi) the girl. On 
 his return to the room he asks his visitors to 
 continue their ^Supper until his wife ascertains 
 what their daughter thinks of the suggestion. 
 He fills their glasses with red wine and drinks 
 with them, expressing the wish : " that God may 
 guide them to do what would be agreeable to 
 His wiU." 
 
 Then, after more or less prolonged suspense, 
 the door opens and one of the brothers — or one of 
 the nearest male relations — brings the girl in, 
 leading her by the hand. He leads her first to 
 the father of her prospective husband, before 
 
NATIONAL CUSTOMS 77 
 
 whom she bends deeply and kisses his right hand. 
 She proceeds then to kiss the hands of all the 
 other guests, finishing with the hand of her own 
 father. She is then led back again to her future 
 father-in-law, who gathers the coins from the flat 
 cake and places them in the hand of the girl, 
 together with the bunch of flowers, expressing 
 at the same time his wish for her happiness. She 
 bends again deeply before him, kisses his hand, 
 and from that moment she is considered as engaged 
 to his son. 
 
 When the girl returns to her mother with coins 
 and flowers in hand, some of the mede relatives 
 rush out to the courtyard and fire pistol shots, 
 announcing thereby to the village that one of the 
 girls has been formally engaged. Meanwhile, 
 and after her departure from the room, her future 
 father-in-law draws out again his money-bag, 
 and places a gold coin on the flat cake. That coin 
 represents the price with which he bought a wife 
 for his son, and is called " the presentation to the 
 house " (darovnina u kutyu). Then aU present 
 rise from the table, the two fathers embrace and 
 kiss each other, and from that moment they are 
 family relations. Before parting they drink the 
 health of the young people, and fix the day for 
 the " giving of the ring " and the day for the 
 wedding. Sometimes they arrange in detail 
 what presents the two houses are to make each 
 other. Oftener that is not done, because the old 
 custom and tradition has already fixed what is 
 
78 SERVIA AND THE SERVIANS 
 
 the duty of the bridegroom's father and what 
 of the bride and her family to give. The una- 
 voidable rule, for instance, is that the bridegroom's 
 father must buy the wedding dress for the bride, 
 and that he must give presents to her parents and 
 all her female relatives. 
 
 The ring is brought to the engaged girl on 
 the appointed day by a more or less numerous 
 company of the bridegroom's male friends and 
 female relatives. It is more a pretext for the 
 nearer relations of the bridegroom to get an 
 opportunity to make the acquaintance of the girl. 
 The prospective bridegroom is not present at that 
 function. 
 
 The wedding day is quite an ordeal for both 
 famihes. Both are expected to entertain their 
 friends most hospitably throughout several days. 
 Until very recent days the wedding guests had 
 to travel to fetch the bride, as it was a general 
 rule that a young man did not marry a girl from 
 the same village where his own family lived, but 
 rather from a more or less distant one. In the 
 absence of good carriage roads the wedding guests 
 had to ride on horseback. They had quite a 
 mihtary organisation : there was a " standard- 
 bearer," and there was a " Voyvoda," the leader, 
 whose orders the wedding guests had to obey, 
 while on the wedding journey. The bride had 
 to provide embroidered hand-towels, or coloured 
 handkerchiefs, of which at least one, if not two, 
 were fastened behind the ears of the horses. 
 
NATIONAL CUSTOMS 79 
 
 Sometimes instead of hand-towels and handker- 
 chiefs, the peasants' woollen socks or gloves were 
 fastened on the horses. As generally the entire 
 village takes an interest in the marriage of one 
 of its young men or young girls, the villagers 
 come generously to the aid of the bride and the 
 bridegroom, and every house contributes some- 
 thing to the decoration of the wedding horses with 
 flowers and handkerchiefs. 
 
 No Servian wedding could take place without 
 three special functionaries : the Koom, Stari Svat 
 and Dever. — The " koom " is the principal witness 
 of the wedding and the most important personage 
 of the entire party. He is generally the son, or 
 the nearest relative, of the man who was " koom " 
 to the bridegroom's parents at their wedding. He 
 will be the godfather to all the children of that 
 marriage. His more immediate duty at the wed- 
 ding is to pay the gipsy musicians who would 
 provide music for all the dances, and to pay also 
 for the gunpowder which is to be fired that day. 
 The male wedding guests come armed at least 
 with pistols if not with rifles, and on their arrival 
 go to the " koom " for powder. — The " Stari 
 Svat " is the second witness of the marriage 
 ceremony. While that ceremony is performed 
 he is standing behind the bride, while the koom 
 is standing behind the bridegroom. He is the 
 Master of the Ceremonies that day ; he keeps order 
 among the guests and presides at the nuptial 
 banquet. — The "Dever" is the bride -leader 
 
80 SERVIA AND THE SERVIANS 
 
 and her special guardian. He is constantly 
 at her side, and in earUer times, when the bride 
 had to be fetched from some distance, and when 
 the wedding party had to spend one or several 
 nights on the journey, his privilege and duty was 
 to sleep in the same room in which the bride slept. 
 
 After all the invited guests have assembled at 
 the bridegroom's house, and after some music, 
 singing and drinking, they mount their horses, 
 put themselves in order, and start for the bride's 
 house, generally riding two and two in one Une, 
 firing their pistols and singing. The procession 
 is led by a man with a large " Chutura " (a wooden 
 fiat vessel) filled with red wine. The " Chutura " 
 is decorated with embroidered towels or silver 
 coins, which the invited guests have presented 
 to the Chutura-bearer when he brought them 
 the invitation. His duty is to offer wine to every 
 person the wedding party meets on the road, 
 and to make, during the wedding festival, jokes 
 and witticisms at the expense of everybody, even 
 at the expense of the bride and bridegroom. He 
 is a sort of privileged court jester and fool of that 
 day. Ever5^hing is permitted to him, and nobody 
 dares complain against his words or his actions, 
 which are often coarse and rude. 
 
 Some ten or fifteen yards behind him ride the 
 " Voyvoda " and the " Standard-bearer." After 
 them ride, in a carriage or on horseback, the 
 bridesmaids, who are selected from among the 
 nearest relatives of the bridegroom. They carry 
 
NATIONAL CUSTOMS 81 
 
 with them flowers and the wedding dress, which 
 the bridegroom's father has bought for the bride. 
 Then comes the bridegroom, riding between the 
 Koom (on the right) and the Stari Svat (on the 
 left). After them follow other guests and friends, 
 two and two. These wedding cavalcades are 
 sometimes quite imposing. 
 
 Meanwhile, at the bride's home the friends of 
 her family have assembled. Her girl friends 
 stand two and two, holding each other by the 
 shoulders or by the waist, and sing special wedding 
 songs. Most of these describe in simple words 
 the grief of the bride's mother at the departure 
 of her daughter for another home and the conso- 
 lation which she finds in the thought that she is 
 going to be happy in her new home. Singing is 
 alternated by dancing " kolo," which is somewhat 
 similar to the Scotch Sir Roger de Coverley. 
 
 The bridegroom's party announces its arrival 
 by the firing of rifles and pistols. They are 
 received by the playing of bagpipes or of gipsies' 
 violins. In some parts of Servia the old custom 
 is still kept, according to which the gates of the 
 courtyard are closed and the bridegroom's party 
 is not admitted before some of them, firing with 
 sharp cartridges, have hit a pot or some other 
 vessel, fastened to the highest branch of a tree 
 or at the top of the house chimney. When that 
 pot or vessel is shattered to pieces the party is 
 admitted and led immediately to the tables loaded 
 with roast lamb or pork, some cakes and wine 
 
82 SER\TA AND THE SER\^\NS 
 
 and whisky. The Inid^aiiaids take the wedding 
 dr^s of the bride, who is waiting for them in one 
 of the " Vayats," the wooden hot, of which there 
 are many in even.' peasant's comi^ard, as we have 
 said already. WTien the bride is quite ready, she 
 is led out by one of her brothers or the nearest 
 male relation. The moment she steps out of 
 that hut she is greeted by a Hvely fire from the 
 rifles and jHstols of the bridegroom's party. The 
 bridesmaids tell the bride whereabouts to look 
 for the brid^room and hand her a small wreath 
 made of basilicum and some other flowos. It is 
 desirable that she should get the first ghmpse of 
 her bridi^room looking through that wreath. 
 
 She is then led first to the Koom and the Stan 
 Svat to kiss thdr hands, and approaches every 
 male guest to perform the same duty. That 
 ordeal finished, she is led to the kitchen, where, 
 in front of the hearth with burning fire, sit on low 
 wooden chairs her father and mother. The bride 
 almost prostrate h^self before the hearth, and 
 kisses the earth (or brick as it may be^ in front of 
 it. This is, perhaps, a rare remnant of the rite 
 from the time of fire-woiship. Anyhow, it is the 
 veneration of the centre of family life. Rising 
 up, she bows deeply before her ptarents and kisses 
 their hands, whereupon the father and mother 
 embrace their daughter and give her their biasing. 
 The brother, or the relative who led her through 
 all that ordeal, delivers her now formally to the 
 " Dever," who from that moment assumes full 
 
NATIONAL CUSTOMS 83 
 
 responsibility for her safety. The bridegroom's 
 party immediately mount their horses, and, firing 
 diligently from their rifles and pistols, start with 
 the bride for the next church, which is, more 
 frequently, at a great distance. 
 
 When, after the church ceremony, the wedding 
 party arrives before the gate of the bridegroom's 
 house, the bride has to step from her horse (or 
 from the carriage) on to a sack of oats ; from that 
 sack she steps on a plough, and from the plough 
 to the threshold of the gate. There a woman 
 places a baby boy in her arms. The bride has to 
 raise the baby as high as she can, and, having 
 kissed him, to return him to the woman who 
 presented him to her. After this, a loaf of wheaten 
 bread is placed under her right and left arms and 
 into each hand a bottle filled with red wine. With 
 these emblems of wealth and prosperity she walks 
 into the house. 
 
 The father and mother of the bridegroom wait 
 for her in the central haU of the house, viz. : in 
 the kitchen. On the low but wide hearth is 
 spread, right and left, burning wood and coal. In 
 front of the hearth the parents of the bridegroom 
 receive her. After she has kissed their hands, 
 the mother-in-law leads her three times round 
 the hearth, and places in her hand a shovel, with 
 which she gathers together into one heap the scat- 
 tered burning coal. This symbohc action is meant 
 to indicate that the activity of the new member 
 of the family may tend to gather together that 
 
84 SERVIA AND THE SERVIANS 
 
 which is scattered, and unite and contribute to 
 the peace, prosperity and concord of the family. 
 
 Meanwhile, the table is laid for the wedding 
 banquet. As the Servian wedding is attended by 
 numerous guests, it would be ruinous for peasants 
 of average means to provide food and drink for all of 
 them. The practical Servian peasants have from 
 time immemorial hit upon the plan that every 
 wedding guest should bring with him his own 
 food and drink ! Or rather, every wedding guest 
 contributes something to the general cheer. The 
 table is presided over by both the " Koom " and 
 " Stari Svat." Near them the bride, with her 
 leader (Dever) has to stand during the whole 
 dinner. On the opposite side to the bride the 
 Chutura-heaxer takes his place. Before the eating 
 begins, the distribution of the bride's gifts to the 
 guests takes place. A woman carries these gifts, 
 and presents them to the persons for whom they 
 are destined. The Chutura-heaneT announces 
 and describes every gift loudly, but he does that 
 with more or less satire and caricature, as his task 
 is to make the company laugh. He would, for 
 instance, at the top of his voice shout out : " Here 
 is the gift of our charming bride to our rightly- 
 famed Koom ! It is a shirt of a very remarkable 
 whiteness, thinness and glossiness. I am told 
 that that shirt is so silky and so thin, that it could 
 be drawn through a ring. No doubt it could, 
 provided that the ring is at least two feet in dia- 
 meter and that two men are pulling it with all 
 
NATIONAL CUSTOMS 85 
 
 their might and two others help it by pushing it 
 from the other side ! " After the presents have 
 been distributed, the Chutura-heaieT describes 
 in the same comic manner the food contributed 
 to the table by the guests. " Here is our friend, 
 gazda (the farmer) Radovan, a wealthy man, 
 who to show the greatness of his wealth did not 
 bring a roasted pig for the enjoyment of this 
 merry wedding party, but a chicken, which please 
 do not scrutinise too closely, lest you should 
 discover that it is no chicken at all, but a rook, 
 which died a natural death of old age ! " — " And 
 here is the grand contribution made by that well- 
 known generous compatriot of ours, Milovan 
 Popovich. Never doubting for a moment that 
 our gazda Radovan would bring a roasted pig, 
 he thought, in his weU-known modesty, that he 
 would sufficiently honour this company of breth- 
 ren by bringing to this table some cheese. And 
 what a cheese ! It introduces itself into your 
 nostrils by its delicate perfume of putrid sauer- 
 kraut ! I would advise you to begin your banquet 
 at once with that cheese, because as it is rather 
 a walking cheese, it may of itself walk away before 
 you think to enjoy it ! " 
 
 The afternoon is filled by singing and dancing, 
 the male guests at the table continuing all the 
 time to drink. At the setting of the sun the Koom 
 leads the bridegroom to the Vayat prepared for 
 him and his bride. A Uttle later, the bride-leader 
 brings the bride to the threshold of the Vayat and 
 
 7—1*397) 
 
86 SERVIA AND THE SERVIANS 
 
 delivers her to the Koom, who leads her in and, 
 placing her hand in the hand of the bridegroom, 
 leaves them alone. In our days the guests then 
 disperse, but in the earlier part of last century the 
 guests remained drinking and singing not only 
 that night, but the " Vesselye " (the merriment) 
 lasted for several days and nights ! 
 
 In several parts of Servia the bride, during the 
 first year of her wedded life, does not call the 
 nearer relatives of her husband by their proper 
 names, but by endearing names which she chooses. 
 She would call her sister-in-law : " My blooming 
 rose," or " my blue iris," " my carnation " (Karan- 
 filko), or " my shining star," etc. One brother 
 of her husband would be called " Falcon" (Sokole), 
 another " Pigeon " (Golube) ; some other male 
 relatives get the names : " Dobrinko " (my good 
 one), " Milenko " (my dear one), " Sretyko " 
 (my lucky one). Through her entire life she 
 never mentions her husband by his Christian 
 or family name, but simply says " he " ! And 
 the true Servian peasant will never mention his 
 wife without politely excusing himself for such an 
 indelicacy ! " My wife — I beg your pardon ! " 
 (Moya zena — prostityesh me !) 
 
 In some parts are kept up some ancient but 
 horribly indelicate customs . I cannot describe them 
 here, although an English novel-writer concluded 
 one of his novels by such a description. 
 
 4. Slav a — Krsno ime — Zavetina. — The word 
 *' Slava " in all Slavonic languages means " glory," 
 
NATIONAL CUSTOMS 87 
 
 The verb " slaviti " means to glorify in general ; 
 but in a more special sense amongst the Servians 
 it means " to glorify the patron saint " of every 
 family. When one Servian asks another : " When 
 is your Slava ? " he means : " Which saint is 
 your patron saint ? " 
 
 The Slava day is the most important day in 
 the course of a year in the Ufe of a Servian family. 
 It is the day for the annual reception of friends 
 and acquaintances. And more than that, it is 
 the day on which even a stranger has a right to 
 enter the house and to be hospitably enter- 
 tained. It is a great day of a partly religious 
 and partly social character. It has been in 
 practice through centuries, so that not only the 
 ceremonies and proceedings have become stereo- 
 t5^ed, but the same could be said of the formulas, 
 greetings and toasts spoken on the occasion. It 
 is not only a custom but an institution, which 
 has not lost any of its mystic hold on the Servian 
 national spirit. 
 
 Slava being so important an annual function, 
 the preparations for its proper celebration are 
 going on for several days before the arrival of the 
 saint's day. The women have hard work to give 
 the entire house a thorough cleaning and to see 
 that every member of the family shall appear 
 in his best clothes or her best dress. They have 
 to prepare a special Slava cake (Kolach) and the 
 Kolyivo. The last words mean, in fact, " some- 
 thing that has been killed by knife as a sacrifice." 
 
88 SERVIA AND THE SERVIANS 
 
 No doubt in the old Pagan times " Kol57ivo " 
 was the name for the lamb, or kid, or ram, sacri- 
 ficed on the altar. At the conversion of the 
 Servians to Christianity they were told that the 
 Christian God and Saints do not require animals 
 to be sacrificed to them ; that instead, a dish of 
 boiled wheat would be quite an equivalent 
 sacrifice. That as sacrifice offered dish of 
 boiled wheat retained the old name Kolyivo. It 
 consists of white wheat, well boiled and sweetened 
 with powdered sugar and walnut or almonds, 
 piled up and decorated by coloured sugar. The 
 Slava cake is a flat cake of wheat flour, about a 
 foot — more or less — ^in diameter, and two or three 
 inches thick. Its upper surface is divided by a 
 cross in four fields every one of which bears a 
 little shield with the initials of the words : " Jesus 
 Christ the Victor." In addition to the Kolyivo 
 and the cake, the " Svechar " — the man who as 
 the chief of the family celebrates the saint — ^has 
 to buy a wax candle, a bottle of pure olive oil and 
 some incense, and to send them, with a bottle of 
 good red wine, to the church. Besides these 
 " religious requisites " he has to prepare for the 
 " worldly cheer " of his friends and guests — 
 plenty of wine and rakiya (whisky of plums or of 
 grapes), a roasted lamb in summer, a pig in winter, 
 and some fish, roasted on a layer of onions richly 
 peppered by cayenne pepper, if the saint's day falls 
 some time during the fasting season, as for instance 
 Saint Nicholas' day does. 
 
NATIONAL CUSTOMS 89 
 
 On the eve of the Slava day, the messengers 
 of the Svechar (usually some of his own sons or 
 young relatives) go out to invite his friends in the 
 village. There are two special forms of this 
 invitation. One form consists in these words : 
 " My father (or, my uncle) has sent me to deliver 
 to you his greetings, and to ask you to come this 
 evening to our house to drink a glass of whisky. 
 What God and our Saint have given us, we will 
 not hide from you. Please do come ! " The 
 other form is more concise : " We pray to God 
 and we glorify our Saint Nicholas (or whatever 
 the name of the Saint is). Please come that we 
 may talk and drink, and in that way shorten the 
 night." The invited person answers, in a more 
 or less stereotyped form : " It is not difficult to 
 comply with your request, when we are invited 
 to such honour ! " 
 
 The invited friend, arriving at the door of the 
 house which is going to celebrate its patron Saint, 
 shouts out : " O master of this house, art thou 
 wiUing to receive guests ? " Whereupon the 
 Svechar, coming out to meet him, greets him with 
 the words : " Certainly, such a good guest as thou 
 art." Both friends then embrace and kiss each 
 other, the visitor pronouncing the formula : " May 
 thy Slava be happy ! " and the host answering : 
 " And may thy soul be happy before God ! " In 
 some parts of Servia the visitor brings an apple 
 or a quince, and gives it to the host during the 
 exchange of these greetings. 
 
90 SERVIA AND THE SERVIANS 
 
 When all the invited guests have arrived, the 
 wife or the daughter of the host enters with a jug 
 of water and clean towels and beginning with the 
 oldest guest — pours some water over the hands 
 of everyone present, preparatory for the supper, 
 as no Servian peasant will ever sit down to a meal 
 without first washing his hands. 
 
 All the guests stand waiting in silence and 
 reverently for further development of the initial 
 ceremony of the Slava. The host places a large 
 candle of yellow wax in the middle of the table, 
 and crossing himself reverently and repeatedly, 
 lights that candle. An earthen vessel is brought 
 in, full of burning coal. The host takes it in 
 his right hand, puts a handful of incense on the 
 fire, and, if there is a saint's picture in the room, 
 he first lets the perfume of the burning incense 
 rise to that picture, and then he stops before 
 every guest for a few seconds with his smoking 
 incensory. 
 
 That finished, the host will say : " Now, 
 brethren, let us pray ! " Many Servian peasants 
 can pray beautifully. Some of them learn to 
 mention every saint of the Orthodox Church 
 (which is certainly not a small feat, considering 
 the number of orthodox saints). Such peasants 
 are eagerly invited to the Slavas. If no speciaUst 
 in prayer happens to be present, or if the oldest 
 guest does not improvise a prayer, then all present 
 engage in a short, silent prayer. After such a 
 prayer, the guests sit down to the low Servian 
 
NATIONAL CUSTOMS 91 
 
 tables (called Sofras), and begin their supper. 
 But the host does not sit down with his guests. 
 His duty is to stand and serve his friends, more 
 especially taking care that their glasses are filled 
 with wine or whisky. 
 
 Towards the end of the supper the toasts begin. 
 It can be said that tradition from generations ago 
 has fixed the programme of these toasts. There 
 are always on such an occasion seven toasts. 
 The guest oldest in years or most important in 
 dignity (for instance : the village priest, or the 
 village mayor) rises up and proposes the first toast : 
 " Let us drink this first toast, and let us say : 
 ' May God help us always ! ' " — The second toast 
 is called " The toast for the better hour," the 
 wish being expressed that that meeting takes place 
 not only in a good hour, but altogether in a better 
 than good hour. The third toast is always "To 
 the glory of the Holy Trinity ! May the Holy 
 Trinity be our helper everywhere, on our journeys, 
 on the roads, in the Courts of Justice, in the dark 
 forests, on the troubled waters ! May the Holy 
 Trinity guide us, stretch its hand to help and pre- 
 serve us from all troubles. May God and the 
 Holy Trinity save our king, who is taking care for 
 our welfare ! " — The fourth toast is called " The 
 toast of welcome." In it the wish is expressed 
 that the host may for many years yet welcome his 
 friends to the Slava of his saint. This toast is 
 answered by the host : " You are all welcome to 
 me and to this house. May you all be happy and 
 
92 SERVIA AND THE SERVIANS 
 
 honoured wherever you may sit down ! " The 
 fifth toast is proposed to the health of the host 
 and his family. The sixth toast is proposed by 
 the host himself : "To the health of all my guests 
 and neighbours, those who have been invited and 
 also those who have not been invited ! " The 
 last toast, proposed by the host to the health of 
 the relatives and friends of his guests, is the signal 
 that the guests from the village should go away. 
 The guests who came from some distance remain 
 to sleep in the house to assist at to-morrow's 
 celebrations. 
 
 The next morning, on the day of the Saint, the 
 Svechar goes to the nearest church, carrying with 
 him the dish with Kolyivo, the cake, oil, wine, 
 incense and a wax candle. All these things are 
 placed before the altar and remain there during 
 the service, at the end of which the officiating 
 priest cuts the Slava cake at the lower side, on 
 the lines corresponding to the cross on the upper 
 surface, turns it several times with the help of the 
 Svechar, chanting at the same time certain prayers, 
 and then they two together break the cake in two 
 halves, of which one is taken home by the Svechar, 
 and the other retained by the priest. 
 
 Where the nearest church is too far from the 
 village (and that is the case in many places, as 
 there are comparatively few churches in Servia, 
 and those far apart), there, before the guests 
 should sit down for the midday meal, the most 
 distinguished or the oldest of the guests turns the 
 
NATIONAL CUSTOMS 93 
 
 Slava cake and breaks it with the host, both 
 of them pronouncing three times the formula : 
 " Christ is in our midst, now, for ever and amen ! " 
 
 Some time before noon the midday meal begins. 
 A few minutes before the sun reaches the zenith, 
 a part of the Slava cake is placed on the table 
 together with a burning wax candle. All guests 
 at once rise to their feet, burning incense is passed 
 among them from hand to hand, and then the 
 guests, reverently crossing themselves, wait in 
 perfect silence, with glasses filled with red wine 
 for the address by the Svechar. 
 
 " Brethren," the Svechar begins, " we have 
 already drunk a few glasses as well as we could, 
 but now the time has arrived that we drink a 
 glass to the perpetual glory of God ! Wherever 
 men rise to drink to the glory of God, whenever 
 and wherever His glory is mentioned, there and 
 always and everywhere that glory may be helpful 
 to us men ! God grant it to be so ! " The guests 
 re-echo as in chorus the words, " May God grant 
 it ! " One of the guests will then commence 
 singing solo the following lines : 
 
 " Who drinks to the glory of God, 
 
 Him may God and His Glory help alway ! 
 
 And what in the world is more beautiful than the glory 
 
 of God 
 And the bread justly earned ?" 
 
 When, after this solo, the glasses are re-filled, 
 the Svechar takes up the word again : " We drank 
 to the glory of God. Now let us drink to the glory 
 
94 SERVIA AND THE SERVIANS 
 
 of the Holy Cross and of the ' Baptismal names.' 
 May God grant to us never to forget our ' bap- 
 tismal ' names, but always to celebrate them in 
 God's name ! " 
 
 The glasses are for the second time re-filled, 
 all the guests still standing, waiting for the third 
 toast to be proposed by the Svechar, who does not 
 let them wait long. " We have drunk to the 
 glory of God and to the glory of our baptismal 
 names. Now, my brethren, let us drink this third 
 glass to the glory of the Holy Trinity. May the 
 Holy Trinity be helpful to every brother Christian 
 in his own home, in the field, on the road, in the 
 dark forests, on the troubled waters, and in every 
 place and in every time may the Holy Trinity be 
 a helper to us all ! " 
 
 When this third toast has been honoured, the 
 wife, or the daughter, of the Svechar brings in on 
 a salver the dish with the Kolyivo, and serves it 
 to the guests, every one of whom, before taking 
 a spoon, says a short prayer for the health, pros- 
 perity and happiness of the host and his family. 
 The guests then resvmie their places at the table 
 and continue their dinner. If among them is 
 someone who can recite the national songs about 
 old Servian heroes, he is requested to do so. The 
 most popular poem on such occasions is naturally 
 that which describes in what manner the national 
 hero, the Royal Prince Marko (Kralyevich 
 Marko) " glorified " his own patron saint — 
 Saint George. 
 
NATIONAL CUSTOMS 95 
 
 The singing, reciting and merry talk are from 
 time to time interrupted by fresh toasts. The 
 toast to the Svechar is accompanied by a solo song 
 in which again the best wishes for his and his 
 family's health and happiness are expressed. 
 
 The guests enjoy themselves by drinking, eating 
 and singing for at least two full days, sometimes 
 three, sometimes even more. In the old times, 
 the guests rose up to leave only when they saw 
 that an empty wine-barrel had been rolled out of 
 the cellar into the courtyard, which was a signal 
 that the host had no more wine to place before his 
 guests. In Hertsegovina and Dalmatia, where 
 the wine is kept in skins, an empty skin is flattened, 
 folded into a smaller compass, and placed in sight 
 of the guests, or even on the table around which 
 they are feasting. The moment the guests see 
 these signals, they rise up and take hearty leave 
 of their host, expressing the wish that he may for 
 many years yet " glorify " his saint in such a 
 worthy manner. 
 
 5. Zavetina. — What " Krsno ime " or " Slava " 
 is to a family, that the Zavetina is to a vil- 
 lage. Every Servian village has a saint whom 
 it celebrates as its special patron, or to celebrate 
 whom as such the village has, from time immemo- 
 rial, made a " zavet," a vow. If the saint's day 
 falls some time between the end of June and 
 the beginning of April, the celebration takes place 
 at the nearest church, one of the richer peasants 
 acting as host for the village, preparing the Slava 
 
96 SERVIA AND THE SERVIANS 
 
 cake, and the Kolyivo, and putting some wine and 
 whisky at the disposal of his co- villagers. Gen- 
 erally most of the peasants who are to participate 
 at the banquet in honour of the village saint bring 
 with them their own wine, whisky and food, and 
 the religious celebration of the saint is practically 
 concluded by a large picnic. 
 
 If, however, the village patron saint falls on 
 some day between Easter and St. Peter's Day 
 (the 29th June), then the celebration takes the 
 form of what the Servians call " nossiti Krsta " 
 (to carry the cross), which is an interesting cere- 
 mony, probably a remnant of old pre-Christian 
 religious ceremonies. The villagers meet at the 
 church (if there is a church in the village), or in a 
 field under some trees on the outskirts of the village 
 when it has no church. A strong young man is 
 selected to carry a high wooden cross ; he is 
 followed by the parish priest in full sacerdotal 
 vestments, carrying the Gospels (generally bound 
 in silver-gilt or in velvet bindings) ; after him 
 walk, two and two in a line, the well-to-do peasants 
 carrying holy pictures (taken from their homes), 
 letting them lean on their breasts ; then follow 
 other peasants, always two and two, carrying 
 nothing but their own hats in their hands. The 
 whole procession walks across the fields singing 
 in a monotonous manner these words only : " The 
 cross-bearers pray to God : O Lord, have mercy 
 on us ! " Every such village has in different 
 parts of its boundaries a living tree, marked by a 
 
NATIONAL CUSTOMS 97 
 
 cross made with a knife in its bark. The " Cross- 
 bearing " procession halts round each of such 
 trees. The peasants kneel down while the priest 
 reads certain prayers for heedth and prosperity 
 of the villagers. At the end of these prayers 
 the priest, or sometimes the mayor, takes a knife, 
 and refreshes the sign of the cross in the bark of 
 the tree. So marked, a tree is considered sacred. 
 It is sinful to throw a stone at it, or to break its 
 branches, and if it is a fruit-tree, it is sinful to 
 gather its fruit. Mostly a hme-tree, or an oak, 
 or a wild pear-tree is chosen to be marked by the 
 cross and to be visited by the cross-bearers on 
 the day of the village saint. If a peasant woman 
 has a weak or sickly baby, she lays it down in 
 the way of the procession, that the cross-bearer, 
 the priest and the holy picture bearers shall step 
 over it, this being considered an infallible remedy 
 for babies' illnesses. Not rarely those who are 
 following in the procession without carrying holy 
 pictures increase the importance of the occasion 
 by firing their pistols trom time to time. The 
 religious ceremony is then followed by a banquet 
 or picnic, by dancing and singing. 
 
 The schools everywhere among the Servians 
 have taken St. Sava as their special patron. The 
 trade-guilds have from time immemorial had 
 their patron saints, whose pictures are painted 
 on the guilds' standards. Twenty years ago 
 King Milan established the custom that every 
 regiment of the regular army should have a saint 
 
98 SERVIA AND THE SERVIANS 
 
 as its special patron, on whose day the regiment 
 receives guests and observes all the duties of a 
 regular Svechar. 
 
 6. Christmas. — The Servians conduct their 
 celebration of Christmas with so many rites and 
 customs of unmistakably pagan origin that those 
 folk-lorists are probably right who believe that 
 these rites and customs are nothing else but the 
 more or less modified worship of Dabog — the Sun- 
 god — ^by their ancestors. The New Year of all 
 Slavonic nations of the pagan period began to- 
 wards the end of our December, or, as the Servians 
 say, it began " in the days in which the sun, having 
 gone far enough into the snowy plains of the win- 
 ter, turns back, retracing its steps towards the 
 green fields of the Summer." After twelve 
 centuries of Christianity, the Servians keep up 
 lovingly these remnants of their ancient faith. 
 The Servian word for Christmjis is " Bojich," 
 which means " the httle God." The pagan 
 Servians used to sacrifice a pig to the Sun-god. 
 To these days you will not find one Servian house 
 in which on Christmas Day there is no " roast 
 pig " as the principal dish. 
 
 The celebration of " the little God " among 
 the Servians of our days begins in the eairly morn- 
 ing of the day preceding Christmas. That day 
 is called " Badnyi Dan," the day of the " Bad- 
 nyak." But who is the Badnyak ? Some sort 
 of divinity intimately connected with " the little 
 God." All we know about it is that in some old 
 
NATIONAL CUSTOMS 99 
 
 nationjil songs he is called " the old Badnyak," 
 whereas " the Uttle God " is called " the young 
 Bojich." 
 
 On the early dawn of Badnyi Dan every peasant 
 house sends two of its strongest young men to 
 the nearest forest — (and the forests have been up 
 to our days considered as the common property 
 of all Servians) to cut there a young oak tree and 
 bring it home. The two young men, with a pair 
 of oxen and their car must appear very early in 
 the forest. There, — after a short prayer, or 
 simply after having three times crossed themselves 
 — they throw a handful of wheat on the selected 
 tree, and greet it with the words : " Happy 
 Badnyi day to you ! " Then they begin to cut 
 it in such a manner that the tree shall fall not 
 only towards the East, but also about the time 
 when the sun's orb begins to show itself on the 
 horizon. It is something Uke a greeting of the 
 falling tree to the rising sun ! If by some mis- 
 calculation of the cutters, the oak-tree should fall 
 towards the West, that would constitute the worst 
 possible indication for the fortunes of the house 
 and its inmates during the ensuing year. Or if 
 in falling it should be stopped by another tree, 
 that would be an indication that the prosperity 
 of the family wiU be interrupted or delayed. It 
 is important to preserve and carry home the first 
 chip from that oak-tree. 
 
 The trunk is cut in two or three logs, one of 
 them being somewhat longer than the others. A 
 
100 SERVIA AND THE SERVIANS 
 
 flat, unleavened cake of the purest wheat flour, 
 called " Pogacha" is brought out of the house 
 and broken on that larger log by a woman. The 
 logs are left to stand outside, leaning on one of 
 the walls of the house. Each such log is called 
 " Badnyak." 
 
 Meanwhile the children and young people are 
 going from house to house singing special songs, 
 called " Colleda " songs, because an old pagan 
 divinity, Colleda, is invoked in every line. In 
 one of these quaint songs Colleda is implored to 
 make the cows give milk abundantly, " that we, 
 O Colleda, might bathe our ' little God,' O Colleda, 
 in white milk, O CoUeda ! " In another song, 
 Colleda is called " a beautiful little maid." 
 
 The day is spent in busy preparations. The 
 women are making special small cakes in the shape 
 of lambs, pigs, chickens ; the men preparing a 
 pig for roasting. A bundle of straw, bound by a 
 rope, is brought into the courtyard and left to 
 stand there near the Badnyaks. 
 
 At the moment the sun is setting all the members 
 of the family assemble in the central hall (the 
 great family kitchen) of the principal house. The 
 mother of the family (or the wife of the chief of 
 the Zadniga) gives a pair of woollen gloves to 
 one of the young men, who goes out and presently 
 returns carr5dng in his gloved hands the largest 
 of the logs. The mother of the family receives 
 him at the threshold, throwing at him a handful 
 of wheat, in which has been kept all day that 
 
NATIONAL CUSTOMS 101 
 
 first chip of the trunk cut in the early morning 
 for Badnyak. Entering the central hall with the 
 Badnyak the young man greets all present with 
 the words : " Good evening, and may you have 
 a happy Christmas ! " He is answered by all 
 in chorus : " May God and the happy and holy 
 Christmas help thee ! " In some parts of the 
 Servian country, the chief of the family, holding 
 a glass of red wine in hand, greets the Badnyak as 
 if it were a living person, and drinks to its health. 
 After this, another glass of red wine is poured on 
 the Badnyak. Then the oldest male member of 
 the family, assisted by the young man who brought 
 in the Badnyak, places the log on the burning fire, 
 but in such a manner that the thicker end of the 
 log shall protrude for about a foot outside the 
 hearth. In some places this end is smeared with 
 honey. 
 
 This finished, the mother of the family brings 
 in the bundle of straw which was left standing 
 outside. All the young children arrange them- 
 selves behind her in a row. She then starts walk- 
 ing slowly about the hall and all the adjoining 
 rooms, throwing on the floor handfuls of straw, 
 at the same time imitating the hens' sounds : 
 quock . . . quock . . . quock ! while all the children, 
 representing the hen's httle chickens, merrily 
 follow, shouting : " Peeyoo ! . . . peeyoo ! . . . 
 peeyoo ! " The floor well strewn over with straw, 
 the father (or the eldest member of the family) 
 throws a few walnuts in every corner of the hall, 
 
 •—(2397) 
 
102 SERVIA AND THE SERVIANS 
 
 pronouncing the words : "In the name of God 
 the Fatheij and the Son, and the Holy Ghost, 
 Amen ! " 
 
 A large pot, or a small wooden box, is filled 
 with wheat and placed high enough in the east 
 corner of the hall. A tall candle of yeUow wax 
 is fixed in the middle of that wheat. The father 
 of the family, having crossed himself many a time, 
 reverently Ughts that candle. He then, folding 
 his arms on his breast, improvises a prayer, asking 
 God to bless the family with health and happiness, 
 to bless the fields with good harvest, the beehives 
 with plenty of honey, the cattle and sheep with 
 increase, the cows with abundant milk and rich 
 cream, etc., etc. When he finishes his prayer 
 he bows deeply before the burning candle, and 
 all those standing behind him do the same. He 
 then turns towards them and pronounces the 
 words : " May God hear our prayer, and may He 
 give us all health ! " They answer : " May God 
 grant it ! Amen ! " 
 
 After this, they all sit down to supper, which 
 is richer than usual, but at which no meat (except 
 perhaps some fish) is served, the Christmas fast 
 lasting till early next morning. For this supper 
 no tables and no chairs and no table-cloths are 
 used. It is orthodox to lay common sackings 
 on the straw, with which the floor is covered, 
 and on that sacking to lay the dishes, aU the mem- 
 bers of the family — men higher, — women lower — 
 sitting on the floor. 
 
[To face page 103 
 
 A Seyvani Girl — Gomg to the Public Well for Water 
 
NATIONAL CUSTOMS 103 
 
 The Servian peasant is always an early riser, 
 but on the Christmas morning everybody is earlier 
 than usual. At four o'clock after midnight all 
 the village is astir. Indeed, most people do not 
 sleep at all the night preceding Christmas. It 
 is most important to keep the Badnyak contin- 
 uously and brightly burning. The next impor- 
 tant thing is to start early enough to roast the 
 pig. When it is laid before the fire, someone of 
 the family goes out into the yard and fires a pistol 
 or a gun ; and when the roasted pig is taken away 
 from the fire, the shooting is repeated. From 
 4 a.m. to about 8 a.m. in the Christmas morning 
 the Servian villages are re-echoing from the guns 
 and pistols as if a stubborn skirmishing were 
 going on. 
 
 Meanwhile, just before the sunrise, a girl from 
 the house should appear at the village fountain, 
 or at the brook from which they usually get their 
 drinking water. Before she commences filling 
 her pots and vessels, she greets the water, wishing 
 it a happy Christmas, and throws into it a handful 
 of wheat. The first cupfuls of the water brought 
 home are used to make a special Christmas cake, 
 called " Chesnitsa " (the partition cake), of which 
 a small part is at the dinner given not only to 
 every member of the family there present, but 
 also to those who are absent. A small silver coin 
 is placed in the cake, and the member in whose 
 part it is found is considered as the chosen 
 favourite of good fortune for the next year. 
 
104 SERVIA AND THE SERVIANS 
 
 All the family, assembled around the lustily 
 burning Badnyak, now awaits anxiously the 
 arrival of the special Christmas visitor. It is 
 usually a young boy of a friendly family. No 
 stranger, no other visitor, not even the priest or 
 mayor of the village, would be allowed to enter 
 the house before the special Christmas visitor, 
 called " Polaznik," has arrived. Therefore the 
 Polaznik ought to come, and generally comes, 
 very early. He carries with him a wooUen glove 
 full of wheat. When at his knock the door is 
 opened, he throws at those assembled around 
 the fire, and into aU the corners of the haU, hand- 
 fuls of wheat, greeting them with the words : 
 " Christ is bom ! " The hostess throws on him 
 a handful of wheat, while aU the others answer 
 his greeting by "In truth. He is born ! " The 
 Polaznik then walks straight to the hearth, takes 
 the shovel in hand and strikes the burning log 
 repeatedly with such force that thousands of 
 sparks rise high into the chimney, while he is pro- 
 nouncing the words : " May you have this year so 
 many oxen, so many horses, so many sheep, so 
 many pigs, so many beehives full of honey, so much 
 good luck, prosperity, progress and happiness ! " 
 Having pronounced all these good wishes, he 
 turns to the host, embraces him and kisses him. 
 Then he again turns to the hearth. Having 
 crossed himself several times, he falls on his knees 
 and kisses the protruding part of the Badnyak, 
 and rising up he places on it a coin as his gift. 
 
NATIONAL CUSTOMS 105 
 
 Meanwhile, a woman has brought in a low wooden 
 chair, to which he is led to sit. However, in the 
 very moment he is going to sit, one of the male 
 members of the family snatches the chair away 
 suddenly, causing the Polaznik to fall to the 
 ground. It is considered that by such a fall the 
 Polaznik fixes to the ground every good wish 
 which he has pronounced that morning. The 
 hostess wraps him in a thick blanket, and so 
 wrapped he sits quietly for a few minutes while 
 the young men, who are to act as shepherds for 
 the next year, proceed to the hearth and kiss each 
 other across the Badnyak. The blanket on the 
 Polaznik is to secure thick cream for the next year, 
 while the embracing of the young shepherds across 
 the Badnyak is to secure the attachment of the 
 sheep to their lambs. 
 
 Before the family sits down for the principal 
 meal of the day, all the members, with Ughted 
 tapers in hand, gather round the chief of the 
 family, and in silence reverently listen to his 
 improvisation of a special prayer. At the end 
 of it all the members embrace and kiss each 
 other, pronouncing the words : " Peace of God, be 
 between us and with us ! Ristos (Christ) is born, 
 in truth He is born, and therefore let us bow before 
 Ristos and His birth ! " After this they sit down 
 to dinner, towards the end of which they all rise 
 to their feet to drink " to the glory of God and to 
 the glory of Christ's birth ! " With this toast 
 the special Christmas customs practically end. 
 
106 SERVIA AND THE SERVIANS 
 
 7. Burial Customs. — The Servian peasants do 
 not fear death. They speak of it quite coolly. 
 Almost every one of them prepares boards for his 
 own coffin, and keeps them in readiness in the loft, 
 where such boards remain waiting for their 
 destination many a year. Old women carry sewn 
 in their belts some money which they have saved 
 specially for the expenses of their burial. Wealthy 
 peasants have in their cellar always a barrel filled 
 with whisky, which is reserved to be drunk for 
 their souls by the people who attend their burial. 
 Before the State laws enacted that everybody must 
 be interred in the churchyard and nowhere else, 
 people used to choose quite early the places where 
 they wished to have their graves. 
 
