Page:Christian Greece and Living Greek.djvu/42

 20 CHRISTIAN GREECE AND LIVING GREEK. first time a Klepht song, sung by some sons of the mountains who were passing by. I was spellbound, and it seemed to me' as if these voices which I heard and the sympathetic ex- pression of the words, when compared with the songs heard from artists at an opera, were as much more genuine as the surrounding nature was superior to the painted scenery of the stage. The song I listened to was the following: " Why are the mountains dark and threatening? Is it because the wind shakes them, because the rain strikes them? It is not the wind that shakes them, it is not the rain that pours down ; it is Charon (death) passing with the dead. He chases the young before him, the old are forced to follow him, and the children of tender age he has grouped on his saddle. (There being no rivers in the mountains, the Klepht poets have represented Charon as a horseman.) The aged beg of him, the young fall on their knees before him: Stay, O death, near a village, stay near a fresh spring, that the old may quench their thirst, that the young may throw the stone (disk), and that the children may gather flowers. I shall not rest at a village nor stay at a fresh spring. The mothers would come to fetch water and would meet their children, the spouses