Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 29, 1918.djvu/254

 244 Collectanea.

the house of her intended husband, because they are of a be- witched family.' Afterwards Mihc went with his betrothed to his house. When they came to the middle of the mountains beautiful Leposava died. He buried her there and went on to the house. But when he arrived he died too. When the wedding-guests saw him dead " they reversed their lances and danced the usual dance in reverse order singing a mournful dirge.''

Nearly the same verses we find in two or three other songs to describe great sorrow.

The Stars.

The Serbian peasants think that " every human being has is own star in the sky, which is bright till he dies, and when he dies the star turns dark." ^

" When the star falls from the sky the people who see it ought not to speak about it, because a slave to whom this star belonged has escaped from prison. When somebody says : ' I ha-ve seen the fall of the star,' ' the slave will be taken.' " ^

The Game of Troy.

On page yy of " The Golden Bough " (Part iii.) Sir James Frazer mentioned some names of the games in North Europe " which clearly indicate their connexion with the ancient Game of Troy."

The Serbs have two popular dances which may indicate the connexion with the Game of Troy (in Serbian Troja). These dances are Trojanka ^ and Trojanac. The signification of the word Trojanks is " a lady or a woman from Troja," or " Trojan woman," and of the word Trojanac " a man from Troja," a " Trojan."

Though there are many Serbian dances which are derived from the names of the places or from the names of the countries {Nisevljanka from Nis, Vranjanka from Vranje, Bitoljka from

^ M. Dj. Mili<5evic, "The Life of the Serbian Peasants" in T/ie Ethno- graphical Collection of Serbian Royal Academy, vol. i. Belgrad, 1S94, p. 50.

'^Ibidem, p. 60.

^M. Dj. Milicevic, The Principality of Serbia, Belgrad, 1878, pp. 572 and 636.