 When a d5dng Servian is conscious, he calls 
 not only all the members of his family but all 
 his neighbours also, and asks forgiveness of every 
 one of them. The answer is always given in a 
 stereotyped form : " May it be forgiven to thee in 
 this world and in that other ! " If the dying man 
 is not conscious, and suffers great agony, all the 
 neighbours and friends are called, and every one 
 of them approaches the couch or bed of the sufferer, 
 and in a loud voice repeats three times the usual 
 forgiving formula. 
 
 The Servian believes that when in the same 
 family two persons die in the same year, a third 
 one must die soon also. To prevent this, certain 
 practices, evidently of pagan origin, must be com- 
 pUed with. The proper rule is that with the second 
 
NATIONAL CUSTOMS 107 
 
 dead person a black cock should be buried alive. 
 As the Christian priests are opposed to such a 
 practice, the black cock nowadays is generally 
 killed, its head bound in a clean piece of linen 
 and placed in the coffin with the dead man, while 
 the remaining part of the fowl is dug under the 
 principal threshold of the house. 
 
 While the body of the dead person is lying in 
 the house, no one of his Uving relations eats any- 
 thing. Nor are the rooms swept. After the 
 body hcis been carried away, the whole house 
 is well swept, but the brush used for that purpose 
 must be thrown away and never more brought 
 back into the house. 
 
 In some parts of Servia, before the body is 
 placed in the coffin, some sulphur, gunpowder 
 and tow are placed at the bottom of the coffin 
 and burned. Generally two old women perform 
 that part of the ceremony. Before the burial 
 procession reaches the churchyard, the same two 
 old women have to hurry to the grave, to surround 
 it with tow, sulphur and gunpowder, and burn 
 them. This is probably done in remembrance 
 of the practice of old pagan Servians to burn 
 their dead. 
 
 It is curious that in many places the pall is 
 not cut by scissors but — by a sharp stone ! — Is 
 that not, perhaps, a reminder of the practices of 
 the Stone Age ? 
 
 In the room in which the deceased has expired, 
 the first day after the death, a piece of bread, some 
 
108 SERVIA AND THE SERVIANS 
 
 salt and a glass of red wine are left on the table. 
 It is believed that the soul tarries a little while 
 in the house, and may want to eat and drink 
 something. Generally it is believed that for 
 forty days the soul roams about the world, visiting 
 all the places in which the man has ever been 
 during his hfe, and also visiting the Holy Mount 
 (Athos) and Jerusalem. It is from this last place 
 that the soul, on the fortieth day after the death, 
 ascends to heaven. 
 
 If there is in the family a person who was bom 
 in the same month in which the deceased was 
 born, that living person, according to the popular 
 belief, must die within a year also, if it is not 
 by special ceremony " redeemed from the grave." 
 The redeeming ceremony consists in this : one leg 
 of the living person is chained to the leg of the 
 dead person, and then the living one chained to the 
 dead one, surrounded by relations and friends, 
 exclaims in a loud and sad voice, addressing a 
 friend (male or female) : "I pray thee by the 
 name of God and St. John, be my brother (or 
 " be my sister " if the addressed friend is a 
 woman), and redeem the slave from the grave ! " 
 {" Otkoopi roba od grohal"). It is orthodox to 
 repeat this request three times, the addressed 
 friend answering three times that for the sake 
 of God and St. John he will do so. Then he un- 
 locks the padlocks, unchains the chained ones, 
 and from that moment the " redeemed " and 
 the " redeeming " person are through life 
 
NATIONAL CUSTOMS 109 
 
 considered as brothers or sisters (" Probatimi," 
 " Posertrime "). 
 
 On the day of the burial (genereilly the next day 
 after that on which death took place), a ram, or 
 a sheep, or a calf (but never a goat) is killed, in 
 the presence of a person who holds all the while 
 a burning wax candle, roasted, and the meat set 
 before the friends who have accompanied the 
 coffin to the churchyard. It is the principal dish 
 at the " first banquet for the soul." 
 
 At the grave, after the priest has read the 
 prescribed prayers and blessed the corpse, pouring 
 over it in the form of a cross some red wine mixed 
 with olive oil, and after the coffin has been lowered 
 into the grave, the nearest male relative of the 
 deceased throws a copper coin into the grave. 
 Every one of the relatives and friends present 
 throws a handful of earth on the coffin, sa5dng : 
 " May God forgive thee ! Give my greetings to my 
 mother and to my father in that other world, 
 also greet from me my friend Yanko, also my 
 cousin so-and-so ! " The departed soul is loaded 
 with loving messages from the living to their 
 loved ones in that other world. 
 
 All the relatives and friends, as well as assist- 
 ants who carried the cofl&n to the churchyard, 
 after they have been served with a glass of wine 
 or brandy at the grave, return together to the 
 home of the deceased. They are received at the 
 gate by a younger member of the family, with a 
 pitcher of water freshly brought from a source 
 
110 SERVIA AND THE SERVIANS 
 
 or a running brook. Another young member is 
 there too, holding a shovel with a heap of burning 
 coals. Every friend is served with water to wash 
 his hands, after which he has to take into his 
 hand a small piece of burning coal, quickly pass 
 it from one hand to the other, and then throw 
 it across the left shoulder behind himself. This 
 real ordeal finished, they enter the house, where 
 a long table is laid out for dinner. The burial 
 in the Servian villages generally takes place in 
 the morning, so that the first eating " for the 
 soul " (podooshye) takes place at noon. 
 
 Towards evening on the day of the burial those 
 old women who have burned tow, sulphur and 
 gunpowder in the coffin and around the grave, 
 go to the grave again, make on it a cross of the 
 same materials (tow, sulphur, etc.) and set fire 
 to it. After that mixture has burned away, the 
 old women stick in the grave five old and useless 
 knives : one aiming at the place corresponding 
 to the heart of the deceased, one at each of 
 his hands, and one at each of his feet. This 
 is done to prevent the corpse rising up as a 
 vampire. 
 
 The female relations of the deceased wail over 
 his corpse while it is still in the house, and over 
 his grave whenever they go to visit it (five times 
 in the first year is de rigueur, but there are women 
 who go to visit the graves of their dear ones 
 every Saturday). Their wailing is done in a cer- 
 tain rhythm, sometimes even in rhyme, and is 
 
NATIONAL CUSTOMS 111 
 
 often very touching. "What have we done that 
 thou hast left us ? Shall I never hear again thy 
 sweet voice ? Shall I never see again thy smiling 
 face ? What wiU thy poor wife do without thee ? 
 What can thy poor children do without thee ? " 
 It is usual to ask the deceased to give news of 
 them all to the dear ones whom they have lost 
 before. " TeU there my sweet daughter Mara 
 how unhappy I am without her, how my tears are 
 flowing whenever I remember her, and when am I 
 not remembering her ? Tell her I do love her 
 more than ever ! " 
 
 The women never sing during the first year of 
 mourning. Nor do they adorn themselves with 
 flowers and jewels. Working in the fields, or at 
 home, they will burst sometimes into a sad and 
 monotonous melody, reciting the fine quahties 
 and virtues of the deceased person, or describing 
 their own sorrow, calling themselves repeatedly 
 " seenya kookavitza," " the grey-black cuckoo 
 bird." It often produces a striking effect to hear 
 in one field young women singing lyric songs of 
 love and hope, and from the next field to hear 
 the wailings of the women and girls who have 
 lost someone by death. 
 
 One special feature of the Servian mourning 
 is that in the first year they give five times some 
 sort of dinner or banquet " for the soul " of the 
 deceased. The first is given on the day of burial, 
 the second on the first Saturday after the burial, 
 the third on the fortieth day after the funeral. 
 
112 SERVIA AND THE SERVIANS 
 
 the fourth on the day of the half-yearly, and the 
 fifth on the day of the yearly requiem. The tables 
 for these " banquets for the soul " (Podooshya) 
 are generally laid out in the yard in front of the 
 house. At the head of the table is placed a friend 
 who knows how to pray. His first duty is to 
 invite all the guests present to rise up and pray 
 to God for the soul of the departed one, and for 
 the Ufe and health of those who remain in this 
 life. He himself improvises that prayer, taking 
 care to say every good that could be justly said 
 about the dead. A pitcher incensorium is passed 
 from hand to hand, and then the guests (always 
 standing in devout attitudes) are served with 
 boiled wheat over which the priest has read some 
 prayers, pouring over it at the same time some 
 red wine. Every guest taking a little of that 
 wheat pronounces the formula : " For whose 
 soul is this, to his soul may God grant forgiveness ; 
 and to those who remain here may God grant 
 life and health ! " The male members of the 
 bereaved family serve the guests bareheaded. 
 Every guest is offered a glass of wine or whisky, 
 one of which he is bound to take, repeating the 
 just-quoted formula. 
 
 Not to cause a too heavy expense to the be- 
 reaved family, the friends and guests in general 
 coming to such " banquets for the soul " bring 
 with them a contribution to the table ; some 
 roast meat, some cakes, cheese, fruit, wine, whisky, 
 etc. The chairman rises up and earnestly but 
 
NATIONAL CUSTOMS 113 
 
 with raised voice announces each contribution : 
 " Our neighbour Yanko came to this ' dinner 
 for the soul ' of our lamented friend Milenko, 
 and brought a pogacha (a fiat wheat cake) and a 
 bottle of wine, to show his sympathy with the 
 sadness of the bereaved family. May he receive 
 in return lasting gladness ! " The entire company 
 answers loudly : " May God grant it ! " 
 
 Before the announcements of these food and 
 drink contributions are quite finished, the female 
 members of the famUy, aU with their hair falling 
 down the shoulders loose, come out from the house. 
 The woman nearest in relationship to the deceased 
 leads them, and takes her place behind the chair- 
 man, putting her hands on her hips and bending 
 her head a little on one side towards the right 
 or left shoulder. When the chairman pronounces 
 even the last contribution, the leading woman 
 starts to walk slowly behind and along the rows 
 of guests seated at the table, and in a loud voice 
 commences wailing, describing the goodness and 
 merits of the deceased. Other women and girls 
 follow her, weeping quietly. When they have 
 passed along both sides of the table, one or other 
 of the friendly old women, who are watching 
 this wailing function, takes the initiative to stop 
 the wailing woman. She embraces her, or takes 
 her by the hands : " Thou hast wailed enough, 
 dear sister," she will say ; " cease wailing ! Re- 
 member it was God's will ! Remember we must 
 all go the way the lamented one has gone. Don't 
 
114 SERVIA AND THE SERVIANS 
 
 anger God. May He grant life to those who 
 remain to thee ! " 
 
 In towns " the banquets for the soul " are 
 not kept, but on those five occasions the mourning 
 family takes out to the grave of the deceased : 
 boiled wheatj rice boiled in milk, all sorts of cakes 
 and viands (especially such as the deceased, 
 while in life, used to hke), fruit, wine, whisky, 
 etc., and distributes them there to the beggars, 
 gipsies and other poor, who flock to the church- 
 yards with big bags into which they throw all they 
 get, repeating all the time the formula : " Bog 
 da prosti ! " (May God grant His forgiveness). 
 
 In the village churchyards — one of which is 
 shown in the annexed photo — the strange taU 
 crosses (or rather, a combination of triangles and 
 crosses, the triangles probably dating from the 
 pagan times) are generally decorated by all sorts 
 of ribbons (for girls), neckties, hand-towels or 
 handkerchiefs. The peasants believe that what- 
 ever you distribute on the grave, or attach and 
 bind to the cross of the grave, wiU be actually 
 received by the deceased person in that other 
 world. Such gifts of love from the living to the 
 dead ones are hardly ever carried away except 
 by stormy weather. The people who pass by 
 do not touch them. It is considered the worst 
 sacrilege to take them away, to rob the souls in 
 that other world. 
 
CHAPTER V 
 
 SERVIAN ANECDOTES 
 
 The Balkan nations — more especially the Bul- 
 garians and the Servians, cannot boast of a very 
 rich literature. But, without recurring to the 
 " printers' devil," the genius of those peoples 
 has created all sorts of " unwritten literature." 
 When the first timid collection of lyrical poems 
 of the Servian peasant women was published by 
 Karajich, in Vienna, 1817, the literary men of 
 Germeiny, France and England were astounded 
 by the richness and beauty of those unwritten 
 creations of the common people. A selection 
 of those peasants' lyrics and heroic baJlads was 
 published in all the European languages, the 
 earliest English translation being made and pub- 
 lished in London in 1827 by Mr. Bowring, not to 
 mention more recent translations by Lord Lytton 
 and Mme. Mijatovich. 
 
 The folk-lore stories might be justly considered 
 as another special group of unwritten literature 
 of the Balkan nations. Many of those stories 
 have been translated into every European lan- 
 guage. But there are certain creations of the 
 genius of those nations which are hardly known 
 to the great European literatures. One of those 
 interesting groups contains the Proverbs of the 
 Balkan nations ; the other is composed of short 
 
 116 
 
116 SERVIA AND THE SERVIANS 
 
 stories illustrative of a great principle, or of an 
 important moral precept ; the third one contains 
 short humorous stories, or Anecdotes. 
 
 I wish to draw attention to this last group and 
 to give a few specimens of the Servian humour. 
 The Servian people are in general a light-hearted 
 and cheerful people. They hke to sing, dance, 
 and laugh, and nothing is more appreciated 
 than the telling of a good short story and of a 
 humorous anecdote. The entire life of the Servian 
 peasant — his frequent meetings with his equals 
 at the numerous festive occasions, celebrations 
 of saints, patrons of private families, villages 
 and churches, the meetings of Servian peasant 
 women to work in company while singing and 
 story-teUing {" Sela" and " Prela"), the vol- 
 untary co-operation of young men and women 
 of a village to help a poor farmer to finish his 
 harvesting (the so-called " Moha ") followed 
 always by merry enjoyment, singing, dancing, 
 telling of stories — ^in short, as I said, the entire 
 life of the Servian peasant encourages the pro- 
 duction and reproduction of entertaining short 
 stories and anecdotes. 
 
 Most of the short stories and anecdotes of the 
 Servians amuse not so much by their wit as by 
 their drollery. Their peasants have particular 
 pleasure in grotesque persons and ridiculous 
 situations. It is easy to understand why very 
 many of their stories and anecdotes paint the 
 Turkish Aghas, Cadis and Chodjas as ridiculous 
 
SERVIAN ANECDOTES 117 
 
 or stupid personages. The Turks were for more 
 than five centuries the hard and exacting masters 
 of the Christian nations in the Balkans, and 
 the poor Rayah took a harmless revenge by 
 teUing amusing stories at the expense of his 
 masters. Quite a respectable volume could be 
 filled with amusing stories which do not show 
 much respect for the Turk. 
 
 It is more difficult to understand why they 
 take their own priests and monks for their laugh- 
 ing-stocks, but those " saintly fathers " are very 
 often the heroes, or rather, the victims, of their 
 own people's humorous stories. " Hera " (which 
 is the abridged name for the shrewd and astute 
 peasant of Hertsegovina) is quite the " hero " 
 of many a popular story and anecdote. Hardly 
 a " lesser hero " of the Servian anecdote is 
 the Ught-hearted, witty and unscrupulous gipsy 
 (Tsiganin, or Tsiga). 
 
 It is still more difficult to understand why the 
 Servians as well as the Bulgarians — who quite 
 naturally hated and still hate their secular op- 
 pressors, the Turks — have made a Turkish Chodja, 
 to wit : Nasr-ed-Din Chodja, the hero of their 
 amusing short stories. The Sultan's shadow has 
 left the free countries of Servia and Bulgaria, the 
 Turkish Pashas and Viziers, Beys and Aghas, 
 Cadis and Chodjas have gone away never to return, 
 yet Nasr-ed-Din Chodja has remained in the mind, 
 and indeed in the heart, of the Christian peoples of 
 the Balkans ! He is popular on the Golden Horn 
 
 9— («397) 
 
118 SERVIA AND THE SERVIANS 
 
 and on the sapphire waters of the Bosphorus, 
 he has won the friendship of the peoples of Bul- 
 garia, Macedonia, Servia, Bosnia, Hertsegovina 
 and Albania, he is at home and among friends 
 who like and admire him in all those countries. 
 Among the Slavs (Bulgarians and Servians) his 
 name has even been " nationalised." Instead 
 of Nasr-ed-Din he is called " Nastradin," which 
 name looks as if it had been derived from the 
 Slavonic verb " nastradati," which means to 
 suffer, or to be often in a pitiable scrape. As the 
 famous Chodja was not seldom in such a position, 
 his Slavonised name is quite in tune with his 
 music. 
 
 There are several collections of Nasr-ed-Din's 
 wit and drolleries. The best Turkish collection 
 is that one made by Mehmed Tewfik, pubUshed 
 in Constantinople, 1883. The Bulgarians have 
 one by M. Maximo vich. The Servians have two : 
 one by Edhem Mulabdich, published in Sarayevo, 
 
 1893, and a much fuller one, published in Belgrade, 
 
 1894, by the famous Servian novelist, Stevan 
 Sremats. 
 
 We wiU now give a few specimens of the popular 
 Servian anecdote. 
 
 1. The Hera and the Turk. — A Turk was 
 ploughing his field near a bridge across a small 
 river. A Hera was approaching the bridge, 
 driving before him a few pack-horses. The Turk 
 shouted as if to his oxen, which dragged the 
 plough : "Go on, go on, my oxen ! Even you 
 
SERVIAN ANECDOTES 119 
 
 have brains, but Hera has none ! " Hera heard 
 the words just when his horses stepped on the 
 bridge. He let them go over alone, he himself 
 remaining where he was and commencing to lament 
 loudly as a man in great distress and despair : 
 " Oh, my God, my God ! what on earth am I 
 now to do ? " The Turk stopped his ploughing 
 and went to the Hera. " What is the matter, 
 that you are so distressed ? " he asked. — " Alas, 
 alas ! " continued Hera his lamentations ; " what 
 am I to do ? You see my horses went across the 
 bridge, and there they are now on the other side 
 of the river, and here I am on this side of it ! 
 What on earth am I to do ? " — " Why, you fool, 
 you have simply to walk over the bridge to be 
 with your horses ! " the Turk told him. — " Ah, 
 that is just it," said the peasant in still greater 
 distress, " for nothing in the world dare I walk 
 over that bridge." — " But, you stupid fellow," 
 continued the Turk, " did you not see that your 
 horses with their heavy loads crossed the bridge 
 in safety ? Why should not you be able to 
 walk across it in safety too ? " — " Oh, no ! for 
 nothing in the world dare I trust myself to walk 
 over that bridge ! Is there not here in the 
 neighbourhood a village where I could find some- 
 one who would carry me over on his back for 
 a decent pay ? " inquired Hera, and in his dis- 
 tress even began to cry. — " Look here ! " said 
 the Turk, " the village is some distance from here, 
 and while you went to find someone your horses 
 
120 SERVIA AND THE SERVIANS 
 
 might be lost to you. But what would you pay 
 me to take you across the bridge on my own 
 back ? " — " What would you ask, my noble 
 Agha ? " — " I think it is not much to ask you 
 twelve perpers " — perper being in old time a 
 silver coin. — " It is certainly not much/' affirmed 
 the peasant. The Turk then took the Hera on 
 his own back and carried him over the bridge 
 and dropped him down on the other side of the 
 river. The Hera thanked him warmly and then 
 searched in one of his pockets, then in the other, 
 and then again in his belt, and at last he said 
 sadly : " By my faith in God ! I do not find a 
 single perper in my pockets ! " — " Why, you 
 rogue ! " shouted the Turk, " you must have 
 known that before you mounted on my back ! 
 You are a cheat, you are a Uar ! But you are 
 mistaken if you think I will let you benefit by 
 your lie. I wiU carry you back to the other side, 
 from which I brought you here, and I will place 
 again between you and your horses the bridge 
 and the river ; and there you can continue to 
 lament ! " And he forced the protesting Hera 
 to take his place again on his back, and carried 
 him across the bridge to the other side. There 
 he left him and returned to his plough and oxen 
 in disgust. After a few moments, the Hera 
 walked quietly over the bridge, and from the other 
 side of the river he shouted : " Oh, noble Agha ! 
 your oxen have probably more brains than the 
 Hera, but, little brain as I possess, I made you 
 
SERVIAN ANECDOTES 121 
 
 a donkey which carried me twice over the 
 bridge ! " 
 
 2. The Hera and the Agha. — The Hera took 
 some fine and perfectly clean wheat to the market. 
 A Turk took some of that wheat in his hand, 
 looked seemingly with great interest at it, and 
 at last said : "I find that this wheat of yours 
 has tares." — " Certainly, Agha, you are right ; 
 there are tares," answered the Hera. — " And 
 I see some blight, too," continued the Turk. — 
 " Quite right, my master ; some of the wheat is 
 rather blighted." — " And it is far from clean. 
 I see in it much earth and dust," said the Turk 
 again. — " Certainly, I cannot deny it. There 
 is, as the noble Agha says, much earth and dust 
 in it." The Turk continued for some time finding 
 fault with the wheat, and the peasant agreed 
 with every remark uttered by him. At last the 
 Turk exclaimed : " If I try to disparage your 
 wheat, that could be explained, but why do you 
 do so yourself ? " — " Well, my Agha, you being 
 my master, and I your servant, when you thought 
 it right to tell those Hes about my wheat, I thought 
 it my duty to help you in lying," explained the 
 Hera quietly. 
 
 3. The Hera and the Kadi. — The Hera 
 engaged to mind the cattle of a Kadi. He had 
 himself a cow which he drove with the Kadi's 
 cows to the fields. One day one of the Kadi's 
 cows had a fight with the Hera's cow, and was 
 badly wounded by the sharp horns of the latter. 
 
122 SERVIA AND THE SERVIANS 
 
 The Hera went at once to the Kadi, who was 
 distributing justice at his office, and said to him : 
 " Honourable Effendi ! your cow has wounded 
 my cow badly." — " Who could be made respon- 
 sible for it ? " asked the just Kadi. " Has some- 
 one forced my cow to attack your cow ? " — " No, 
 certainly not ; but suddenly of their own will 
 they began to fight each other." — " Well, I am 
 sorry, but I cannot help it. There is no law 
 concerning the cows, and there can be no verdict 
 for such a case," declared the Kadi. — " Then 
 I have nothing to pay because my cow badly 
 wounded yours ? " asked the Hera. — " What ! 
 Your cow wounded my cow ? Wait a moment, 
 that I may see in the Kyitab (Book of Law) what 
 is the law." And the Kadi stretched his arm to 
 take the book ; but the Hera caught his hand 
 and stopped him, sajdng : " By God and by my 
 faith in God ! As you did not read in your Kyitab 
 when my cow was in question, you shall not look 
 now when your cow is in question ! " 
 
 4. The Hera and the Padishah. — The Hera 
 engaged to serve the Turkish Tsar as a gardener. 
 One of the stipulations of the agreement was that 
 he should be punished by death if he was caught 
 in any dishonest action. For some time he served 
 honestly, but then made a shp, stealing some figs 
 from the Padishah's garden. He was brought 
 before the Tsar, who said to him : " You know 
 that according to our agreement you have now 
 to be punished by death. But as you have served 
 
SERVIAN ANECDOTES 123 
 
 me well for some time, I will show mercy in so far 
 that I will allow you to choose what sort of death 
 you wish to die." — " Can I rely on your word, 
 O great and mighty Padishah ? " asked the 
 Hera. — " Of course you can," answered the 
 Padishah; " You know the word of a Tsar is 
 never broken." — " Well, then, I choose to die 
 by the death of old age, as my father did ! " 
 The Padishah laughed at the Hera's astuteness, 
 and forgave him. 
 
 5. The Monk's Profession. — A monk was 
 traveUing one autumn collecting gifts and con- 
 tributions to his monastery. He came to the hut 
 of a poor peasant whose entire wealth consisted 
 in five kids. The monk spoke so persuasively of 
 how the souls of the peasant's father and mother 
 in that other world would rejoice to see him give 
 at least one kid to the Church for the salvation 
 of their souls, that the poor man promised at 
 last to give him one. At that moment the 
 peasant's boy returned with five kids from the 
 wood. The monk immediately rose up, chose 
 the best kid, and carried it away. The boy was 
 much disturbed, and through tears he said to 
 his father : " How is he not ashamed to take 
 one of our only five kids, and the very best 
 one ? " And the father answered him : " My 
 son, the begging profession of a monk knows no 
 shame ! " 
 
 6. Not " Give " but " Take " !— A boat, full 
 of all sorts of people, was saiUng down a river. 
 
124 SERVIA AND THE SERVIANS 
 
 when, in consequence of a sudden squall, it cap- 
 sized. Many people were drowned, and among 
 them a priest. One of his parishioners was saved, 
 and having returned to the village reported to 
 the priest's widow how the misfortune happened. 
 She cried and reproached the man that he had not 
 tried earnestly to save her husband. " Beheve 
 me, I did ever5rthing I could. I was loudly caUing 
 to him : ' Give me your hand ! Give me your hand ! ' 
 But he would not, and sank down." Thereupon 
 the priest's wife began to lament loudly and to 
 curse the parishioner. " May God's judgment 
 be upon you ! " she cried. " You were wrong 
 in calling to him, ' Give me your hand.' You 
 ought to have called to him, ' Take my hand ! 
 Take my hand ! ' Because, as you ought to know, 
 the priests are not accustomed to give, but only 
 to take." 
 
 7. The Whole World — Two Parishes. — 
 There was a time when the whole world was 
 divided into two parishes only : the South and 
 the East forming one parish, and the North and 
 the West the other, each of them having only one 
 priest. These, the only two priests in the world, 
 generally met in autumn, when they travelled 
 about collecting their fees from the parishioners. 
 " How art thou, my brother in Christ ? " they 
 greeted each other. And their answer was always : 
 " Oh, well enough, thank God. But it would 
 be still better if the entire world had been only 
 one parish, and I the only priest in it ! " 
 
SERVIAN ANECDOTES 125 
 
 8. The Chodja, Monk and Priest.— A Chodja, 
 a monk and a priest happened once to travel 
 together. Having come, just about noon, to 
 a pleasant shade near a brook, they dismounted 
 and sat down on the grass to lunch. Chodja 
 brought from his pocket white bread and some 
 nice cakes made of honey, the monk displayed 
 a good-sized ham, and the priest brought out a 
 piece of bread and a chutura (the wooden vessel) 
 of wine and another of brandy. They pohtely 
 offered each other what they had. The Chodja 
 said to his two co-travellers : " Thank you very 
 much, but my faith forbids me to touch either 
 the pork or the spirits." The monk, from reUgious 
 scruples, would not drink either the wine or the 
 whisky. And so it happened that the priest 
 partook of the monk's ham and of the Chodja's 
 honey cakes, meanwhile drinking his own wine 
 and whisky alone. " Verily," said the Chodja 
 to the monk, " the faith of our friend the priest 
 seems to be far more practical than either mine 
 or yours ! " 
 
 9. The Chodja and the Gipsy. — A Chodja 
 and a gipsy came to spend the night in the house 
 of a poor peasant, who had only one small chicken 
 to offer them for their supper. While the chicken 
 was roasting, the gipsy said to the Chodja : 
 " Effendi (sir), this chicken is much too small to 
 appease the hunger of two hungry men. There- 
 fore I would in all humility propose to your superior 
 wisdom that, while this chicken is roasting, we go 
 
126 SERVIA AND THE SERVIANS 
 
 to stretch our tired limbs and to sleep a little. 
 On our awakening we will tell each other what 
 we have dreamt, and he whose dream shall prove 
 more beautiful and wonderful will have the whole 
 chicken for himself." The Chodja, sure of his 
 superior power of inventiveness, readily agreed 
 to the proposal. They stretched themselves on 
 the floor, and the Chodja very soon fell asleep. 
 When the gipsy heard the Chodja snore, he slowly 
 rose up, went to the kitchen, and ate up the entire 
 roasted chicken ; then he returned to his place 
 and pretended to snore. By and by the Chodja 
 rose up and awakened the gipsy, saying : " Now 
 then, Uttle Gip, let us report our dreams ! " — 
 " Please commence," said the gipsy. " You, 
 being my superior, ought to proceed with your 
 dream first, and I will then follow." — " Well, 
 then," commenced the Chodja, " never mortal 
 man dreamt a more beautiful dream than I dreamt 
 just now. Namely, I dreamt that I got an invita- 
 tion from our Prophet Mohammed (blessed be 
 his name!) to visit him in Heaven. For that 
 purpose he let down from Heaven to earth a silken 
 ladder, and I began to ascend it courageously, 
 until I reached the threshold of Heaven. There 
 the Prophet received me with the utmost hearti- 
 ness, and immediately ordered a pipe with the best 
 tobacco to be brought to me, then a cup of coffee, 
 then some sherbet ; then he called the Hoories 
 from Paradise to bring me some rahatlockum 
 (Turkish Delight) and some other heavenly 
 
SERVIAN ANECDOTES 127 
 
 delicious sweetmeats, and they served me all 
 those things with perfect grace. And the Prophet 
 gave me a mace of pure gold to use in forcing the 
 infidels to believe in him. But I would not take 
 that mace with me, because I was afraid the 
 brigands might see it and be tempted to rob me 
 of it, and perhaps even to kiU me ! Now, let me 
 hear what was your dream, which I am sure 
 cannot be compared with mine." — " Certainly 
 not," began the gipsy. " Indeed, I did not dream 
 much. I saw you get that invitation to go on a 
 visit to the Prophet, I saw you climb up that 
 silken ladder, and I saw you being received 
 with the greatest honour by the Prophet, at the 
 threshold of Heaven. And then I said to myself : 
 ' Surely the Chodja will now have a rich supper 
 with the Prophet in Heaven, and there is no reason 
 why I should w£dt for him to eat that poor httle 
 roast chicken here ! ' And so I rose up and ate 
 that chicken by myself, while you were enjoying 
 the Turkish delights from the hands of the 
 Hoories ! " 
 
 10. The Gipsy Blood. — Once a queen, who 
 was childless, made certain arrangements with a 
 gipsy woman, and when the latter was confined 
 of a boy the Queen took it to her own bedroom, 
 and made the King and the people believe that 
 she herself was confined of that boy. The King 
 gave the boy quite a Royal education. One day, 
 when the boy was grown up, the King took him 
 across a field where a foal was grazing. The 
 
128 SERVIA AND THE SERVIANS 
 
 supposed heir apparent, the moment he saw the 
 foal, clapped his hands and exclaimed : " Oh, 
 what a nice little horse to steal away ! " And 
 when they reached a large wood, where a Royal 
 hunt was to take place, the supposed young prince, 
 instead of hunting, stopped before every big tree, 
 exclaiming : " What a good tree to make nice 
 charcoal of ! " (The gipsies in the Balkans are 
 professional smiths and charcoal manufacturers, 
 and are considered to be born horse thieves.) 
 
 11. The Gipsy and the Bride. — To a village 
 came an itinerant gipsy smith and went from 
 house to house to ask for a job. He came to a 
 house of which the master had just lately married 
 a very young woman. She wanted to knit a pair 
 of socks for her husband, and asked the gipsy 
 if he could make her a couple of knitting needles. 
 " Certainly," answered the gipsy, " if you could 
 only give me a sufficiently large piece of iron, I 
 could quickly make you a couple of needles." 
 The young bride went all over the house in search 
 of a piece of iron, and at last she discovered a 
 ploughshare in a shed. " Would this piece of 
 iron be sufficient to make the two needles ? " 
 she asked the gipsy. — " Not quite sufficient," 
 he answered ; " but as you are a young bride 
 and just beginning your housekeeping, I will add 
 what is still necessary from my own iron, and 
 shall then be able to make the needles you want." 
 And then he quickly left the village, carrying 
 with him the ploughshare. • But from the next 
 
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 village he sent the bride the two needles she 
 wanted. 
 
 12. A Gipsy Family. — During a cold winter 
 night a gipsy family sat around the fire, warming 
 themselves, but having nothing to eat. After 
 a prolonged silence the gipsy woman said, sighing : 
 " What a pity we have not some flour ! Because 
 if we had some flour, we might have borrowed a 
 dish in the village, and I might have made a cake." 
 Her eldest boy said : " Ah, how quickly I would 
 have taken that dish with the cake to the baker, 
 and seen it properly baked ! And then I would 
 have brought it, smoking and nicely smeUing, 
 and placed it here between us all !" "And the 
 moment you had placed it before us," continued 
 the younger boy, " I would inmiediately begin 
 to eat out of that dish, helping myself to large 
 pieces ! " The father then gave that boy a good 
 slap on the head : " You naughty boy," he said 
 to him angrily, " stop eating it, and let us others 
 also have something of it ! " 
 
 13. The Gipsy and his Horse. — A poor 
 gipsy had an old horse. He found it every day 
 more and more difficult to provide food for that 
 horse. " I think," he said to himself, " in our 
 circumstances it would be best for me to teach 
 my horse to learn how to Uve without eating at 
 all ! " And he began in eeirnest to teach his horse 
 to Uve without food. He gave him less and less 
 food for a few days, and at last stopped it entirely. 
 Having no food for several days, the old horse 
 
130 SERVIA AND THE SERVIANS 
 
 finished by dying. " What a pity ! " said the 
 gipsy to his friends. " What a pity that my 
 horse died just when I had succeeded in teaching 
 him how to live without eating ! " 
 
 14. Specimens of Stories about Nasradin 
 Chodja. — Nasradin fell down a staircase once, 
 and broke a rib. His wife sent at once for a 
 Hakim (doctor). The Hakim began to reassure 
 him. " No cause for alarm, Chodja. I am sure 
 I can cure you speedily." — " Wait a moment. 
 Hakim Bashi," said the Chodja ; " before you 
 begin your treatment, I wish to know if you have 
 ever fallen down a staircase and broken a rib ? " 
 — " No, Ustafr Ullah (may God forbid it !), not 
 I ! " answered the Hakim. " Then I have no 
 use for your services," said the Chodja. " I 
 want a doctor who has personally experienced 
 what it means to fall down a staircase and break 
 a rib. Good day ! " 
 
 15. God Knows Better. — The Chodja noticed 
 a large oak tree full of acorns, and not far from it 
 a big squash hanging on its slender stem. He 
 contemplated both for some time, and then said, 
 " Verily, I think God has made a mistake here ! It 
 would have been more appropriate if big squashes 
 grew on such a large tree as this oak here, and the 
 acorns on those slender stems." Just as he was 
 saying that, standing under the oak tree, an acorn 
 fell down on Chodja's nose. " Oh, no doubt," 
 exclaimed the repenting Chodja, " God knows 
 better, may His name be praised ! Just think 
 
SERVIAN ANECDOTES 131 
 
 where my nose would have been now, if squashes 
 grew on the oak trees ! " 
 
 16. Chodja's Regret. — Once in his absence his 
 house caught fire and was burned down. The 
 villagers, as is usual on such an occasion, rushed 
 out to plunder and carry away what they could. 
 Hearing that their Chodja was returning, the 
 villagers went to meet him, and reported to him 
 about the fire and the plunder of his house. 
 " What a pity I happened not to be there ! I 
 might have carried away and stolen something, 
 as you have done ! " 
 
 17. Chodja's Forty- Years-Old Vinegar. — 
 One day a friend came to Nasradin Chodja and 
 said : "I have heard that you have a vinegar 
 forty years old, and I should like to have some of 
 it." — " My dear friend," the Chodja answered, 
 " if I had given a httle of that vinegar to every- 
 one who asked, that vinegar might by this time 
 have been anything else, but certainly not a 
 vinegar of forty years ! " 
 
 18. The Chodja as a Loan-Giver. — A good 
 friend came once to borrow a few piastres for a 
 week or two. " I cannot lend you money," the 
 Chodja answered, "but as we are good friends, I 
 do not like to refuse you altogether. Therefore 
 I give you more than two weeks waiting time." 
 
 19. The Chodja and the Children. — 
 " Chodja," his villagers said to him, " we notice 
 that the children have no fear of you." " Nor 
 have I any fear of them," the Chodja answered. 
 
132 SERVIA AND THE SERVIANS 
 
 20. The Chodja and his Pupils. — Nasradin 
 Chodja took some trouble to teach his pupils how 
 to behave politely. Among other things he told 
 them to clap their hands and shout, " Hayir- 
 Allah ! (May God grant that it is to your good !) " 
 whenever they heard an older person sneeze. 
 Once the Chodja, mending something on the 
 open pit in his garden, slipped and fell in. Nearly 
 drowned in the deep water of the pit, he called 
 to his pupils to bring a rope and drag him out. 
 The dutiful schoolboys soon found a rope and 
 threw it down to their master, and with united 
 forces began to drag him out. Yet a few feet 
 more and he would have been out of the pit, when 
 unfortunately, thoroughly wet as he was, he 
 sneezed ! In a moment aU his pupils dropped 
 the rope to clap their hands and to shout : " Hayir 
 Allah, Chodja ! " The poor Chodja fell back down 
 to the bottom of the pit. " Ah," he said to himself, 
 " it serves me right ! I ought to have taught these 
 boys common sense first, and then politeness ! " 
 
 21. Nasradin Chodja's Hunt. — The Sultan 
 was going one day, with a great suite of dignitaries, 
 to hunt with falcons, and he invited Nasradin 
 Chodja to join the party. The Chodja did so, 
 but having no falcon, he got a magpie and carried 
 her proudly on his left hand as if she had been a 
 veritable falcon. The Sultan and his Viziers 
 laughed heartily, and said to him : " Even we 
 with our falcons are not sure that we shall find 
 something worth catching, and what can you 
 
Servian anecdotes is^ 
 
 with your magpie expect to catch ? " — " You, 
 magnificent lords," said the Chodja, " leave me 
 and my magpie in peace ! All I want is that our 
 mighty Tsar gives liis honourable and unbreakable 
 word, that all my bird catches shall belong exclu- 
 sively to me, and not be shared either with him 
 or anybody else." The Sultan, still amused by the 
 Chodja's folly, readily gave the required promise. 
 Then the hunt began. Some Viziers and Pashas 
 were in good luck, as their falcons caught some 
 small birds ; others again caught nothing. But 
 the best luck fell to the Chodja. He let his magpie 
 fly, and she immediately flew to the back of a 
 big buffalo, which was grazing there in the field. 
 The Chodja rushed forward in great exultation, 
 and undoing the long shawl by which his waist 
 was bound, proceeded to bind it round the horns 
 of the buffalo. The proprietor of the cattle 
 grazing in that field tried to prevent the Chodja 
 leading his buffalo away, but Nasradin appealed 
 at once to the Sultan, to whom he said : " Did 
 you not declare that whatever a bird caught it 
 should belong to the proprietor of that bird ? 
 And, as you have seen with your own eyes, my 
 bird caught this buffalo." The Sultan decided 
 that Nasradin Chodja was entitled to lead away 
 the buffalo as the lawful prey of his magpie ; 
 at the same time he promised an indemnity to 
 the proprietor of the buffalo. The Chodja left 
 the hunting-ground perfectly satisfied with the 
 result of his hunt. 
 
 10— (2397) 
 
CHAPTER VI 
 
 SERVIAN NATIONAL SONGS 
 
 GoossLARi, Servian Bards — Kralyevich Marko — Kossovo 
 Poems. 
 
 1 
 
 GOOSSLARI AND THEIR NATIONAL MISSION 
 
 Servian Macedonia lost her political independence 
 and became a Turkish Pashalik in 1371 a.d. 
 Servia lost her independence at the fatal battle 
 of Kossovo, on the 15th June, 1389, but con- 
 tinued to linger as a tributary Turkish autono- 
 mous province up to 1460, when it became a 
 province under the immediate administration 
 of Pashas and Viziers sent from Constantinople. 
 Another pohtical organisation of the Servian 
 nation, the kingdom of Bosnia, succumbed in 1464, 
 and the old aristocracy of that kingdom, having 
 embraced Islam, made Bosnia the corner-stone 
 of the Ottoman Empire for centuries. 
 
 That the Servian nation, as a distinct Slavonic 
 and Christian nationality, did not succumb alto- 
 gether, that through nearly five centuries of 
 subjection to the Turkish rule it retained the deep 
 consciousness of its nationality, and showed itself 
 at the beginning of the nineteenth century capable 
 not only of fighting victoriously with its secular 
 
 134 
 
SERVIAN NATIONAL SONGS 135 
 
 oppressor, but of organising rapidly and success- 
 fully a modem State in a European sense — 
 that can be explained only by a few fortunate 
 circumstances. 
 
 First of all, the Turks, although conscious of 
 their power and proud of their faith, never for a 
 moment intended to force the Servian nation, 
 as such, to give up their old Christian faith and 
 embrace Islam. They did not interfere in the 
 slightest manner with the faith of the mass of 
 the people, except that they would with difficulty 
 give permission for the building of new churches. 
 The Christian Orthodox Church not only continued 
 in Servia to be the centre of the reUgious Hfe of 
 the nation, as it was under the old Servian kings, 
 but in a certain measure it became the centre of 
 its poUticed hfe. Many^ churches and^ convents 
 were destroyed during the wars of the fifteenth 
 century, but many reniained intact, and from 
 their old walls eloquently preached to the people 
 the story of their glorious past under the guidance 
 of their own national kings. 
 
 The second fortunate circumstance was that 
 the Turks, from the middle of the fifteenth cen- 
 tury to the beginning of the • nineteenth century, 
 practically never interfered with the municipal 
 autonomy of the Servian villages. When in the 
 very beginning of the nineteenth century the 
 " Dahees " placed in every Servian village a Turk 
 as their agent and controller of the villagers' hfe 
 and activity, a general rising of the people against 
 
138 SERVIA AND THE SERVIANS 
 
 rhythmical blank verse. A young man who could 
 repeat, say, ten songs which he had learned by 
 listening to their recital by others, would not 
 find it difficult to describe a new event in sinailar 
 blank verse, helping himself by some stereotyped 
 phrases. Vook S. Karajich, in the preface to one 
 of his editions of the Servian National Songs, tells 
 us how in his own village the local events were 
 described (sometimes with humour and irony) 
 in the form of national song. His testimony 
 relates to the time at the beginning of the nine- 
 teenth century. I can add a personal testimony 
 from a later period. When one day in 1873, 
 as Minister of Finance, I delivered before our 
 Parliament (Narodna Skoopshtina) my first 
 budget speech, the leader of the Opposition made 
 a great onslaught against my budget. That very 
 evening the principal features of the budget 
 discussion were recited in different coffee-houses 
 and inns (mehanas) by goosslari, following the 
 lines of the famous national song " Kralyevich 
 Marko and Moossa Kessejiya," I being represented 
 as the quarrel-seeking Turkish bravo Moossa, 
 while the leader of the Opposition appeared as 
 the Royal Prince Marko, who in the end vanquished 
 the modern Moossa Kessejiya — the Minister of 
 Finance ! 
 
