these occasions the citizens suddenly run together, and lash each other with ropes, and such a tumult arises therefrom, that all the efforts of the governor can scarcely assuage it." Two other curious legends are given in the account of the country beyond the river Oby,—of the first of which the Baron von Herberstein says somewhat indulgently, that it is "very like a fable." It is said, that a certain marvellous and incredible occurrence, and very like a fable, happens every year to the people of Lucomoryae, namely, that they die on the 27th of November, which among the Russians is dedicated to St. George, and come to life again, like the frogs, in the following spring, generally on the 24th of April. These people hold a novel, and otherwise unusual kind of intercourse with the Grustintzi and Serpovtzi: for when their stated period for dying or sleeping is approaching, they deposit their merchandize in a certain spot, which is taken away in the interim by the Grustintzi and Serpovtzi, who leave their own merchandize in exchange; but when the former come to life again, they require their own property to be given back if they find it has been taken at an unfair valuation, and hence occasion arises for many conflicts and quarrels among them. In descending the river Oby on the left, we come to the Calami nation, who migrated thither from the Obiosæ and Pogosa. Below the Oby up to the Golden Old Woman, which is situated at the confluence of the Oby with the ocean, are the rivers Sossa, Berezva, and Danadim, all of which have their rise in the mountain of Camen, Bolschega, Poiassa, and the neighbouring rocks. All the races which dwell between these rivers and the Golden Old Woman, are said to be tributary to the Prince of Russia. “Slata Baba, that is, the Golden Old Woman, is an idol situated on the mouths of the Oby, on its further bank, in the province of Obdora. There are many fortresses scattered here and there along the banks of the Oby, and about the neighbouring rivers, the lords of which are all said to be subject to the Prince of Moscow. The story, or I should more correctly call it the fable, runs, that this idol of the Golden Old Woman is a statue, representing an old woman holding her son in her lap, and that recently another infant has been seen, which is said to be her grandson; they also say that she has placed certain instruments upon the spot, which constantly give forth a sound like that of trumpets. If this be the case, I think that it must arise from the vehement and constant blowing of the wind through those instruments." Another primitive superstition is described as existing in the province of Samogitia. "This province abounds in woods and forests, in which horrible sights may occasionally be witnessed; for in them there dwell a considerable number of idolators, who cherish, as a kind of household gods, a species of reptile, which has four short feet like a lizard, with a black flat body, not exceeding three palms in length. These animals are called 'givoites,' and on certain days are allowed to crawl about the house in search of the food which is placed for them. They are looked upon with great superstition by the whole family, until the time when, having satisfied their hunger, they return to their own place. But if any accident should occur to them, they believe that their household god, the reptile, has been ill-received and ill-fed. On my return from my first journey to Moscow, I came to Troki, and was informed by the landlord of the house at which I happened to put up, that he had in that same year purchased some bee-hives of one of these reptile worshippers, and had by his reasoning won him over to the true faith of Christ, and persuaded him to kill the reptile which he worshipped; but some time after, when he returned to look at his bees, he found the man with his face deformed, and with his mouth drawn in a hideous manner up to his ears. On inquiring the cause of so fearful a disaster, he replied, that he was punished with this calamity by way of expiation and penance, for having laid guilty hands upon the reptile, his god, and that he should have to suffer many more grievous penalties, unless he returned to his former mode of worship. Although this did not take place in Samogithia, but in Lithuania, I have quoted it as a specimen of their customs." We will quote one other of these legends, which relates to the navigation of the Baltic : "A voyage of eighty miles, after leaving the land of the Laplanders, brought them to the country of Nortpoden, which is subject to the King of Sweden. The Russians call the country Kaienska Semla, and the people, Kaiemai. Then coasting along a winding shore which stretched out to the right, he said that they came to a certain headland called Holynose [Sviatoi Nos]. Holynose is a huge rock, in the shape of a nose, protruding into the sea, under which is seen a cave, which every six hours receives the waters of the ocean, and forms a whirlpool, and alternately discharges them with great uproar, causing a similar whirlpool. Some have called it the navel of the sea. He stated that the force of this vortex was so great, that it would draw into it ships and other things in the neighbourhood, and swallow them up; and that he himself was never in greater danger, for finding