Page:The Folk-Lore Journal Volume 3 1885.djvu/165

Rh reader to judge for himself of the sound of the language; particularly as an Englishman will pronounce it better than his neighbours the Germans, who always give it too hard an accent, though with as much softness as his organs will allow.

The Esthonians, both men and women, have an extremely soft, delicate, and tender articulation, which is unattainable by the untractable mouth of a German.

We perceive in these ballads a refrain, or, as we call it, a burden. As this custom prevailed in Greece, Italy, France, among the Orientals, and even in Britain, as well as with these more northern nations, it is highly presumable that it must be naturally congenial to the unperverted feelings of the human species.—Who is not moved by the "Cras amet, qui nunquam amavit," of Catullus, and the "Begin, Sicilian Muse, begin a plaintive strain," of Moschus?

If we do but efface from our remembrance for a moment the sublime and delicate numbers to which we may be habituated, the poetical flowerets that grow on the shores of the Gulf of Finnland will certainly not displease us.

How didst thou know how to come to us? Knewest thou the ways thro' the valleys, Over the hills, In this great village, To this little cottage-yard, Among these vassals who have got old dollars?


 * Youthful bridegroom,

Therefore didst thou think of coming hither. Knewest the way thro' the valleys, Over the hills, In this great village, To this little cottage-yard, Among these vassals who have got old dollars.


 * A silvered button was on the sill,

Two were in the garden, Five upon the door; Our yard was full of linen, Our roof of hen-roosts, Under the thatch hung bacon, The dressers were smeared with butter.