Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 25, 1914.djvu/112

 1 oo Collectanea.

The next two verses tell how she has been rejected by her lover on some trifling pretext, and how she casts a charm, in order to bring him back to her. But she fails in her attempt, and in despair the cry bursts from her heart " Oh ! who will now care for my little one?"

In the second song is represented a rather unusual character among the people — namely that of a flirt, who attempts to excuse her behaviour to her lover. It ends more characteristically, how- ever, in the discovery that her loved one is lying dead near by, with nothing to cover his eyes but the black darkness of death. The word dalmaia in the third line of the second stanza is probably the old form of dii??iafa, and in the third line of the last stanza the word kiiajkojit, from kitajka (covering), is probably due to Russian influence.

The third song is not so organic in- construction as the others, and seems to bear the stamp of alteration, as well as of foreign influence, both in music and words. The reference to the Cossack having gone to the war would indicate a date about iSoo, after the peasants were compelled to serve in the Russian army.

The sentiment in the fourth song, as in the second, is again rather foreign to the people, who do not usually treat marriage with the flippancy that is shown in the song, Here, also, the use of the word zahijucsa^ in the third line of the third stanza, instead of the usual word Skar'zycsa (complain), would indicate foreign, and probably Russian, influence.

No. 5 is written more in the ballad form than any of the others. It tells how a young noble sets out on his horses to procure for a village maiden the love charm she requires. But, when at length he attains his object, the cuckoo, which is the marriage bird, tells him that it is he himself that IMary wants, and no herb. When speaking of some one of a higher social standing, like "John from the hall," a peasant would naturally try to talk as much as possible in a Polish manner, from a desire to imitate his betters; as may be seen from the attempt to pronounce in st. 3, 1. 3, u mitiie (in my) like the Polish u mnie which has resulted in the ?/ becoming changed into a w. Again, the Polish word carnym is used instead of the White Ruthenian word cornym (black). The way in which