Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 25, 1914.djvu/109

 Collectanea. 97

and skirts of home-spun material, dyed in many colours, either a man's shirt or a white cotton bodice with bright embroidery at throat and wrist, and over this, on great occasions, ornamental stays of velvet, somewhat resembling those of the Ty^o^^se, and for ornament strings of beads. Further south, the men have a somewhat more distinctive national dress, consisting of a small round grey cap with a wide turn-up, and a pale grey woollen coat, gathered at the back and reaching half-way to the knees. The women wear a coat somewhat similar, exxept that it is trimmed with black braid.

The generations of serfdom, ^^ during which the peasants had to cultivate the land that they loved, not for themselves but for some cruel landlord, have not resulted in a brutal irony, as is the case with the Russian serfs, but in a sad mysticism, which has wonder- fully enriched their poetry. Their songs are the only means by which they can express themselves, and in them they seem to have con- centrated all the love of their sad land, the love which perhaps is the strongest thing in their nature. A man without land, or even one who comes from the town, is despised, and in the days of serfdom, though a peasant would have no hesitation in stealing, or defrauding his landlord, yet at harvest-time a sort of loyalty derived from his pride and love for the land would make him work hard and honestly to get the best return possible from the soil.

The songs are sung without instrumental accompaniment, when in the long winter evenings the women meet in one of their houses, where they spin and weave, and listen to ghost stories and fairy tales. They sing on all occasions, using special songs at Christ- mas,^- at harvest, at weddings and funerals. The images are peaceful and homely, the epithets rustic, and to nearly every song there is an introduction, describing some scene from forest or field. There is no mention of war, except when it is the death of a lover that is recorded, and wherever a Cossack is sung of, it is not his

^^ It is said that a distinct superiority may be noticed in the characters of those peasants who have been brought up on lands belonging to the crown, because they have had many rights granted them from time immemorial, not enjoyed by other serfs.

^2 During Lent nothing is sung but religious songs, which are all Polish or Latin.

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