 This has been done evidently at all times. We 
 have, for instance, the valuable testimony of a 
 Byzantine historian, Nicephoras Gregoras, who, 
 attached to a poUtical mission to Servia in the 
 
[To face page 139 
 
 Servian Peasants (District Vranya) 
 
SERVIAN NATIONAL SONGS 139 
 
 year 1326 a.d., mentioned in his report that the 
 Servians sang the deeds of their national heroes. 
 There is also the testimony of a Secretary to the 
 diplomatic mission, sent by Ferdinand, King of 
 Hungary, to the Sultan (towards the end of the 
 sixteenth century), who mentions the fact that 
 the Servians were describing the deeds of their 
 heroes in popular songs. 
 
 The Servians, rising against Turkish oppression 
 at the beginning of the nineteenth century, were 
 fortunate enough to have with them, in the person 
 of the blind peasant Philip Vishnyich, a great 
 bard. Having lost his eyesight while yet a httle 
 boy, he took to the goossle and earned his bread 
 by reciting the popular songs on old Servian 
 kings and heroes. He moved first amongst the 
 Servians of Bosnia, but when the news of the 
 rising of the Servians of Shumadiya reached him, 
 he left Bosnia, crossed to Servia, and described 
 and sang the struggle of his people against the 
 Turkish rule in most beautiful poems. 
 
 A self-taught Servian peasant, Vook Stefanovich 
 Karajich, published in Vienna, 1814, his first 
 collection of the Servian National Poems, which 
 he wrote down as he heard them from the Ups of 
 the goosslari. They made a great sensation in 
 Europe in general, and more especially in the 
 literary circles of Germany. No less a man than 
 Goethe translated one of them into German, which 
 example was speedily followed by many others. 
 It was quite a revelation to find that there existed 
 
140 SERVIA AND THE SERVIANS 
 
 in Europe a nation of illiterate peasants, who could 
 recite olS poems of hundreds, if not thousands, of 
 verses on historical events, or on religious and 
 mythological subjects, and who actually composed 
 new poems and songs on contemporary events. 
 And in addition to the poems on old heroes, or on 
 the Christian and mythological legends, Karajich 
 collected and pubhshed hundreds of so-called 
 " jenske pesme" ( " the women's songs " ), com- 
 posed and sung by girls and young women. Many 
 of those songs are of great lyric beauty. Both 
 the heroic poems and the women's lyrics created 
 in Europe the impression that the Servians were 
 one of the most poetically gifted nations in the 
 Old Continent. A selection from their poems 
 and songs has been translated in almost all modern 
 languages. 
 
 KRALYEVICH MARKO — THE ROYAL PRINCE 
 MARKO 
 
 There is no Servian, even in the remotest and 
 wildest villages, who could not tell you some- 
 thing about Kralyevich Marko, the national hero 
 of the Servians. Marko is a historic person and 
 not a legendary one, although the national bards 
 and the folk-lore attached to his name and 
 personality many an old legend. He lived in the 
 second half of the fourteenth century, and was 
 
SERVIAN NATIONAL SONGS 141 
 
 the elder son of Vookashin, King of Macedonia, 
 a relation of the famous Servian Tsar, Stephan 
 Dooshan. When his father and his two uncles, 
 Despot Ooglyesha and Voyvoda Goyko, lost their 
 hves in the battle of Maritsa, in 1371, Marko 
 proclaimed himself King of the Servians. But 
 the nobiUty and clergy of the Servian countries 
 North and West of Macedonia would not ack- 
 nowledge him, and elected Knez (Count) Lazar 
 Hrebelyanovich to be the sovereign of the Servians. 
 Marko on his part acknowledged the suzerainship 
 of the Sultan for the small territory which he 
 retained as his own (probably the town of Prilip 
 and its district in Macedonia). As Sultan's 
 vassal, he had to attend all the Turkish miUtary 
 expeditions against the Christians. There is 
 some ground for the suspicion that as faithful 
 vassal of the Sultan he was in the Turkish camp 
 at Kossovo. The tragedy of such a situation 
 seems to have been acutely felt by Marko. At 
 the beginning of the battle of Rovine in Roumania, 
 A.D. 1399, he is reported to have said to a Servian 
 nobleman (Constantin Dragash), who, Uke himself, 
 had to fight in the Turkish lines against the 
 Christians : "I pray to God to grant the victory 
 to the Christians, even if I have to pay for it 
 with my own blood ! " The Christians won that 
 battle, but Kralyevich Marko lost his hfe then 
 and there ! 
 
 That is about all we know of the historic " Royal 
 Prince " Marko. He must have been a very 
 
142 SERVIA AND THE SERVIANS 
 
 magnetic and interesting person that he made such 
 a deep impression on the nation's imagination. 
 He remained through centuries, and remains in 
 our days, the favourite hero of the Servian nation. 
 His brave deeds are sung by the Servian goosslari 
 of Macedonia, Old Servia (Kossovo), Shoomadiya, 
 Bosnia, Hertsegovina, Montenegro, Dalmatia and 
 Croatia. His personality is a peculiar bond of 
 unity between all Servians wherever they may be, 
 uniting them into one and the same nation. The 
 goosslari describe him as a perfectly just man, the 
 hater of every injustice, the revenger of every 
 wrong, one who went about fighting successfully 
 the Turks and all oppressors of the Servians. He 
 is represented as an athletic figure and incom- 
 parably strong. His principal weapon was his 
 mace (boozdovan), which was made of 60 pounds 
 of iron, 30 pounds of silver, and 9 pounds of gold. 
 His famous charger, Sharats (Piebald), was the 
 strongest and quickest horse in the world, his 
 inteUigence was almost human, and he shares 
 the glory of many a victory together with his 
 master, who shared with him his wine, and treated 
 him always as his best friend. Marko, often rough 
 to others and more especially to the Turks, and 
 sometimes cruel, is a most respectful and tender 
 son to his mother, the good, wise and patient 
 Yevrossima (Euphrosyne). He is a hard drinker, 
 but never drunk. He hardly ever steirts on 
 an expedition without taking with him a skin 
 filled with red wine, which he places on one side 
 
SERVIAN NATIONAL SONGS 143 
 
 of Sharats as counterweight to his heavy mace 
 on the other side. He is fearless — " fearing no 
 one but God " — and always courteous. He dares 
 refuse the requests of the Tsar and Tsaritsa, but 
 he never refuses the requests of young women. 
 According to the popular belief, Marko never died, 
 but he went to a cave to sleep, and he is there 
 sleeping still. From time to time he awakens to 
 see if his sword has of itself come out of a rock 
 into which he had plunged it up to the hilt, because 
 only by such a sign is he to recognise that the time 
 has arrived for his re-appearance among the Ser- 
 vians. But, according to the national song, Marko's 
 never-stumbling Sharats stumbled one morning ; 
 Marko, in utter astonishment, asked him what 
 it meant. Sharats covdd not talk, but he shed 
 tears which astonished Marko still more. Then 
 his sister-in-God, the fairy Raviyoyla, speaking 
 from the clouds, told him that his Sharats stumbled 
 and shed tears because he saw death approaching, 
 as Marko had just accomplished his 300 years of 
 life, and the hour had arrived that he should die 
 a natural death. He chose a nice green place 
 under two tall pine-trees, but quite visible from 
 the road, where to die. He could not leave his 
 faithful Sharats, who had been for 160 years 
 associated with him in his heroic exploits, to 
 remain alone ; it was better that they should die 
 together. He kiUed his charger, and buried him 
 there " better than he did his own brother Andreas." 
 He broke his sword in three, and his lance in seven 
 
144 SERVIA AND THE SERVIANS 
 
 pieces, and from the top of the mountain " Oor- 
 vina " he threw his mace across the hills into 
 the sea, saying loudly : " When this mace comes 
 out of the sea, then a hero, such as I am, may 
 again appear on earth." He had three leather 
 belts, filled with gold ducats : he left one to the 
 person who should discover him dead, and bury 
 him decently, the second belt he left to the Church, 
 and the last one to the bhnd and lame, that they 
 might travel about the world, remembering Marko 
 and singing about his deeds. And then he spread 
 his green coat on the grass, crossed himself and — 
 sat down never more to rise up ! 
 
 Vook Stephanovich Karajich, in his great and 
 classic collection of Servian National Songs, 
 published twenty-seven poems on Kralyevich 
 Marko. The cyclus is opened by one of its finest 
 poems, which describes Marko's father and uncles 
 as the most selfish, unjust and grasping potentates, 
 his mother as a noble woman, and himself as a 
 conscientious, just and fearless youth. It starts 
 from the well-known historic fact that, after the 
 death of the great Tsar, Dooshan, there were 
 bitter dissensions in the Servian Empire concerning 
 the inheritance of the Servian crown. I will give 
 here the three first Unes of the Servian poem, to 
 show its rhythm and the melodiousness of the 
 Servian language, and then wiU proceed to give 
 a translation of the contents of the poem, which 
 introduces Marko Kralyevich to the people in his 
 first pubUc action. 
 
SERVIAN NATIONAL SONGS 145 
 
 " Sastala se chetiri tabora,* 
 Na oobavoo na polyoo Kossovoo, 
 Kod biyele Grachanitse cerkve." 
 
 " Four armies met together. 
 On the beautiful field of Kossovo, 
 Around the white church Grachanitsa." 
 
 " One of these armies was that of King Vook- 
 ashin ; the other that of his brother, Despot t 
 Ooglyesha ; the third that of Voyvoda | Goyko, 
 and the fourth that of Tsarevich Oorosh. They, 
 the great lords, are quarrelling about the Empire, 
 ready to attack each other with their golden 
 knives. It not being known to whom the Empire 
 had been left. King Vookashin declared : ' It 
 was left to ' me ! ' Despot Ooglyesha : ' No ! 
 It was left to me ! ' Voyvoda Goyko : ' No ! 
 not so. To me it was left.' Only the young 
 boy, Tsarevich Oorosh, does not say a word, 
 because the boy is afraid of those three brothers." 
 
 Then the poem describes how these competitors 
 for the Imperial crown thought it would be best 
 to appeal to the Archdeacon Nedelko, because 
 it was he who received the last confession of 
 the djdng Tsar Dooshan, and because it was 
 he who gave the Tsar communion just before 
 
 ♦ Tabor is a Turkish word, which in our times means a 
 regiment ; but in the Servian early poems means the army 
 or military camp. 
 
 t Despot is the Byzantine title, next to the King in 
 importance. 
 
 + Vvyvoda means the leader of the army, or " Duke." 
 
146 SERVIA AND THE SERVIANS 
 
 he died. But every one of them sent secretly 
 a messenger to the old Archdeacon, who as Court 
 Chaplain lived in the capital of the Empire, 
 Prizren. The four messengers met exactly at 
 the door of the Archdeacon's house, but the 
 Archdeacon was not at home, having gone to 
 the church to officiate at the morning prayers. 
 
 The four messengers, eager in their mission, 
 rushed to the church, entered it without dismount- 
 ing from their horses. They interrupted the 
 service, shouting to the Archdeacon : " Come at 
 once to the plain of Kossovo, and say there to 
 whom the Imperial crown has been left. You must 
 know, because you confessed the glorious Tsar 
 and gave him communion and because with you 
 are the old books written on parchment." The 
 old Archdeacon shed tears, and through tears said 
 with dignity : " Stand back, you mighty ones of 
 the mighty ! Let us first finish God's service here 
 in the church, and later it will be known to whom 
 the crown has been left." And when he finished 
 the service, he came out of the white church, and 
 said to the four messengers : " My children, you 
 four messengers, it is quite true that I confessed 
 the Tsar and gave him the last communion, but 
 I asked him only about his sins, and not about 
 the Empire. But you should go to the town of 
 Prilip, to the castle of Kralyevich Marko, who, 
 having learnt from me how to read and write, 
 became clerk to the Tsar. With him are the old 
 books on parchment, the old records, and he knows 
 
SERVIAN NATIONAL SONGS 147 
 
 to whom the Tsar left his crown. Go to him, and 
 take him to Kossovo, and he wiU there tell faith- 
 fully to whom the Empire was left, as Marko fears 
 only one true God, and no one else." 
 
 The poem goes on to describe how the messengers 
 went to Prilip, how they repeated to Marko the 
 message, adding that those " great lords " wanted 
 him to come at once to Kossovo to tell them to 
 whom the Empire was left. Marko, always a 
 dutiful son to his mother, Yevrossima, went to her 
 and told her what the four messengers had just 
 said to him. 
 
 Although his mother knew well that her son 
 would of himself say and do only what was just, 
 she still thought it her duty to advise him in these 
 touching words : " Marko, thou darhng son of 
 thy mother ! That the food on which I raised 
 thee up should not be cursed, do not speak wrongly 
 and partially, either to please thy father, or to 
 please thy uncles. Speak only according to the 
 justice of the God of truth. Be careful not to 
 act so as to lose thy soul. It is better for thee to 
 lose thy head than to take a sin on thy soul." 
 
 The poem describes Marko's preparations for 
 the journey, and lets him carry with him the 
 " ancient books " (knyige Starostavne). When 
 he was nearing the tent of his father. King Vook- 
 ashin, the latter exclaimed (so that Marko should 
 hear) : " Oh, I am so glad ; here is my son Marko 
 coming. He will say that the Empire was left 
 to me, knowing well that after me he will inherit 
 
148 SERVIA AND THE SERVIANS 
 
 it." Marko heard him, but did not say a word, 
 and passed on without turning his head towards 
 his father's tent. When his uncle, Despot 
 Ooglyesha, saw him, he said : " Now it is well 
 with me, because here comes my nephew Marko. 
 TeU, O Marko, that the Empire has been left to me, 
 and we wiU both reign together as two brothers." 
 But Marko passed on silent, not even glancing at 
 the tent of his uncle. Then his uncle Voyvoda 
 Goyko saw him, and joyfully exclaimed : " Now 
 it is all well with me ! Here comes my nephew, 
 Marko, who will say that the Empire has been 
 left to me. When Marko was yet only a baby, 
 I carried him in my arms, and pressed him to my 
 silk-covered breast, as a beautiful golden apple, 
 and whenever I mounted my horse I always took 
 Marko with me. Tell, O Marko, that the Empire 
 was left to me, and then thou wouldst reign and 
 I act only as thy adviser." Marko, still silent, 
 passed on without even glancing at the tent of 
 his uncle. He rode straight to the white tent of 
 the minor Oorosh, and there he dismounted from 
 his Piebald. The moment Oorosh saw him, he 
 sprang up lightly from his silk couch, stretched 
 his arms, and he and Marko embraced and kissed 
 each other, enquiring about the state of their 
 health, Oorosh adding : " How fortunate for me ! 
 Here is my koom, Marko, who will tell truthfully 
 to whom the Empire was left." 
 
 When next morning the day was dawning, the 
 church bells rang out for the morning service, and 
 
SERVIAN NATIONAL SONGS 149 
 
 all the great lords attended that prayer. And 
 after the service, they all came out, took their 
 places in their chairs in front of the church, took 
 some sugar and drank some brandy. Then Marko 
 opened the ancient records, looked through them, 
 and began to speak as follows : 
 
 " O my father, O King Vookashin, is thy king- 
 dom not sufficient for thee ? (May that kingdom 
 turn to be a desert ! ) But that thou must grasp 
 after the Empire, which belongs to someone else ! 
 And thou, my uncle Ooglyesha, is thy lordship 
 not sufficient for thee, but that thou must try to 
 grasp the entire Empire, which belongs to someone 
 else ? And thou, my uncle Goyko, is thy Voyvod- 
 ship not enough for thee (may it turn to be a 
 desert ! ) but that thou must fight to get the 
 Empire, which belongs to another ? Do you not 
 see (May God not see you ! ) the records say 
 the Empire belongs to Oorosh, from the father 
 it has to pass to the son ! To this boy here the 
 Empire came from his ancestors, and to him the 
 Tsar on his dying bed left the Empire." 
 
 When King Vookashin heard this, he sprang 
 to his feet, and drew his golden knife to strike his 
 son Marko. But Marko turned back and ran 
 away, because he felt he ought not to fight with 
 his own father ! He ran around the white church 
 three times, his father closely pursuing him and 
 was on the point of reaching and striking him, 
 when a voice was heard from the church : " Come 
 for shelter into the church. Royal Prince Marko ! 
 
 II — (2»;) 
 
150 SERVIA AND THE SERVIANS 
 
 Do you not see that you axe in danger of being 
 killed to-day, of being killed by your own father ? " 
 The doors of the church opened themselves, and 
 Marko ran inside, when the doors closed themselves 
 again at the very moment King Vookashin sprang 
 up to them, and struck the door-beam with 
 his knife. But when he saw blood-drops running 
 down the beam, the King repented, and cried : 
 " Alas, God, I have killed my own son Marko ! " 
 Again a voice was heard from inside the church : 
 " Listen, King Vookashin, thou hast not cut thy 
 own son Marko, but thou hast cut an angel of 
 God." Then the King returned to his anger 
 with Marko, and began to curse him bitterly : 
 " My son Marko, may God kill thee ! Mayest 
 thou have no children and no grave, and may thy 
 soul not leave thy body before thou hast served 
 the Tsar of the Turks as his vassal ! " The King 
 cursed him, but the Tsar blessed him : " My koom 
 Marko, may God help thee ! May thy face always 
 be shining in the Council chamber ! May thy 
 sword always be sharp in battle ! May no hero 
 be found anywhere superior to thee ! And may 
 thy name be honoured everywhere, as long as 
 there is a sun and a moon in the skies ! " What 
 each of them wished Marko, so it came to be ! 
 
 Servians believe that every curse, more especially 
 the curse pronounced by the father or mother, has 
 some effect. With blessings that is not the case. 
 But here in Marko' s case both the curse of his 
 father and the blessing of the young Tsar, whose 
 
SERVIAN NATIONAL SONGS 151 
 
 rights were saved by Marko's fearless love of justice, 
 have been fulfilled. The Servian bards do not 
 picture their national hero as an ideal hero sans 
 faute et sans reproche ; on the contrary, they knew 
 that he had several faiUngs and weaknesses, and 
 that he had the great misfortune of having to 
 serve " the Tsar of the Turks," who was the 
 personification of the permanent hostiUty of the 
 Mohammedan genius to the genius of the Christian 
 Servian nation. But by the introduction of some 
 shades and shadows into the portrait which the 
 Servian bards made of Marko, this national hero 
 became quite a hving person. Anyhow, the 
 Royal Prince Marko became a hero, in whom the 
 Servians wiU never cease to glory. 
 
 That our readers may get a more vivid glimpse 
 of the personality of the Servian national hero, 
 we wiU give them here the more or less literal 
 translation of three of the most popular poems 
 on Kralyevich Marko. 
 
 a. " The Royal Prince Marko and the 
 Veela (fairy)." — We have mentioned this poem 
 in the paragraph on the Veelas. But, as it is a 
 pretty poem, full of curious and interesting details, 
 re-echoing the pre-historic mythic times, we will 
 give the full contents here, commencing every 
 verse of the original poem by a capital letter. 
 
 " Two brothers-in-God (pobratims) were riding 
 through the fine mountain of Meeroch. One of 
 them was Kralyevich Marko, and the other 
 Vo5rvoda Milosh. In one hne their good horses 
 
152 SERVIA AND THE SERVIANS 
 
 were trotting, in one line they carry their lances. 
 Moved by friendship they were embracing each 
 other. Suddenly Marko, riding his Sharats, 
 began to doze, but rousing himself he said to 
 his brother-in-God : ' Oh, my brother, Voyvoda 
 Milosh, a heavy sleepiness is overcoming me. 
 Do sing something to keep me awake ! ' Milosh 
 answered his brother-in-God : ' Oh, my brother, 
 Kralyevich Marko, I would gladly sing to thee, 
 but last night I drank much wine in the mountain 
 with the Veela Raveeyoyla, and she told me in 
 earnest menace that if she ever heard me singing 
 she would pierce my heart and my throat with an 
 arrow.' But Marko pressed him again : ' Sing, 
 my brother, and do not fear the Veela. Do not 
 fear her, as long as thou hast me with thee, and 
 as long as I have my clairvoyant Sharats, and 
 my golden six-sided mace.' Thereupon Milosh 
 began to sing. A beautiful song he sang, of our 
 old ones and better ones, as they held the Kingdom 
 in that happy country of Macedonia, and as they 
 raised for themselves a memorial for their souls ! 
 And Marko hked the song, and he leaned forwards 
 on his saddle, and began again to doze while Milosh 
 sang. The Veela Raveeyoyla heard Milosh's 
 song, and took to answer his song by her song. 
 But quite royal was the voice of Milosh, a finer 
 voice than that of the Veela. This angered the 
 Veela Raveeyoyla. She rushed up to the Meeroch 
 mountain, took a bow and placed two arrows, 
 with one she pierced the throat of Milosh, with 
 
SERVIAN NATIONAL SONGS 153 
 
 the other one his heart. ' Alas, O my mother ! ' 
 cried Milosh. ' Alas, Marko, my brother-in-God ! 
 The Veela has pierced me with her arrows ! Did 
 I not teU you that I ought not to sing while we 
 were passing the mountain of Meeroch ? ' Marko 
 started from his sleep, he sprang down, and 
 immediately made faster the saddle on his Sharats. 
 He embraced and kissed his horse, and said : 
 ' Oh, Sharats, my true right wing ! If thou 
 couldst run down the Veela Raveeyoyla, I would 
 shoe thee with pure silver, with pure silver and 
 with refined gold, and would cover thee down to 
 thy knees with silk, and from the knees down 
 to the feet with silken tassels ; Thy mane would 
 I mix with golden thread, and embellish it with 
 fine pearls. But if thou couldst not run down 
 the Veela, I would take out both thy eyes, and 
 break all thy four legs, and leave thee here 
 in the forest, that thou shouldst carry thyself 
 miserably from tree to tree, as I now feel miserable 
 without my brother-in-God ! ' Then Marko 
 sprang up into the saddle, and let the reins to his 
 Sharats, to run through the Meeroch after the 
 Veela. The Veela was flying through the air 
 just above the mountain, Sharats was running 
 through the midst of the woods of Meeroch. The 
 moment Sharats saw the Veela He sprang three 
 lances in height and four lances forward, and 
 quickly was on the point of reaching the Veela. 
 But when she saw herself in danger. She, the poor 
 one, flew up towards the clouds hanging on the 
 
154 SERVIA AND THE SERVIANS 
 
 sky. Then Marko threw his mace after her. 
 Without sparing his strength, and without sparing 
 the Veela, he struck her between the shoulders, 
 and made her fall to the black earth. 
 
 " Marko then turned her from right to left, and 
 struck her with his six-angled golden mace. 
 ' Why, O Veela, may God kill thee ! Why didst 
 thou pierce with arrows my brother-in-God ? 
 Give some healing herbs to that hero at once, else 
 thou shalt not carry thy head any longer on thy 
 shoulders.' The Veela implored him to be to her 
 a brother-in-God. ' By the name of the highest 
 God, and by the name of St. John, I implore 
 thee to be my pobratim, O Kralyevich Marko ! 
 Let me plunge alive into the woods, to gather 
 about the Meeroch the healing herbs, which will 
 heal those wounds of that hero.' Marko was 
 always full of pity when someone appealed to him 
 in God's name, and his heart of a hero was always 
 easily touched. He allowed the Veela to go alive 
 about the wood; she searched for herbs and 
 gathered them, answering often the calls of Marko. 
 ' Presently I return to thee, through God my 
 pobratim ! ' And Veela found the herbs and 
 gathered them, and with them she healed the 
 wounds of that hero. Milosh rose up with his 
 royal voice more beautiful than ever, and with 
 his heart sounder than ever. Marko then left 
 with his healed pobratim, and Veela remained in 
 the Meeroch Mountain, and, gathering other 
 Veelas, her sisters, she told them : ' Do not shoot 
 
SERVIAN NATIONAL SONGS 155 
 
 arrows at the heroes passing through the woods, 
 as long as Kralyevich Marko is Uving, with his 
 clairvoyant Sharats and with his golden six-angled 
 mace. What sufferings have I not had to-day ! 
 Yet, thank God that I remained alive ! ' " — 
 
 b. Kralyevich Marko and Moossa Kessejiya. 
 — Every Servian can tell you something about 
 the famous duel between the Servian national 
 hero and the terrible Moossa Kessejiya. Many 
 a village inn or " mehana " in Servia is on 
 its front wall adorned with the rough fresco 
 (painted by a village artist) of Marko and Moossa 
 crossing swords. I have already mentioned that 
 on a, to me, remarkable occasion (my first budget 
 debate !) I myself have been represented to de- 
 lighted listeners as Moossa Kessejiya, while the 
 leader of the Opposition had the honour of acting 
 as the Royal Prince Marko. The poem is no 
 doubt re-echoing one of the real incidents of real 
 Ufe, so frequent in the mediaeval history of the 
 Turks, when local rebels defied for months, if not 
 for years, the distant power of the Sultan, until 
 they were overcome by some combination of 
 local and Imperial forces. 
 
 I wiU now give here the contents of the poem, 
 which, immortalising Kralyevich Marko, immor- 
 talised in a certain sense Moossa Kessejiya, to 
 whom Marko paid a generous tribute, declaring 
 him to have been a greater " hero " than he was 
 himself ! 
 
 " An Albanian, by name Moossa Arbanassa, 
 
156 SERVIA AND THE SERVIANS 
 
 nicknamed ' Kessejiya ' (the Quarrelsome), was 
 one day drinking in an inn in Stamboul. When 
 pretty well drunk he began loudly to talk thus : 
 ' It is now nine years that I am serving the Tsar 
 in Stamboul, yet he never gave me anything, 
 either a horse, or arms, or a suit of clothes, new or 
 old ! But, by my unshakable faith, I will turn 
 a rebel, go somewhere to the sea-coast, seize the 
 seaports and roads leading to them. I will build 
 there a tower, surround it with many iron hooks, 
 on which I will hang the Tsar's Chodjas and 
 Hadjis! '" 
 
 What Moossa spoke being drunk he executed 
 being sober. Very soon serious complaints against 
 the misdeeds of this rebel began to reach the 
 Tsar in Stamboul. At last he ordered his Vizier 
 Tyooprihch to undertake an expedition with three 
 thousand Janissaries against Moossa. But it 
 was child's play for Moossa to disperse the Janis- 
 saries, to make the Vizier himself a prisoner. He 
 placed his captive on a horse, bound his arms on 
 his back, and bound his feet under the horse, and 
 then sent him back to Stamboul. The Tsar was 
 greatly distressed at this humiliation. He issued 
 proclamations aU over his empire searching for a 
 brave knight who wovild try to overcome this 
 dangerous rebel, promising to the victor untold 
 wealth as a prize. Many went to fight Moossa, 
 but no one returned to fetch the prize ! The 
 Tsar became quite anxious about what was to 
 be done I His Vizier, Tyooprilich, said to the 
 
SERVIAN NATIONAL SONGS 157 
 
 Tsar : " What a pity we have not here with us 
 Kralyevich Marko ! He would have been just 
 the man to overcome Moossa Kessejiya." 
 
 The Tsar looked on his Vizier somewhat re- 
 proachfully, and, shedding tears, said, " Do not 
 speak to me of Kralyevich Marko ! Poor fellow ! 
 even his bones must be rotten by this time. It 
 is now fuUy three years since I threw him into 
 prison, the door of which I never opened." The 
 Vizier asked the Tsar what he would give the man 
 who should bring him Marko alive. The Tsar 
 answered : "I would appoint him Vizier of 
 Bosnia, to remain in that post for fuUy nine years 
 without change, and would not ask him for a 
 penny of the revenue of that province." There- 
 upon the Vizier went to the prison and brought out 
 the Kralyevich Marko, and led him to the Tsar. 
 Marko' s hair had grown down to the ground, one 
 half he used as a mattress, the other half to cover 
 himself ; his nails were so long that he could plough 
 with them, and his face looked black as a black 
 stone. The Tsar asked him : " Art thou still 
 alive, Marko ? " " Yes, still alive, but hardly 
 living ! " The Tsar then told him all his trouble 
 with Moossa, and asked him : " Could you trust 
 yourself, Marko, to go down to the sea-coast and 
 overcome Moossa Kessejiya ? For such a feat I 
 would give thee all the treasure thou mayst ask 
 me." Marko honestly answered : " By my God, 
 I could not do it now, my Lord Tsar. The damp- 
 ness of the stony prison has entered my bones and 
 
158 SERVIA AND THE SERVIANS 
 
 nearly killed me ; I can hardly see with my eyes, 
 and how could I venture a duel with Moossa 
 Kessejiya ? But place me somewhere in a good 
 inn, let me have enough wine and brandy, and 
 good mutton and good white bread ; let me rest 
 and eat for a few days, and then I will tell thee 
 if I could risk a duel with Moossa." 
 
 The Tsar called three young hairdressers : one 
 to shave him, the other to shampoo him, and the 
 third one to cut his nails. Then the Tsar placed 
 him in the New Inn, where Marko had aU he 
 wanted : plenty of good wine and brandy, plenty 
 of roast mutton and white bread. Marko rested 
 there recuperating his strength for fuU three 
 months. At last, the Tsar asked him if he had 
 sufficiently recovered to venture the duel with 
 Moossa ? Marko asked the Tsar to let a small 
 piece of perfectly dry wood be brought in. He 
 took it in his right hand, pressed it so that it broke 
 in pieces, but not a drop of water came out of it. 
 " Oh, no ! " said Marko to the Tsar, " it is not 
 yet time for me to venture on that duel ! " He 
 returned to the New Inn, and remained there 
 another month eating, drinking and resting. He 
 felt stronger, and asked again for a dry stick. He 
 pressed it again in his right hand ; it broke to 
 pieces, but from its dryness two drops of water 
 came out. Then Marko said to the Tsar : " Now 
 there is some chance for me to venture on that 
 duel ! " 
 
 From the Tsar Marko went straight to the 
 
SERVIAN NATIONAL SONGS 159 
 
 famous swordsmith, Novak. " O Novak, sword- 
 maker, make me a sword which shall not have its 
 equal in the world." He gave the smith thirty 
 ducats, and then returned to the New Inn, in 
 which he continued to drink red wine for three or 
 four days, and then walked up again to the Novak's 
 workshop. The sword was ready, and Novak 
 gave it to him. " Is it good ? " asked Marko. 
 " There is the sword and here is the anvil ; thou 
 canst try of what quahty is thy sword," was 
 Novak's humble answer. Marko struck the anvil 
 with the sword and cut it through the middle. 
 " Now tell me truthfully, O swordsmith Novak, 
 hast thou ever made a better sword ? " " Well, 
 to tell thee the truth," answered Novak, " I did 
 once make a better sword, but it was for a better 
 warrior. Before Moossa left for the sea-coast 
 as a rebel, I made him a sword with which he cut 
 the anvil in two halves easily, not sparing the oak- 
 trunk on which it stood." Marko became angry 
 and annoyed. " Stretch thy arm, swordsmith 
 Novak, stretch thy arm that I may pay thee for 
 my sword." Novak stretched his right arm and 
 Marko by a swift stroke cut it off from the 
 shoulder. " This is so that from this day thou 
 shalt not make either a better or worse sword than 
 mine is I And here is a hundred ducats for thee, 
 that thou may est have whereupon to Hve." 
 
 Then Marko mounted his Piebald and rode 
 straight to the sea-coast. There he went roaming, 
 inquiring all the time where he could find Moossa 
 
160 SERVIA AND THE SERVIANS 
 
 Kessejiya. At last, one morning early, he met 
 him. Moossa was riding his black horse, or rather 
 he was sitting on it with crossed legs. He amused 
 himself by throwing his heavy mace high into the 
 air, and catching it again in his white hands. 
 When the two came nearer to each other, Marko 
 began : " Dely-Moossa, move aside that I may 
 pass along the path. Either move aside, or pay 
 me thy respects." 
 
 Moossa answered : " Pass on quietly, Marko, 
 and do not start a quarrel. Or, rather let us dis- 
 mount from our horses, and let us drink cold wine 
 together. As for thy demand that I should move 
 aside before thee, that I wiU never do. I know 
 well thou wast born of a queen, in a great castle, 
 on silk cushions ; thy mother wrapped thee in 
 pure soft silk, binding it with a golden thread ; 
 she fed thee on honey and sugar ; whereas I was 
 born of a fierce Albanian woman, who was confined 
 of her child among rocks while watching the sheep 
 as their shepherdess. My mother wrapped me in 
 coarse black tartan, binding it with a wild black- 
 berry branch, and raised me up by feeding me 
 only on oats. But she always asked me to swear 
 that before no one and never should I move away 
 or aside. Certainly I will not move aside to let 
 thee pass ! " 
 
 When Marko heard these words, he threw his 
 lance, aiming at Moossa's breast. Moossa received 
 it on his mace, and by a stroke threw it high 
 above his head. Then he took his own battle 
 
SERVIAN NATIONAL SONGS 161 
 
 lance to strike Marko, but Marko also received 
 it on his mace and broke it in three pieces. Then 
 they both drew their swords and rushed against 
 each other. Kralyevich Marko gathered all his 
 strength to strike Moossa with his sword, but the 
 latter placed his mace as a shield, and Marko' s 
 sword was broken in three pieces. Moossa's sword 
 Marko received on his mace and broke it 
 just near the hilt. Then they rushed against each 
 other, striking wildly with their maces until they 
 broke them, and threw them down into the grass 
 as useless weapons. They both sprang wildly 
 from their horses and caught each other as do 
 wrestlers. They wrestled thus, and carried each 
 other wrestling all the morning. It happened 
 that both these fighters were real yoonaks (heroes). 
 Neither Moossa could bring Marko down to the 
 earth, nor could Marko throw Moossa down. 
 White foam came on Moossa's lips, but on Marko' s 
 Ups the white foam was bloody. Moossa said to 
 Marko : " Throw me down, Marko, or let me 
 throw you down ! " Marko tried his utmost to 
 throw Moossa, but all his efforts were useless. 
 Then Moossa lifted Marko and threw him down 
 on the green grass, and knelt on his breast. Then 
 the Royal Prince Marko cried out sadly : " Ah, 
 where art thou to-day, my sister-in-God Veela ? 
 ^\^lere art thou to-day, mayst thou never be found ! 
 Was thy oath false when thou sworest to me that 
 whenever I should be in danger thou wouldst be 
 near to help me ? " From the clouds the Veela 
 
162 SERVIA AND THE SERVIANS 
 
 answered : " Why, my brother Kralyevich Marko, 
 why hast thou forgotten my advice never to start 
 a quarrel on a Sunday ? And hast thou forgotten 
 thy secret snakes ? " 
 
 Moossa turned to glance towards the mountain 
 and the sky, to ascertain from which side the 
 Veela spoke. But in that moment Marko drew 
 out a hidden knife, and struck Moossa, opening 
 his body from the belt up to the white throat. 
 The dead Moossa fell on Marko with such weight 
 that only with difficulty could he extricate him- 
 self from under him. Looking at his dead foe, 
 Marko noticed that Moossa had three rows of ribs 
 and that he had three hearts. One heart was 
 already tired ; the second one was just in full 
 excitement, and on his third heart a snake was 
 sleeping. When the snake awoke she said to 
 Marko : " Praise God, Kralyevich Marko, that 
 I was not awake when Moossa was alive, because 
 then three hundred evils would have befallen 
 thee ! " 
 
 When Marko saw all this, and heard these words, 
 he wept. Tears ran down his white cheeks, and, 
 deeply grieved, he said : " Alas, alas to me ! May 
 the gracious God forgive me, that I killed a far 
 better knight than I am ! " 
 
 He then cut off the head of Moossa, threw it 
 into the oats-bag of his Sharats, and rode back to 
 white Stamboul. When he was admitted into 
 the presence of the Tsar he threw before him the 
 head of Moossa. The Tsar, frightened, sprang 
 
SERVIAN NATIONAL SONGS 163 
 
 to his feet. And Maxko said : " Fear not, my 
 Lord Tsar. If from Moossa's dead head thou 
 springest away frightened, what wouldst thou 
 have done if thou hadst met him alive ? " 
 
 c. How Marko Abolished the Wedding- tax. 
 — In what follows I reproduce almost verbatim in 
 prose the contents of that fine poem. Here and 
 there I condense the meaning of several verses 
 in my own words : 
 
 " One morning early the Royal Prince Marko 
 was riding down the plain of Kossovo. When 
 he arrived at the stream of Servani he met there 
 a maid of Kossovo. Marko greeted her, wishing 
 her God's help. The young woman bowed deeply, 
 almost touching the black earth. ' Mayst thou 
 be of good health, O unknown knight ! ' Marko 
 then commenced to talk to her : ' Dear sister. 
 Maid of Kossovo ! Thou art handsome and young. 
 Thou art tall and of fine figure, rosy-cheeked and 
 of ladylike glance ! But, dear Uttle sister, thy 
 hair spoils thy appearance, as thy hair is quite 
 grey ! I wonder who was the cause that thou, 
 so young, hast lost thy happiness ? Art thou 
 thyself that cause, or is it perhaps thy mother, 
 or maybe it is thy old father ?'" 
 
 The Maid of Kossovo then tells Marko that 
 her misfortunes have been caused neither by 
 herself nor by her parents. She is unhappy since 
 a black negro (Arap) became the master of 
 Kossovo. 
 
 " ' It is now nine years since, from across the 
 
164 SERVIA AND THE SERVIANS 
 
 sea, a negro came over, and took from the Tsar 
 the plain of Kossovo in lease, and immediately 
 introduced all sorts of t5Tannies. Not content 
 that Kossovo supplies him with food and drink, 
 he established a tax on weddings ; the bride has 
 to pay thirty ducats, and the bridegroom thirty- 
 four. Only those who have money to pay such a 
 tax can marry. But my brothers are poor men ; 
 they have not money enough to pay the tax that 
 I may marry, therefore I remained behind my 
 girl-friends, did not marry during my youth, and 
 so I lost my chances. But that in itself would 
 not make me sad and miserable, if only the tyrant 
 had not forced the people to submit to another 
 and far greater shame. He exacts that for every 
 night a newly-married woman and an unmarried 
 girl should be sent to him. The newly married 
 woman he leaves to his servants and the girl he 
 takes to his tent. Now, my turn has come that 
 I shall go this evening to the tent of the black 
 negro, and I am thinking what I am, O my God ! 
 to do ! Ought I not to spring into the river and 
 drown myself, or had I better hang myself ? I 
 prefer to cease to Uve rather than be mistress to 
 the foe of our country.* 
 
 " Then the Royal Prince Marko said to her : 
 ' Dear sister. Maid of Kossovo ! Do not take 
 sin on thy soul by drowning or hanging thyself. 
 Only tell me where is the castle of that Black 
 Negro, as I have something to say to him ! ' 
 
 " The Maid of Kossovo had pity on this to her 
 
SERVIAN NATIONAL SONGS 165 
 
 unknown knight. She said to him that maybe 
 he was the only son of his mother, and he ought 
 first to consider what his poor mother would do 
 without him, if he were to be killed by the negro. 
 Marko took thirty ducats from his pocket and 
 gave them to the Maid of Kossovo. ' My dear 
 Httle sister,' he said, ' take this, and go home and 
 support thyself with this money until thy good 
 luck calls thee (viz. : until she marries). Only 
 show me where is the Negro's castle ; I wish to 
 go there to pay the wedding-tax for thee. I do 
 not see why the Negro should kill me. I possess 
 money enough to buy up the whole plain of 
 Kossovo, and how should I not be able to pay the 
 wedding-tax ? ' 
 
 " Thereupon the Maid of Kossovo showed him 
 in the distance a flagstaff with a flag. ' There is 
 the Black Negro. He has no castle, but hves 
 under a tent. Around that tent there is a green 
 yard ; around that yard are impaled the heads of 
 people whom the Negro has murdered. Only 
 a week ago the cursed Negro beheaded seventy- 
 seven young men, bridegrooms from the Plain of 
 Kossovo. He has forty servants who act as his 
 bodyguard ! ' " 
 
 The poem then describes Marko riding across 
 the plain of Kossovo towards the black tjn-ant's 
 tent. He feels ashamed that among his people 
 such a shameful tyranny could be practised. He 
 is angry, and he makes his faithful Sharats angry 
 -Iso. " From under the horse-shoes of Sharats 
 
166 SERVIA AND THE SERVIANS 
 
 a lively fire was streaming, and from his nostrils 
 a blue flame was leaping. Angry Marko rides 
 down the plain of Kossovo ; tears are running 
 down his brave face. Through the teeirs he 
 angrily cries : ' Alas ! alas ! thou plain of Kos- 
 sovo ! What sad days are come upon thee ! 
 That after our brave Tsar (he meant here the last 
 Servian Tsar, Lazar, who fell in the fatal battle of 
 Kossovo, 1389) the negroes are now thy masters ! 
 But I cannot bear this shame ! Nor can I suffer 
 this great grief, that negroes should tyrannise 
 over this people, and that they should love the 
 newly-married brides and the girls ! To-day, my 
 brethren, I will avenge you, or I will lose my own 
 hfe ! ' He rode then straight for the tent of the 
 Negro. 
 
 " The guardsmen of the black tyrant saw him 
 coming, and, alarmed by his strange appearance, 
 reported to their master : * Our lord, the Negro 
 from Across-the-Sea, here is a strange knight 
 coming towards us, on a piebald, an angry horse 
 from the horse-shoes of which a Hvely fire is 
 streaming, and from the nostrils of which a blue 
 flame is leaping. It looks as if he means to attack 
 us!' 
 
 " The Black Negro reassured them. No one 
 dared attack him. The rider had probably found 
 a girl whom he wishes to marry, and he was 
 coming only to pay the wedding-tax. He might 
 be angry just because he would have to part with 
 so much money. ' But you had better go out 
 
SERVIAN NATIONAL SONGS 167 
 
 of our courtyard to meet him, receive him nicely, 
 bow your heads before him humbly, help him to 
 dismount, take in your charge his horse and his 
 arms, and bring him here to me in my tent. I do 
 not want his money, but I wiU take his head ! ' 
 
 " But when his forty guardsmen saw Marko 
 approach, they got so frightened that they dared 
 not meet him outside the courtyard as they^were 
 ordered, but they ran back to the tent and hid 
 themselves behind the Black Negro, covering 
 their swords with their cloaks, that Marko should 
 not see that they were armed. 
 
 " Marko entered the courtyard alone, dis- 
 mounted and told his Sharats (who evidently 
 understood his master's language) : ' Walk about 
 this courtyard, but yet go not too far from 
 the tent's entrance, in case I should want thee.' 
 And then Marko entered the tent of the Black 
 Negro. 
 
 " The Negro was sitting there, drinking cold 
 wine, served by a bride and by an unmarried 
 girl. He invited Marko to sit down and drink 
 with him, and then to tell him why he came. 
 Marko answered, he had no time to drink with 
 him ; he had left his wedding guests on the road, 
 he coming alone to pay the wedding-tax, that he 
 might lead his bride safely home. ' But tell me,' 
 he asked, ' how much is the wedding-tax ? ' The 
 Negro answered : ' Thou knowest well how much 
 it is ; for the bride thirty ducats, and for the 
 bridegroom thirty-four. But as thou seemest to 
 
168 SERVIA AND THE SERVIANS 
 
 be a knight, it would be quite right that thou 
 shouldst pay one hundred ducats.' Marko 
 brought out from his pocket three ducats and 
 threw them to the Negro. ' I have no more to 
 give thee ; but if thou wilt wait until I return 
 from the bride's home, I will there get many 
 presents, all of which I will bring to thee ; the 
 presents to thee, my bride to me.' 
 
 " Then the Negro jumped up and screamed 
 sharply as a poisonous snake. ' I don't give the 
 wedding-tax on credit ! Thou dost only laugh 
 at me ! ' He grasped his mace, and struck Marko 
 three or four times. The Royal Prince Marko 
 laughed loudly. ' Art thou striking in earnest, 
 or art thou joking ? ' Again the Black Negro 
 screamed : ' I do not joke, I do strike in earnest 1 ' 
 ' I really thought,' answered Marko, ' that thou 
 wast only playing and didst not strike in earnest. 
 But as thou sayest that thou art in earnest, I have 
 also a mace, and I will strike thee only as many 
 times as thou hast struck me, and after that we 
 will go out to fight a regular duel.' 
 
 "But Marko's first stroke killed the Black 
 Negro ! He cut off the heads of the forty guards- 
 men, leaving only four of them alive, that they 
 might truly tell everybody what had taken place 
 between the Black Negro and the Royal Prince 
 Marko. He took down the heads of the Christian 
 bridegrooms, by which the Negro had surrounded 
 his courtyard, and buried them handsomely, that 
 the eagles and ravens should not disfigure them. 
 
SERVIAN NATIONAL SONGS 169 
 
 The four guardsmen whom he spared, he sent in 
 four directions through the plain of Kossovo to 
 announce loudly everywhere : ' Wherever there 
 is a marriageable girl, let her find for herself a 
 husband, let her marry while she is young ; and 
 wherever there is a young man let him look for 
 a wife and let him marry. Henceforth there is 
 no longer a wedding-tax ! Marko paid that tax 
 for all and for ever ! ' And all people, young and 
 old, cried out : ' May God bless the Royal Prince 
 Marko ! who has deUvered the country from a 
 tyrant. May his soul and his body find forgiveness 
 with God ! ' " 
 
 Kossovo Poems 
 
 It is evident that the tragic years between the 
 death of Tsar Dooshan and the end of the four- 
 teenth century made a deep impression on the 
 Servian nation. Those were the years of a rapid 
 breaking up of the great Servian Empire, created 
 by Dooshan, and of the practical loss of pohtical 
 independence by the Servian nation. Those were 
 the years in which the historic Kralyevich Marko 
 hved and worked, and in which he personally 
 entered into the imagination of the people as the 
 representative national hero. Those are the 
 years in which the noble personaUties of " Tsar 
 Lazar " and his wife " Tsaritsa Militsa " appeared 
 in the forefront of the tragedy of the Servian 
 
170 SERVIA AND THE SERVIANS 
 
 people. They were practically concluded by the 
 great battle of Kossovo on the 15th June, 1389, 
 by losing which the Servian nation lost its political 
 independence. It is no wonder that the Servian 
 bards composed quite a cyclus of poems concern- 
 ing Tsar Lazar, Tsaritsa Militsa, and the battle of 
 Kossovo. 
 
 Historically, Count (in the Serv. Knez) Lazar 
 Hreblyanovich was in 1375 elected the Tsar of the 
 Servians. He won the votes of the majority of 
 the Sabor (Parliament) by his personal virtues 
 and by the political circumstances of the time. 
 Probably also by his connection with Tsar 
 Dooshan's Court. If he was not himself a relation 
 of the dynasty of Neman5dch (some chroniclers 
 insinuating that he was Dooshan's natural son), 
 his beautiful wife Militsa certainly was. Anyhow, 
 even the blind bards knew that he grew up at the 
 Court of Dooshan, and was evidently inspired by 
 the political ideas of that truly great statesman. 
 Lazar, from personal humility and from poUtical 
 considerations, never assumed the title of Tsar, 
 and continued to the end of his life to sign himself 
 simply as " Knez Lazar " (Count Lazar). 
 
 Of course, the great task for the Servian states- 
 men of that time was : how to stem the further 
 progress of the Ottoman Turks, and how to drive 
 them back to Asia. Lazar, as elected chief of 
 the Servian nation, began at once to work to 
 remove the deep dissensions in the country, 
 which paralysed its strength. His home policy 
 
SERVIAN NATIONAL SONGS 171 
 
 was that of reconciliation and concentration. 
 The moment he had succeeded, at least partially, 
 in that task, he began to work at the organisation 
 of a Christian League against the Turks. He 
 entered into secret negotiations with the Kings 
 of Bulgaria, Bosnia and Hungary. But the 
 secret was treacherously revealed to Sultan 
 Moorad I, who, with the remarkable promptness 
 which distinguished every Turkish action of that 
 time, immediately invaded Bulgaria and then 
 Servia, to destroy those important members of 
 the eventual Christian League, before its practical 
 formation. Lazar was not yet quite ready with 
 his policy of reconcihation at home, and still far 
 from the conclusion of alliances with his neigh- 
 bours. In great haste he had to summon his 
 noblemen to hurry with their retinues to Kossovo 
 to meet the Turkish army. Many came, some 
 were late, others never started. Lazar wished to 
 delay the battle, hoping that further reinforce- 
 ments of his army would come ; but on the 15th 
 June, early, the Turks surprised the Servians by 
 an unexpected attack. The day finished by the 
 total defeat of the Servians. Lazar himself was 
 taken prisoner and beheaded in the presence of 
 the mortally wounded and dying Moorad I. To 
 this day there is on the field of Kossovo a Turkish 
 " TulM," something like a chapel, guarded by a 
 Dervish, and containing the tomb in which 
 Moorad was buried. 
 So far the history. 
 
172 SERVIA AND THE SERVIANS 
 
 The national bards seem to have immediately 
 seized the tragedy of the event. They preserved 
 for us details and incidents which are not opposed 
 to history, which probably are history itself. 
 They ascribe the defeat of the Servian army to 
 the dissensions among the Servians themselves, 
 and to the treachery of the Commander of the 
 right wing (or perhaps of the reserve) composed 
 of twelve thousand of the panoplied horsemen. 
 They declare Vook Brankovich to have been the 
 traitor, and Milosh Obilich — who went to the 
 Turkish camp and lolled the Turkish Tsar Moorad 
 — the hero of the day and for all time. 
 
 Vook was the richest and the most influential 
 representative of the old nobihty. He married 
 the eldest daughter of Tsar Lazar, and was the 
 first dignitary of the Empire. Milosh Obihch was 
 the representative of a new set of men, who could 
 not boast of old noble Hneage, but by personal 
 merit rose in the service of their country. Milosh 
 was evidently a very popular man with the 
 people as well as with the Court. He rose to the 
 rank of Voyvoda (General) and won the hand 
 of one of the daughters of Lazar, Vookossava by 
 name. The cyclus of Kossovo songs begins with 
 an incident which reveals to us the existing 
 differences and jealousies between the repre- 
 sentatives of the old Aristocracy and of new 
 men, probably the ancestors of the democratic 
 movement. 
 
 According to the national bards, Tsaritsa 
 
SERVIAN NATIONAL SONGS 173 
 
 Militsa sat at a castle window with her two 
 daughters, Mara and Vookossava, and looked 
 down on a field, across which Tsar Lazar, accom- 
 panied by his two Vo5rvodas, Vook Brankovich 
 and Milosh Obilich, was riding. The Tsaritsa 
 was pleased with the sight and said to her daugh- 
 ters : "It would be difi&cult to decide which of 
 our two sons-in-law is more distinguished and 
 handsome looking, — Vook or Milosh. I will 
 therefore say, they are both equally handsome 
 and stately." 
 
 Vook's wife, Mara, protested. " That could 
 not be so ! " she said. " You know, mother, 
 of what a noble stock my husband is descended, 
 whereas Milosh' s mother w£is only a shepherdess, 
 who reared him on the milk of a mare." (This 
 was an allusion not only to the humble origin of 
 Milosh, but also to the very much spread state- 
 ment that Obilich ought to be called " KobiUch " 
 or " Kobilovich," which means : the son of a 
 mare ! 
 
 Milosh's wife felt the sting and replied sharply 
 to her sister : " It is quite true, all you have said. 
 But the mare is able to spring high over the 
 wolves, and with her hoofs to break their teeth." 
 (This was an allusion to the name of Mara's 
 husband, Vook, which means " wolf.") 
 
 Mara, feeling her sister's words as a personal 
 insult, sprang up and slapped Vookossava's face. 
 The diamond ring on her finger cut the tender 
 skin of her sister's face, and blood ran freely. 
 
174 SERVIA AND THE SERVIANS 
 
 Vookossava rushed down to the garden, and sat 
 under an orange tree to wipe the blood from her 
 face, as well as the tears. 
 
 Meanwhile, the Tsar with his suite arrived in 
 the castle yard. It seems that at that time every 
 wife was expected to receive her husband on the 
 threshold of the house and to help him to dis- 
 mount, holding the reins of his horse. Tsaritsa 
 MiUtsa and her daughter Mara did their duty 
 towards their husbands, but no one was there 
 to receive Milosh. The Tsaritsa herself stepped 
 forward to hold his charger, but Milosh would not 
 let her do so, and dismounted before she ap- 
 proached him. He then saw his wife in the garden 
 under the orange tree, and went straight to her. 
 He was a tender and good husband. He uttered 
 not a word of reproach, but simply asked her : 
 " Why art thou weeping ? Why sittest thou 
 here alone in thy sadness ? And what mean 
 these blood-stains on thy face ? " Vookossava 
 told him what had happened. Milosh became 
 furious. He rushed out of the garden, seized the 
 noble Vook Brankovich, flung him down on the 
 stony yard. Tsar Lazar stepped forward and 
 tried to make peace between them, sUghtly 
 reproaching Milosh for his hastiness, and telUng 
 him that he must not quarrel with Vook 
 Brankovich. 
 
 In what precedes I have given the contents of 
 the first song in the Kossovo cyclus. The Servian 
 bards insinuated — and the mass of the Servian 
 
SERVIAN NATIONAL SONGS 175 
 
 people to this day believe — that the fall of the 
 Servian Empire came as the consequence of the 
 quarrel of these two young women, proud of 
 their husbands. 
 
 The second song of the Kossovo cyclus deepens 
 the antagonism of those two men, evidently the 
 leaders of two opponent parties at the Court 
 and in the Sabor. It begins by describing the 
 meeting of the leading men, czdled together by 
 the Tsar, mentioning the more important men 
 by their names and rank. They have just taken 
 their places according to their rank, when a 
 courier enters and delivers a letter to Tsar Lazar. 
 He reads that letter slowly and carefully and 
 " tears begin to run down his white face." All 
 the dignitaries there present were deeply moved, 
 seeing the Tsar so agitated. The old Yoog- 
 Bogdan gave expression to their astonishment 
 by asking Lazar what on earth the letter contained 
 which made him shed tears ? 
 
 Lazar told them the letter was from the Turkish 
 Tsar Moorad, who had arrived on the plain of 
 Kossovo with a mighty army. He read the 
 letter aloud to them : " O Lazar, thou the head of 
 the Servians ! " wrote Moorad. " Thou knowest 
 well that it is not possible for one country to have 
 two masters, nor for one people to pay two harach.* 
 Therefore I want thee to acknowledge me as the 
 
 ♦ Harach, Turkish word for the fixed tax paid per head of 
 the population. 
 
176 SERVIA AND THE SERVIANS 
 
 true Tsar, to send me the golden keys of thy cities 
 and castles, and the tribute for seven years in 
 advance. If thou art not willing to do this, then 
 come to the plain of Kossovo, and let us decide 
 by the sword who is to be the master of the 
 Servians." 
 
 Lazar then asked his Voyvodas and Councillors 
 to advise him what to do. Vook Brankovich 
 rose up, and — evidently a man of common sense 
 — said : "In our present circumstances it is 
 difficult to be wise. But the facts are these : 
 the Turkish Tsar has brought to Kossovo three 
 hundred thousand fighting men. If we put down 
 on paper the name of every Servian who owes 
 thee service, O Tsar, we could hardly bring to- 
 gether one hundred thousand. Can one Servian 
 beat three Turks ? Fight we may, but conquer 
 we cannot. Therefore I think the wisest course 
 for us is to yield to the Turkish Tsar's demands, 
 and not to shed blood uselessly." 
 
 Thereupon Milosh Obilich rose up and with 
 great eloquence asserted that the only honourable 
 course for them was to accept the challenge, go 
 to Kossovo, fight bravely and submit to the 
 sword's decision. Tsar Lazar and his Vo3rvodas, 
 called back to fife by Milosh's fiery words, rose to 
 their feet to acclaim and thank him for his brave 
 and wise advice. All this naturally increased 
 and deepened Vook's hatred of Milosh. On his 
 part, Lazar sent proclamations throughout the 
 country calling people to arms, and cursing with 
 
SERVIAN NATIONAL SONGS 177 
 
 a terrible curse those who should not come to 
 Kossovo to fight the Tiu-ks. 
 
 There are several poems on the episodes taking 
 place between the arrival of the Turkish army 
 on the plain of Kossovo and the actual battle. 
 One of the most beautiful poems not only in the 
 Kossovo cyclus but in the entire collection of the 
 Servian national poems, is that on Strahinya Ban, 
 who went to Kossovo to deUver his wife from 
 slavery to a daring Turkish adventurer. That 
 one poem has no less than 810 Mnes, in the latest 
 edition of the Servian National Songs. Our 
 readers will find the entire poem on Strahinya 
 in the Appendix. 
 
 Very pretty is the poem on Voyvoda Stephan 
 Moossich and his wife YeUtsa. The night pre- 
 ceding his departure for Kossovo she dreamt a 
 dream which made her beUeve that her husband 
 would lose his Ufe in Kossovo, and she begged his 
 page not to awaken his master in good time for 
 starting, but rather to try to retard his departure. 
 The page, however, refused to do so, explaining 
 that he did not wish to draw on his master the 
 curse with which the Tsar had cursed all those 
 who should not go to Kossovo. 
 
 Another beautiful poem describes how on the 
 eve of Tsar Lazar's departure from Krooshevats 
 (the capital of Servia at that time) for Kossovo, 
 his wife, Tsaritsa Militsa, begged him to leave 
 one of her nine brothers to remain with her in the 
 palace and not to go to Kossovo. Lazar, always 
 
178 SERVIA AND THE SERVIANS 
 
 a very tender and kind husband, granted her 
 request, and told her to give his blessing to any 
 one of her brothers who wished to remain with 
 her. Next morning early she placed herself at 
 the gate of the royal castle, and implored one 
 brother after the other to remain with her, teUing 
 them that the Tsar gave his pennission and his 
 blessing that one of them might remain. But 
 they one and all refused to comply with her wish. 
 When even the youngest of them refused to do 
 so, Tsaritsa swooned and fell hke dead on the 
 stony pavement of the courtyard. When Lazax, 
 leaving the castle, came that way and saw his 
 wife in a swoon, he shed tears, turned to right and 
 left among his suite, called his page, Golooban, 
 told him to dismount, to carry Tsaritsa Militsa 
 in his arms to the palace, and to remain there 
 with her ; and he blessed him and solemnly 
 dispensed him from the duty of coming to Kossovo. 
 Golooban complied with his master's orders only 
 in so far as he carried poor Tsaritsa to the palace, 
 but having delivered her to her own Court ladies, 
 he immediately returned to his horse, mounted it 
 and followed the Tsar to Kossovo. 
 
 The third, very pretty poem, tells us of the 
 engagement of the handsome and brave Voyvoda 
 Milan of Toplitsa to the beautiful Maid of Kossovo. 
 Before engaging in the battle with the Turks, the 
 pious Tsar Lazar let all his men take Holy Com- 
 munion in the handsome church of Samodreja. 
 The Maid of Kossovo was standing at the door 
 
SERVIAN NATIONAL SONGS 179 
 
 of the church looking at the stream of warriors 
 coming out of the church after Communion. The 
 last three knights to leave the church were the 
 three famous Voyvodas : Milosh ObiUch, Ivan 
 Kossanchich and Milan of Tophtsa. There 
 she became engaged to Milan, Milosh promising 
 to be the " Koom," and Ivan to be the bride- 
 leader (Dever). After the battle, the Maid of 
 Kossovo fastened on her back a bag with white 
 bread ; in one hand she carried a vessel filled with 
 cold water, and in the other a vessel fUled with 
 wine, and went to the field of Kossovo, strewn 
 over with dead or only wounded warriors. 
 Wherever she found a wounded but still Uving 
 hero, she washed his face with cold water, gave 
 him wine to drink, and bread to eat. In that 
 charitable errand she came upon the terribly 
 wounded young standard-bearer of the Tsar, 
 Pavle Orlovich. When, under the tender minis- 
 trations of this fair sister of mercy, the young 
 warrior revived, he asked her : for whom she was 
 looking on that bloody field ? For a brother, 
 or a nephew, or perhaps for her own father ? 
 The Maid of Kossovo then told him that she was 
 looking for her fianci, Milan of Tophtsa, and for 
 Milosh Obihch, who had promised to be the 
 principal witness at her wedding, and for Ivan 
 Kossanchich, who was to lead her as a bride. 
 The wounded standard-bearer said to her : " My 
 dear sister, maiden of Kossovo ! Do you see, 
 my darling, that place on this bloody field where 
 
180 SERVIA AND THE SERVIANS 
 
 is the highest and largest heap of broken lances ? 
 There on that spot was the most fearful bloodshed, 
 blood running up to the stirrups of the horsemen, 
 up to the waists of the footmen, there on that 
 spot your fiancS and his two pobratims have fallen. 
 But go home, my soul, and do not make yoxir 
 white sleeves and skirts bloody on this bloody 
 field." The poor girl wept bitterly, and went 
 home loudly waihng : " Oh, how unlucky I am, 
 I poor one ! If I were to touch with my hand a 
 green pine tree, it would begin to wither and 
 dry!" 
 
 To these Intermezzo poems also belongs the 
 beautiful legend of the real cause why the battle 
 was lost by Tsar Lazar. " A falcon, the grey 
 bird, started flying from the Holy City of Jeru- 
 salem, carr3dng in his claws a swallow. That 
 was not a falcon, but Ehjah the Saint. He did 
 not carry a swallow, but a letter from the Virgin 
 Mary. He went straight to Kossovo and dropped 
 the letter on the knee of Tsar Lazar. The letter 
 said : ' O Tsar Lazar, thou of noble descent ! 
 Which kingdom would thou Uke to choose ? The 
 Kingdom of Heaven, or that of earth ? If thou 
 shoxildst prefer the kingdom of this world, then 
 let thy warriors saddle their horses, gird their 
 swords on and storm the Turkish camp, and all 
 the Turkish army will be cut in pieces. But if 
 thou shouldst prefer the heavenly Kingdom, 
 then raise up at once a church in Kossovo, not of 
 marble, but of silk and scarlet cloth, and let thy 
 
SERVIAN NATIONAL SONGS 181 
 
 men take the Holy Communion and be prepared 
 to die, for thy entire army shall perish and thou 
 with it ! ' " Lazar considered the matter for a 
 moment, but remembering that the earthly 
 kingdom lasts only for a short time, while the 
 heavenly one lasts for ever, he chose the Kingdom 
 of Heaven. He ordered a tent church to be con- 
 structed, called the Patriarch and twelve great 
 bishops, and let them give the Holy Communion 
 to his army. Hardly had Lazar prepared his 
 army in that way, when the Turks commenced 
 their attack. The battle finished as the letter 
 from the Virgin Mary said it would. 
 
 According to aU appearances the Servians did 
 not expect the battle on that day. They had 
 every reason to postpone the action in order to 
 give time to many of the noblemen to reach 
 Kossovo with their retinue. Nor were prepara- 
 tions for action visible in the Turkish camp. 
 Something must have happened that decided 
 the Turks to proceed to immediate battle. 
 The Servian National bards give us a plausible 
 explanation of such a decision. 
 
 On the eve of the 15th of June, Tsar Lazar 
 gave a banquet to his Voyvodas and noblemen. 
 Everybody noticed that the Tsar looked deeply 
 depressed. He certainly had many reasons to 
 be depressed. Letters had been intercepted 
 (written presumably by the Servian noblemen 
 who as the Sultan's vassals were in his camp) 
 in which the more influential noblemen in Lazar's 
 
 13— (»39r) 
 
182 SERVIA AND THE SERVIANS 
 
 camp were advised to abandon Lazar and pass 
 over to the Sultan's side. Rumours of trejison- 
 able intentions on the part of at least some of 
 the Vojrvodas seem to have been spread in the 
 Servian camp. Dissensions and intrigue were 
 rife among the Servians. The most noble of all 
 the Servian noblemen, and the most influential 
 of aU the pohtical advisers of the Tsar, breathing 
 hatred and revenge against the popular " upstart," 
 Milosh Obilich, who had recently insulted him, 
 thought the moment had arrived to take his 
 revenge. He told the Tsar (according to the 
 national bards) that his favourite son-in-law, 
 Milosh, intended to commit treason against him 
 and against the country by going over to the 
 Turks. One of the compromising proofs was 
 that the intimate friend of Milosh, Voyvoda Ivan 
 Kossanchich, had gone to the Turkish camp, 
 ostensibly to find out the real strength of the 
 Turkish army, and that on his return he was met 
 at some distance by Milosh, who had a long and 
 intimate talk with him. Anyhow Vook succeeded 
 in arousing suspicions in Lazar' s mind against 
 Milosh. At the banquet the sadly depressed 
 Tsar rose up, took a golden cup fiUed with red 
 wine, and spoke : 
 
 " To whom ought I to drink this toast ? 
 If I should drink it to the oldest knight here, 
 I ought to drink the health of the old Yoog-Bogdan ; 
 If to the most lordly of my knights, 
 I should toast then Vook Brankovich ; 
 If to those who are dearest to me, 
 
SERVIAN NATIONAL SONGS 183 
 
 I would toast my nine brothers-in-law. 
 
 Brothers-in-law, the nine Yoogovich. 
 
 If to him who is the handsomest of my knights, 
 
 I should drink it to Kossanchich Ivan ; 
 
 If to him who is the tallest among them, 
 
 Then I should drink it to Tophtsa Milan. 
 
 If I should drink the health of the bravest, 
 
 I ought to drink it to my Vojrvod Milosh ; 
 
 Indeed to none else will I drink it, 
 
 But to the health of Milosh Obihch ! 
 
 Hail, Milosh, loyal and disloyal ! 
 
 First loyal, and now disloyal. 
 
 Thou thinkest to betray me to-morrow 
 
 In Kossovo ; and go over to the Turkish Tsar ! 
 
 To thy health ! diLik the wine, but keep the goblet 
 
 As a present from me ! " 
 
 Milosh rose up, bowed deeply to the Tsar, and 
 said : " I thank thee, O glorious Tsar Lazar. I 
 thank thee for thy toast and for thy present ; 
 but I cannot thank thee for such a speech ! I 
 swear by my faith that I never have been a trziitor ; 
 neither have I been nor shall I ever be ! I was 
 ready to die to-morrow for the Christian faith. 
 But the traitor sits there near thee, drinking cold 
 wine. He is the cursed Vook Brankovich! To- 
 morrow is the day of St. Vid, and we shall see 
 on the field of Kossovo who is faithful, and who 
 is not fedthful !* And I swear here by our great 
 God, I wiU go with my sword to kill the Turkish 
 
 * In the Servian there is a fine play on the word " Vii," 
 meaning the sight (besides being the name of St. Vitus). The 
 lines are : " To-morrow is the fine day of Sight, And we shall 
 see on the field of Kossovo who is faithful and who is not 
 faithful." 
 
184 SERVIA AND THE SERVIANS 
 
 Tsar, Moorad, and with my heel stand on his neck." 
 He added yet a few words describing how he 
 would revenge himself on Vook, if God and good 
 luck should bring him back alive. 
 
 The poem then describes how Milosh left the 
 banquet and, followed by his two pohratims, Ivan 
 Kossanchich and Milan TopUtsa, rode straight to 
 the Turkish camp, and how the Turks rejoiced 
 to see three famous Servian Voyvodas coming 
 evidently to surrender ; how Milosh alone was 
 admitted into the presence of the Turkish Tsar, 
 Moorad, and how he stabbed him. There is a 
 fine description of how these three knights made 
 superhuman efforts to cut a way through the 
 overwhelming Turkish hordes back to the Servian 
 camp, and how at last they succumbed. 
 
 Feehng that he had not many hours to live, 
 Sultan Moorad ordered his army to proceed to 
 the attack at once, that he might witness, 
 while still ahve, the victory of the Turkish 
 arms. Hence the battle on the day of the 
 15th of June, on which the Servians had not 
 expected it. 
 
 Of the battle itself the Servian goosslari sing 
 only parts or rhapsodies. But they always assert 
 that the battle was lost because in the decisive 
 moment Vook Brankovich withdrew from the 
 right wing (or from the reserve) twelve thousand 
 Cuirassiers. Some poems finish by cursing ter- 
 ribly the traitor, Vook Brankovich, and blessing 
 the glorious hero, Milosh Obilich. 
 
SERVIAN NATIONAL SONGS 185 
 
 The cyclus of Kossovo songs is fitly concluded 
 by a poem called " The Death of the Mother of Nine 
 Yoogovich." Remaining at home with nine 
 daughters-in-law, all anxious about the uncer- 
 tainty of what was going to happen on the plain 
 of Kossovo, the old lady prayed to God to give 
 her wings of the swan and the eye of the falcon, 
 that she might fly to Kossovo and see for herself 
 what had happened there. God heard her prayer 
 and gave her the falcon's eyes and the swan's 
 wings, and she flew to Kossovo. There she saw 
 her husband, old Yoog Bogdan, and all her nine 
 sons — dead ! Above the body of every one of 
 them was a lance fixed in the earth, on the lance 
 a falcon and around the lance the horse of the 
 fallen warrior, and a Hon. When the mother of 
 the young men approached their bodies, the nine 
 falcons, the nine horses and the nine lions aU cried 
 together and aloud, from grief for their masters. 
 But the brave old woman did not shed a tear. 
 She took with her the nine falcons and the nine 
 horses and the nine Uons, and went silently home. 
 When her nine daughters-in-law saw her coming, 
 they all went out to meet her, and, meeting her, 
 the nine widows began to wail and to weep bitterly ; 
 and the nine falcons, nine horses and nine lions 
 grieved loudly with them in their own way. Yet 
 the old lady nerved her heart and did not shed a 
 tear. But when two black ravens brought a 
 man's hand and dropped it before her, and 
 when the widow of her youngest son Damnyan 
 
186 SERVIA AND THE SERVIANS 
 
 recognised by the wedding ring that that was 
 the hand of her husband, then the old lady 
 took the hand of her son into her hands, spoke 
 tender words to it, shed tears, and fell dead from 
 great grief. 
 
 Concluding this report of what the Servian 
 national bards sing of the incidents connected 
 with the battle of Kossovo, I will quote what one 
 of the earhest EngUsh writers on Turkish history 
 says of the principal incidents, the assassination of 
 Moorad. Richard Knolles in his book " Generall 
 Historie of the Turkes" (of which the fifth edition 
 was published in London in 1638), reports the 
 version that Moorad was killed while walking 
 through the battlefield, after the battle, by a 
 wounded Servian, and adds : 
 
 " The name of this man (for his courage worthy 
 of eternal memory) was Miles Cobelits. The 
 Turks in their Annals somehow otherwise report 
 of the death of Amurath : as that this Cobelits, 
 one of the despot's servants, in time of the battle 
 coming to Amurath as a fugitive offering him his 
 service ; and, admitted to his presence in humbling 
 himself to have kissed his feet (as the barbarous 
 manner of the Turks is), stabbed him into the 
 belly and so slew him, being himself shortly after 
 therefore in the presence of Bajazeth most cruelly 
 hewn into small pieces. Whereupon ever since 
 that time the manner of the Turks hath been, and 
 yet is, that when any ambassador or stranger is 
 to come to kiss the Sultan's hand, or otherwise 
 
SERVIAN NATIONAL SONGS 187 
 
 to approach his person, he is as it were for honour's 
 sake led by the arms into his presence by two of 
 the great courtiers, but indeed by so intangling 
 him to be sure he shall not offer him the hke 
 violence, that did this CobeUts formerly to 
 Amurath." 
 
CHAPTER VII 
 
 SERVIAN POPULAR MUSIC 
 
 It cannot be surprising that the Servians, who 
 have hundreds of epical poems and thousands of 
 lyrical songs, composed by the peasants, men and 
 women, should love music. It can be justly said 
 that the Servian national temperament is a cheer- 
 ful one. They love song, dance, a good joke and 
 a hearty laugh. Women sing working at home 
 or in the fields. The young shepherds, and in 
 general the young peasants, love to carry in their 
 belts the single flute {svirala) or the double flute 
 {dvoynitsa), and spend much of their time by 
 playing them. Young men are ready to sing on 
 the slightest provocation. In my childhood I have 
 often heard the peasants sing loudly when they 
 entered the town of Belgrade, carrjdng on their 
 rough oxen carts wood (for fuel) or some other 
 products of their own land. Europeanised pohce 
 of Belgrade soon prohibited loud singing through 
 the streets, but in the provincial towns the 
 peasants' song is still heard in the streets, more 
 especially when they are leaving the town satisfied 
 with their sale. At the weddings the singing 
 (mostly by women) and dancing (by both men 
 and women) is going on almost continuously. 
 
 188 
 
SERVIAN POPULAR MUSIC 189 
 
 At the great gatherings around churches and 
 monasteries on the day of the Patron Saint, 
 the brisk dancing commences as soon as the 
 service inside the church is ready and lasts until 
 sunset. 
 
 The principal musical instruments used by the 
 Servians are : goossle, svirala (the single flute), 
 dvoynitsa (the double flute), korablyitse or gayde 
 (bagpipes). Viohn, zoorle (the Turkish clarion- 
 ette), ialambasse and drums are considered as 
 gipsies' instruments. 
 
 Yet in the middle of the nineteenth century 
 almost every peasant's house possessed a goossle. 
 The name is derived from the Servian verb 
 " gooditi," which means to draw a bow over some 
 strings producing some sounds. It is a very 
 primitive instrument, mostly made of maple, 
 the cavity being covered by a tightly-stretched 
 skin, and the strings formed from horse-hair. 
 The short but highly-arched bow has also horse- 
 hair for its strings. The tone produced is very 
 dull and plaintive, but sufficient to give almost a 
 weird support to the words of the rSciter (a pro- 
 fessional bard, an amateur bard, or a peasant). 
 It is considered orthodox that only men above 
 thirty should play goossle, while the svirala, 
 dvoynitsa and the bagpipes are left to the younger 
 men. 
 
 The bagpipes axe in use mostly in the eastern 
 districts of Servia, adjoining Bulgaria. In Central 
 Servia (Shoomadiya) and in the western districts 
 
190 SERVIA AND THE SERVIANS 
 
 the bagpipes are rather rare instruments, and are 
 played mostly by the Servians who come over 
 from Himgary. 
 
 In Bosnia, and in Servia along the Drina river 
 (which divides those two Servian countries), the 
 predominant instrument is the " tambura " or 
 " sharkiya." It is a sort of small and narrow 
 mandohne with metallic strings. It is mostly 
 used to accompany the singing of love songs, of 
 which the Servians of the Mohammedan faith are 
 very fond. It is rmdoubtedly the most musical 
 of the instruments used by the Servians. 
 
 The national Servian music is rich in melodies. 
 There are many melodies of which it is not known 
 by whom they were composed, and which seem to 
 have been transmitted from generation to genera- 
 tion. Newer melodies are invented by the peasant 
 girls. They are mostly of local character and very 
 few are sung in all the countries inhabited by the 
 Servians. Every province, and almost every 
 canton, has its own melodies. Hence a great 
 number of melodies which could be called 
 " national," inasmuch as they have been created 
 by the people themselves and not by a professional 
 musician. 
 
 The same could be said of the dance-music and 
 of the dances. " Machvanka " is a dance, and 
 the music to that dance has been originally 
 invented, danced and played amongst the peasant- 
 folk of the district Machva ; " Nishevlyanka " is 
 a dance and music originally invented and danced 
 
SERVIAN POPULAR MUSIC 191 
 
 and played through generations among the peas- 
 ants of the neighbourhood of Nish ; " Vrany- 
 anka," which during the Balkan States Exhibition 
 in London, in 1907, has been often played and 
 danced at Earl's Court, is a dance, and the music 
 to that dance, invented and danced and played 
 by the peasants of the district Vranya. But 
 the itinerant gipsies' bands of musicians carry 
 nowadays the more captivating local music, 
 melodies and dances from one place to another, so 
 that you will see the peasants of Machva dance the 
 " Nishevlyanka " and " Vranyanka," as well as 
 their own " Machvanka," and vice versa. 
 
 The Servian peasants never sing in chorus. 
 Generally only two young women or two young 
 men, with thrown arms around each other's 
 shoulders, sing a song unisono. Even if at the 
 Moba, or otherwise at the field work, several 
 women should join to sing, they all sing the same 
 melody unisono. This will be probably in a 
 generation or two quite changed, as in almost all 
 the towns exist singing societies on modern 
 European Unes, and the law on conscription 
 brings almost all young men to the barracks, 
 where they leam singing in chorus. 
 
 The Servian national dances are aU what they 
 call " Kolo " (sometimes " Oro," which seems to be 
 the Greek " Hora "). " Kolo " means a " circle," 
 men and women holding each other by hands or 
 by belts — forming a circle. The dancing consists 
 in an entire circle moving a few steps to the 
 
192 SERVIA AND THE SERVIANS 
 
 right, then a few steps to the left, and sometimes 
 a few steps forwards and backwards. In many 
 dances the circle is not closed but open at one 
 point to enable the leader of the Kolo (Kolovogya) 
 to lead it in one direction or other as it pleases him. 
 When a quick-stepped Kolo is danced the young 
 men often burst into " Poskochitse " (" springing 
 recitals "), which are loud recitals of a few hnes 
 expressing their joy at dancing, or their admiration 
 of the dancing girls in the Kolo, or simply giving 
 expression (not always in best form) to their joy- 
 ful excitement. Here are a few samples of 
 " Poskochitse " : 
 
 " Opa, tsoopa ! 
 Danas, sutra, 
 Nikad nishta. 
 Do izdrtih opanaka ! " 
 
 which means : " Up and down ! Dance to-day, 
 dance to-morrow, and from the dance never other 
 result but — the torn sandals ! " 
 
 " Opa, tsoopa ! chizme moye ! 
 I kod kootye imam dvoye 
 Al niyedne nissu moye ! " 
 
 viz., " Up and down, my boots ! At home I have 
 yet two pairs, but none of them are mine ! " 
 
 " Ay, ooy, ne loodooy ! 
 S toogyom lyoobom ne droogooy ! " 
 
 viz., " Hy, hoy, be not foolish ! Don't flirt with 
 a sweetheart not thy own ! " 
 
^ 
 
 <o 
 
 
 -« 
 ^ 
 
 8 
 
SERVIAN POPULAR MUSIC 193 
 
 " Ogrlitse : zveka, zveka ! 
 Moye srtse : yeka, yeka ! " 
 
 viz., " The girls' necklaces sound : zveka, zveka ! 
 My heart longingly echoes, echoes ! " 
 
 As most of the Servian girls wear on the 
 neck several rows of sUver coins, when they 
 dance these coins produce sound pretty correctly 
 reproduced by the words " zveka, zveka ! " 
 The word " zveka " means " the metallic 
 sound." 
 
 These " Poskochitse " are considered as irre- 
 sponsible exclamations of young men in the 
 excitement of the dance, and even if they happen 
 to be indecent, the young man who " exclaims " 
 them is not called to any account by anybody. 
 The women in the dance pretend not to have heard 
 them. Karajich relates that when in old time 
 (before the emancipation of the country from 
 the Turkish rule) the Turks came to look at 
 their Servian tenants* dance, the young men in 
 the Kolo used to abuse their Turkish landlords 
 in undisguised terms in the loudly recited 
 " Poskochitse " without the Turks feeling offended 
 at all. 
 
 There are a few Kolo-dances which are danced 
 while the dancers sing. In earlier times such 
 dances were not accompanied by a musical instru- 
 ment, and have been, consequently, danced exclu- 
 sively to the singing of their dancers. But now the 
 singing dancers are accompanied by one or other 
 
194 SERVIA AND THE SERVIANS 
 
 of the musical instruments. As I mentioned, 
 there are only a few of such dances, and they seem 
 to be the remnants of very old times. Here are 
 two specimens of those antique dances. The first 
 is known by the two first words of the song, 
 " Stoyanke Stoyano," and the second one by the 
 first two words of its song, " Jgralo Kolo." 
 
 Stoyanke Stoyano 
 
 ^g 
 
 ^ 
 
 m 
 
 ZMZ^pZ 
 
 $ 
 
 -fe 
 
 ^ 
 
 m 
 
 K M- 
 
 i i '- 
 
 Jgralo Kolo 
 
 i 
 
 TroMfuUh. 
 
 LJ I I 
 
 i 
 
 1=^ 
 
 -^^ 
 
 m 
 
 There is one dance which is not only accompa- 
 nied by the song of the dancers, but in which the 
 dancers have to use certain mimic. While the first 
 half of the melody is twice sung the dancers move 
 
SERVIAN POPULAR MUSIC 
 
 195 
 
 to the left and to the right, holding themselves by 
 the hand, but as they begin to sing the second half 
 they drop each other's hand, every two dancers 
 face each other, shake their heads at each other, 
 and clap their hands in tact with the song. I am 
 incUned to think that that particular dance is not 
 so much Servian as one of the old Hellenic dances, 
 combining ivUly three arts : music, dance, mimicry. 
 Here is the melody of that particular dance called 
 by the first three words of the song, " Teetta, 
 Teetta, Loboda." 
 
 Tbetta, Teetta, Loboda 
 
 I 
 
 * 
 
 AlUgretto. 
 
 B^^^ 
 
 ^= 
 
 ^^ 
 
 ^^ 
 
 ^3 f 
 
 More modem dances — ^but always dances 
 danced already several generations by the peasants 
 — are more elaborate. We wiU give here three 
 specimens of the most popular national dances 
 and music. The first one is called " Koritarka " 
 (" The Gipsy Girl "), the second one " Gyoorgy- 
 evka " (" Lily of the Valley "), and the third one 
 " Nishevlyanka" ("The Dance of the Nish 
 People "). 
 
196 SERVIA AND THE SERVIANS 
 
 I. KORITARKA 
 
 », -p- f » ^ 
 
 Allegro. 
 
 II. Gyoorgyevka 
 
 Allegro vivace. 
 A 
 
 m 
 
 ♦ it \ h M 
 
 J ' » 
 
 e 
 
 1^- 
 
 « * 
 
 i 
 
 i^J^ w > 
 
 31 
 
 Jlszfe 
 
 =F^ 
 
 § 
 
 *< » 
 
 ■*-^-; 
 
 -m—d- 
 
 i-m- 
 
 
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 A A \ A 
 
 A 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 if ^ftl 
 
 
 
 ^ . ^ 
 
 i 
 
 ^- 
 
 ^ 
 
 -Nr 
 
 ^=^ ~ i '^n'~ * ' J P =y 
 
 ^ 
 
 =e=* 
 
 ■<_--«l£ 
 
 -^f- 
 
 ^ 
 
 r» >r 
 
 ^ ^ ft 
 
 1st time. 
 
 A 
 
 ^ ^-nffV 
 
 2M// time. 
 
 r * * ^ • «r i < * « J 
 
 4^ 
 
SERVIAN POPULAR MUSIC 
 
 197 
 
 m 
 
 III. NiSHEVLYANKA 
 
 Cratiost. _^__ f^ ^^ 
 
 :?: 
 
 ?5=t 
 
 ^=T 
 
 t=i=3 
 
 I I — I 
 
 octzi-m. 
 
 -*-J_«-! 
 
 ■»-^ 
 
 i 
 
 -1 I I 
 
 3= "* * M z 
 
 * * I I 
 
 ^Cit 
 
 FiNB. 
 
