Page:The Ballads of Marko Kraljević.djvu/44

 and defied the Turkish conqueror, and the simple peasants of his race have enshrined their simple hero in their heart of hearts.

In conclusion, something must be said about the verse in which the heroic ballads are composed, and the manner in which they are chanted by the bards. The poems consist of lines of ten syllables, unrhymed and with no "enjambement." Repetition, the fixed epithet and other devices are of constant occurrence and are often employed with telling effect. "Alles so wie in Homer" was Grimm's comment. The bard or guslar is often blind, as by the best tradition it is fitting he should be, and his usual custom is to sit down under some shady tree where there is a good prospect of his having a sufficient audience. He then makes ready his gusle which in shape bears a rough resemblance to a mandolin, but the bridge rests upon a covering of vellum as in a banjo. The gusle is often adorned with carvings of kings and heroes. One in my own possession shows the figures of Tsar Lazar, Ivan Kosančić, Toplica Milan and others, the names being cut beneath them, while the neck of the instrument is carved to represent the neck and head of Šarac. The bow is in the shape of a curving snake and is strung with horsehair. Holding the gusle body downwards, the guslar fingers rapidly and draws his bow backwards and forwards across the single string, producing a weird wail that rises and falls. Then suddenly he plunges into his tale: