15 AUGUST 1874, Page 18

SERBIAN FOLK-LORE.*

A ntanre of interest seems to be aroused as to the whole many- aided question of distinct forms of Folk-Lore, which certainly bears no proportion to the apparent value of the tales themselves ; and we attribute it mainly to an increasing desire to discover how large a portion of the human family can claim close consinship. Those of us who have had the same lullabies crooned over our cradles, have listened open-eyed and open-mouthed to the same impossible feats of giants and monsters, and had our thimtfor some- thing quite on taide our ken assuaged at the same fountain, may surely claim a kinship whose roots strike deeper than the mere accidents of time and place. Here, for instance, is a province few of us have visited, peopled by a race who have overspread the country much beyond their proper home (probably a large propor- tion of the Serbs are now in Hungary). Really of Sclavonic origin, yet through the mixture of races, the land having been occupied by Thrricians, Romans, and Ostrogoths before being finally conquered by a Sclavonic tribe, their language possesses a greater softness than is common to Sclavonic dia- lects, while no known circumstances concerning the history of the people exactly explain some of the facts of their folk-lore. For instance, as Mr. Denton, in -his introduction to this work, points out, "had some of these tales been the original fancies of Scla- vonic minstrels and story-tellers, they would not have been gar- nished with crocodiles, alligators, elephants, and the fauna and flora of Hindostan ; the germ of such stories must have existed before the Slave made his home in Europe." We do not agree with Mr. Denton that "such accessories are sufficient proof that the tales themselves could not have been indigenous to the banks of the Danube, but must have been brought thither by a race- which had migrated from a more Southern and Eastern home," but the mass of- evidence distinctly points to that conclusion. But it is, as he observes, far easier to trace the structural growth of these tales, how they were gradually lengthened out by the requirements • Serbian Folk-Lore: Popular Tales. Selected and Trtnelated by Diadems Csedomille Mijatovies. Edited by the fiat, W. Denton, M.A. London : W. lebister sad Co. 1874. of place or time, and the special necessities of the narrator or his audience. The real difficulty is "to determine the motive of the original story." Much useless labour has been expended in giving fanciful interpretations to tales the real origin of which is hidden in impenetrable obscurity. It is quite possible to overlay a story with such a mass of interpretation that the small original nucleus of fact, which probably was some bit of very patent history, reli- gious or secular, shall be entirely lost sight of. As Mr. Becoming somewhat irreverently puts it :— a And yet, and yet, yet; fifty times over, Pharaoh received no demonstration By his Baker's dream of Baskets Threo, Of the doctrine of the Trinity,—

Although, as our preacher thus embellished it, Apparently his hearers relished it With so unfeigned a gust,—who knows if They did not prefer our friend to Joseph ?"

So in many a story the truth in the original has probably been some fact patent to the narrator and his audience ; but as the history which at first surrounded it became dim through remote'.

ness, the incidents were changed from time to time for those better understood by the listeners, and therefore appealing more

readily to their sympathies. Let any one try the experiment of telling the same story to two very distinct groups of children, and if he be a man of quick perception himself, the chances are ten to one he will make his story assume two quite dis- tinct forms, while retaining the main thread. We do not, however, absolutely endorse Mr. Denton's statement, that the large number of tales which compose the popular literature of the world are but evidence of the skill with which these scanty materials have been combined by folk-teachers. " The literature of a nation," he says, " is, after all, but the combination of some twenty-five sounds and letters." That sentence is more epigram- matic than true, since the medium of expression is radically not the cause, but the result of there being something to express. But we must look a little into the details of the special form of story-telling before us. One curious little fact we find noted, as to the telling of these folk-stories in Serbia. Prose is the vehicle for tales related by the women ; rhythm the prerogative of men. This " Homeric feature' of Serb customs is now dying out, with other national peculiarities, but is far from being dead ; and Mr. Denton observes that it is not only the glories of the past that are thus narrated. Tedious debates in the national Parliament, with the arguments of the various speakers, have so lately as 1870 been made the subject of a long song or poem, recited in the open air before the villagers, assembled to hear the course and result of the debate. And it may have been in a similar way, remarks Mr. Denton, that the Prince of story-tellers made known the military and naval incidents, the contentions of mighty chiefs, the debates before the tent of Agamemmon or in the Council-house of Troy. At any rate, he says, we know how a Serbian Homer would naturally have communicated to his countrymen all the details of meetings at the council-board and skirmishes in the plain, which diversified the history of a siege in the varying fortunes of which their interest was enlisted.

While rejecting any overstraining of the theory of symbolism as applied to these tales, we must consider that without some such explanation the greater number are pure rubbish, nearly as pure rubbish indeed, at times, as if the combina- tion of five-and-twenty letters, of which Mr. Denton speaks, had been effected by some nineteenth-century medium. One of the best stories in the volume before us is the tale of the " Animals as Friends and Enemies." We do not remember to have seen this in any similar form before,—though of course the " Mouse and the Lion" and the story of Androcles rise up at once, but the fable in both these is on a small scale compared to the one before us. In this a young but poor nobleman, having little but his good horse and trusty hound, supports himself by the chase. As the story proceeds, almost every animal of the forest has become his faithful retainer. The skill with which their various powers are used in an emergency is extremely well told,—as, for instance, when contending with an opposing army, the nobleman, having only his animals for soldiers, the mice and moles, by their over- powering numbers, contrive to work more effectual destruction than even the bears and wolves; and then, besides, we have the introduction of a wonderful, impossible bird, called the " Kumre- kusha," which does delightful things, and is quite sufficient in itself to make the whole story dear to a juvenile audience. Then we have a legend of St. George and the Dragon, very beautifully and simply told, from the moment when the saints assembled together, divided amongst themselves the treasures of the world, and "the beautiful summer, with all its wealth of flowers, fell to the lot of St. George," till the hour when the Holy Lady Mary, to whom was committed the charge of the law- less country of the cursed Trojan, that she might bring it to a state of peace and establish therein the true religion, fails signally in that mission, though sending the people warn- ing after warning in the shape of pestilence and famine, till St. George delivers the people from their life-long dread, wins their love, and dictates their faith. The golden-fleeced ram loses none of its interest in the mouth of the Serbian story-teller. Indeed, the King's reflection when he sees his enemy whose head had been cut off come to life again, that now he will know more than. ever he did, and his consequent resolution to have his own head cut off that he may have the benefit of like experience, strikes us as unique. A rather subtle morsel of satire lurks in "The Dream of the King's Son," wherein the hero con- ceals his golden horse under a donkey's hide, to the bewilder- ment of those who witness his wonderful feats. "The Biter Bit" is a good story, indeed the passage where the old father seeks his son, who has been transformed by the giant into a bird,'strikes us .as having in it an unusual element of beauty :— The giant brought out a tray on which stood a sparrow, a turtle- dove, and a quail, and said to the old man, Now, if you can tell which of these is your son, you may take him away.' The poor old father looked intently at the three birds, one after the other, and over and over again, but at last he was forced to own that he could not tell which of them was his son. So he was obliged to go away by himself, and was far more miserable than before. He had hardly, however, got half-way home when he thought he would go back to the river and take one of the birds which he remembered had looked at him intently. When he reached the river Luckless he was again met by the black giant, who brought out the tray again, and placed on it this time a partridge, a titmouse, and a thrush, saying, 'Now, my old man, find out which is your son !' The anxious father again looked at one bird after the other, but he felt more uncertain than before, and so, crying bitterly, again went sway. Just as the old man was going through a forest, which was between the river Luckless and his house, an old woman met him, and said, ' Stop a moment ! Where are you hurrying to ? And why are you in such trouble?' Now the old man was so deeply musing over his great zuthappiness, that he did not at first attend to the old woman ; but she dollowed him, calling after him and repeating her questions with more earnestness. So he stopped at last, and told her what a terrible mis- fortune had fallen upon him. When the old woman had listened to the whole story, she said cheerfully, `Don't be cast down ! Don't be afraid I Co back again to the river, and, when the giant brings out the three birds, look into their eyes sharply. When you see that one of the birds has a tear in one of its eyes, seize that bird and hold it fast, for it has a human soul."

But stories of this kind are utterly spoiled by condensation, so that we refrain from further extracts, but commend the collection itself to all lovers of folk-lore.