 « 
 
 m. 
 
 Poco a poet accel. 
 
 I r-1 =i=c 
 
 ^ 
 
 It 
 
 it^: 
 
 Vivaci, 
 
 ^^^ 
 
 ■A—0- 
 
 J=ir 
 
 :C=V 
 
 ii 
 
 * A« a pace (Kcel. 
 
 mi 
 
 D. C. a! fine. 
 
 I 
 
 The national melodies of the lyrical, and espe- 
 cially love songs, are mostly slow and sad. The 
 wedding songs are of course somewhat Uvelier. I 
 will give here three specimens of such melodies. 
 
 I. The Grass was Waving in the Meadow 
 
 Moderate. ^. 
 
 -^ — 1 — v^*^^- 
 
 i 
 
 fe= 
 
 =t=*: 
 
 ^^1^ 
 
 LJ^ 
 
 :::ii^t± 
 
 -irt- 
 
 ^ 
 
 14— (1397) 
 
198 SERVIA AND THE SERVIANS 
 II. Three Sisters were Talking 
 
 Andante, 
 
 $ 
 
 M J I I 1—4 
 
 fT^ ^ J llz^ ^ 
 
 =q- 
 
 -j^ 
 
 -^^J-H 
 
 -J 3 
 
 mzz — 
 
 -i — "y 
 
 ^^^^^^^^^^ 
 
 _^ *«« mosso, fit. 
 
 h tempt. 
 
 III. Even a Little Bird has some Sleep 
 
 Andante. 
 
 gj^T^TTgr^^ 
 
 It 
 
 ^ 
 
 ^ 
 
 EJE 
 
 ^^^^^ 
 
 
 The Servian Church music (or rather Church 
 singing, as there is no instrumental music in the 
 Servian churches) is very beautiful. It is prac- 
 tically the old Byzantine Church music imported 
 into the Servian Church from the Greek monas- 
 teries of Athos, which were the theological schools 
 for the young Servian priests in the twelfth, 
 thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. But in the 
 

SERVIAN POPULAR MUSIC 199 
 
 course of time Servian priests must have intro- 
 duced several modifications in the old Byzantine 
 Church melodies. Especially has that been done 
 by the educated monks of the Servian " Holy 
 Mountain," the " Frooshka Gora " in Syrmia, a 
 part of Croatia, and through it also a part of the 
 Hungarian kingdom. A very good edition of the 
 Servian Church melodies has been made by the 
 Servian pianist, Komel Stankovich, and could be 
 obtained from every bookseller in Belgrade 
 (Servia) or Novi-Sad (Ui-Videk, Hungary). 
 
CHAPTER VIII 
 
 SELECTION FROM THE SERVIAN PEOPLE'S 
 PROVERBS 
 
 The Servian people's proverbs, as other people's 
 proverbs, are the quintessence of that people's 
 practical wisdom, or the result of their own 
 observation of the laws ruUng the practical life 
 of individual men, society and nation. They are 
 expressed in short and teUing sentences, very 
 often in rhyme. Here are a few examples : 
 
 1. Bez alata nema zanata. 
 Without tools there is no trade. 
 
 2. Bez zhora nema dogovora. 
 Without discussion no resolution. 
 
 3. Oo Radishe svega bishe, 
 Oo shtedishe yoshte vishe. 
 He who works has much, 
 He who saves, stiU more. 
 
 4. Oteto, ■prokleto. 
 
 What is taken by force or unjustly, is cursed. 
 
 Here are some Servian proverbs, taken from the 
 famous collection made in 1836 and in 1849 by 
 Vook St. Karajich* : 
 
 1. If you wish to know what a man is, place him in 
 authority. 
 
 2. If a man cannot be handsome or rich as he would wish, 
 he can be good and honest. 
 
 * " Srpske Narodne Poslovilse, izdao ih Vooh Steph. Karajich," 
 2nd edition, Vienna, 1849. 
 
 200 
 
SERVIAN PEOPLE'S PROVERBS 201 
 
 3. It is better to have an ounce of wisdom than a 
 hundred-weight of physical strength. 
 
 4. It is better to serve a good man than to give orders to 
 a bad man. 
 
 5. Better ever than never. 
 
 6. Better something than nothing. 
 
 7. It is better not to commence than not to finish. 
 
 8. It is better to suffer injustice than to commit it. 
 
 9. Better to die honestly than to Uve dishonestly. 
 
 10. It is better to be poor and honest than rich and 
 dishonest. 
 
 11. It is better to know how to act than to have money. 
 
 12. It is better to have a good reputation than to have a 
 golden belt. (In the Servian : " Bolyi ye dobar glass nego 
 zlatan fidss.") 
 
 13. Where the elders are not heard, there God does not help. 
 
 14. The head is older than the book (with the meaning : 
 the head is more to be respected than the book). 
 
 15. Debt is a bad companion (Doog ye zao droog). 
 
 16. As long as a man does not dishonour himself nobody 
 can dishonour him. 
 
 17. When a man is not good himself, he likes to talk of what 
 is wrong in other people. 
 
 18. When a man undertakes something he ought to 
 persevere. 
 
 19. As the master is, so also are his servants. 
 
 20. Who does good will receive better. 
 
 21. Who does evil will receive worse. 
 
 22. Who judges hastily will repent quickly. 
 
 23. Who up to his twentieth yecir does not learn, and up 
 to his thirtieth does not save some money, will be a burden 
 to the family to which he belongs. 
 
 24. Who wishes to rest when he gets old ought to work 
 while he is young. 
 
202 SERVIA AND THE SERVIANS 
 
 25. Who during the summer Ukes to rest under the shadow 
 of a tree will have to hunger during the winter. (" Ko leti 
 hladooye, zimi gladooye.") 
 
 26. Who does not acknowledge a brother as brother will 
 acknowledge a stranger as master. 
 
 27. Who is quick to beUeve is quickly mistaken. 
 
 28. A stone that is often moved does not cover itself with 
 moss. 
 
 29. Who does not know how to serve cannot know how to 
 command. 
 
 30. Who makes frequent inquiries about the road does not 
 go astray. 
 
 31. Who does not take C£ire for the goods of other people 
 will never have his own. 
 
 32. Who readily hes readily steals. 
 
 33. The bottom of a lie is easily seen. 
 
 34. The lie has short legs. 
 
 35. Woe to the house which has no master. 
 
 36. Woe to the legs under a fooUsh head. 
 
 37. It is not easy to meet the good, but it is easy to 
 recognise it. 
 
 38. In evil days the man shows what he is. 
 
 39. Do good and you will not have to repent it ; do evil, 
 and you will have to expect it. 
 
 40. A middhng good luck is the best. 
 
 41. Boast to a stranger, complain only to a friend. 
 
 42. Every loss teaches men to be wiser. 
 
 43. Work as if you are to Uve a hundred years ; pray to 
 God as if you are to die to-morrow. 
 
 44. An earnest work is never lost. 
 
 45. Who does not take care for " little " can never have 
 ' enough." 
 
 46. If a man is difficult to be known, find out with whom he 
 associates, and you will then know him. 
 
 47. With whom they see you, with him they put you on 
 the same list. 
 
SERVIAN PEOPLE'S PROVERBS 203 
 
 48. He who mixes with the refuse ought not to be astonished 
 if the pigs devour him. 
 
 49. Who does not mend old clothes will not wear new 
 ones. 
 
 50. The patch sustains the household. 
 
 51. Mend the hole while it is small. 
 
 52. The unjustly acquired wealth never reaches the third 
 generation. 
 
 53. Who hopes to get a profit ought to be prepared also for 
 a loss. 
 
 54. Who intends to save ought to begin early. 
 
 55. It is easier to earn than to keep. 
 
 56. Who asks at once for much returns home with the 
 empty sack. 
 
 57. If a man does not begin to save while the sack of wheat 
 is full, he will not save much when the wheat is at the bottom 
 of the sack. 
 
 58. Keep white money in reserve for black days. 
 
 59. Without health there is no wealth. 
 
 60. If the merchant were always only to win he would be 
 called " winner," and not " merchant." 
 
 61. It is better to have profit selling bran than to have loss 
 selling gold. 
 
 62. A kind word opens the iron door. 
 
 63. A castle, offered for a dinar, is dear when you have no 
 dinar.* 
 
 64. A wise man walks slowly, but reaches his goal quickly. 
 
 65. The farmer has black hands but white bread. 
 
 66. Although a cow may be black her milk is white. 
 
 67. As we cannot do as we will, we will do as we can. 
 
 68. If I cannot propose a toast, I can drink the wine. 
 
 69. God shuts sometimes one door, in order to open a 
 hundred other doors. 
 
 • " Dinar," the Servian silver coin, equivalent to tenpence. 
 
204 SERVIA AND THE SERVIANS 
 
 70. God does not settie His accounts with men every 
 Saturday, but the day comes on which He settles them. 
 
 71. The victory is won not by the shining axms, but by the 
 brave hearts. 
 
 72. A sick person eats Uttle, but spends much. 
 
 73. Better let the village perish than the old customs in the 
 village. 
 
 74. It is better to fight with a brave man than to embrace 
 and kiss with a coward. 
 
 75. It is better to weep with the wise than to sing with the 
 fool. 
 
 76. An oimce of good luck is better than hundreds of pounds 
 of brain. 
 
 77. The fools build the houses ; the wise men buy them 
 when they are ready. 
 
 78. Even the singing requires some effort. 
 
 79. Great people and the dogs never shut the door behind 
 themselves when they leave. 
 
 80. Vineyards have no need of prayers, but of mattocks. 
 
 81. A cheerful heart spins the flax. 
 
 82. More men die of eating and drinking than of hunger 
 and thirst. 
 
 83. The devil never sleeps. 
 
 84. The devil never did a good deed, not even to himself. 
 
 85. The devil knows what is right, only he will not do it. 
 
 86. Even the Holy Patriarch, when hungry, will steal a piece 
 of bread. 
 
 87. Two men without souls, the third man without head 1 
 (The meaning is : two false witnesses may bring about the 
 condemnation of an innocent man.) 
 
 88. A good merchandise easily finds a market. 
 
 89. In the forest a tree leans on tree, in the nation a man 
 leans on man. 
 
 90. Where big bells ring, the Uttle bells are not heard. 
 
 91. Where the devil cannot cause a mischief, there he sends 
 an old woman, and she does it. 
 
SERVIAN PEOPLE'S PROVERBS 205 
 
 92. Where there is no fear of God there is no shame of men. 
 
 93. Where there is no wife there is no home. 
 
 94. The face of a wife shows what her husband is, the shirt 
 of the husband shows what his wife is. (Viz. : Healthy, 
 bright and cheerful face of a woman shows that she is happy 
 with her husband, while a clean and fine shirt of the husband 
 shows that he has a good wife who takes care for his personal 
 appearance). 
 
 95. Women will keep only such secrets of which they do not 
 know anything. 
 
 96. Women are there to talk, men to work. 
 
 97. Woman has long hair but short brains. 
 
 98. Woman has nine soiils (other version : " Nine Uves like 
 a cat "). 
 
 99. A man can show his wife, arms and horse to his friends, 
 but he should never entrust them to their hands. 
 
 100. When God wills not, all the saints together cannot help. 
 
CHAPTER IX 
 
 SERVIAN LITERATURE 
 
 I. The Old History. — Servian literature began 
 with the year in which the Servian Church adopted 
 the translation of the Holy Writ into Slavonic 
 language such as was spoken in the ninth century 
 in Panonia (Hungary) and Macedonia. That 
 translation was made about the middle of that 
 century by two brothers, Cyrillus and Methodius, 
 Greek noblemen of Salonica, who early turned to 
 be missionaries among the Slavonic nations, and 
 learned (probably while yet they were children) 
 the Slavonic language perfectly. They are gener- 
 ally called " The Slavonic Apostles." Their 
 translation of the Bible and of other Church 
 books was eagerly received by the Servian and 
 Bulgarian Churches, in which the Church service 
 imtil then had been read in Greek or in Latin 
 (on the Servian sea-coast of the Adriatic). 
 
 It was quite natural that the so-called " Old 
 Slavonic " language, in which the Bible and the 
 Church books were translated, became the first 
 literary language of the Servians. That language 
 was not identical with the vernacular Servian of 
 that time, but it was sufficiently intelligible to the 
 people. Literature was considered as a special 
 privilege of that much privileged class, the 
 ecclesiastics, the monks and the priests, and they 
 
 206 
 
SERVIAN LITERATURE 207 
 
 very naturally continued to write their books 
 (mostly " Lives of the Saints," or some " Chroni- 
 cles ") in the same language in which the first 
 Church books were written. But they could not 
 emancipate themselves entirely from the influence 
 of the vernacular in which the people actually 
 spoke, and from the middle of the twelfth century 
 the Servian authors wrote in a language which 
 was essentially the same as the Old Slavonic, but 
 with modification in the pronunciation of certain 
 vowels. That language is known among the 
 Slavologues as " the Old Slavonic of the Servian 
 redaction." All the books of the Servian litera- 
 ture of the old period (that is to say : from the 
 twelfth to the eighteenth century) were written 
 in that language, excepting the books written by 
 the Servians of the famous Ragusan Republic 
 and of Dalmatia. 
 
 The best and the most celebrated Servian 
 author at the very beginning of that old period 
 was Saint Sava, the youngest son of Stephan 
 Nemanya, the first sovereign of the united Servian 
 provinces. Prince Rastko (St. Sava's baptismal 
 name) was born a.d. 1176. When a young 
 man of hardly seventeen years, having heard 
 that his parents were looking for a bride for him, 
 he joined some monks and with them went 
 secretly to Mount Athos, which at that time was 
 not only a repubhc composed entirely of convents 
 and monks, but also the highest theological 
 school in the Eastern Orthodox world. He there 
 
208 SERVIA AND THE SERVIANS 
 
 became a monk, and a few years later he induced 
 his old father to abdicate the throne, and to come 
 to finish his days as a monk in the " Holy Mount," 
 as the Servians called Mount Athos. There they 
 two raised up a Servian monastery — " Chilendary " 
 (or, as the Servians prefer to call it : " Vilindar " 
 — " the gift of a fairy "), which practically be- 
 came the high theological school for the Servian 
 ecclesiastics and the seat of Servian learning and 
 literature in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. 
 Later, St. Sava was consecrated as the first 
 Archbishop of Servia, and as such estabUshed 
 nine bishoprics in the Servian kingdom, encour- 
 aged schools and education, and to this day is 
 worshipped among the Servians as the Patron 
 Saint of the schools. He wrote several works 
 concerning the Chiirch discipUne and Church 
 rules and regulations, but his most famous work 
 was his " Life of St. Simeon," viz. : the life of 
 his own father, Stephan Nemanya, who on making 
 himself a monk took the name of Simeon. 
 
 As St. Sava was the most remarkable Servian 
 author of the twelfth century, so was Archbishop 
 Danilo (d. 1338) the best writer of the fourteenth. 
 He wrote a really remarkable book, " The Lives 
 of the Servian Kings and Archbishops," which is 
 one of the principal sources for the Servian 
 history of the Middle Ages. In the beginning of 
 the fifteenth century, the Servian Prince Stephan 
 Lazarevich Vissoki (the Tall One) translated 
 several books from the Greek into Servian. An 
 
SERVIAN LITERATURE 209 
 
 original " Essay on Love " (Slovo Lyuhve), written 
 by him, has been preserved. His own life and 
 reign was described (a.d. 1432) by his Court 
 chaplain, Constantin the Philosopher, a Bulgarian 
 by birth, but highly appreciated by the Servian 
 Synod for his learning and literary skill. 
 
 Outside of the biographical and historical works 
 the Servians had hardly any original hterary 
 creations in the first period of their hterary 
 history. But they had many translations of 
 Byzantine literary works or imitations of such 
 works. For instance, they had a very much read 
 book, " The Story of Alexander the Great," also 
 a " Story of the War of Troy," and many half- 
 rehgious and half-romantic legends. A very 
 popular work seems to have been an Indian story, 
 which in the Byzantine, and afterwards in the 
 Servian, reproduction was called : " Steff unite 
 and Ichnitat." But the most popular of the 
 romances of that early time was the story of 
 " Vladimir and Kossara." Vladinwr was the 
 Servian Prince of Zetta (parts of Montenegro and 
 North Albany). Attacked by the Bulgarian Tsar 
 Samuel (a.d. 988) he was defeated, made a prisoner 
 and sent to the Bulgarian capital. There the 
 Tsar's daughter Kossara saw him, fell in 
 love with him, and managed to obtain her 
 father's consent and blessing to their marriage. 
 Vladimir obtained his province back as a sort 
 of dowry with the Tsar's daughter. These 
 historic events have been taken for the subject 
 
210 SERVIA AND THE SERVIANS 
 
 of that Servian romance, one of the oldest novels 
 in Europe. 
 
 Of course, the Servian literature received quite 
 a new impulse by the discovery of the printing- 
 press. Fifty years after Gutenberg's invention 
 the Servians already had their books printed, 
 but always in the Old Slavonic, slightly Servian- 
 ised. The first Servian printed book, " Chass- 
 lovats " (The Hours) was issued by Andreas de 
 Theresanis de Aula, in 1493, in Venice. But 
 towards the end of that year we find a printing- 
 press at Obod (Montenegro), working at " Octoich," 
 which issued from that press in the beginning of 
 1494. A copy of this rare book is to be seen in 
 the British Museum. The first Servian printer, 
 to whom the printing-press at Obod belonged, was 
 a Servian nobleman, by name Bojidar Vookovich, 
 of Podgoritsa. During the first half of the 
 sixteenth century the Servians had several print- 
 ing-presses in different places of their country, 
 viz. : at Belgrade, Skadar-on-Boyana, Gorazda, 
 Mileshevo, Mrkshina Crkva. But already in the 
 second half of that centiuy all the Servian 
 printing-presses had ceased to exist, as the Turkish 
 direct rule fell like a terrible nightmare over all 
 the Servian countries. 
 
 II. Servian Poets of Dalmatia.— From the fif- 
 teenth to the nineteenth century the only Servian 
 country which, although permanently menaced, 
 was free of the Turks, was Dalmatia. The centre 
 of her literary activity was the republic of Ragusa, 
 
SERVIAN LITERATURE 211 
 
 called Doobrovnik in the Servian. The Servian 
 population of the Dalmatian towns — being almost 
 in constant contact with the Italians, often sending 
 their young men to the high schools of Rome, 
 Padua, Florence and Venice, — ^was that portion of 
 the Servian nation which comparatively early was 
 inspired with the notions and ideas of Western 
 European civihsation. More especially from the 
 sixteenth to the eighteenth century the repre- 
 sentative men of the genius of the Servian nation 
 were the literary men of Ragusa, Spalato and 
 Dalmatia in general. 
 
 The first Servian who made efforts to write in 
 the language, which the people spoke, was Marko 
 Marulich, a Servian nobleman of Spalato, bom 
 in that town a.d. 1450. He studied at the 
 famous University of Padua, and was a highly 
 cultured and intensely reUgious man. He died 
 as a monk, in 1524. His best work was a poem 
 caUed " The Story of the Holy Widow Judith." 
 
 Another fine poet of that time was Hannibal 
 Luchich (1480-1525), who wrote beautiful lyric 
 songs and a play entitled " Robinya " (The Slave), 
 which is the oldest drama in Servian Uterature. 
 The plot of the play is very simple : The pretty 
 daughter of the Lord of Belgrade secretly admired 
 the young Lord Derenchan. Suddenly she was 
 carried away by some Tiurks, who sold her as a 
 slave to a Ragusan. Meanwhile the King of 
 Hungary had pubUshed a proclamation offering 
 a very high reward to whoever, should discover 
 
212 SERVIA AND THE SERVIANS 
 
 her and bring her to her father. The young Lord 
 Derenchan decided to go in search of the girl. He 
 disguised himself .as a merchant, and going from 
 place to place he arrived at Ragusa, found the 
 girl there and — ^fell in love with her. He told her 
 that he was able and willing to buy her from her 
 master and make her free, if she would promise 
 to marry his friend, the young Derenchan, when 
 she returned home. The girl thereupon told him 
 that that woxild not be difficult for her, as she was 
 really in love with Lord Derenchan, only she 
 kept her love secret, not daring to confide it to 
 anyone. The apparent merchant then threw off 
 his disguise, appeared what he was, viz. : the redl 
 Lord Derenchan, bought the girl's freedom and 
 immediately married her there in Ragusa. 
 
 Luchich translated some of Ovid's poems and 
 wrote many a love-song. Altogether he was a 
 real poet. 
 
 Another of the remarkable Dalmatian poets 
 was Peter Hectorovich (1487-1572). His best work 
 in the Servian language (he wrote some poems 
 in the Latin and some in the ItaUan) was " Ribanye 
 and Ribarsko prigovaranye " (The fishing and the 
 fishermen's talk). He describes how he went in 
 a small boat to fish with his two fishermen, Pasco 
 and Nicholas. Fishing, they tried to while away 
 the time by singing songs, telling stories and 
 putting riddles to each other. 
 
 Ragusa has quite a number of poets to show in 
 the first half of the sixteenth century. The most 
 
SERVIAN LITERATURE 213 
 
 distinguished among them were : Sigismund 
 Menchetich, who left 575 love-songs, taking Ovid 
 as his model ; George Drzich, also a lyric poet, 
 Mauro Vetranich, who, under the influence of 
 Ovid's Metamorphoses, wrote a great allegory 
 cedled "Peregrin" ; Stephan Goochetich, who wrote 
 a satirical poem called " Dervishiada " ; Choo- 
 branovich, who became very popular with his 
 poem " Yegyoopka " (The Gipsy Woman). 
 
 But far the greatest poet that the Servians of 
 the Dalmatian sea-coast had during the sixteenth 
 and seventeenth centuries was Ivan Gundulich 
 (b. 1550, d. 1638). He translated into the Servian 
 " Gerusaleme Liber ata," and wrote numerous 
 plays, the subjects of which were taken mostly 
 from Greek classic times. But the work which 
 made him famous was his great poem, " Osman." 
 His theme was the struggle between Christianity 
 and Islam — in itself a very grand subject indeed ! 
 He described in twenty cantos the war between 
 Poland under King Vladislav and Turkey under 
 Sultan Osman in 1621, not without giving expres- 
 sion to his own admiration of the bravery of the 
 Turks, but of course with still greater joy over 
 the victory of the Christians. The poem is full 
 of interesting episodes, which, however, detract 
 much from the unity of the principal and central 
 action. Gundulich was the first Servian- poet 
 who emancipated himself from the slavish imita- 
 tion of the Italian models. His language is pure 
 and musical, and his taste always that of a man 
 
 i5-(»397) 
 
214 SERVIA AND THE SERVIANS 
 
 of classic culture. Two cantos of this great 
 poem (cantos xiv and xv) were lost while yet in 
 manuscript. 
 
 A very gifted poet was Gion Palmotich (1606- 
 1657). He was principally a dramatic author. 
 Most of his dramas were written after foreign 
 models, or their subjects were taken from some 
 other poets. For instance : his " Atalanta " was 
 written after Ovidj " Armida " after Tasso's 
 " Gerusaleme Liherata," " Alcina " after Ariosto's 
 "Orlando Furioso." But he wrote a few dramas 
 quite independent of foreign models, as for instance : 
 " Pavlimira," " Captislava," the subjects of which 
 are taken from the old traditions or history of 
 Ragusa. He took great care to write in a pure 
 Servian language, such as in his time was spoken 
 in Bosnia and Hertsegovina. His principal poem, 
 " Christiada " (in 24 cantos) was not an original 
 work, but only the enlargement of a poem written 
 in Latin, in six cantos, by Giorolamo Vid in 
 1535 A.D. 
 
 The last great poet in the Dalmatian section 
 of the Servian nation is Ignatius Gyorgyich (b. in 
 Ragusa 1675, d. 1737). He studied in Rome and 
 as a very young man entered the Order of Jesuits, 
 but did not remain longer than seven years in it. 
 He was a very leeirned man and as such was 
 appointed professor at the University of Padua. 
 He translated the first book of Virgil's " Mneid" 
 into Servian, wrote the tragedy " Judith," a 
 poem " The Sighs of the Repenting Magdalene," 
 
SERVIAN LITERATURE 215 
 
 and several eclogues. But his best work is con- 
 sidered his rendering of David's psalms into the 
 Servian verse {Saltiyer Slovinski). 
 
 Hardly any of the Servian authors and poets of 
 Dalmatia (with Ragusa) have shown independent 
 spirit and originality. They took ideas and forms 
 from classic or even pseudo-classic models. But 
 about the middle of the eighteenth century a Fran- 
 ciscan monk, Andreas Kachich Mioshich (b. 1696, 
 in Brist, Dalmatia ; d. 1760) took a new departure. 
 He was a man of learning, the author of philo- 
 sophical essays (written in Latin), and as such 
 well acquainted with classic literature. But he did 
 not bend his poetical gift under the yoke of classi- 
 cism. Having travelled much, as the Pope's 
 Emissary, through the Servian countries of 
 Dalmatia, Hertsegovina and Bosnia, he had 
 great opportunities of hearing Servian bards sing 
 national songs. He inspired himself with their 
 spirit and their manner of versification. In 1756 
 he published, in Venice, a book entitled " Raz- 
 govor Oogodni Naroda Slovinskoga " (Pleasant Talk 
 of the Slavonian People). That book contained 
 261 songs in the manner of the Servian national 
 songs. One or two of them were simply repro- 
 ductions of national poems ; others were his own 
 creation. He sang the famous deeds " of the 
 heroes of the Slavonian people," comprising under 
 that general appellation Servians, Croats and 
 Bulgarians. He added many a historic note to 
 explain events or to instruct his readers. His 
 
216 SERVIA AND THE SERVIANS 
 
 book became very popular. The only thing the 
 people did not like in it was its title, and they 
 changed it, and called it simply " Pesmaritsa " 
 (The Book of Songs). It was the book which 
 inspired Vook Stefanovich Karajich to undertake 
 to collect the Servian national songs. In more 
 than one sense Kachich was the precursor of 
 Karajich. 
 
 III. The Servian books, which were written 
 and pubUshed in Ragusa and other Dalmatian 
 towns, had mostly Roman Catholic Servians for 
 their authors. But the great majority of the 
 Servians — ^living in Southern Hungary (Banat, 
 Bachka, Syrmia), Kingdom of Servia, Old Servia, 
 Montenegro, Hertsegovina, Bosnia and Mace- 
 donia — ^belonged to the so-called Orthodox Greek 
 Church. That part of the Servian nation had 
 been imder the crushing government of the Turks 
 ever since the middle of the fifteenth century. 
 The principal preoccupation of the people was 
 how to preserve bare life and get food, and of 
 the cultivation of Uterature even the monks in 
 their convents did not think. But towards the 
 end of the seventeenth century Hungary became 
 entirely liberated from the Turks, and the Servians 
 living in the Southern provinces of that kingdom 
 began to show immediately some interest for 
 schools, culture and Uterature. Besides the 
 Servians of Dalmatia and Croatia the Servians 
 of Southern Hungary had just claims to be 
 considered as the most civiUsed portion of the 
 
SERVIAN LITERATURE , 217 
 
 Servian nation during the eighteenth and the 
 first half of the nineteenth centuries. 
 
 The first literary efforts among the Servians 
 belonging to the Eastern Orthodox Church, after 
 the Uberation of Hungary from the Turkish yoke, 
 were written in a language which was not the 
 Servian vernacular, but the old Slavonic Church 
 language, mixed strongly with Russian. The 
 reason why the Old Slavonic mixed with Servian 
 forms was given up, was this : the Russian 
 Church, during the reign of Tsar Peter the Great, 
 began to supply the churches and monasteries 
 of Bulgaria and the Servian countries with 
 Church books written in the Old Slavonic mixed 
 with Russisms. The first schools established in 
 Servia, and in the Hungarian provinces inhabited 
 by the Servians, had to bring teachers and pro- 
 fessors from Russia. The Russian teachers 
 spoke only Russian, and taught their first Servian 
 pupils the Russianised Old Slavonic. Whenever 
 one of their pupils took up the pen to write a 
 book, they thought it right to use the language 
 of the newest Church books, which were in the 
 Old Slavonic of the Russian Redaction. Some 
 of them thought that the dignity of science and 
 Uterature demanded that the books should not 
 be written in the language of the common people, 
 but in the language of the sacred Church books. 
 But the people understood very httle of that 
 language, and certainly could not give any encour- 
 agement to the authors of such books. The 
 
218 SERVIA AND THE SERVIANS 
 
 influence of the living language began to assert 
 itself, and towards the end of the eighteenth 
 century the Servian books were written in a 
 curious language of which the foundation was 
 the Old Slavonic of the Church books, strongly 
 mixed with Servian words and Servian forms. 
 The authors themselves called that language 
 " Slaveno-Serbski " (Slavonic-Servian). But even 
 this " mixture " did not win the sympathy and 
 support of the Servian reading pubUc, not 
 numerous in itself ! 
 
 Most of the books which appeared during the 
 eighteenth century (be it in the Old Slavonic of 
 the Russian type, be it in the Slavonic of the 
 Servian type) had no originaUty — being mostly 
 translations from other hteratures. The first 
 author who had some originality, who really 
 created the Servian reading pubhc, and who won 
 for himself a lasting place in the heart of the 
 Servian people as well as in the history of the 
 Servian literature, was Dossithey Obradovich. He 
 was bom in 1739, in a small village (Chakovo) in 
 the Banat. As a boy of fourteen he entered the 
 Monastery of Hopovo and became a monk, firmly 
 determined to make himself a Saint by fasting 
 and pra5dng. But soon he saw the futihty of 
 such endeavours. His thirst after knowledge 
 forced him to leave the monastery and plunge 
 into the world in search of science. He travelled 
 all over Europe, came to England and Uved in 
 London for several months, supporting himself 
 
SERVIAN LITERATURE 219 
 
 by giving lessons in Greek. He was fortunate 
 enough to win the patronage of a well-known 
 philanthropist of that time, Dr. W. Fordyce, who 
 seems to have appreciated highly his learning and 
 character. In the Appendix we give some extracts 
 from his own notes about his sojourn among the 
 English people. 
 
 Dossithey was the first author among the 
 Servians of the Eastern Church who emphasized 
 the necessity of writing the books in the language 
 of the people, so that the readers could without 
 difficulty understand what they read. He him- 
 self tried with great success to write in that way, 
 although here and there he used words which 
 were borrowed from the Old Slavonic. He made 
 a great hit by publishing a book of ^Esop's Fables 
 (" Basne Ezopove," Vienna, 1788), attaching to each 
 fable a discourse full of wisdom and moral teach- 
 ings for the practical hfe of his readers. Of his 
 other works (published in several editions) the 
 most interesting is his own autobiography. His 
 works, just because of their, even for the simplest 
 of Servians, intelhgible language, and of their 
 lucidity, sincerity and moral courage to expose 
 and condemn fraud and superstition, won an 
 extraordinary popularity. He was considered the 
 most learned Servian of his time, and was generally 
 called " The Servian Philosopher." When the 
 Servians, led by Kara-George, cleared their 
 country of the Turks and began to organise a 
 regular European state, Dossithey was called to 
 
220 SERVIA AND THE SERVIANS 
 
 Belgrade and appointed the first Minister of 
 Public Education in Servia (a.d. 1809). As such 
 he estabUshed the first High School (Velika 
 Shkola) among the Servians. He died in Belgrade, 
 1811. 
 
 But the upholders of the old Slavonic-Servian 
 literary language did not consider themselves so 
 easily vanquished. " The Father of the History " 
 among the Servians, Archimandrite Yovan Raich 
 (d. 1801) wrote his history in that language. 
 (" Istoria raznih slavenskih narodov, naipache je 
 Bolgar Horvatov i Serbov," 4 vols. Vienna, 1794, 
 second edition 1829 in Buda). Even such a 
 highly-cultured man and poet as the Archiman- 
 drite Lookiyan Mooshitsky was, wrote his hex- 
 ameters in Slaveno-Servian, in the first half of 
 the nineteenth century ! 
 
 Dossithey did not succeed in firmly estabUshing 
 the national language as the hterary language, 
 but he prepared the way for the success of Vook 
 Stefanovich Karajich. 
 
 Karajich was bom in a Servian village near the 
 river Drina (in the kingdom of Servia), in 1787. 
 He was a self-taught man, and began his pubUc 
 career as clerk to some Servian Voyvodas of the 
 first insurrection, and left Servia with many other 
 refugees in 1813. In Vienna he published, in 
 1814, his first collection of Servian National 
 Songs. Even he, the father of the new Servian 
 Literature, called that first book " Slaveno-Serbska 
 Pyesnaritsa " (The Slaveno-Servian Book of 
 
SERVIAN LITERATURE 221 
 
 Songs). He had the good fortune to be introduced 
 in Vienna to one of the most learned Slavists of 
 that time, Bartholomew Kopitar, a philologue and 
 archeologue of European reputation, who encour- 
 aged Karajich to give himself entirely to the study 
 of the Servian language and to the collecting of 
 the unwritten creations of the Servian people — 
 National Songs, Stories, Proverbs, etc. His first 
 collection of " Zhenske Pyesme " (The Women's 
 Songs) and " Yoonachke Pyesme " (The Songs on 
 Heroes) made quite a sensation in Europe, and 
 showed to the Servians themselves what a rich 
 and beautiful language they possessed for hterary 
 productions. Karajich wrote the first Servian 
 Grammar ("PiswemVsa Serbskago Yezika," Yienna., 
 1814) and the first Dictionary of the Servian 
 language ("Lexicon Serbico-Germanico-Latinum," 
 Vienna, 1818). In the interest of his work he 
 travelled repeatedly through almost aJl the Servian 
 countries. His thorough knowledge of the 
 Servian language led him to reform the Servian 
 Alphabet, until then in common use, throwing 
 out of it several letters which had no place in the 
 Servian language, and introducing some others 
 which represent certain vowels or soft consonants 
 of the language, but which had no special sign in 
 the old alphabet. Karajich introduced the 
 principle : " Write as you speak, read as it is 
 written." His system proved to be the only 
 scientific one and works smoothly and admirably. 
 Of course such imjjortant reforms could not be 
 
222 SERVIA AND THE SERVIANS 
 
 introduced in one day, nor without strong oppo- 
 sition on the part of those who were accustomed 
 to the old method of writing and to the old literary 
 language. Karajich and his adherents had to 
 sustain the most violent and passionate attacks 
 through no less than forty years ! It was only 
 after 1860 that the Servian Government with- 
 drew the interdict against the new Alphabet and 
 Orthography. But already before 1850 all un- 
 prejudiced authors, and especially the younger 
 men, ranged themselves on the side of Vook S. 
 Karajich, adopted his alphabet and orthography, 
 and wrote their books in pure Servian language. 
 This gave a powerful impulse to the development 
 of modern Servian Uterature. 
 
 IV. Servian Poets of Modern Time. — It is 
 not surprising that the people, whose simple and 
 illiterate bards have composed hundreds of ballads 
 on national heroes and their struggles with the 
 Turks, should have among its cultured and 
 schooled sons many a poet. The Servians of 
 modem times have indeed too many poets ! 
 Strictly and critically speaking, we cannot say 
 that we have yet had a reaUy great poet. But 
 we certainly have had several who came very 
 near to greatness. We will mention here only 
 those of whom the Servians wiU never cease to 
 be proud. 
 
 1 . LooKiYAN MoosHiTSKY, Abbot of the Monas- 
 tery Shishatovats, 1814-1828 ; after that Bishop 
 of Carlovits (d. 1837). He wrote patriotic odes in 
 
SERVIAN LITERATURE 223 
 
 old classic forms, and mostly in Slaveno-Servian 
 language. Only the higher class of cultured men 
 could appreciate the elevation of thought, the 
 purity of sentiment and rhythmical beauty of his 
 hexameters. It is quite natural that with the 
 mass of people his poetry found no favour. 
 
 2. SiMA MiLOOTiNOVicH Sarayliya. Bom in 
 Sarayevo, the capital of Bosnia, in 1791, died in 
 Belgrade, the capital of Servia, the last day of 
 1847. He was the most original of all the Servian 
 poets of the nineteenth century. Being an ardent 
 patriot he put into song the principal events of 
 Servian history, more especially the events of the 
 first Servian revolution against the Turks under 
 Kara-George, and of the second one under Milosh 
 Obrenovich. His principal work is " Serhiyanka," 
 in which the heroic struggle of the Servians 
 has been ardently, patriotically and poetically 
 described. To give the desired expression to his 
 poetic visions, he often had to borrow words from 
 the Old Slavonic, and sometimes from the Russian, 
 but most frequently he created new words which 
 he wanted, but the true meaning of which was 
 hardly known to his readers. It is difficult to 
 understand him without commentaries. 
 
 3. Branko Radichevich (b. 1824, d. 1853). 
 Decidedly the most lyric poet among the Servians 
 in the nineteenth century. His songs are written 
 in a most melodious and correct Servian ; his 
 rhyming is light and perfect. Most of his songs 
 describe the Ught-hearted gaiety of youth. But 
 
224 SERVIA AND THE SERVIANS 
 
 during the few years before his death he wrote 
 several elegies and sad and melancholy songs. 
 His love-songs are very fine and tender. The 
 most popular of his poems is " The Students' 
 Good-bye," in which he described the life of the 
 pupils of the highest school in Carlovitz, the 
 residence of the Patriarch of the Hungarian 
 Servians, and the landscape beauty of the neigh- 
 bourhood. One of the hills which he most 
 beautifully described in that poem bears now, in 
 his honour, the name " Brankov Vis " (Branko's 
 Hill). 
 
 4. Petar Petrovich Nyegosh, the last Prince- 
 Bishop of Montenegro. Bom 1813 in the village 
 Nyegosh in Montenegro, became Prince-Bishop 
 of his country in 1830 as a boy of seventeen ; 
 died in 1851 . He was the pupil of Sima Milootin- 
 ovich SarayUya, and apparently learned from 
 him to express his thoughts and visions in a 
 powerful and effective manner. His best and 
 most remarkable work was : " Gorski Viyenats" 
 (The Mountain's Wreath). It is a drama in verse, 
 but without dramatic action, and rather a series 
 of original and beautiful lyric poems, describing 
 the hfe of the Montenegrins, their ideas about the 
 world, their superstitions, and above all their 
 heroism. It is full of noble sentiments and grand 
 thoughts. I consider it the finest poetical creation 
 in modern Servian Uterature. Not less fine is 
 his " Loocha Microcosma " (The Torch of Micro- 
 cosmos), a poem in six cantos. It is evident that 
 
SERVIAN LITERATURE 225 
 
 Nyegosh wrote it under the influence of his 
 admiration of Dante and Milton. The poet 
 aspires to the solution of the great problem of 
 man's position and existence in the Universe. 
 The human soul is led by an Angel to the throne 
 of God, and then is shown the Universe before 
 the creation of this world and during the rebel- 
 lion of Satan against God, in which rebeUion 
 another fzdlen Angel, Adam, helped him. But 
 Adam repents in time, and instead of being thrown 
 down to heU, he is placed on a new planet, the 
 Earth, which God had created specially for the 
 purpose of serving as a place of punishment for 
 Adam and his descendants. It is altogether a 
 very remarkable poem. Another poem in ten 
 songs, " Slobodiada " (The Poem of Liberty), 
 describes the wars of the Montenegrins against 
 the Turks in the manner of the Servian national 
 bards. His drama, " The False Tsar, Styepan 
 Mali," is interesting only as a description of 
 Montenegrin Ufe and mannei's. 
 
 5. Zmay Yovan Yovanovich. — Bom 1833, died 
 1904. He distinguished himself as a successful 
 translator of foreign poetry into exquisite Servian 
 verse. He translated the great poem, " Toldy," 
 of the famous Hungarian poet, Aranyi ; also 
 Petoeffy's "John the Knight," Bodenstedt's 
 Collection of Oriental Songs, entitled " The 
 Oriental Pearls," " Mirza-Shaffy's Songs," Ler- 
 montov's famous poem, " The Demon," Tenny- 
 son's " Enoch Arden," Goethe's " Iphigenie in 
 
226 SERVIA AND THE SERVIANS 
 
 Tauris," and Carmen Sylva's " Master Manuel." 
 His original songs are mostly lyrical, but many 
 are satirical and humorous. During the last 
 years of his hfe he composed numerous songs 
 for children. The purity and melodiousness of 
 his language, the natural hghtness and beauty of 
 his rhyme, the wealth of ideas and the warmth 
 and depth of sentiment, made Yovanovich one 
 of the most popular modem poets of the 
 Servians. 
 
 6. Gyoora Yakshich (b. 1832, d. 1878), a 
 painter and a poet. His lyrical and epical poems 
 have much fire and passion and are very popular. 
 He has much originahty. His poetry made a 
 great impression on the people's imagination. 
 With Nyegosh and Zmay Yovan he is considered 
 as a great figure on the Servian Parnassus. 
 Besides songs and poems he wrote twenty-nine 
 short stories, and three dramas. These latter 
 have not much value, but the stories are well 
 written and give true pictures of the village life 
 of the Servian people. 
 
 7. Laza Kostich is still living, but he belongs 
 to the group of the gifted poets of the second 
 half of the nineteenth century. He is a highly- 
 cultured man and a fine lyrical poet ; but his 
 printipal distinction is that he wrote the three 
 best dramas that Servian literature has had so 
 far, viz. : " Maxim Tsrnoyevich," " Per a Sege- 
 dinats " and " Gordana." Another great merit 
 of his consists in his successful translation into 
 
SERVIAN LITERATURE 227 
 
 Servian of Shakespeare's " Romeo and Juliet," 
 " King Lear," " Hamlet " and " Richard III." 
 
 8. Nikola Petrovich Nyegosh, Prince of Mon- 
 tenegro. The reigning dynasty of Montenegro, 
 Petrovich Nyegosh, was for several generations 
 giving to the Servians not only able and success- 
 ful rulers of Montenegro, and great and victorious 
 leaders of the Montenegrin armies, but also men 
 otherwise distinguished by their gifts, and more 
 especially by the gift of poetry. I have already 
 mentioned that the last Prince-Bishop of Mon- 
 tenegro, Peter Petrovich Nyegosh, was the 
 greatest poet of the Servian nation in the nine- 
 teenth century. The father of Prince Nikola, 
 Grand Voyvoda Mirko, was himself a bom 
 national bard, and composed twenty-nine poems 
 describing the battles and glorifying the victories 
 of the Montenegrins against the Turks during the 
 decade 1852-1862. It is well known that all the 
 sons and daughters of Prince Nikola are highly 
 gifted in one way or another. I need only mention 
 his daughter Yelena (Queen Helen of Italy), who 
 is no mean painter and poet ; whUe her sister 
 Anna (Princess Frances of Battenberg) and her 
 brother Prince Mirko are known for their musical 
 compositions. 
 
 Prince Nikola commenced his poetical creations 
 as a boy of not quite seventeen (in 1858). His 
 l57ric songs gave expression to his personal religi- 
 ousness, his piety towards the memory of his 
 parents and forefathers, his patriotism^ and later 
 
228 SERVIA AND THE SERVIANS 
 
 on to his love for home-life, his wife and children. 
 His patriotic song, " Onamo I Onamo I " set 
 to fine music, is sung as the patriotic National 
 Hymn by all the Servians. He ventured with 
 much success into the epical poetry : " The 
 Marriage of Beg Lyoobovich," " The SeUm Beg's 
 Castle," " Haydanna," " Irene, or, The Conquest 
 of Constantinople," " The Poet and the Fairy," 
 and others. 
 
 But his most important creation is " Balkanska 
 Tsaritsa " (The Empress of the Balkans), a drama 
 in verse in three acts. It describes the heroism 
 of the Montenegrin women, to whom the work 
 was inscribed by the Royal poet. This drama 
 was played with great success in the Servian 
 theatres in Belgrade, Cettinye, and Novi Sad 
 (the Athens of the Servians of Hungary). It was 
 translated into German, Dutch and Magyar ; 
 parts of it into Italian. 
 
 V. Servian Dramatists and Novelists. — ^The 
 Servians have a comparatively large number of 
 writers of dramas. They have so feir not produced 
 a really great dramatist. But there are several 
 authors whose dramas deserve to be mentioned 
 as being of decided merit. 
 
 The first place among them belongs to Mateeya 
 Ban (b. 1818, d. 1903), poet and publicist. Of 
 his fifteen dramas and tragedies far the best are : 
 " Meyreema," " The Fall of the Great Novgorod," 
 " Tsar Lazar." For more than fifty years 
 " Meyreema " has kept her place in the repertory 
 
SERVIAN LITERATURE 229 
 
 of the Servian theatres. — A proUfic writer of 
 dramas, tragedies and comedies was Yovan Popo- 
 vich Steriya (1806-1856). His best comedy, 
 " Tvrditsa " (Avarice), is played even now at the 
 beginning of the twentieth century. His best 
 tragedy is considered to be " King Stefan Dechan- 
 ski." — George Maletich (1816-1888) wrote several 
 good dramas, which were popular between 1850 
 and 1880, more especially so : " The Apotheosis 
 to the great Kara-George," " The Forerunners of 
 Servian Liberty," " The Death of the Bulgarian 
 Tsar Michael." — I mentioned a little earlier the 
 dramas of Laza Kostich and Prince Nikola. 
 
 Among the men of the younger generation 
 (from 1880 to the present day) excellent dramas 
 have been written by : Dragootin Rich (" King 
 Vookashin " — " Yakvinta," " For Freedom and 
 Faith"). Milosh Cvetich (" Nemanya," "Tsar 
 Dooshan," " Todor of Stalach "). Most popular 
 comedies have been written by Milosh Glishich 
 and Branislav Nooshich. — I ought to say that 
 comedies written by Kosta Trifkovich (1843-1875) 
 were very popular in the second half of the 
 nineteenth century. 
 
 It is somewhat remarkable that the Servians, 
 so rich in lyric poets and dramatists, have hardly 
 any noveUsts ! Early in the first half of the 
 nineteenth century they had only the romantic 
 and sentimental novels of Milovan Vidakovich 
 (1780-1841). His novels— more especially "The 
 Lonely Youth," " Lyoobomir in Elysium," " Siloan 
 
 i6— U397) 
 
230 SERVIA AND THE SERVIANS 
 
 and Milena, or, A Servian Girl in England," 
 were very popular with the people of the time 
 when they appeared. Since Vidakovich the 
 Servians have had only one novelist of somewhat 
 greater merit — Yakov Ignyatovich (1824-1889). 
 He wrote a historical novel, " Gyooragy Branko- 
 vich," one from the social life of the Servians, 
 " Milan Naranjich," and one somewhat romantic 
 — " Mansor and Jemilla." 
 
 As a compensation they can show quite a goodly 
 number of very gifted writers of short stories. The 
 very first of them is Laza K. Lazarevich (1851-1890) 
 with, unfortunately, only eight short stories, but 
 which, with their fehcitous choice of subjects, 
 deep psychological study and elegant prose, are 
 deservedly considered as models of what a short 
 story ought to be. — The most original of the 
 writers of short stories was undoubtedly the 
 Dalmatian Servian, Styepan Mitrov Lyoobisha 
 (1824-1878). His "Stories from the Sea-coast 
 and Montenegro," as well as " The Stories of Vook 
 Doychinovich," written in a vigorous and 
 picturesque style, abounding in local and provin- 
 cial colour and forms, quickly made him highly 
 popular. — Milan Gy. Milichevich, Iliya Vookiche- 
 vich, and Yanko Vesselinovich, gave us deUghtful 
 sketches of the life in Servian villages and 
 provincial towns. A writer who, for humour and 
 good-natured satire, seemed on the way to become 
 the Servian Dickens, Stevan Sremats, died un- 
 fortunately too early (1906). Some of his stories, 
 

 cq 
 
 .^ 
 
 tS 
 
SERVIAN LITERATURE 231 
 
 " Ivkova Slava," for instance, have been success- 
 fully dramatised. — One of the ablest writers of 
 stories at the present day in Servia is Sima 
 Matavooly, who, born in Dalmatia, takes his 
 subjects mostly from that country and the 
 neighbouring Montenegro. 
 
 VI. In strictly scientific works we had once (in 
 the eighteenth century) the Dalmatian Servian, 
 Rugiero Boskkovich, the world-wide famed 
 philosopher, mathematician, astronomer and 
 physicist. In the nineteenth century we had a 
 great botanist. Dr. Josif Panchich (1814-1888), 
 and we have still one of the greatest electrical 
 physicists of our times — Nikola Tesla, who, always 
 a good Servian patriot, is now a citizen of the 
 United States. — At present two young professors 
 of the Belgrade University have drawn on them- 
 selves the attention of the scientific men of 
 Europe. One is Dr. Cviyich, whose geographical 
 researches in the Balkan Peninsula have been 
 highly appreciated by the Geographical Societies 
 of Vienna, Berlin, Paris and London. The other 
 is the Professor of Metaphysics at that University, 
 Dr. Branislav Petroniyevich, whose original con- 
 ception of great philosophical problems has made 
 him already well known in Europe and the 
 United States. 
 
 In the science of language we have, besides 
 the famous Vook Stefanovich Karajich, his pupil 
 and friend, Gyooro Danichich, with his numerous 
 philological works and the great Dictionary of the 
 
232 SERVIA AND THE SERVIANS 
 
 Croatian or Servian language. A worthy pupil 
 of Gyooro Danichich is Stoyan Novakovich, with 
 his many grammatical and philological studies. 
 Novakovich, now the President of the Royal 
 Servian Academy, is at the same time the foremost 
 Servian historian of our time. His edition of 
 " The Zakonik Tsar a Dooshana " (The Codex of 
 laws of Tsar Dooshan) is in every respect a model 
 edition. 
 
 In historical research, besides Stoyan Novako- 
 vich, Professor Lyooba Kovachevich, Lyooba Yovan- 
 ovich, Yovan Tomich have distinguished them- 
 selves. But the greatest services to historical 
 science and to the critical study of Servian History 
 have been rendered by Archimandrite Illaryon 
 Roovarats (1842-1906). I myself have written a 
 study of Servia in the fifteenth century (Gyooragy 
 Brankovich), which was well received. My 
 monograph on the Conquest of Constantinople 
 by the Turks has been translated into EngUsh, 
 Russian and Spanish. 
 
CHAPTER X 
 
 ECONOMICAL FEATURES OF THE COUNTRY 
 
 Servia is one of the richest countries in Europe 
 with respect to the so-called " natural resources " : 
 the productiveness of the soil, a good climate, 
 abundance of water, and water-courses, mineral 
 wealth. Three-quarters of the entire area of 
 Servia is productive land, and only one-quarter is 
 at present considered unproductive. Excepting 
 the south-western comer, where some branches 
 of the Dinaric Alps reach her, and excepting 
 the north-eastern comer, where some Carpathian 
 branches from across the Danube enter her terri- 
 tory, Servia is a moderately undulated country, 
 with a very fertile valley, watered by the river 
 Morava, stretching almost through the midst of 
 the country from south to north. Morava is to 
 Servia what the Nile is to Egypt. Maize, which 
 constitutes the principal foodstuff of the country, 
 is cultivated everywhere ; wheat, more especially 
 in the Morava valley, in the districts along the 
 rivers Sava and Danube. In Central Servia (so- 
 called " Shoomadiya ") and in the north-western 
 districts (Koloobara, Podriny6, Possavlye) the 
 villages are hidden in the plum-tree orchards, and 
 that part of the country earns a considerable 
 amount of money by exporting dried pmnes and 
 plum- jam. An excellent mild whiskey is produced 
 
 233 
 
234 SERVIA AND THE SERVIANS 
 
 by the peasants in a very primitive fashion from 
 plums — so called " Shlyivovitsa " — which together 
 with the red wine (very similar to hght claret) 
 constitutes the principal beverage of the people. 
 The eastern districts (Krajdna, Zaechar), southern 
 districts (Tophtsa, Zhoopa) and Semendria district 
 on the Danube, are rich in excellent grapes and 
 wine. The districts of Nish, Alexinats, Krooshe- 
 vats, and canton Bajdna Bashta, produce very 
 good tobacco, while the neighbourhood of 
 Leskovats and Vranya are famous throughout 
 the Balkans for their flax and hemp. 
 
 At the beginning of the nineteenth century 
 Servia was practically an immense old forest, 
 consisting principally of oak and beech, in certain 
 parts of walnut and hme-trees, while the mountains 
 of Ujitsa district are covered by pine trees. The 
 pohtical emancipation of the country led to the 
 devastation of a considerable portion of the Servian 
 forests, as they were considered the common 
 property of all the peasants. But still many 
 forests exist to this day (over 3,600,000 acres), 
 and of late some efforts have been made by the 
 Government to organise a national exploitation at 
 least of those forests which have been declared 
 the State's property. 
 
 The extensive forests, and not less extensive 
 grazing fields on the mountains, and large free 
 commons around every village, encouraged the 
 cattle-rearing. Almost every Servian peasant 
 has some cattle, pigs, sheep or goats. During 
 
ECONOMICAL FEATURES 235 
 
 the Middle Ages, Venice, Dalmatia, and Italy in 
 general, were the principal markets for the Ser\dan 
 oxen, sheep, and pigs. Since the beginning of the 
 nineteenth century, Hungary, Austria and Ger- 
 many are the principal buyers of Servian cattle 
 and pigs. This year, in consequence of Austria 
 closing her market to the importation of Servian 
 cattle and pigs, efforts were made to export 
 Servian cattle to Alexandria, Malta, and Genoa. 
 So far these efforts were not crowned with success. 
 
 Servia is very rich in minerals. During the 
 first centuries of the Christian Era, while the 
 present Kingdom of Servia was a province (called 
 then " Moesia Superior ") of the Roman Empire, 
 the Romans were very active in opening the mines 
 of gold, silver and copper. During the Middle 
 Ages, under the Servian kings, Servia was one of 
 the principal silver and gold-producing countries 
 in Europe. The silver-bearing lead ore is almost 
 everywhere to be found in the country. Gold is 
 washed from the rivers Pek and Timok ; very rich 
 copper mines are worked in Maydaupek, Bor, 
 and Rebel] ; antimony in Podrinye ; zinc in 
 Kucha)ma. Iron ore (mostly magnetite) is found 
 in Roodnik, Massooritsa, Yarandol. Younger for- 
 mation of coal is to be found almost everywhere 
 in the valley of Morava (Senye, Yelashnitsa) and 
 along the Danube (Dobra), while a Belgian 
 company successfully works a very rich mine of 
 anthracite in the Timok Valley. 
 
 Servia is principally a cattle-producing and 
 
236 SERVIA AND THE SERVIANS 
 
 cattle-exporting country, slowly combining with it 
 the export of agricultural products (wheat, maize, 
 dried prunes). It has hardly any manufacturing 
 industry. The rugs and carpets made in the town 
 of Pirot are, however, weU known for their dura- 
 biUty, bright and constant vegetable colours and 
 antique designs. Leskovats is the centre of the 
 rope industry. 
 
 A peculiar feature of Servia's economic organ- 
 isation is the fact that almost every peasant, or 
 rather every villager's family, possesses some land 
 as freehold property. As about 82 per cent, of the 
 entire population (2,700,000 inhabitants) are peas- 
 ants, it could be well said that Servia is a 
 "Peasants' State." Of 308,000 famihes, living 
 on agriculture, fully 273,000 have their own lands, 
 houses and cattle. The average size of the pea- 
 sants' properties is not large. Out of the total 
 number of 273,168 of peasants' properties, 170,375 
 have not more than twelve acres, and of these 
 fully 71,633 have less than five acres ; 121,604 
 families have properties ranging between twelve 
 and fifty acres, 11,359 have properties from fifty 
 to 250 acres, and only eighty-three peasants' 
 families have more than 250 acres. The Servian 
 agricultural population is practically composed of 
 small land proprietors. Of course, the smallness 
 of the peasants' properties is a great drawback in 
 the development of agricultural progress. The 
 agricultural machines could hardly be applied. 
 A still greater difficulty for the Servian peasant 
 
ECONOMICAL FEATURES 237 
 
 is that his small landed property does not he 
 together, but is generally composed of parcels 
 which are very often wide apart, in many cases 
 at great distance from each other. Anyhow, the 
 characteristic f eatvire of the Servian peasantry (and 
 the peasants form, as I mentioned, the bulk of the 
 nation) is that, although the peasants are not rich, 
 they are not poor either. 
 
 Three pecuhar institutions helped materially to 
 prevent the poverty among the Servian peasantry. 
 The first is a law (brought in 1873 by a Govern- 
 ment of which I was a Cabinet member) in virtue 
 of which a minimum of a peasant's property 
 could not be sold for debt (five acres of land, pair 
 of oxen, plough and other agricultural tools). 
 The other is an old law, by which every peasant 
 having some land was bound to contribute after 
 every harvest a certain quantity of maize or 
 wheat to the Municipal Provident Magazine 
 (Opshtinski Kosh), which municipEd magazine lent 
 the peasants in time of need com, for consumption 
 or for sowing, at a very moderate interest. The 
 third institution is the old custom of " Moba," and 
 according to which the whole population of the 
 village goes to help a poor peasant to cut the com 
 and grass, and bring in his harvest in good time. 
 
 Zadrooga. — In earlier ages, and even so late 
 as towards the middle of the nineteenth century, 
 the Servian village organisation and the Servian 
 agiicidture had yet another distinguishing feature. 
 The dangers from wild beasts in old time, the want 
 
238 SERVIA AND THE SERVIANS 
 
 of security for life and property during the Turkish 
 rule, or rather misrule, the natural difficulties of 
 the agriculture, more especially the lack in agri- 
 cultural labourers, induced the Servian peasants 
 not to leave the parental house but to remain 
 together on the family's property. In the same 
 yard, within the same fence, one could see around 
 the ancestral house a number of wooden huts, 
 which contained one or two rooms, and were used 
 as sleeping places for the sons, nephews and 
 grandsons and their wives. Men and women of 
 three generations could be often seen Uving in 
 that way together, and working together the land 
 which was considered as common property of the 
 whole family. This expanded family, remaining 
 with aU its branches together, and, so to say, 
 under the same roof, working together, dividing 
 the fruits of their joint labours together, this 
 family and an agricultural association in one, was 
 called " Zadrooga " (The Association). This com- 
 bination of family and agricultural association has 
 morally, economicedly, socially and politically 
 rendered very important services to the Servians. 
 The headman or chief (ceiUed " Stareshina " ) of 
 such family association is generally the oldest male 
 member of the family. He is the administrator 
 of the common property and director of work. 
 He is the executive chairman of the association. 
 Generally he does not give any order without 
 having consulted all the grown-up male members 
 of the Zadrooga. He is the legal representative 
 
ECONOMICAL FEATURES 239 
 
 of the Zadrooga towards the outside world, and 
 more especially towards the municipal and State 
 authorities. As symbol of his own position in the 
 Zadrooga he carries a stick and a cashbag, hanging 
 on a lace around his neck, and resting either in his 
 belt or in his breast pocket. If the " Stareshina " 
 of the Zadrooga gets too old or feels iU or tired, 
 he gives up his duties to some other male member, 
 not always to the oldest member of the Zadrooga, 
 but to the ablest, having previously and privately 
 consulted all other members as to the choice. 
 The announcement that the authority has passed 
 from him to someone else, is the delivery of the 
 stick and the cashbag to the new "Stareshina." 
 Sometimes it has happened that a woman has been 
 selected to be the " Stareshina " of the Zadrooga. 
 When a young male member of the Zadrooga 
 comes of age and marries, the Zadrooga builds for 
 him, within the household fences, a wooden hut 
 called a " vayat," where he and his wife will have 
 to live, and where they keep what belongs to them 
 personally (boxes with linen, clothes, dresses, 
 crockery, arms). As every married member has 
 his own " vayat," it happens not rarely that ten 
 or more " vayats " are to be seen within the same 
 fence and around the central house, in which the 
 Stareshina of the Zadrooga with his wife dwells. 
 In the large kitchen of that central house, around 
 the fire on the low hearth, all the male members 
 of the Zadrooga meet every evening to discuss 
 with the "Stareshina" the questions relating to 
 
240 SERVIA AND THE SERVIANS 
 
 the commonwealth and to receive his orders for 
 to-morrow's work. The wife of the " Stareshina " 
 distributes the work among the women. 
 
 The general insecurity of Ufe and property 
 imder the Turkish rule kept the Servian Zadrooga 
 flourishing. This sounds like a paradox, but it is 
 perfectly true. A Zadrooga could with better 
 prospect of success defend itself against the Turk- 
 ish lawlessness, or eventually buy by a large 
 " baksheesh " the immunity from Turkish oppres- 
 sion. But since Servia became a well-regulated 
 European State, since her civil laws became the 
 copies of German or French laws, giving every 
 protection to individual liberty and property, 
 encouraging thereby individual initiative and 
 work, the Zadroogas are rapidly disappearing. 
 It is a general impression in Servia that the women 
 bring about the dissolution of the Zadroogas, 
 because they soon get impatient of working under 
 orders of the Stareshina's wife, and of dividing 
 the results of their own and their husband's 
 work on equal terms with other members of the 
 Zadrooga who probably are neither so inteUigent 
 nor so hardworking as they. If only one member 
 of the Zadrooga insists on its dissolution other 
 members have hardly any other alternative but to 
 consent to let him have his proportionate part of 
 the landed property and leave the Zadrooga. 
 But generally the insistence of one member to get 
 his share of the property leads to the dissolution 
 of the Zadrooga. The landed property is then 
 
[To face page 241 
 
 A Peasant Woman from Shoomadiya (Central Servia) 
 
ECONOMICAL FEATURES 241 
 
 divided in equal shares among all the male mem- 
 bers. The " Stareshina," although he may happen 
 to be the grandfather or father of most members 
 of the Zadrooga, does not receive an inch more 
 land than the youngest member of the Zadrooga. 
 The women have no right to any share in the 
 landed property. The modem civil law, inspired 
 by Western ideas, enacts that the girls on their 
 marriage should get a dowry, in money or in 
 movable goods, from the Zadrooga. But this 
 enactment is quite contrary to the traditional 
 notions of the Servian peasant, who considers 
 that the family, into which one of the girls of the 
 Zadrooga enters as bride, ought to pay to the 
 Zadrooga a compensation in money for the loss 
 of a working hand of the Zadrooga. 
 
 The fact is that in the second half of the nine- 
 teenth century the Zadrooga began rapidly to 
 disappear and the Servian villages appear more 
 and more composed of single families. Most of 
 these have not enough means for successful agri- 
 cultural work : they have not enough working 
 hands, not money enough to hire labourers, and 
 not enough cattle for the ploughing and carrying 
 of burdens. From these single famiUes the village 
 poor class is recruited. They could hardly exist, 
 much less prosper, were it not for another institu- 
 tion of the Servian village life. The whole village 
 goes to help the single-handed land-proprietor to 
 finish his agricultural work in proper time. This 
 is called " Moba." Especially at the time of 
 
242 SERVIA AND THE SERVIANS 
 
 harvest the " Moba " comes to help those house- 
 holds which do not otherwise dispose with many 
 hands. It is a sort of socialism combined with 
 much pleasure. The " Moba " is working and 
 singing and laughing all the day. When the day's 
 work is done the " Moba " goes from the field to the 
 house of the peasant whose work they were doing 
 that day. That peasant, his wife and children, 
 await the kind helpers with water and clean towels 
 and let them wash their hands. After the washing 
 he brings out a lit wax candle, places it on a tree 
 or on a wall, carries through the crowd of his male 
 and female assistants of that day burning incense, 
 and then invites them to pray, which they do 
 turned with their faces towards the burning 
 wax candle. After the prayer they aU sit down 
 to a more or less rich supper, which is concluded 
 with merry singing and dancing. 
 
 Although the old-fashioned Zadroogas are 
 decidedly and hopelessly disappearing, the new- 
 fashioned " Zadroogas " are fortunately coming 
 forward to the help of the peasants. Within the 
 last ten years the agriculturists of one village, or 
 of several neighbouring villages, combine together 
 for mutual assistance in the agricultural work, for 
 acquiring, on joint credit, better agricultural 
 implements and machines, for securing the best 
 sale of their products, etc. There are already now 
 165 such modern agricultural Zadroogas in Servia, 
 and their number increases every year. 
 
APPENDIX 
 
 The London Impressions of a Famous 
 Servian. A.D. 1785 
 
 DossiTHEY Obradovich was probably the first cultured 
 Servian who ever visited London, and undoubtedly he is the 
 first Servian author who published something about the 
 impressions he received on the English soil. His letter about 
 his sojourn in London throws an interesting light on the life 
 of the higher middle-class people in the great Metropolis to- 
 wards the end of the eighteenth century. He had had the 
 good fortune to come into contact with very kind and cultured 
 people, whose sympathies and esteem he won, and for whom 
 he had very sincere admiration. His letter gives an un- 
 expected tribute to a well-known and remarkable character 
 in the literary and social circles of London in the eighties of 
 the eighteenth century. Dr. WiUiam Fordyce. I do not know 
 if some direct descendant or descendants of William Fordyce 
 still exist in England or in Scotland, but as Obradovich has 
 immortal merit for the creation of the modern Servian Utera- 
 ture, every cultured Servian would be happy to express to 
 them how we all feel indebted to their ancestor for the 
 patronage he gave to oiu^ poor and struggling Dossithey. It is 
 possible that there are direct descendants somewhere of that 
 learned merchant, John Livie, and his charming wife, of whom 
 the ex-monk, Dossithey, gives such an admirable sketch. 
 I should feel deeply grateful to every reader of this book who 
 could give me rehable information about the eventual exist- 
 ence of descendants of the persons who were so kind to the first 
 Servian author who ever visited London, 
 
 243 
 
244 APPENDIX 
 
 I will add that Dossithey arrived in Dover on the 1st of 
 December, 1784, travelled by coach from Dover through 
 Canterbury to London, and left the great City on the 8th of 
 June, 1785, for Hamburg. 
 
 And now I give here Dossithey's letter, which seems to have 
 been commenced on the very day of his arrival at Dover, and 
 from time to time continued and finished in Hamburg about 
 the middle of June, 1785. 
 
 " My very dear Colleague, — Here I am, in the town of 
 Dover, thank God, in England of which I heard so much 
 and which to see I wished so much. While passing through 
 and travelling in France, that country and its people seemed 
 to me quite famiUar, probably because I knew their language 
 and could speak and talk with everybody. But, here, in 
 England not one single word did I understand ! Old and 
 young, women and children, aU spoke English, and I could not 
 know what they thought or wished. I looked on the women 
 and girls ; they are such beautiful creatures that nothing 
 in the world could you see or desire more beautiful ! If I had 
 a thousand eyes, and if I were to look at them for a thousand 
 years, I would never be tired of looking at them ! The longer 
 I look the handsomer they appear to me ! Do you wish to 
 keep up the peace of your mind ? Go straight on your way, 
 pass them quickly, and do not even glance at them, because 
 if you only raise your eyes towards them and look at them, 
 you will not be able to proceed any longer on your way, and 
 you will remain there for ever I It is quite true, there are 
 handsome women to be met in other countries too, but they 
 eire mostly and evidently conscious of their beauty and are 
 proud of it ; and men, the moment they perceive their pride 
 and their self-conceit, slacken in their admiration, do not care 
 for them, and let them go on their way ! But what is the 
 most remarkable here is this : that the EngUsh women and 
 girls seem not to care a fig about their own beauty, or that 
 they are not conscious of it ! They look at you with such 
 natural, simple and sincere eyes, and at the same time with 
 an open, friendly and sympathetic face, as if they were old 
 friends with you ! Now, imagine if you can, what I must have 
 
APPENDIX 245 
 
 felt when I found myself amongst these charming God's 
 creations, and miable to say a word to them 1 ' Good and 
 gracious God ! ' I thought to myself, ' how heavily men must 
 have sinned against Thee that Thou hast condemned them to 
 have so many different languages ! That was brought to them 
 by that Tower of Babel, and by their ambition to ascend 
 the heavens before the time was ripe, just as if they had not 
 enough space on earth ! ' After I had scolded for some time 
 our ancestors, I turned against myself : ' So many people 
 have Uved and Uve to this day without the knowledge of the 
 Enghsh language and EngUsh books, why could you not have 
 hved without wishing to find out what these people here think, 
 how they live and what is to be found in their books ? You 
 wanted to see England ? Very well, here you are in England, 
 and do speak now with the people ! ' 
 
 ' ' The human soul has this good point in itself that whenever 
 it is saddened, it quickly looks for some means to console itself. 
 For this reason, probably, I suddenly remembered certain 
 Latin verses which are fine, but of which I do not remember 
 where I have read them, nor who is their author. But on 
 that occasion they gave me much consolation. These are the 
 lines : 
 
 Non quisquam fruitur veris odoiibus, 
 Hyblaeos latebiis nee spoliat favos. 
 
 Si fronti caveat, si timeat nibos ; 
 
 Annat spina rosas, mella tegunt apes. 
 
 " (He who takes care for his forehead and is afraid of the 
 thorny blackberry, caimot enjoy the spring's perfumes, nor 
 bring out the honey from the caves of Hyblae ; roses have 
 thorns for their arms, the honey is defended by the bees.) 
 
 " ' Oh, wicked want of courage ! ' I thought. ' If I do not 
 know EngUsh I am just come to the right place where I can 
 learn it ! Costly things are not bought for a small price ! ' 
 
 " A young Irishman, by profession a Roman CathoUc 
 priest, w£is returning to Ireland from France, where he had 
 been studying, and as he had to pass through London, I went 
 with him. Towards the evening we reached Canterbury, 
 one of the most ancient of towns in England, lying in a most 
 beautiful position on a height. There we had to remain for 
 
 «7— («379) 
 
246 APPENDIX 
 
 the night. As we had about two hours free time, we used it 
 to visit the magnificent old Church. From the walls of the 
 old Castle I admired much the beautiful neighbourhood. FuU 
 of internal joy and of admiration for the wonderful works of 
 the Creator, we returned to our lodgings when it was already 
 dark. 
 
 " I am unable to describe to you what I felt when the next 
 day from some heights I saw for the first time the really terrible 
 grandeur and almost endless extent of the most famous and 
 beautiful town of London. The Irish priest and I had places 
 inside the coach, but starting from Canterbury I gave my 
 place to someone else, and I mounted on the top of the coach, 
 from which place I could better see the country. I was 
 wondering at my good fortune ! Evidently my mother 
 brought me to this world in a propitious moment. Where was 
 I now ? Who am I ? It seemed to me that I was bom 
 afresh to a new world. Am I indeed the same man, who, not 
 so many days ago, walked with my neighbour, Nika Pootnik 
 of Banat, travelled on foot along the river Beghey to Syrmia, 
 and from Syrmia walked in ' red brigand's sandals ' with 
 Athanasius to Croatia ? And now on the roof of a large 
 coach, sitting like a Roman Dictator, and having overcome 
 the cruel Tormentor, Poverty, I am victoriously and tri- 
 umphantly entering into a more beautiful and more famous 
 town than Rome ever was ! I felt so happy, as if all London 
 was my own private property ! 
 
 " In London my Irish friend introduced me to a teacher of 
 children, who spoke a httle French. I arranged with him to 
 give me instruction in Enghsh, bedroom, and board for three 
 guineas per month. Of course, I wanted some money for 
 books also. But taking into account all expenses I thought 
 I would have money enough to last me for three months. 
 
 " Some people told me that the pronunciation of the Enghsh 
 is very difficult, but to understand it is quite easy for cinyone 
 who knew German and French, and more especially if in 
 addition he knew something of Latin. ' What God gives ! ' 
 I thought ; ' if I learn to understand Enghsh I will surely 
 learn how to pronounce it, even if that pronunciation were 
 a Hydra with her seventy heads ! ' 
 
APPENDIX 247 
 
 " But when my teacher proceeded with his first teaching, 
 the hair on my head rose up and my skin began to shiver. 
 But what was to be done ! Having once entered into the 
 fray, the only possible course for me was ' forward ' ! Per- 
 severance and hard work have often succeeded to accomplish 
 hard tasks. This knot could not be cut by a sword, as was 
 the case with the Gordian knot ; if Alexander were to come 
 here himself, he would find that his sword could not help him, 
 and that only a patient unknotting the knot was the only 
 method possible. And if I had only one teacher giving me 
 instruction for one hour daily, I could not have made any 
 progress ; but it was my great good fortune that in the house 
 I had at any time of the day someone whom I could ask how 
 this word ought to be pronounced and how that one, and often 
 for the one and the same word asking enlightenment from 
 several persons. The old mother of my teacher, his wife, 
 his sister, brother, sister-in-law, and whosoever came from 
 the neighbourhood on a visit to the house, all these were my 
 dear and kind teachers, and heartily I wish them from God 
 a happy life. They were always ready to teach me and to 
 enlighten me, and often they vied with each other who of them 
 would give me a better and more lucid explanation and 
 instruction. Whenever came a fine day, and my landlord 
 and teacher. Master Layard by name, should not have another 
 teaching engagement, he would take me out to see this part 
 or that part of the town. I made acquaintance of a merchant, 
 by name Janson, who not only spoke Latin very well, but 
 spoke pretty well Greek too, pronouncing it correctly, and 
 who lived in our neighbourhood. He also helped me much 
 in my learning English, and often invited me to lunch or to 
 dine with him. Through him I made the acquaintance with 
 a noble Greek, who was bom in Cyprus, and was descendant 
 from the ancient family Lusignan, which at one time 
 reigned in that island. His acquaintance was very advan- 
 tageous to me, as he was living in London severed years 
 already. 
 
 " In that way day by day was passing, and I came quickly 
 to the end of the third month, all my money coming to the 
 end too. In the Icist week of that queirter I went to take leave 
 
248 APPENDIX 
 
 from Mr. Lusignan. I told him that as I have learned well 
 enough the pronunciation of the Enghsh language and what 
 remains I could learn somewhere else, I made my preparations 
 to leave for Calais. ' Look now,' said Mr. Lusignan to me, 
 ' a friend of mine, to whom I spoke of you on several occa- 
 sions, wished me to bring you to-morrow to his house to 
 dinner, as he would Uke to make an acquaintance with you. 
 He is a merchant, deaUng in Enghsh porcelain, but at the 
 same time he is really a learned man and great lover of the 
 Greek language and books, and so is his wife too. I hope 
 you will not refuse to go to dine with them ? ' 'I wonder 
 how you could imagine that I would refuse ! I would be a 
 fool if I could refuse to go to dine with good people to whom 
 I would be glad to go even if no dinner were in sight ! ' 
 Mr. Lusignan laughed, and we spent pleasantly that afternoon 
 first without, and afterwards with, the punch, talking about 
 Greece and her history. It was already dark when I took 
 leave of him, he repeatedly assuring me that to-morrow's 
 acquaintance will be pleasant for me. To my lodging it was 
 far enough, but I knew my way and innumerable lanterns 
 gave good Ught. 
 
 " Since London exists on the spot on which it is, I do not 
 think that ever there was a person within its walls who was 
 so lucky as not to have any money, as the case was with me ! 
 ' What nonsense you talk ! ' will probably say to me a stiff- 
 nosed critic. Wait a moment, and let us consider the matter, 
 and you will see that it was no ' nonsense,' but true and 
 intelhgible words. If I had my own money to subsist yet 
 another quarter in London, I would probably still have made 
 the acquaintance with the people, of whom I will write a Uttle 
 later, but that acquaintance would have been only accidental 
 and superficial, because having no need of their help I could 
 not have an opportunity of being acquainted with the great 
 kindness of their heart and generosity and nobleness of their 
 soul. I would have continued to remain Uving and boarding 
 with my teacher, learned a Uttle more, finished my work, and 
 then returned on my journey home. But my soul would have 
 then remained for ever deprived of the sweetest acquaintance 
 which I ever had in my life, and of the precious treasure of 
 
APPENDIX 249 
 
 honesty, virtue and friendliness of these good and really 
 divine people in England. 
 
 " Mr. Lusignan came to my lodging the next morning, about 
 11 o'clock a.m. ' Shall we go ? Are you ready ? ' he asked. 
 ' I am ready long ago, and only feared that you should go 
 without me ! ' I answered. He laughed and said : ' We are 
 in good time. It is true we will have to walk a full hour, 
 but still we will arrive there early enough. You know that 
 the English dine generaUy at 2 o'clock, sometimes even at 
 3 o'clock ! ' 
 
 " We passed, walking, the Tower of London, walked on 
 and on, and at last reached that part of the town, which is 
 called The Hermitage, and entered the house called ' China 
 House.' 
 
 " Entering a room, we found the lady of the house sitting 
 with a piece of fine linen in her hands and sewing. She rose 
 up to receive us, and, after the usual greetings, she invited us 
 to sit down, she herself taking a place and continuing her 
 stitching. She commenced a long conversation with 
 Mr. Lusignan about what she had just read in the papers 
 (which were lying on the table) about the workings of the 
 Parliament, about the East India Gjmpany, about the ships 
 which had just arrived from India, about the commerce, and 
 at last about the lately published books, what were their titles, 
 who were their authors, and what they contained. And 
 about all these topics she spoke so simple, so easy and so 
 lucid ! If I had not been looking at her and if I had not 
 seen her sewing, I would have thought that she read aloud 
 from a book ! I could not understand just every single word 
 but few things escaped me, as she pronounced every word 
 so clearly and distinctly. In such conversation two hours 
 passed that we did not feel how they passed ! When Mr. 
 Lusignan would take the word I would fervently desire that 
 he should finish quickly and be silent in order that she should 
 speak again. I would gladly remain all the day without the 
 dinner only to listen to her talking. I was able all that time 
 to look at her freely, because she would hardly lift up her eyes 
 from her sewing. She was not exactly what is called the 
 typical Enghsh beauty, but at the same time if an Apellee 
 
250 APPENDIX 
 
 or a Raphael wished to paint the innocence, kindness, peace- 
 fulness, and purity of heart and soul, he certainly could 
 nowhere find such a model as he would find in the face and 
 in the eyes of this EngUshwoman. 
 
 " Immediately after two o'clock the table for the dinner 
 was laid, and the master of the house, my new friend Mr. John 
 Levie, arrived. I saluted him and started a conversation in 
 Latin, which language he spoke with an admirable correctness 
 and eloquence. Since I left Moldavia I never have been so gay 
 as I was this day. I did not know at all — but it seems that 
 my soul has had a vision of it — ^that from this very day was 
 to commence my well-being and happiness in London during 
 another period of three months. But how not to be gay 
 when I saw in the faces and in the eyes of these good and 
 happy people such a single-heartedness and goodwill towards 
 me ? As if they had been my own brother and sister, and as 
 if they had been vying with each other which of the two 
 would look at me with greater kindness, graciousness and 
 sweetness, telling me by the voice of their soul and heart 
 through their eyes how pleased they are that after such a long 
 separation we at last have found each other, met together, 
 and now cannot tire of looking at each other ! 
 
 " During the dinner Mr. Levie began a long story and told 
 it so hvely that he stopped eating. His wife urged him 
 repeatedly that he should eat, otherwise he would rise from the 
 table quite hungry. I then turned towards the host and said 
 in Latin : ' Madame never once urged me to eat, because 
 she saw I do not wait to be urged ! ' That caused this good 
 man to laugh so heartily and so many minutes that the hostess 
 asked : ' What is that ? Why do you laugh so ? ' And 
 when he told her what I said, she joined him in laughing and 
 we other two joined them. Who could have seen us at that 
 moment would naturally conclude that we are gathered there 
 not to dine but to laugh ! When the general hilarity 
 somewhat subsided, Mrs. Levie told me that Mr. Janson had 
 spoken much in my praise, and that she sees now that his 
 praise was not exaggerated. I said then to her husband : 
 ' Especially when the business concerns eating, I do not cede 
 to anyone ! ' It was no use for me to assure them that I am 
 
APPENDIX 251 
 
 not making a joke, but that I am stating a simple fact, they 
 went on laughing. But this was nothing compared with what 
 was to come. After most agreeable beer, the servants placed 
 on the table Burgundy wine, I got courage to tell them a story 
 in English, and in order not to make them wait whenever 
 I could not find quickly an Enghsh word I used either the 
 German or the French. They would all listen to me most 
 attentively, and then each of them tried to explain what it was 
 I really meant to say, and as everyone thought he knew better 
 than the other two, they quickly came into Uvely discussion 
 among themselves. Then it was my turn to laugh when 
 I saw that none of them understood what I wished to say. 
 In short, this was really a very pleasant and gay day for me. 
 
 " After the dinner they asked me what was the real reason 
 that I am leaving so soon England, seeing that I loved so much 
 their language ? It seemed to me that not to be straight- 
 forward and sincere with such excellent people would amount 
 almost to a sacrilege. ' My most important two reasons,' 
 I answered, ' are these : first, because I have no money ; 
 secondly, because there is no one in the world from whom 
 I had right to expect a remittance ! ' — ' If that is all ! ' said 
 Mr. Levie, ' then there is no need for you to leave. I will 
 gladly give you every day after the dinner lessons in English, 
 and every day you can take your dinner and supper here with 
 us ! ' After a few days they found me lodging in their 
 inmiediate neighbourhood. 
 
 " As I said a little earlier, just that circumstance that I had 
 not money enough brought me the friendship of these people 
 of indescribable kindness. A symptom of perfect kindness 
 consists just therein that, when a good man does a kindness to 
 another man, he generally hkes that other man the more each 
 time he does him a kindness just so as the parents love their 
 child the more they do for it. I would go to the house of my 
 dear Mr. Levie every day at 10 or 11 a.m., and with the help 
 of his most honourable wife I would read aloud to learn the 
 proper pronunciation, and after this I would translate one or 
 two of jEsop's fables from the Greek into Enghsh. She also 
 would spend every day in reading Greek books for an hour, as 
 she, just so as did her husband, loved that language very 
 
252 APPENDIX 
 
 much. In such studies we two would spend our time up to the 
 dinner hour, viz., up to 2 o'clock p.m. After the dinner 
 Mr. Levie would give me lessons tiU the evening, excepting 
 the days on which his business retained him away. About 
 a month after such a profitable and agreeable occupation for 
 me, my hosts went to Harwich on a visit to Mrs. Levie's father, 
 as they used to do every year about this time, where they 
 wished to remain for fifteen days. On leaving they recom- 
 mended me to their shop assistant, a good and well-educated 
 young man. We dined together in the house. After the 
 dinner tiU the time of the supper he would give me lessons, 
 just as his master did, and indeed he was so kind and so 
 heartily well disposed towards me that he would carry me 
 in his arms if he could. The dinner was always prepared 
 and served as if the master and his wife had been at home. 
 Still both I and Mr. Clarke — the young assistant — ^were longing 
 to see our dear and kind hosts return home. And just for my 
 sake they asked permission from the old gentleman to return 
 home five days earUer than they were accustomed to do. 
 I do not know that I have ever in my hfe — except perhaps 
 while I was yet a child — been simply longing for the return 
 of my friends as I did on this occasion. 
 
 " A few weeks later Mr. Levie's sister, Mrs. TellcU-, and her 
 brother, Mr. Cook, came to stay with their sister for some time. 
 Then every day we had dinners and other entertainments 
 either at the house of my hosts or at the houses of their friends, 
 and excursions to the most interesting parts of the town 
 and neighbourhood, on which excursions I had to accompany 
 them almost always. This made me in a certain measure lose 
 my lessons, but on the other side it was so pleasant and so 
 useful for me inasmuch as I obtained exceUent opportunities 
 to acquaint myself with the lovable features of English 
 character, and with their unaffected, simple and hearty 
 manners. 
 
 " Besides these guests, Mr. Levie would give every Tuesday 
 a dinner to his learned friends. Every Friday we would be 
 in sufficiently numerous company at dinner with Mr. William 
 Fordyce, a physician and Knight of the Golden Fleece, which 
 dignity he obtained from the King for his distinguished services 
 
APPENDIX 253 
 
 to the medical science. This most dignified gentleman was 
 a hearty friend to my benefactor, Levie, and, having through 
 him learned to know me, he took me under his kind patronage 
 and instructed his friend to give me for his account all the 
 money of which I might have need for books, clothes, and 
 other minor expenses, during my stay in London. I say 
 again : all this noble generosity of Enghsh people and their 
 kindness, worthy to be gratefully remembered for ever, 
 I would not have experienced if I had not been in need ! 
 
 " It really depended only on me if I chose to remain for the 
 remainder of my life in England. As I was fond of giving 
 lessons, and would have learned their language perfectly, 
 I could live very well here. But every man, from the cradle 
 to the grave, must have one or other dominant wish. Such 
 a wish of mine was that I may pubUsh yet a few pages in my 
 mother's language. I experienced personally how it would 
 have been useful and agreeable for me if in my young days 
 I had to read something good and wise in our own language ! 
 How I should feel grateful to that man of my people who 
 would have taken care to do that, and what he had acquired 
 with hard work and loss of time to transmit to my mind and 
 soul without much work on my part and in a short time ! 
 This, that I am thinking and feeling of others, other people 
 would eventually think of me ! Oh, what a flattering fore- 
 boding ! What a sweet hope in an immortal Ufe ! Good-bye, 
 therefore, not only London and Paris, but every other place 
 in the world in which I could not accomplish this highest 
 desire of my Ufe ! 
 
 " Therefore, when the second quarter expired and I felt 
 sure that I could make further progress for myself, I informed 
 my benefactors and friends that I must leave England. 
 
 " God only knows how sorry I was to leave these delightful 
 people ! I made a vow that in future I shall watch very 
 carefully not to enter into fast friendship with anyone, with 
 whom not to be always and till my death together, would fill 
 me with sadness. Mr. William Fordyce instructed Mr. Levie 
 to buy for me fine books, and to give me all the money 
 necessary to cover the expenses of traveUing from here to 
 Hamburg, and from thence to Leipsic. He gave me also as 
 
254 APPENDIX 
 
 a souvenir one of his works, written in Latin and entitled 
 'Fragmenta Chirurgica et Medica,' in which he described his 
 own experiments and which he pubhshed while I was in 
 London. Both he and Mr. Levie inscribed themselves in that 
 book in this manner : ' Dositeo Obradovics, Serbiano, viro 
 Unguis variis erudito, sanctissimis moribus morata, Anglis, 
 apud quos sex menses diversatus est, perquam dilecto, Frag- 
 menta haecce, parvulmn quidem at a moris sincerissimi et 
 amicitiae pignus, Ubentissime merito obtuleunt. — Londoni, 
 VIII Kal. Junii MDCCLXXXV. — Gulielmus Fordyce ; Joannes 
 Levie.' 
 
 " Two young gentlemen, Henry Turnbull and William 
 Valliott, made me also presents of very valuable books. A great 
 commercial sailing ship was preparing to leave for Hamburg. 
 I embarked on it the 27th of May (old style), and we sailed 
 by the river for the sea. At Gravesend, where there is a great 
 harbour, the captain of our ship joined us, coming down the 
 river in a small boat, and as the wind was favourable our ship 
 came out into the open sea. The captain came into the 
 general room where I was sitting and handed me over a 
 somewhat heavy letter, which when I opened I found to 
 contain five guineas with the following lines : 
 
 " ' I do assure you, my dear Sir, it has been matter of some 
 consideration with me, in what way (the least to hurt your 
 delicacy) I should contribute my mite towards alleviating 
 those pecimiary wants, which have deprived us of you, and 
 which you ought not to know. Do not scruple, I beg of you, 
 to accept the enclosed small siun, and be persuaded it is 
 offered by a man who esteems and loves you. Farewell ! 
 Consider me as one of the friends you have made in England, 
 who holds you dear in remembrance, and to whom nothing 
 will be more welcome than accounts of your prosperity and 
 happiness. London, 27th May, 1785. — Henry Turnbull.' 
 
 " That was a young man of twenty-five years, by position 
 a private secretary to a gentleman. He used to come often 
 to his friend Mr. Levie, through whom I made his acquaint- 
 ance. From his letter is to be seen that he wished to help 
 me according to his might (being himself not a rich man), 
 but he dared not do directly from fear that he might hurt my 
 
APPENDIX 255 
 
 ' delicacy,' as he calls it, because honest and noble hearts 
 judge by their own feelings that to every man it is not so easy 
 to receive the gifts. And inasmuch as he had not the courage 
 to do it while he was face to face with me, he could not resist 
 to do it when I left. To do a kindness in such a handsome 
 and delicate manner increases, in the eyes of all those who 
 rightly judge, the value of his five guineas to fifty times that 
 amount. 
 
 " The fourth day we arrived in Hamburg. I remained 
 there for a few days. I wrote at once to all my friends in 
 London : to Mr. Lusignan in Greek, to Chevalier Fordyce and 
 to my most dear friend Mr. Levie, Mr. Janson, Mr. Clarke, 
 and William Valliot in Latin, and to my teacheress and 
 patroness, Mrs. Levie, and Mr. Tumbull in English." 
 
 [Dossithey published the two last-named letters in Servian.] 
 
II 
 
 BAN STRAHINYA 
 
 A specimen of the Servian National Poems 
 [considered the finest one of alf) 
 
 Ban Strahinya tarried in Krashevats, 
 In the castle of mighty Yoog Bogdan : 
 By his wife's father feasted, by Bogdan ; 
 Well served was he by the nine Yoogovich, 
 By their wives also, nine noble ladies. 
 
 All the nobles dwelling in Krushevatz 
 
 Gave no peace, day and night, to Yoog Bogdan, 
 
 Praying him, every morning and evening 
 
 To bring as honoured guest to their banquets, 
 
 His son-in-law, the Lord of Banyska — 
 
 A noble who had nowhere his equal. 
 
 So Strahinya there tarried and feasted. 
 Till came to him, one morning by sunrise, 
 A courier bearing quick a white letter. 
 He came straight from his castle Banyska, 
 And brought him black news from his mother ! 
 
 Strahinya seized the letter and read it : 
 Read, shuddering, the curse of his mother ! 
 " Woe thee and thy f eastings in Krushevatz ! 
 Of thy wife's father cursed be the castle ! 
 Read this, and learn that ill-luck has crushed thee ! 
 35S 
 
APPENDIX 257 
 
 With a great force arrived here from Yedren, 
 
 Sultan Murat ! — ^undreamed of — unthought of ! — 
 
 Sultan Murat is here, on Kossovo ! 
 
 He has brought with him, too, his grand vizier, 
 
 His viziers, and the thrice-cursed Vechils ! 
 
 Brought them from all his countries and kingdoms ! 
 
 All his soldiers the Sultan has summoned, 
 
 And brought all on the plain of Kossovo. 
 
 Like bees are they swcirming on Kossovo ! 
 
 They are crowding the banks of the rivers. 
 
 Of both the rivers, Lab and Sitnitsa. 
 
 The Turks, as a cloud, cover Kossovo ! — 
 
 O my son I — and our men are relating 
 
 That Turks hold, too, the countries from Marmor, 
 
 From Marmor to the withered-up Maple, 
 
 From the Maple aU up to SazUya ! 
 
 From the vavdted bridge all up to Zvechan ! 
 
 From Fort Zvechan as far up as Chechan, — 
 
 From Chechan to the top of the mountain ; 
 
 AU that land is trampled by Turkish feet ! 
 
 There are, my son — after their army rolls — 
 
 Of Spahis alone one hundred thousand ! 
 
 Of Spahis who hold lands from the Sultan, 
 
 Knights who eat of his bread, and fight for him ; 
 
 Who ride horses trained long for the battle ; 
 
 Who burden themselves never with weapons ; 
 
 Who carry, indeed, none but their sabres. 
 
 But there are yet other Turkish armies. 
 
 The fiery Janissaries are here, too ! 
 
 They who hold up the white court of Yedren ! 
 
 Quite a full hundred thousand trained soldiers ! — 
 
 It is said there is still a third army : 
 
 Men of Tooka, they say, and Mandjuka, 
 
 Who are also the fiercest of warriors. 
 
 Oh, my son ! there are all sorts of soldiers 
 
 In the service of Murat, the Sultan ! — 
 
 But, among the ill-famed ones, the worst famed, — 
 
 The most self-willed of all, is Vlah-Ah !— 
 
 Not even Sultan Murat obeys he ! 
 
258 APPENDIX 
 
 And he laughs in his sleeve at the viziers. 
 The Sultan's mighty army he values 
 No more than the black ants on the sandhills ! 
 Oh, a strong man, they say, is Vlah-Ali ! 
 Without working mischief he could not pass, — 
 Not even with Murat, to Kossovo. 
 
 " Oh, my son ! he assaulted our castle ; 
 Going round by the left to Banyska, 
 He burned down our fort, little Banyska, 
 Tore up and scatter'd far its foundations ; 
 Thy faithful servants drove to the four winds ; 
 Thy mother trampled under his charger. 
 And thy wife he has carried off with him. 
 Thy faithful wife carried to Kossovo ; 
 In his green tent he keeps her to serve him. 
 
 " Oh, my son ! I wail here amid ruins. 
 And thou sittest feasting in Krushevats ! 
 Curs'd be the red wine that thou drinkest ! " 
 
 When Strahinya had read through the missive. 
 Stem and wrathful look'd he in his sadness ; 
 On his shoulders drooped down his moustachios. 
 And tears gleam'd in his eyes, but they feU not ; 
 Fierce wrath check'd the wild sorrow within him. 
 
 Flamed up sudden fiery Yoog Bogdan : 
 
 " Oh, my son-in-law, may God be with thee ! 
 
 Why hast thou this mem waken'd so early ? 
 
 Is it lack of slumber that saddens thee ? 
 
 Where is all thy accustom'd good-humour ? — 
 
 My son-in-law, with whom art thou angry ? — 
 
 With jests have the nine brothers Yougovich, 
 
 My nine sons, perhaps anger'd and pain'd thee ? — 
 
 Have their ladies been lacking in service ? — 
 
 Or, perchance, in my house something fails thee ?— 
 
 Say, son-in-law, what is it ? How is it ? " 
 
APPENDIX 259 
 
 Up started Strahinya and answered him : 
 
 "Be at peace, oh, my father, Yoog Bogdan ! — 
 
 My brothers, too, are my wife's nine brethren ; 
 
 With them and with their wives I live kindly ; 
 
 The nine ladies are noble and gentle. 
 
 Both their converse and service are faultless. 
 
 And thy house, old Yoog Bogdan, lacks nothing ; 
 
 But still I have reason for sadness. 
 
 From my mother a missive has reached me ; 
 
 A letter from my httle Banyska, 
 
 Bringing curses and waUs from my mother." 
 
 Then he told the ill news that had pain'd him : 
 How his castle was pillaged and burnt down, — 
 His mother trampled under the horse hoofs, — 
 His true vassals dispers'd to the four winds. 
 And his faithful wife carried off captive. 
 " But, my father-in-law, old Yoog Bogdan, 
 It's not only my wife who is captive ! — 
 Thy daughter remains ever thy daughter. 
 Be she my wife, or wife to some other. 
 To thee and to me equal the shame is ; 
 To thee as to me this great wrong is done ! 
 Would'st thou mourn for me dead, O my father ? 
 It were best thou should'st help me whilst living ! — 
 I beseech thee most humbly, Yoog Bogdan, 
 Give me now to go with me thy nine sons ! 
 Let my brothers go now to Kossovo, 
 That I seek there the base Turkish spoiler 
 Who has carried my wife away with him. 
 Thou need'st not be anxious, my father, 
 Thou need'st have no fear for thy nine sons ! 
 I will put them in true Turkish dresses ; 
 I will bind round their heads the white turbans ; 
 Green garments will I put on their shoulders. 
 And wide sack-like trousers I will give them. 
 I will gird them writh sharp flame-hke sabres ; 
 I will summon thy servants and teach them 
 How to saddle and girth firm the horses 
 And cover them all over with bearskins. 
 
260 APPENDIX 
 
 Like Janissaries wiU look then my brothers, 
 Like Janissaries look the nine Yoogovich. 
 And subtle advice, too, will I give them, 
 So that, when they ride over Kossovo, 
 They will seem to be simply my vassals, 
 And show youthful fear of their leader. 
 
 Whoever of the soldiers of Murat 
 
 May desire to stop or to question us. 
 
 To that man I alone will give answer 
 
 No fear do I feel of their questioning ! 
 
 The Turkish I can speak, and the Manu, 
 
 Of Arabian I also know something ; 
 
 The Albanian tongue does not affright me. 
 
 Trust me, I will lead safely thy children 
 
 Through the Turkish army on Kossovo ; 
 
 Through the whole Turkish army I'll lead them 
 
 Till I find out the mighty Vlah-Ah. 
 
 Vlah-Ali I the vile robber who bore off 
 
 My true wife, and who burnt down my castle ! 
 
 Oh, Yoog, let my nine brothers go with me ! 
 
 Alone, Uttle, indeed, are my chances ; 
 
 But if they may go with me I fear not. 
 
 For if wounded I shall not be captured." 
 
 Like a fire flamed up fiercely Yoog Bogdan : 
 " Oh, son-in-law, Banovich Strahinya, 
 To-day it is quite clear thou art foolish ! 
 Oh 1 to ask me to lend thee my nine sons. 
 To lead forth my children to Kossovo, 
 That their throats may be cut by the Moslim ! 
 
 " Now I pray thee, my son, speak no folly ! — 
 My nine sons shall not go to Kossovo, 
 Though I see nevermore my lost daughter. 
 Besides, Ban, all this grieving is foohsh. 
 From the Turks would'st thou take back a woman ? 
 So defiled, curs'd by God, could'st thou love her ? 
 To her now, too, the Turk wiU be dearer. 
 Let her be. May the evil one take her ! 
 
APPENDIX 261 
 
 Another wife will I find thee, a fairer ; 
 And thou shalt remain here with me always. 
 I am always thy friend — I, Yoog Bogdan — 
 But my nine sons go not to Kossovo." 
 
 Ban Strahinya blazed up Uke a live flame, 
 Mad at once with great anger and sorrow, 
 Then disdaining to call for the servants. 
 He descended himself to the stables. 
 And in wrathful haste saddled his charger. 
 Oh, could you then only have seen him. 
 How he saddled and bridled him quickly, 
 How he led him forth into the courtyard. 
 Led him close up beside the white step-stone ! 
 
 There, mounting, he looked down on his brethren. 
 But the nine all looked down on the black earth ; 
 He looked round at his cousin Nemanyich, 
 But young Nemanyich looked steadfastly downward. 
 At the banquets companions were plenty. 
 Each one of them had drunk to him, toasting : 
 " We love thee, beyond everything love thee ! 
 We love thee, friend and brother Strahinya ! " 
 But to-day, in the time of his sore need. 
 Who dares to prove his love to Strahinya ? 
 Who dares to ride with him to Kossovo ? 
 The Ban saw he must go without comrade. 
 But he rode still straight out to Kossovo. 
 As Strahinya Ban rode through the wide field 
 He glanced often behind him with longing ; 
 Glanced back to the white city Krushevats. 
 Who could tell how his friends would regret him ? 
 Would they venture at last to ride with him ? 
 
 When he saw, in his need, none stood by him, 
 
 No friend ready to follow and succour. 
 
 He sat silent awhile on his charger ; 
 
 He remembered his greyhound, Karaman 
 
 Left behind in the courtyard of Bogdan, 
 
 That dog dearer still than his war steed ! 
 
 I8— a39r 
 
262 APPENDIX 
 
 Sudden shouted he loud and impatient, 
 
 And the dog heard his call and ran quickly, 
 
 Rushed up gladly and sprang gay round h^ grey horse. 
 
 His gold collar rung out with his springing ! 
 
 The dog's joy gave new heart to his master ; 
 
 The Ban rode on with courage and gladness. 
 
 He rode straight on his swift faithful charger. 
 
 O'er fields and o'er moimtains to Kossovo. 
 
 When he saw the plain crowded with soldiers. 
 
 With the soldiers of Murat the Sultan, 
 
 He felt something like fear steal over him ; 
 
 Still he called on the name of the true God, 
 
 And rode straight through the camps without stopping. 
 
 Ban Strahinya rode over Kossovo — 
 
 He rode westward, and southwcird, and eastward. 
 
 Rode northward, searching still for Vlah-AU, 
 
 But Vlah-Ali the mighty he saw not. 
 
 Then he turned to the river Sitnitsa, 
 
 And a wonderful sight did he see there ! 
 
 On the bank of the stresimlet Sitnitsa 
 
 A widely spreading green tent was standing, 
 
 On the tent's summit gleam'd a gold apple ; 
 
 Before the tent a war steed stood pawing 
 
 By a tall spear struck deep in the black earth. 
 
 The horse stood there still stamping and pawing. 
 
 With his hard hoofs sharp striking the black earth. 
 
 Though a sack full of oats hung before him. 
 
 When Strahinya Ban rode up and saw this, 
 
 He said, " Tis the green tent of Vlah-Ali ! " 
 
 And he spurred his steed sooner to reach it. 
 
 Arrived there he laid hand on his war spear 
 
 And lifted up bold with it the curtains 
 
 To see whom the great tent held within it. 
 
 But not there was the mighty Vlah-Ah. 
 
 Strahinya only saw an old Dervish 
 
 Whose white beard reached down to his girdle. 
 
 In the tent there was no one besides him — 
 
 Well for him : the false Turk ! the wine-drinker ! 
 
 Drinking wine by himself out of full bowls ! 
 
APPENDIX 263 
 
 So sitting and drinking by himself there 
 The Dervish was flush'd red to the eyebrows. 
 Ban Strahinya gazed on him with wonder, 
 Then greeted him calm, Turk-like, with " Selam I " 
 
 The wine-drunken old Dervish looked at him. 
 Looked sharply, and then answered him boldly : 
 " Hail to thee, O Banovich Strahinya ! 
 Lord of Little Ban5?ska, near Kossovo ! " 
 
 Then Strahinya was startled ; fear seized him ; 
 
 But still he spoke out bold to the Dervish ; 
 
 In the Turkish tongue Strahinya answered : 
 
 " Shame, Dervish ! thou son of cursed mother ! 
 
 Why drinkest thou here wine like a drunkard ? 
 
 Wherefore, wine-besotten, speak'st thou hard words ? 
 
 Why insult a Turk by calling him Giaour ? 
 
 Who is he by whose name thou hast call'd me ? 
 
 What know I of Banovich Strahinya ? 
 
 To our Tsar am I loyal and faithful ! — 
 
 The Tsar's chargers have broken their halters 
 
 And run wildly now through the encampments. 
 
 All our nobles ride hither and thither, 
 
 And are trjdng their utmost to catch them. 
 
 Should I speak to the Tsar or his Viziers 
 
 Of thy strange words what woe would befall thee ! " 
 
 Long and loud laughed the drunken old Dervish : 
 " O Strahinya ! vaUant Ban Strahinya ! — 
 Know, O Ban (may no evil come near thee !) 
 If I were on the summit of Golech, 
 And thence saw thee 'mid the Sultan's soldiers, 
 I should know thee at once and thy grey horse ! — 
 Should know thee and thy greyhound Karaman, — 
 Him whom thou lov'st still more than thy charger. 
 
 " Strahinya ! Lord of Little Banyska I 
 I knew thee. Ban, at once, by thy forehead ; 
 Knew thee, too, by thy two eyes beneath it ; 
 I knew thee. Ban, by thy dark moustachios. 
 Forgettest thou (all trouble flee from thee !) 
 
264 APPENDIX 
 
 That I was, years agone now, thy prisoner ? 
 On Suhsira thy pandours had caught me. 
 And carried to thy castle a captive ; 
 Thou didst cast me, then, into a dimgeon, 
 And didst keep me there during nine long years ; 
 But at last, the tenth year, thou hadst pity. 
 Thou didst call to thee then Rad, thy jailer. 
 And bade him bring me into the courtyard. 
 O, Strahinya Ban ! Hast thou forgotten 
 The questions that thou didst put to me ? — 
 ' My captive ! 0, thou snake amongst the Turks ! 
 Dost thou wish then to die in thy dungeon ? 
 Could'st thou not find thee somewhere a ransom ? 
 To thy questions I answered thee truly, 
 That I could, perchance, find me a ransom 
 If I could but go home to my own place, 
 Because there I had lands and some treasures ; 
 I could sell them and bring thee the rzinsom ; 
 But for that it were need thou could'st trust me,- 
 That thou trustest my word and my promise, 
 I would swear by my life and the true God 
 To come back or to send thee the ransom. 
 Thou hadst faith in my oath. Ban Strahinya 1 
 Thou lett'st me go back free to my coimtry ; 
 But when I arrived there, Banovich, 
 Nothing found I but black desolation ! 
 The pestilence had been there before me. 
 And not one soul remained of my household. 
 Through the walls of my desolate dwelling 
 The green grasses and wild weeds were growing ; 
 AH my lands by the Turks had been taken 
 And giv'n away to their daughters as dowry ; 
 They beheved that no owner was living, 
 Or why went thus the buildings to ruin ? — 
 Of what had been mine nothing was left me ! 
 How, therefore, could I seek thee a ransom ? 
 After thinking, and planning, and dreaming, 
 I borrowed me post horses for Yedren, 
 And to Yedren rode I, to the Sultan. 
 
APPENDIX 265 
 
 The Vizier saw me and said to the Sultan 
 
 I look'd likely enough for a soldier 
 
 And strong soldiers were needed for battle. 
 
 So good clothes and good weapons were given me. 
 
 And a tent to hold me and my weapons ; 
 
 In a book my name wrote down the Vizier 
 
 As one sworn to serve lifelong the Sultan. 
 
 Now to-day. Ban Strahinya ! thou comest 
 
 To say to me, ' Now give me thy ransom ! ' 
 
 But I tell thee I have not one penny ! — 
 
 'Tis a pity, O Ban, that thou camest 
 
 To Kossovo, amidst this great army. 
 
 To lose thy life and for it gain nothing." 
 
 Strahinya Ban knew then the old Dervish, 
 
 And quickly from his war steed dismounted. 
 
 To embrace him, and speak to him friendly : 
 
 " Henceforth thou art my brother in God's name ! 
 
 I forgave thee, Dervish, thy ransom, 
 
 I come not now to ask for one penny ; 
 
 I am looking for mighty Vlah-Ali, 
 
 Who has pillaged and burnt down my castle. 
 
 And my wife carried off as his captive. 
 
 Tell me, Dervish, where shall I find him ? 
 
 Where shall I find the robber, Vlah-Ali ? 
 
 I have called thee in God's name my brother. 
 
 Do not suffer the Turks to surround me ; 
 
 Do not tell them I am amongst them." 
 
 Then the old Dervish swore by the true God, 
 
 " I give thee now — O falcon Strahinya ! — 
 
 I give thee my faith steadfast as granite, 
 
 That if thou should'st kill half the Tsar's soldiers 
 
 I should not and I would not betray thee ; 
 
 The bread thou hast given me is sacred. 
 
 Thou didst keep me nine full years a captive. 
 
 But red wine didst thou give me and white bread ; 
 
 Thou hast brought me oft forth to the sunshine ; 
 
 To thee, then, I shall never be traitor. 
 
266 APPENDIX 
 
 It is true that I brought thee no ransom, 
 
 That I kept not my word ; but how could I ? 
 
 I found nothing Wcis left me but bare earth ! 
 
 But thou hast now no rccison to fear me. 
 
 As for him whom thou seekest, Vlah-Ah, 
 
 His tent he has pitched high on the mountain. 
 
 His white tent stands high up on Mount Golech. 
 
 But, Strcihinya ! I pray thee now, hear me ! 
 
 Mount quickly and ride away from Kossovo, 
 
 If thou stay'st here thy Ufe is worth nothing ; 
 
 Thy trust in thy true heart will not save thee, 
 
 Neither will thy strong hand nor swift sabre ; 
 
 StiU less, O Ban ! will thy poison'd war spear. 
 
 And if thou could'st come near to Vlah-Ali, 
 
 What good, Ban Strahinya, would it do thee ? 
 
 Not thy sharp sword nor swift steed will save thee ! 
 
 He will seize thee alive in his strong arms, 
 
 He will break into pieces thy weapons ! 
 
 He will pluck thee thy two eyes out Uving ! " 
 
 But aloud laughed Ban Strahinya gaily : 
 " My brother in God, O my old Dervish ! 
 Against one man thou need'st not to warn me. 
 But don't to the whole army betray me." 
 
 Then answered him again the old Dervish : 
 
 " But hear me, O Banovich Strahinya I 
 
 My faith to thee as firm is as granite 
 
 And shouldest thou spur on thy swift war steed 
 
 And cut down even half the Tsar's army, 
 
 I would never, I swear it ! betray thee ! 
 
 Would not say to the Turks 'tis Strahinya ! " 
 
 Yet a Httle while the two held converse ; 
 But, with the first glow of mom, Strahinya 
 Mounted quick and spoke thus from his saddle : 
 " My brother in God ! hear me, old Dervish ! 
 Thou lead'st thy steed to drink in Sitnitsa, — 
 Each mom and each even dost thou lead him, — 
 Tell me where are the fords of the river. 
 That I ride not my horse in deep waters." 
 
APPENDIX 
 
 267 
 
 Then the old Dervish answer'd him truly : 
 " Ban Strahinya, thou proud Servian falcon ! 
 With thy stout heart and with thy strong war horse, 
 Ev'rywhere shalt thou find a safe passage." 
 
 Strahinya cross'd the river Sitnitsa, 
 And rode slow to the foot of Mount Golech ; 
 He was still at the base of the mountain 
 When the sun shone out over Kossovo, 
 On the soldiers and camps of the Sultan. 
 
 But what did He at this hour, Vlah-Ali ?— 
 
 Truly the Turk had an evil custom ! 
 
 For he Uked most to sleep at the sunrise : 
 
 Never closed he his eyes till the sun rose. 
 
 Very dear to him was she — ^his new slave ; 
 
 Dear to him was the wife of Strahinya ! 
 
 With his head on her white shoulder resting, 
 
 She held him, looking straight through the tent-door. 
 
 Looking down to the field of Kossovo ; 
 
 She looked down on the horses and soldiers. 
 
 Glancing carelessly o'er the great army. 
 
 But what sees she now ? Why does she tremble ? 
 One lonely knight rides slow up Mount Golech ! 
 One man riding alone amid thousands ! 
 
 When she saw him, she touched with her white hand 
 The right cheek of the sleeper, to wake him. 
 " Wake, my Lord ! Wake up, mighty Vlah-Ali ! 
 Rise up quick, for thy head is in danger ! 
 Gird on thee thy bright sword ! Take thy war spear ! 
 For he comes now ! He comes ! Ban Strahinya ! 
 Thy head he will cut off, and — ^woe to me ! 
 He will put to me living the eyes out." 
 
 Vlah-Ali leapt up quick, then laugh'd loudly : 
 " My darling ! O sweet wife of Strahinya, 
 It is wonderful how much thou fear'st him ! 
 
268 APPENDIX 
 
 I think e'en -in the city of Yedren, 
 
 When I take thee there, still wilt thou see him ! 
 
 In visions he will follow and fright thee. — 
 
 Yonder rider is not Ban Strahinya ! 
 
 It is but one of the Sultan's soldiers. 
 
 He must bring me some message from Murat, 
 
 From Tsar Murat or Mehemed Vizier." 
 
 Still persisted the wife of Strahinya ; 
 
 " O my Lord ! O thou mighty Vlah-Ali ! 
 
 See'st thou not then (does thy eyesight fail thee ?) 
 
 He who comes brings no message from Murat ! 
 
 My husband it is ! the Ban Strahinya : — 
 
 I knew him all at once by his forehead ; 
 
 I knew under his forehead his dark eyes ; 
 
 I knew them, also, his dark moustachios ; 
 
 Knew his horse and his greyhound, Karaman. — 
 
 Take care, my Lord ! Thy head is in danger." 
 
 Hearing this, the snake, mighty Vlah-Ah, 
 To his feet leapt up Ughtly and quickly ; 
 He girded on a long silken girdle, 
 And placed safely within it sharp daggers. 
 His bright sabre he belted on swiftly. 
 Keeping both his eyes fixed on his black steed. 
 
 Rode slowly up to him Ban Strahinya, 
 
 But the Ban spoke not one word of greeting ; 
 
 To the Turk said he shcirply and roughly : 
 
 " Thou poltroon ! Even false to thy own Tsar ! 
 
 Whose cattle and whose flocks hast thou stolen ? 
 
 Whose castle hast thou ransacked and pillaged ? 
 
 Whose wife sits at thy feet now to serve thee ? 
 
 Come, coward ; With thy sword shaft thou answer." 
 
 Then the Turk sprang aloft as if snake-stung. 
 With one stride he laid hand on his black steed, 
 With one bound he sat firm in his saddle, 
 And gather'd the silk bridles together. 
 
APPENDIX 269 
 
 But for this did not wait Ban Strahinya ! 
 
 He spurr'd sudAen his stout horse against him 
 
 And cast his war spear swiftly and surely, 
 
 Mad with vengeance attack' d he Vlah-Ah ! 
 
 The mighty Vlah, quick stretching his long arm, 
 
 Caught and broke the Ban's spear ere it struck him ; 
 
 Then he spoke to him laughing and taunting : 
 
 " O Strahinya ! 'tis thou art the poltroon ! 
 
 Say of what and of whom art thou thinking ? 
 
 Here are none of thy Shumadia's women. 
 
 To be frightened away with thy shouting ! 
 
 Here is only the mighty Vlah-AU ! 
 
 He who fears neither the Sultan nor Vizier I 
 
 As for the myriad soldiers of Murat 
 
 To me they seem but ants in the green grass I " 
 
 Speaking thus he flung swiftly his stout spear : — 
 Little failed it to strike Ban Strahinya ! — 
 But the just God was with Ban Strahinya ! — 
 His brave horse was weU trdned for the battle ; 
 As the spear flew the charger knelt quickly. 
 The spear whizz'd o'er the head of his rider ; 
 It struck hard on a rock, and was shattered ; 
 It was shatter'd and fell in three pieces. 
 
 The spears lost, the fierce fighters took maces 
 And so hard hit Strahinya Vlah-Ali 
 That he fell on the head of his charger ; — 
 But the just God was with Ban Strahinya ! — 
 His grey horse was trained well for the combat ; 
 Such a war steed to-day there is nowhere ; 
 Neither the Servians nor Turks now possess such ! 
 The brave horse moved his head and his neck so 
 That he threw the Ban back in his saddle. 
 The Ban's mace with great force struck Vlah-Ah, 
 But the mighty Vlah sat stiQ, unshaken, 
 Although the four legs of his war horse 
 Were buried to the knee in the black earth ; 
 So hard had struck the mace of Strahinya ! 
 
270 APPENDIX 
 
 Lost the maces, the knights took their sabres, 
 
 Their sharp sabres to finish the conflict ; 
 
 But look now on Banovich Strahinya ! — 
 
 For a whole week two smiths had been working 
 
 To fashion and to sharpen his sabre ; 
 
 Oh, so strong and so sharp was the sabre ! — 
 
 Vlah-M slashed out wild, but Strahinya 
 
 Swiftly caught the bright sword on his own blade — 
 
 Caught it and cut it straight in two pieces ! 
 
 Greatly pleased was the Ban Strahinya ! — 
 
 On the Vlah he pressed fiercely his charger. 
 
 Trying now to cut off his two strong arms. 
 
 If the head was at present in safety. — 
 
 But it was hero fighting with hero ! — 
 
 Well the Turk guards his head from the sharp blade, — 
 
 Guards his arms with the stump of his sabre ! — 
 
 Bit by bit breaks the Strahinya's bright sword ; — 
 
 Till at last (their swords worn to the strong hilts) 
 
 Both the fighters flung them far from them. 
 
 And springing with a bound from their chargers. 
 
 They grasped each other fierce by the white throats ; 
 
 Two dragons wrestled wildly together. 
 
 Fighting there on the top of Mount Golech I 
 
 With each other they wrestled till mid-day. 
 
 From the mouth of the Tvu-k ran down white foam, — 
 
 White and red was the froth of Strahinya ; 
 
 Blood trickled down all over his garments. 
 
 But at last Ban Strahinya, exhausted, 
 
 To his wife said — she standing there near them — 
 
 " my wife ! May God curse thee and kill thee ! 
 
 Why standest thou still to regard us ? 
 
 Take rather a sharp piece of my sabre. 
 
 And strike either me or Vlah-Ah ! 
 
 Strike whomever thou wilt, but strike swiftly ! " 
 
 But the Turk, hearing this, spoke out quickly : 
 
 " My darling ! Oh, thou wife of Strahinya ! 
 
 Do not strike me, but strike Ban Strahinya. 
 
 No more dear can'st thou ever be to him, 
 
 He will blame thee for ever and ever ! 
 
APPENDIX 271 
 
 Blame thee morning, and mid-day and evening, 
 
 Because thou hast been with me and served me I 
 
 But to me thou shalt alwa)^ be dearest ! 
 
 To the white city, Yedren, I'll take thee ; 
 
 Thirty slaves shalt thou have there to serve thee, 
 
 To carry thy long train and thy wide sleeves. 
 
 With honey emd sugar I will feed thee. 
 
 And cover thee with ducats of pmre gold ; 
 
 From thy head to thy feet with gold ducats ; 
 
 Only strike now at once Ban Strahinya ! " 
 
 (Tis easy to cheat women with fair words !) 
 
 Then the wife of the Ban sprang up lightly ; 
 
 She sought out a sharp piece of his sabre. 
 
 And she wrapped it well round in her worked veil. 
 
 For she feared it might cut her white fingers. 
 
 Swift she sprang round the still strugghng fighters : 
 
 She cared well for the head of Vlah-Ali, 
 
 But she struck sharp at her Lord, Strahinya ! 
 
 She struck him on his helmet and gold crest ; 
 
 The gold crest and white helmet she cut through. 
 
 She slashed sUghtly the head of Strahinya ; 
 
 The red blood ran o'er forehead and eyelids ; 
 
 It drizzled in and darkened his two eyes. — 
 
 Then fear came over the Ban Strahinya I — 
 
 He saw he had been reckless and foolish. 
 
 But suddenly a good thought came to him. 
 
 And he called on his greyhound, Karaman, 
 
 On Karamcin well-trained for all hunting. 
 
 The Ban called him — ^twice loudly he called him ; 
 
 Then the true hound sprung swift to his master. 
 
 Swifter stiU on the wife of Strahinya. 
 
 He rushed at her and held her quite firmly. 
 
 Before dogs all the women grow fearful ; 
 
 The wife of Strahinya feared Karaman, 
 
 And screamed loud when he sprang so upon her ; 
 
 Screamed louder when he held her, not hurt her. 
 
 Swift she cast down the piece of the sabre 
 
 And caught hold of the hound by his both ears ; 
 
 So struggling they sUpt far down the mountain. 
 
272 APPENDIX 
 
 Vlah-Ali became anxious about her, — 
 
 Was fearful lest some evil befall her, — 
 
 And he turned round to look what was with her. 
 
 Then Strahinya Ban gathered fresh courage, 
 
 And new heart and new strength coming to him. 
 
 He thrust the Tiurk on this side and that side, 
 
 Till at last with great force down he threw him ! 
 
 Flat down, on the stony ground, he threw him. 
 
 Fierce fury filled the soul of Strahinya ! — 
 
 He looked no more about him for weapons ; 
 
 With his white teeth tore he the Vlah's white throat, 
 
 With his teeth, like a weird wolf, he killed him ! — 
 
 Then he sprang up and sharp called " Karaman ! " 
 
 Loudly again and again he called him 
 
 Before the hound would let go the woman. 
 
 Once free she sought to flee down the mountain. 
 
 And to hide in the camps of the soldiers ; 
 
 But Ban Strahinya did not permit her. 
 
 With a firm grasp he held her right hand fast. 
 
 And so led her close up to his charger ; 
 
 Quick he swung himself into the saddle 
 
 And drew his faithless wife up behind him. 
 
 The Ban rode by b}nvays to Krushevats ; 
 Rode up straight to old Yoog Bogdan's castle. 
 And as he rode up the old knight saw him. 
 And came down with his nine sons, to meet him. 
 They all stretched forth their arms to embrace him, 
 And asked about his health and his journey. 
 Old Yoog saw the wide cut in his helmet. 
 Saw the red blood, too, dripping beneath it. 
 Then Yoog Bogdan burst out in loud weeping : — 
 " Nothing good will come now to our Empire ! 
 Nothing good ! since the Sultan has soldiers 
 Who could wound thus my brave son, Strahinya ! 
 Wound him who in the world had no equal ! " 
 And all the nine young Yougovich wonder'd. 
 
APPENDIX 273 
 
 Said to them then the brave Ban Strahinya : 
 " Old Yoog Bogdan, oh, thou my wife's father, 
 And ye, all ye nine Yoogovich brethren, 
 Be quiet, now, and do not be angry ! 
 Be not overmuch shocked and ashamed ! — 
 No soldier of the Sultan can wound me. 
 Whilst I fought the Turk, mighty Vlah-AU, 
 Then — ^hear, father-in-law ! old Yoog Bogdan ! 
 Then my own wife, my false wife, thy daughter. 
 Took a piece of my sword to Idll me ; 
 She struck me out of love for Vlah-AU ! " 
 
 As a fire ten times fierce flamed Yoog Bogdan, 
 
 He shouted loud to his nine sons hoarsely : 
 
 " Draw quick ! draw all your nine knives and kill her ! 
 
 Draw ! and cut in small pieces the serpent ! " 
 
 The nine sons obeyed quick old Yoog Bogdan ; 
 
 They drew fiercely to cut down their sister ; — 
 
 But Strahinya was there to defend her. 
 
 He said to the nine brothers Yoogovich : 
 
 " Oh, my brothers ! why will you be fooUsh ? 
 
 Against whom do you draw now your short knives ? 
 
 When you have so much longing for bloodshed 
 
 Why rode you not with me to Kossovo, 
 
 To use there, on the Turks, knives and sabres ? 
 
 To show there your friendship and courage ? 
 
 If I will'd that my wife lived no longer, 
 
 Could I not with my own hand have killed her ? 
 
 As for you I forbid you to touch her ! — 
 
 I have given her her hf e as a present ; 
 
 I shall keep her to serve me and cheer me. 
 
 To serve me with cool wine will I keep her." 
 
 Old Yoog Bogdan spoke truly : " No equal, 
 In the wide world, had the Ban Strahinya." 
 
Ill 
 specimens of the Servian Folk-Lore 
 
 PEPPELUGA (CINDERELLA) 
 
 As some village girls were spinning whilst they tended the 
 cattle grazing in the neighbourhood of a ravine, an old man 
 with a long white beard approached them and said : " Girls, 
 girls, take care of that ravine ! If one of you should drop 
 her spindle down the cUff , her mother will be turned into a cow 
 that very moment ! " 
 
 Having warned them thus the old man went away again. 
 The girls, wondering very much at what he had told them, 
 came nearer and nearer to the ravine and leant over to look in. 
 Whilst doing so one of them — and just the most beautiful of 
 them all — ^let accidentally her spindle fall from her band, and 
 it fell to the bottom of the ravine. 
 
 When that girl reached her home in the evening she foimd 
 her mother transformed into a cow, standing before the house, 
 and from that time forth she had to drive her to the pasture 
 with the other cattle. 
 
 In a httle time the father of the girl married a widow, 
 who brought with her into the house her own daughter. 
 The stepmother inmiediately began to hate the stepdaughter, 
 because the girl was incomparably more beautiful than her 
 own daughter. She ordered her not to wash herself, not to 
 comb her hair, nor to change her clothes, and sought by every 
 possible way to torment and scold her. 
 
 One day she gave her a bag full of hemp and said : " If you 
 do not spin all this well and wind it, you need not return home, 
 for if you do I will kill you I " 
 
 The poor girl walked behind the cattle and spun as fast as 
 possible, but at mid-day, seeing how very httle she had been 
 
 274 
 
APPENDIX 275 
 
 able to spin, she began to weep. When the cow, her mother, 
 saw her weeping, she asked her what was the matter, and the 
 girl told her all about it. Then the cow consoled her and told 
 her not to be anxious. " I will take the hemp in my mouth 
 and chew it," she said to the girl, " and it will come out of my 
 ear as thread, so that you can draw it out and wind it at once 
 upon the stick ! " And so it happened. The cow began 
 to chew the hemp, and the girl drew the thread from her ear 
 and wound it, so that very soon they had quite finished the 
 task. 
 
 When the girl returned home in the evening and took all the 
 hemp, worked up, to her stepmother, this one was greatly aston- 
 ished. Next morning she gave her yet more hemp to spin and 
 wind. When at night the girl brought home ill that large 
 quantity well worked up, the stepmother thought that it 
 could not be otherwise but that several other girls, her friends, 
 were helping her. Therefore, when on the third morning 
 she gave the girl a still larger bundle of hemp to work up into 
 thread, she sent her own daughter to go stealthily after her 
 stepdaughter, and instructed her to conceal herself somewhere 
 in the bush and spy out who was helping the girl to work up 
 such a great quantity of hemp in such a short time. Her 
 daughter, acting as she was taught to act, saw clearly that 
 the cow chewed the hemp and the girl drew the thread from 
 h^r ear and wound it up on the stick. She hastened home 
 and told her mother what she saw. 
 
 Then the stepmother urged her husband to kill that par- 
 ticular cow. At first her husband resisted ; but as his wife 
 gave him no peace, he at last consented to do as she wished, 
 and fixed the day on which he would kill it. As soon as the 
 stepdaughter heard this, she began to weep, and when the 
 cow, her own mother, asked her why she wept, she told her 
 all about it. But the cow said : " Do not worry about it ! 
 Do not cry ! Only when they kill me, take care not to eat 
 any of the meat, and be sure to gather all my bones and bury 
 them behind the house ; and whenever you need anything 
 come to my grave and you will find help ! " So when they 
 killed the cow the girl refused to eat any of the flesh, saying 
 she was not hungry, and afterwards she gathered carefully 
 
276 APPENDIX 
 
 all the bones and buried them behind the house, on the spot 
 the cow had told her. 
 
 The real name of this girl was Mary, but as she had worked 
 so much in the house, carrying water, cooking, washing, 
 sweeping, and doing all sorts of house-work, and had very 
 much to do about the hearth and the ashes from the hearth, 
 her stepmother and stepsister nicknamed her " Peppeluga " 
 (Cinderella). 
 
 One day the stepmother got ready to go with her own 
 daughter to chiu'ch, but before she went she spread over the 
 house a basketful of millet, and said to the girl : " You, 
 Peppeluga ! If you do not gather up all this millet and get 
 the dinner before we come back from chiu-ch, I will kill you ! " 
 
 When they had gone to church the poor girl began to weep, 
 saying to herself : " It would not be difficult to cook the dinner. 
 I could have that ready in a short time ! But who can pick 
 up all this quantity of liullet ? " At that moment she remem- 
 bered what the cow had told her, that in case of need she 
 should go to her grave and would there find help. She ran 
 quickly to the spot where she buried the bones, and what 
 do you think she saw there ? On the grave stood a large box 
 full of costly dresses of different kinds, and on the top of the 
 box sat two white doves, who said : ' ' Mary, take out of this 
 box the dresses which you hke best and put them on, and then 
 go to church ! Meanwhile we will pick up the millet seeds 
 and put everything in order ! " The girl was greatly pleased 
 and took the first clothes which came to hand. These were 
 all of silk. She put them on quickly, and went away to 
 church. 
 
 In the church every one, men and women, young and old, 
 wondered much at her beauty and her splendid clothes, but 
 no one knew who she was and whence she came. The King's 
 son, who happened to be there, looked at her all the time, 
 and admired her greatly. She left the church quietly before 
 the service was quite ended, and ran away home. As soon 
 as she arrived there she took off her fine clothes, laid them 
 nicely again in the box, which instantly shut itself and 
 disappeared. 
 
APPENDIX 277 
 
 Then she hurried to the hearth and found the dinner quite 
 ready, all the millet gathered up, and everything in very good 
 order. Soon after the stepmother came back with her 
 daughter and was extremely astonished to find all the millet 
 picked up and everything so well arranged. 
 
 Next Sunday the stepmother and her daughter dressed 
 themselves as beautifully as they could to go again to church. 
 Before they left the stepmother threw much more millet about 
 the floor, and said to her stepdaughter : " If you do not 
 gather up all this millet, make the dinner ready and get 
 everything in best order, before we retimi from church, I will 
 kill you ! " When they were gone the girl instantly ran to 
 her mother's grave, and there found the box with the dresses 
 waiting ready for her, and the two doves sitting on its hd as 
 before. The doves said to her : " Dress yourself, Mary, and 
 go to church ! We will meanwhile pick up all the millet 
 and put everything in order ! " She brought out of the box 
 the dresses made beautifully out of the silver thread, and, 
 having dressed herself, went to church. 
 
 In the church everyone, as before, admired her very much, 
 while the King's son never moved his eyes from her. Just 
 before the end of the service the girl again shpped away 
 quietly through the crowd, and then ran away very quickly, 
 took off her beautiful dress, laid it nicely in the box, and then 
 went into the kitchen, where she found the dinner quite ready. 
 When the stepmother and her daughter came home, they were 
 more astonished than before : the millet was gathered up, the 
 dinner was ready, and everjrthing was in perfect order. 
 They wondered very much how the poor Peppeluga managed 
 to do it ! 
 
 On the third Sunday the stepmother and her daughter 
 dressed themselves as richly as they could to go to church. 
 Before leaving, the stepmother said to Peppeluga : "If you 
 do not gather all these seeds, which I have by chance over- 
 thrown over the floor, and if you have not the dinner ready 
 by our return from the church I will kill you ! " Peppeluga 
 seemed not troubled at all. She now confidently ran to the 
 grave of her mother and there the box was already waiting 
 open with two doves at its Ud. The doves told her to dress 
 
 19 —(3397) 
 
278 APPENDIX 
 
 herself and go to church, and to have no care about the millet, 
 or dinner or an5rthing else. 
 
 This time she brought out of the box a wonderful dress 
 made of pure gold. She dressed herself and went to the 
 church where again all the people looked at her and admired 
 her exceedingly, as they never before saw such a beauty and 
 so richly dressed. Now the King's son had resolved not to 
 let her slip away as before, but to follow her and see where 
 she was living. So before the service was nearing the end, when 
 he saw that she left, he quickly followed her. But outside 
 the church the crowd was so great that he could not reach 
 her to speak to her, as he wished. And Mary again pushing 
 through the crowd in her hurry lost the golden sUpper from 
 her right foot, which the King's son was lucky enough to find. 
 The girl having reached her father's house, took off her golden 
 dress, laid it neatly in the box, and went immediately to the 
 fire in the kitchen. 
 
 Now the King's son was more than ever in love with the 
 beautiful girl whom he saw three Sundays in the church, and 
 whose golden slipper showed him what a tiny and beautiful 
 foot she had. He was determined to find her. He therefore 
 went all over the kingdom of his father from town to town, 
 from place to place, inviting all the girls to come to try the 
 golden slipper. But all his efforts seemed to be doomed to 
 failure : the golden slipper would not fit the foot of any 
 girl who presented herself to try it. The King's son to be 
 surer in his seeirch went himself from house to house, and 
 at last came to the house of Peppeluga's father. Her step- 
 mother, hearing that the King's son was coming, took her 
 stepdaughter to a distant comer of the yard, ordered her to 
 he down, and covered her with a big trough, and told her not 
 to come out of that hiding place if she wished not to be killed, 
 until she — the stepmother — came to release her. 
 
 Now when the King's son entered the house he asked if in 
 the family there was not one or several girls. The Peppeluga's 
 stepmother said that there was only one girl in the family, 
 her own daughter, and presented the girl to the King's son. 
 But when the girl tried the golden shpper, it was found that 
 it was too small even for her toes. Then the King's son 
 
APPENDIX 279 
 
 asked : " Did you not say that this was the only young lady 
 in the house ? " " Certainly ! " answered the stepmother, 
 " this, my daughter, is the only young lady in the house ! " 
 But at that very moment the cock, walking with his hens in 
 the yard, suddenly flew up and perched himself on the wash- 
 trough and crowed out : " Cock-a-doodle-doo ! there is a 
 girl under this wash-trough ! " 
 
 The stepmother shouted angrily " Go away ! Go away ! 
 May the hawk fly away with you ! " But the King's son 
 hurried up to the wash-trough, lifted it up, and — ^what did he 
 see there ? The same girl, who had been in the church, in the 
 same golden clothes in which she appeared the third time there, 
 but lying under the wash-trough and with only one sUpper on ! 
 When the King's son saw her, he nearly lost his senses for a 
 moment, so very glad he was. Then he quickly tried to place 
 the golden slipper on the girl's right foot, and it fitted her 
 exactly, besides perfectly matching with the other slipper on 
 her left foot. Then he took her away with him to his palace 
 and married her. 
 
 TYOSSA AND DYAVO 
 
 [" Tyossa and Dyavo " (" The Beardless Peasant and the 
 Devil "), is one of the most popular stories told at the Servian 
 village meetings. It is an interesting tj^je of a popular tale. 
 It is full of farcical impossibihties which remind strongly of 
 Baron Munchausen's astounding stories. " Tyossa " is the 
 personification of the Servian peasant's shrewdness, craft and 
 sharpness. His bold imagination is quite remarkable. His 
 imscrupulous lying is forgiven to him, and almost admired, 
 because it ends in the victory over the Devil. There are two 
 versions of this story : in one the race in telling hes is made 
 between a peasant boy and the Tyossa, finishing with the 
 victory of the boy ; in the other — the more popular one — 
 the lying contest is between the Devil and the Beardless 
 Peasant. We reproduce this second version.] 
 
280 APPENDIX 
 
 There lived once in a village a peasant, whom all the people 
 called " Tyossa," because he had no hair growing on his face 
 and no mustachio on his upper lip. One evening he took a 
 sack of wheat on his shoulders and marched to the next mill 
 to have his wheat ground into flour. For some reason or 
 other the miller was not in the mill, but the Devil himself was 
 there. Tyossa recognised him but was not alarmed in the 
 shghtest way. " Good evening," he said quietly, " where 
 is the miller ? " " I am the miller ! " answered the Devil. 
 " What ? You are the miller ? " exclaimed Tyossa, aston- 
 ished. But quickly he regained his coolness : " Anyhow, 
 I should hke to know if I could grind my wheat this night 
 in this mill ? " " Certainly ! " answered the Devil. " I make 
 only one condition : while the wheat is ground into the flour, 
 we two will tell to each other stories and whose story is more 
 wonderful, he will be entitled to all the flour ground from your 
 wheat ! " 
 
 Tyossa did not like this proposal. He knew well that this 
 was the last sack of wheat which he had, and if he should lose 
 it, what would he do ? And he thought it rather risky for him 
 to compete with the Devil in telling stories. " Oh, no ! I 
 really dare not accept your condition I Good-night ! " 
 
 And the Tyossa took again on his back his sack of wheat, 
 and marched away towards the next mill. The Devil took a 
 short cut, and appeared suddenly in the next mill. The 
 miller, seeing the Devil coming, was so frightened that he 
 with his men ran away, leaving the mill in the possession of 
 the Devil. 
 
 When Tyossa with his load of wheat arrived, he was poUtely 
 received at the threshold by the Devil. " What the Devil, 
 you are again here ? " Tyossa exclaimed, very much aston- 
 ished ? "I do not understand you ! " said the Devil ; " I am 
 not again here, but being the proprietor of this mill I am 
 always here ! " " But I thought I saw you in that first mill 
 a little lower ! " " Oh, I see, you have been at the mill of my 
 twin-brother ! Well, then, what do you want ? " " It seems 
 then," said Tyossa, " that the devils have taken to the 
 profession of millers I " " But that is no new thing ; there 
 is no use for you going further, because my brothers have 
 
APPENDIX 281 
 
 taken the possession of all the miUs in this neighbourhood ! " 
 " Well, then ! " said Tyossa, resigned, " could I grind my 
 wheat here to-night ? " " Yes, certainly ! Only one con- 
 dition I put to you : while the wheat is ground, we will tell 
 each other lies, tiie most remarkable of which will get all your 
 ground wheat as prize ! " 
 
 " As you are the Tsar of all the lies, I see what will be the 
 end of such a contest ! But what am I to do ? As all the 
 mills in this covmtry are taken by you and your brothers in 
 lease, I had better stop here and take my chance with you ! " 
 So said Tyossa, and then, assisted by the Devil, placed his 
 wheat imder the grinding stones, while they both took places 
 around a blazing fire. 
 
 The Devil then commenced to tell quite a series of extra- 
 ordinary stories, one lie more astounding than the other. 
 Tyossa listened to them quietly without betraying the sUghtest 
 sign of wonder or astonishment. The Devil had so many 
 lies to tell that Tyossa's wheat was already ground before 
 he finished. They placed the flour in the sack, after having 
 taken some to make a " pogacha " (flat unyeasted bread). 
 While this one was baking, Tyossa began and continued his 
 own story. 
 
 " Your stories are no doubt very clever and extraordinary, 
 and in perfect harmony with your well-known character," he 
 said to the Devil," but after all they could hardly compare with 
 several real incidents of my own life ! In my young days when 
 I was an old man, we had many bee-hives in our garden, 
 and it was my business to count them every morning. Now 
 I alwa3rs counted all the thousands of bees very easily and 
 correctiy, but I never could count the bee-hives ! One 
 morning, whilst counting the bees, I noticed that the principal 
 bee was missing. I immediately went to the poultry yard, 
 chose the best cock, saddled him and bridled him, and, 
 mounting him, I started on a long journey in search of my bee. 
 I followed its trace across the fields and mountains up to the 
 sea-shore. I had some difiiculty to make my cock carry me 
 across the sea, but after all it was accomplished. When I got 
 over, I saw that a man had caught my bee, bound it to a 
 plough, and was ploughing a field with it, in which he was 
 
282 APPENDIX 
 
 about to sow millet. I shouted to the man : ' Why hast 
 thou caught my bee ? I want thee to return it to me at once 
 and to pay me for having used it in ploughing thy fields ! ' 
 And the man said : ' Well, brother, if it is thy bee, here it 
 is ! ' And he gave me back my bee, and also a sack of millet. 
 I fastened the sack on my back, transferred the saddle from 
 the cock to the bee, mounted it, and led the cock behind me 
 that he might rest a Uttle. But whilst I was crossing the sea 
 somehow one of the strings of the sack broke, and all the millet 
 fell into the water ! When I had got over, it was already 
 night, so I dismounted, took off the saddle, and let the bee 
 free to graze. The cock I fastened near me, and gave him 
 some hay, after which I lay down to sleep. 
 
 " When I awoke in the morning, I found the wolves had 
 killed my bee and eaten it up, and the honey from it was 
 lying all about the valley ankle-deep, while on the hills it lay 
 knee-deep. Then I considered, how shall I gather all that 
 mass of honey from my bee ! As I had a little axe with me, 
 I went into the forest to try to kill some beast, in order to 
 make a sack from its skin. In the forest I saw two deer 
 dancing on one leg, so I cut their leg with my little axe and 
 caught them both. From the two deer I drew three skins and 
 made four big bags, wherein I gathered up all the honey. 
 I put the bags with the honey on the cock's back, and hastened 
 home. 
 
 " When I reached home I found that my father had just 
 been bom. There was a great joy at the arrival of the baby 
 and at my own safe return. But my grandmother said to me : 
 ' You have not a minute to rest ! You must go at once to the 
 heavens to fetch some holy water for the first bath of yotir 
 father, the baby ! ' There was nothing to be done but to go ! 
 I went, wondering when, where and how to reach the heavens. 
 When I arrived at the sea-coast I noticed to my intense 
 pleasure that the millet which on my return fell from my sack 
 into the sea had grown and by its top reached the bottom of 
 the sky. I immediately began to chmb up a stalk of millet 
 and succeeded in entering the heavens. After roaming for some 
 time about the heavens at last I met a saint who gave me some 
 holy water for the bath of the baby, my father. Returning 
 
APPENDIX 283 
 
 to the opening through which I came in cUmbing up the millet 
 stalks, I found to my horror that someone had reaped the 
 millet, and not a single stalk remained by which I could let 
 myself down to the earth ! StiU undaunted, I took off my 
 long belt, fastened one end of it securely to the floor of the 
 heaven, and began to let myself down. Of course, very soon 
 I was at the other end of the belt, hanging between the sky 
 and the earth ! What on earth was I to do then ? 
 
 " It would certainly have puzzled me what to do if I had 
 been in your place ! " said the Devil to Tyossa. 
 
 " Yes, it was rather a puzzUng situation ! " continued 
 Tyossa. " Then the thought occurred to me that as I have 
 long hair — so long that when I stand upright it reaches 
 down to the ground, and when I sit down it reaches to my ears 
 — I might utilise it in this emergency. So I took my knife 
 and cut one hair after another, and tied them together as 
 I went down them. Meanwhile it grew dark, so I tied a knot 
 in the slender rope of my hair, intending to rest on that knot 
 through the night. As it was very cold I wanted some fire. 
 I had a tinder-box with me, but I had no wood ! Then 
 I remembered that in my hat I had a sewing-needle ; I quickly 
 found it, cut it in pieces, and made a great fire, and, when I was 
 well warmed, laid myself down near the fire to sleep. Being 
 tired enough, I slept soundly. Unfortunately a spark of fire 
 set the slender rope made of my hair in flames, burnt it 
 through and head over heels I fell down to the ground. I fell 
 from such a terrible height that I sank into the earth up to 
 my girdle. I looked about to see how I could get out, and 
 seeing no help near, I ran home for a spade, and came back 
 and dug myself out. Then I took the holy water to my grand- 
 mother, and she gave the first bath to her newly bom baby, 
 my father. My grandmother sent me then to the field to see 
 how the labourers were progressing with the harvest. I found 
 them working hard under a burning sun, perspiring profusely, 
 and almost fainting. Then I shouted to them : ' But why 
 do you not bring our mare here, which is two days long and 
 a day and a half broad, and on whose back large trees are 
 growing ? Bring her at once that in her shade you may feel 
 cooler ! ' And so they did. But they continued to be thirsty. 
 
284 APPENDIX 
 
 I then took a vessel to fetch some water from the river. 
 Unfortmiately, the river was frozen, and I had to take off my 
 head to break the thick ice with it. That accompUshed, I filled 
 the vessel with water and carried it to the thirsty reapers of 
 the harvest. When they saw me they all shouted : ' But 
 where is your head ? ' I raised up my hand to feel if my 
 head was not there in its place on my shoulders. Alas, there 
 could be no mistake about it, my head was not on my shoul- 
 ders ! I remembered then that I left it on the ice while I was 
 fiUing the vessel with water. I rushed back to the river. To 
 my horror I saw a fox had taken possession of my head and 
 tried to break it and to shake out all the brains that there 
 were. I took a stone and threw it at the fox, which ran away. 
 I ran after him until I saw him drop a Uttle letter from his tail. 
 I opened it and read written in big letters : ' Leave the Ues 
 to the Devil, and let Tyossa carry away his well-merited flour 
 and pogacha ! ' " 
 
 And Tyossa, suiting his action to his words, snatched the 
 well-baked pogacha, took the sack with the flour on his back, 
 and went away. 
 
oi 
 
 o 
 
 "-a 
 
IV 
 STATISTICAL INFORMATION ABOUT SERVIA 
 
 Area. — ^The Kingdom of Servia has an area of 48,302-6 
 square kilometres, or 4,830,260 hectares, or in Enghsh 
 measurements, 18,757 square miles. 
 
 Of this area belongs : 
 
 (1) To the private persons, cor- 
 
 porations, municipahties 2,526,684 hectares 
 
 (2) To the nation as represented 
 
 by the State .. .. 2,303,576 „ 
 
 Total . . 4,830,260 
 
 Population. — Last census was made on the last day of 
 December, 1905. It was found that on that day the 
 population numbered altogether 2,688,747 inhabitants. 
 
 Rural and Town Population : 
 
 (1) The inhabitants of the towns 
 
 number .. .. 408.339 
 
 (2) The inhabitants of the villages 
 
 number .. .. 2,280,408 
 
 Total . . 2,688,747 inhabitants. 
 
 It could be justly said that Servia is a kingdom composed of 
 peasants. 
 
 Total nmnber of famiUes amounts to 375,196. 
 
 Of that number only 67,076 families hve in towns, and the 
 rest of 308,120 families hve in villages. 
 
 285 
 
286 APPENDIX 
 
 Division of Property in Land. — Of 375,196 families, of 
 which Servia's population consists, not less than 293,421 
 families have some landed property. 
 
 Of 67,076 living in towns 20,253 families have immovable 
 property, and of 308,120 families living in villages not fewer 
 than 273,168 families are proprietors of some land. 
 
 Far the greatest number of landed properties are small in 
 extent. It could be said that Servia's village population 
 consists mainly of small proprietors. There are now in Servia : 
 
 71,633 proprietors who own less than 2 hectares (about 5 
 
 acres) of land 
 98,742 „ „ „ from 2 to 5 hectares 
 
 121,604 „ „ „ „ 5 to 20 „ 
 
 11.359 „ „ „ „ 20 to 100 „ 
 
 83 ,, „ ,, more than 100 „ 
 
 The Productive and Unproductive Areas. — Of the total 
 area of Servia in 4,830,260 hectares. 
 The productive areas occupy not 
 less than . . . . . . 3,525,903 hectares 
 
 The unproductive areas occupy . . 1,304,352 „ 
 
 Roughly, 75 per cent, of the entire area is productive, and 
 25 per cent, unproductive. 
 
 But the area of the productive land is increasing constantly, 
 
 as can be seen from this table, showing the fresh ground 
 taken under cultivation in recent years : 
 
 In the year 1901 . . . . . . 53,850 hectares 
 
 „ „ ,.1902 51,740 
 
 .. ., .,1903 79,878 .. 
 
 „ .. „ 1904 27,864 
 
 During those four years on an average 53,335 hectares or 
 131,790 acres have been annually added to the cultivated area. 
 
 The productive ground is composed of : 
 Cultivated land .. 1,716,571 hectares 
 
 Pastures . . . . . . 292,332 
 
 Forests .. .. .. 1,519,000 
 
 Total .. 3,525,903 
 
APPENDIX 
 
 287 
 
 The cultivated land is occupied in this way : 
 
 . . 1,222,057 hectares 
 
 Cornfields occupied in 1904 
 Meadows ,, „ 
 
 Orchards „ „ 
 
 Vineyards „ „ 
 
 Total 
 
 309,261 
 
 151,377 
 
 33,876 
 
 1,716,571 
 
 In what extent and proportion the more important of 
 agricultural products have been cultivated by the Servian 
 peasants can be seen from the following list, showing the area 
 occupied in 1904 by different cultures : 
 
 Maize . . 
 
 . 540,890 hectares 
 
 Wheat . . 
 
 . 366,399 
 
 
 Oats .. 
 
 . 104,868 
 
 
 Barley . . 
 
 . 98,998 
 
 
 Rye 
 
 45.120 
 
 
 Other cereals 
 
 6,169 
 
 
 Hemp . . 
 
 13,459 
 
 
 Potatoes 
 
 10,629 
 
 
 Beans . . 
 
 7,564 
 
 
 Cabbage 
 
 7,288 
 
 
 Clover . . 
 
 5,960 
 
 
 Onions . . 
 
 4,154 
 
 
 Garhc . . 
 
 3,727 
 
 
 Tobacco 
 
 2,507 
 
 
 Flax .. 
 
 1,417 
 
 
 From this table it will be clearly seen that maize, wheat, 
 oats and barley are the principal cereals cidtivated by the 
 Servian peasant. Beans are indicated with 7,564 hectares, 
 but this shows only the extent of fields sown exclusively with 
 beans. In reaUty the production of beans is far more exten- 
 sive, inasmuch as many peasants sow beans together with the 
 maize. Beans and cabbage form almost exclusively the food 
 of the people during the four fasts of the year, each fast lasting 
 from four to six weeks. The Servians are very fond of onions, 
 garhc and capsicum (paprika). 
 
288 APPENDIX 
 
 Orchards. — ^An area of 151,377 hectares was in the year 
 1904 under the orchards. They are formed principally of 
 plum-trees. Other fruit-trees are : apples, pears, walnuts. 
 
 In the just-mentioned year Servia had : 
 
 Apple-trees.. .. .. .. 1,031,656 
 
 Pear-trees .. .. .. .. 690,656 
 
 Walnut-trees .. .. .. 508,719 
 
 Vineyards. — ^The area of vineyards heis been, in conse- 
 quence of the devastation by phylloxera, considerably reduced 
 within the last twenty years. Of old vineyards have remained 
 only 10,800 hectares. New vineyards planted by American 
 vine are on the increase : from 1,434 hectares in 1900 they 
 have extended to 6,239 hectares in 1904. 
 
 Quantity and Value of the Agricultural Production 
 PER Annum. — ^From the year 1900 to 1904 inclusive the 
 average quantity of the agricultural products was : 
 
 (1) Cereals . . 12,535,358 met. cwts. 
 
 or 11-33 
 
 (2) Vegetables 751,785 „ „ 
 
 33-33 
 
 (3) Hay .... 4,643,072 „ „ 
 
 1508 
 
 (4) Grapes . . 218,388 „ „ 
 
 514 
 
 (5) Fruit . . 4,362,473 .. „ 
 
 33-59 
 
 Together 22,561,076 „ „ 
 
 13-97 
 
 The plum-tree orchards gave on an average 3,584,079 
 metric hundredweights, or from each hectare planted with 
 them 26- 50 metric hundredweights. 
 
 An apple-tree gives on an average 40 kilogrammes, or about 
 100 English poimds, of fruit ; a pear-tree about the same, 
 but a walnut-tree only 25 kilogrammes, or about 75 English 
 pounds. 
 
APPENDIX 
 
 289 
 
 The average value of the agricultural products from 1900 
 to 1904 inclusive was : 
 
 Cereals 
 Vegetables 
 Hay .. 
 Fruit 
 Grapes 
 
 Total 
 
 111,475,928 francs 
 
 7,850,080 „ 
 
 21,592,388 „ 
 
 35,895,365 „ 
 
 12,438,622 ., 
 
 189,252,883 
 
 One hectare of the cultivated land brought on an average 
 117 francs per annum, which is Uttle. The value of the 
 agricultural production amounts to 73 francs per inhabitant, 
 which proves that that production is far from being intense. 
 The Servian peasant is intelligent, and although not exactly 
 hardworking, he is quite wilhng to work. But he lacks better 
 knowledge and more capital. 
 
 For the same period, 1900-1904, the average value of the 
 quantity produced of different sorts of products was : 
 
 francs 
 
 Maize 
 
 .. 44,867,320 fcs., or per hectare, 87 
 
 Wheat ... 
 
 .. 34,794,861 „ 
 
 105 
 
 Barley ... 
 
 . . 5,934,086 „ 
 
 68 
 
 Oats 
 
 . . 4,445,345 ., 
 
 45 
 
 Rye 
 
 2,297,496 „ 
 
 57 
 
 Beans . . . 
 
 2,904,440 „ 
 
 110 
 
 Hemp . . . 
 
 . . 3,964,972 „ 
 
 307 
 
 Flax 
 
 512,322 „ 
 
 423 
 
 Tobacco.. 
 
 927,390 .. 
 
 493 
 
 Potatoes . . 
 
 . . 2,272,255 „ 
 
 247 
 
 Cabbage . . 
 
 . . 2,968,032 „ 
 
 435 
 
 GarUc 
 
 . . 1,247,534 ., 
 
 aas 
 
 Onions 
 
 1,302,259 „ 
 
 510 
 
 The average quantity of grapes produced by vineyards 
 planted with American vine has been valued at 1,328 francs 
 per hectare, whereas the old vineyards gave only 535 francs 
 per hectare. 
 
290 APPENDIX 
 
 Servia's Wealth in Cattle. — ^According to the census of 
 1905 the number of Uve stock of Servia was as follows : 
 
 Cattle 943,967 or nearly 35 per 100 inhabitants 
 
 Horses 172,278 
 
 Pigs ■. 875,517 32-22 „ 
 
 Sheep 3,066,444 112-85,, „ • 
 
 Goats 432,067 
 
 According to their market price of that year they repre- 
 sented the following values : 
 Cattle 
 Horses 
 
 Pigs 
 
 Sheep 
 
 Goats 
 
 about 96,000,000 frcs. 
 
 22,000,000 „ 
 
 25,000,000 „ 
 
 „ 21,000,000 „ 
 
 3,000,000 „ 
 
 Total value of livestock .. „ 167,000,000 
 
 Of 401,036 famiUes, composing the population of Servia in 
 1900, 303,706 families have had some cattle, and 97,330 have 
 had no cattle at all. 
 
 The average value of the cattle for each of the families, 
 who possessed cattle, was 55882 frcs., or about £22 per family. 
 It has been found that in the villages of every 100 famihes 
 only about fifteen were without any Uve stock. 
 
 The nimiber of pigs is somewhat decreasing. Their number 
 was : 
 
 In 1890 .. .. .. 908,693 
 
 „ 1895 .. .. .. .. 907,446 
 
 „ 1900 .. .. .. .. 959,580 
 
 ,,1905 875,517 
 
 Poultry. — ^The census of poultry can hardly be called 
 exact. Such as it is, it showed the following results in 1905 : 
 Turkeys .. .. .. .. 177,171 
 
 Geese 
 
 Ducks 
 
 Fowls 
 
 Total 
 
 168,010 
 
 173,177 
 
 4,337,583 
 
 4,855,941 
 
APPENDIX 291 
 
 The Principal Articles of the Servian Export. — These 
 are : Cattle, pigs, cereals, dried prunes, raw hides. The 
 number of cattle eind pigs exported during the years 1903, 
 1904 and 1905 was as follows : 
 
 1903 1904 1905 
 
 Oxen 73,000 . . 58,648 . . 60,982 heads 
 
 Cows 9,000 .. 5,054 .. 10,160 „ 
 
 Fattened pigs 136,000 .. 177,173 .. 121,927 „ 
 
 The value of the exported cattle and pigs in those three 
 years : 
 
 Oxen 12,730,000.. 8,702,138.. 9,320,075 frcs. 
 
 Cows 873,000.. 501,920.. 1,063,235 „ 
 
 Fattened pigs 14,987,000. .14,913,530. .14,630,300 „ 
 
 Cattle &pigs 28,590,000 24,117,588 25,013,610 ,. 
 
 The export of the cereals in the same three years represented 
 the following values in francs : 
 
 1903 1904 1905 
 
 Wheat 5,766,000. . 12,772,147 11,659,089 frcs. 
 
 Maize 388,000.. 294,895.. 1,933,595 „ 
 
 Barley 1,007,000.. 900,602.. 1,846,757 „ 
 
 Other sorts of 
 com 911,000.. 837,135.. 1,055,752 „ 
 
 Total value 8,072,000 14,804,779 16,494,893 
 
 Values of the exported fruit : 
 
 Fresh fruit .. 1,066,000.. 1,479,000.. 1,988,849 frcs. 
 
 Dried prunes. 5,014,000. . 6,274,000. . 8,556,347 „ 
 
 Plum jam ... 1,980,000.. 3,070,078.. 5,526,361 „ 
 
 Other fruit .. 126,000.. 99,747.. 200,116 „ 
 
 Total value 8,186,000 10,922,825 14,271,673 
 
292 APPENDIX 
 
 The total value of the entire export of Servian products was 
 in the last four years in francs : 
 
 1903 . . . . 59,967,404 francs 
 
 1904 .. .. .. 62,156,066 „ 
 
 1905 .. .. .. 71,996,274 .. 
 
 1906 71,599,839 „ 
 
 Up to the year 1907 there was no direct export of Servian 
 products to England. 
 
 Far the largest part of the Servian export goes to Austria- 
 Hungary. In 1905 of the entire value of the Servian export 
 in 71,996,274 frcs., not less than 64,712,406 frcs. were received 
 from Austria-Hungary for Servian products. In consequence 
 of the tariff conflict between Servia and Austria-Hungary, 
 the export of the Servian products to the neighbouring 
 monarchy in 1906 fell to 31,272,490 frcs. But at the same 
 time the export to Germany rose from 2,116,800 frcs. in 1905 
 to 19,053,882 frcs. in 1906. 
 
 The Value of the Imported Goods into Servia. — ^The 
 
 value of the Servian imports in 1902, 1903 and 1904 was as 
 
 follows : 
 
 . ^ . 1902 1903 1904 
 
 From Austna- 
 
 Hungary. . . .25,018,998. .35,362,873. .36,588,709 frcs. 
 
 From an other 
 
 countries . .19,801,756. .22,872,389. .24,372,697 „ 
 
 Value of the 
 
 total import 44,820,754 58,235,262 60.926,406 „ 
 
INDEX 
 
 (Numbers indicate pages.) 
 
 Anecdotes, Servian popular, 
 115-133 
 
 Badnyak, Christmas log, 98, 
 100, 104 
 
 Badnyi dan, the day before 
 Christmas, 96 
 
 Ban, Mateeya, Servian drama- 
 tist, 228 
 
 BoGOOMiL, Bulgarian priest, 
 founder of the Sect Bogoomili, 
 46 
 
 BoGOOMiu, the first Protestants 
 in the Balkans, 47 
 
 BojiOAR Vookovich, first Ser- 
 vian printer, 210 
 
 Brankovich, Vook, supposed 
 traitor at the battle of 
 Kossovo, 172, 176, 182, 184 
 
 Branko (See Radichevich) 
 
 Cbtjtura-bearer, the whip and 
 jester at a wedding, 80 
 
 CONSTITtTTIONAL lustory Of 
 
 Servia, 26 
 
 Customs, national ; choosing the 
 ground for a house, 70 ; 
 marriage customs, 73 ; cele- 
 bration of the Patron Saint, 
 86 ; Zavetina, 95 ; Christmas 
 customs, 98 - 105 ; burial 
 customs, 106 
 
 Cyrillus and Methodius, Sla- 
 vonic Apostles, the translators 
 of the Bible into Slavonic, 206 
 
 Dabog, god of Sunshine with the 
 ancient Servians, 38 
 
 Dances, national, 193-197 
 
 Danichich Gyooro, famous Ser- 
 vian philologist and lexico- 
 grapher, 231 
 
 Danilo, Archbishop, author of 
 biographies of Kings, etc., 208 
 
 Dever, the leader of the bride 
 at a wedding, 79 
 
 Doda or DoDOLA, probably 
 goddess of rain, 39 
 
 DossiTHEY (See Obradovich) 
 
 Dramatists, Servian, 229 
 
 Economical features of Servia, 
 233-242 
 
 FoRDYCE, William, patron of 
 Dossithey Obradovich, while 
 this one was in London, a.d. 
 1785. 254 
 
 Gardens, Servian village gar- 
 dens and their flowers, 72 
 
 GoYKo, Voyvoda, uncle of Kral- 
 yevich Marko, 145 
 
 GuNDULicH, Ivan, the most 
 famous of the Servian poets 
 of Ragusa, 213. 
 
 Gyorgyich, Ignatius, Servian 
 poet of Dalmatia, 214 
 
 Gyoorgyevka, music of a 
 popular " Kolo," 196 
 
 293 
 
 ao— (a397) 
 
'294 
 
 INDEX 
 
 H 
 
 Halla, a female dragon, 60 
 Hectorovich, Peter, Servian 
 
 poet of Dalmatia, 212 
 Houses, Servian peasants', 71 
 Hydooks, members of the bands 
 
 which protected the people 
 
 against Turkish oppression, 
 
 7, 137 
 
 India, popular legend on the 
 " cursed country " India, 41- 
 43 
 
 K 
 
 Kara-george, the leader of the 
 first Servian rising against the 
 Turks. His election to the 
 leadership, 12 ; rejects the 
 title of the Prince, 14 ; leaves 
 Servia, 1813 ; his return and 
 assassination, 16 
 
 Karajich, Vook Stephanovich, 
 father of the modem Servian 
 literature, 139, 220 
 
 KoLO, Servian popular dance, 
 192 
 
 KooM, the principal witness at 
 the wedding, 79 
 
 Koritarka, a popular dance, 
 196 
 
 Kossovo, national poems on the 
 battle of Kossovo, 169 
 
 KosTiCH, Laza, Servian poet, 
 translator of Shakespeare, 
 226 
 
 Kralyevich, Marko, historic 
 person, 140 ; character sketch 
 by the national bards, 142- 
 144 ; decides against his 
 father and uncles for the right- 
 ful heir, 145-150 ; Marko and 
 the fairy Raveeyoyla, 151 ; 
 Marko and Moossa Kessejiya, 
 155 ; Marko abolishes the 
 wedding-tax, 163 
 
 Lada or Leda, goddess of love, 
 40 
 
 Lazar, Tsar, otherwise " Knez 
 Lazar," as historical person, 
 170 ; as creation of the 
 national bards, 172-184 
 
 Levie, John, and his wife, 
 friends and patrons of 
 Dossithey Obradovich, 250- 
 254 
 
 LuCHiCH, Hannibal, Servian 
 poet of Dalmatia, 211 
 
 M 
 
 Maid of Kossovo and Kralyevich 
 Marko, 163 ; Maid of Kossovo 
 and the Standard - bearer 
 Orlovich, 178 
 
 Maria, Blessed, and the Saints, 
 40 
 
 Marko Kralyevich {See Kral- 
 yevich Marko) 
 
 Marriage Customs, 74-86 
 
 Maruuch, Marko, Servian poet, 
 211 
 
 Melodies, Servian popular, 197 
 
 Methodius {See Cyrillus and 
 Methodius, 206) 
 
 Michael, Prince of Servia, 
 Obrenovich III, 21 
 
 Milan, King, Obrenovich, IV 
 22-24; 29 
 
 MiLiTSA, Tsaritsa, 6, 50 ; Militsa 
 and her two daughters, 173 ; 
 Militsa and her nine brothers, 
 178 
 
 MiLOSH, Obilich, hero of the 
 Kossovo Tragedy, 172, 176, 
 183 ; Richard Knolles on 
 Milosh, 186 
 
 MiLOSH, Obrenovich I, leader of 
 the second rising of the Ser- 
 vians against the Turks, 1815 ; 
 founder of the dynasty Obre- 
 novich ; his conflict with 
 Russia, his forced abdication ; 
 his second reign, 15-21 
 
 MiLOOTiNoviCH, Sima Sarayliya, 
 the most original of Servian 
 Poets, 223 
 
INDEX 
 
 295 
 
 MiosHicH, Andreas Kachich, 
 
 Servian poet of Dalmatia, 215 
 MoBA, voluntary co-operation 
 
 of the entire village to assist 
 
 poorer villagers in the time of 
 
 harvest, 237, 241 
 Monks, Servian, during the 
 
 Middle Ages, 45, 49 
 MoosHiTSKY, Looldyan, Abbot 
 
 and poet, 222 
 Mother of Nine Yoogovich, 
 
 ballad, 185 
 Music, Servian popular music, 
 
 188-199 
 Musical Instruments of the 
 
 Servians, 189 
 
 N 
 Nasraoin-Chodja, 117; 130-133 
 Nazarenes, the only religious 
 
 sect among the Servians, 53 
 Nbdelyko, the Archdeacon, 
 
 Court Chaplain to Tsar 
 
 Dooshan, 146 
 Nikola, Prince of Montenegro, 
 
 Servian Poet, 227 
 NiSHBVLYANKA, a popular 
 
 " Kolo " dance, music, 197 
 Nyegosh, Petar Petrovich, 
 
 Prince-Bishop of Montenegro, 
 
 the greatest of the Servian 
 
 modem poets, 224 
 
 Obilich. {See Milosh Obilich) 
 Obraoovich, Dossithey, Servian 
 
 author, 218; his impressions 
 
 of London, 243 
 OoGLYESHA, Despot, uucle of 
 
 Kralyevich Marko, 237 
 Opshtinski Kosr, municipal 
 
 com stores, 237 
 
 Palmotich, Ignatius, Servian 
 
 poet of Dalmatia, 214 
 Parties, political, of Servia, 31 
 Peasants as proprietors of land, 
 
 236 
 Pefpeluga, Servian Cinderella, 
 
 274 
 Peroon, god of Thunder, 38 
 Peroonica, the purple Iris, 
 
 sacred to Peroon, 39 
 
 Poets, Servian poets of Dal- 
 matia, 210 
 
 PoLAZNiK, the first visitor on the 
 Christmas morning, 104 
 
 PosKOCHiTSE, dancing exclama- 
 tions, 192 
 
 Priests, Servian, 45, 49, 117, 123 
 
 Progressists, as political party, 
 33 
 
 Radicals of Servia, 33 ; Inde- 
 pendents (Samostalci), 37 
 
 Radicbevich, Branko, Servian 
 poet, 233 
 
 Raich, Yovan, Servian his- 
 torian, 220 
 
 Raveeyoyla, the fairy, adopted 
 sister of Kralyevich M^ko, 
 59, 143 
 
 Religion, Old Servian, 38 
 
 Religious Sentiment of 
 Modem Servians, 50 
 
 Saint Sava, youngest son of the 
 Servian Grand Zupan Ste- 
 phan Nemanya, first Arch- 
 bishop of Servia, 41 ; special 
 patron of the schools, 97 ; 
 author, 206 
 Saints and the blessed Maria, 
 40 ; stories about Saints, 66-69 
 Samostalci, political party, 37 
 Scientists, Servian, 231 
 Servians, their immigration 
 into territories they now 
 occupy, 2 ; Servians under 
 the dynasty Nemanyich, 4 ; 
 under the Turkish rule, 7 ; 
 their first rising against the 
 Turks, 9 ; under Kara-George, 
 13 ; second rising, 15 ; first 
 reign of Prince Milosh Obre- 
 novich, 18 ; under Prince 
 Alexander Karageorgevich, 
 20 ; under the second reign of 
 the dynasty Obrenovich, 21 ; 
 Prince Michael assassinated, 
 22 ; King Milan's reign, 24 ; 
 King Alexander's cissassina- 
 tion, 26 
 
296 
 
 INDEX 
 
 Servian Literature, 206-232 
 Servian Novelists, 229 
 Servian Poets of Modern Time, 
 
 222 
 Servian Writers of Short 
 
 Stories, 230 
 Sharats, the famous piebald 
 
 charger of Kralyevich Marko, 
 
 59, 143 
 Socialists of Servia, 34 
 Stari Svat, the second witness 
 
 at the wedding, 79 
 Statistics, area, population, 
 
 divisions of property, export, 
 
 import, 256-273 
 Strahinya Ban, one of the 
 
 Servian heroes ; a specimen of 
 
 the Servian bards' poems, 256- 
 
 273 
 
 T 
 Tyossa, Servian beardless 
 peasant, who beat the devil 
 in story-telling, 279 
 
 Veela, the Fairy, 58 ; Veela 
 and Kralyevich Marko, 60 and 
 151 ; Veela Ussud, 63 
 
 Veshtitsa, the witch, 55 ; how 
 to recognise her, 56 ; the 
 witches' suppers, 57 
 
 VisHNYiCH Philip, the national 
 bard of the first and second 
 revolution against the Turks, 
 139 
 
 Vladimir and Kossara, the 
 oldest Servian novel, 209 
 
 VooKASHiN, King of Macedonia, 
 father of Kralyevich Marko, 
 145 
 
 VoYvoDA, the Commander of an 
 Army, 15 ; the Master of the 
 Ceremonies at a wedding, 80 ; 
 Duke, 145 
 
 Yakshich, Gyoora, modern 
 Servian poet, 226 
 
 Yevrossima, mother of Kralye- 
 vich Marko, 142, 147 
 
 YooG BoGDAN, father-in-law of 
 Tsar Lazar and of Strahinya 
 Ban, 175, 182 
 
 Zadrooga, family co-operative 
 
 association, 237-241 
 Zmay, the dragon, 61 
 Zmay Yovan Yovanovich, 
 
 Servian lyrical poet, 225 
 
 THE END. 
 
 Prmltd by Sir Isaac Pitman ami Sons, LU., Bath. 
 (2397)