that the whirlpool began suddenly and violently to draw the ship in which they sailed towards itself, they escaped with great difficulty by laboriously plying their oars. Having passed the Holynose, they came to a certain rocky mountain, which they were obliged to sail round. Here they were detained several days by contrary winds, upon which a sailor said, 'This rock which you see is called Semes, and unless we appease it with a gift we shall not easily pass it.' Istoma, however, reproached him with his vain superstition. The sailor, upon this rebuke, held his peace; and, after being detained there four days by the tempest, the wind abated, and they weighed anchor. When a favourable wind arose for carrying them on, the pilot said, 'You laughed at my warning about appeasing the rock Semes, as though it were an empty superstition; but if I had not secretly climbed the rock in the night, and propitiated Semes, you would on no account have had a passage granted to you.' Upon being questioned as to the offering which he had made to Semes, he said that he had poured out upon the projecting rock which we had seen, some oatmeal mixed with butter." One of the great amusements of the Russian court was hunting, especially of hares, and hawking. The hare-hunt was a sort of large battue, a mere massacre; the poor animals being driven together in vast numbers in a confined space, while the dogs were set on to worry them, just as at the present day a quantity of rats are collected to try how many a favourite rat-dog can kill in a given time when they are all within his reach. Bear-fights were also favourite spectacles, the combat taking place usually between a bear and a man. The bison was hunted in Lithuania, a much more spirited and more perilous sport : "Those who hunt the bison had need be men of great strength, agility, and cunning. A suitable spot for the hunt is selected, where there are trees growing at equal distances from each other, with trunks of moderate thickness, so that it may be easy to run round them, and yet sufficiently large to protect the body of a man. Each of the hunters places himself at one of these trees, and when the bison has been roused by the dogs that are set upon him, and is driven towards the spot, he rushes with great ferocity upon the first hunter who presents himself. The latter, however, protects himself by placing the tree between them, and strikes the beast with his huntingspear, wherever he can; the animal does not often fall under the blow, but, exasperated with fury, not only tosses with his horns, but also darts out his tongue, which is so rough and strong, that if it only touch the garment of the hunter, it will lay hold of it and draw him, and the beast will never leave him until he has killed him. But if the huntsman should become weary with chasing about and striking, he presents to the beast his red cap, against which he will rage both with feet and horns. If, however, another of the hunters wishes to join the contest before the beast is slain, which must be done if the men wish to get away with a whole skin, it is easy to call off the beast against himself by once shouting the barbarous cry of lululu !"" · Several of the notices of natural history in the narrative of the Baron von Herberstein are curious, and indeed there is much that is interesting in every part of the work, and we repeat the judgment expressed at the beginning of our article, that the Hakluyt Society deserves credit for having brought it forth again in so accessible a form. Not the least interesting part of it is the contrast between the Russia of 1527 and the Russia of 1853; and however great that contrast may be, we doubt if it be not much more apparent in the chief cities and among the higher classes than in the mass of the population. Mr. Major, to whom we owe this translation of Herberstein, has added to it, we suppose chiefly to give sufficient bulk to the second volume, a reprint (from the edition of 1555) of Richard Eden's book on 'North-East Frostie Seas, and Kingdomes lying that way.' It is a curious treatise, compiled from various authors, but is chiefly interesting for an original though short account of Sebastian Cabot and his voyages, introduced incidentally, but taken down from that navigator's own recital. ART. IV. Ancient English Ballad Poetry. Reliques of Ancient English Poetry; consisting of old Heroic Ballads, Songs, and other Pieces of our Earlier Poets (chiefly of the Lyric kind), together with some few of later date. 3 vols. By Dr. THOMAS PERCY, Bishop of Dromore. London: 1794. Popular Ballads and Songs, from Tradition, Manuscripts, and scarce Editions. Edinburgh: 1812. By WALTER SCOTT, Esq. 3 vols. WHEN Bishop Percy published his 'Reliques of Ancient English Poetry,' he probably little imagined the effect his work was to produce on the imaginative literature of the succeeding century. During the seventy-six years which have elapsed since the 'Reliques' appeared, very much of our best poetry and many of our best prose romances have been moulded by the antique forms he then reproduced; and to that more than to any other single work it may be ascribed that English poetry was rescued from the meretricious life it had long been leading, and brought back once more to the fresh and vigorous feelings of its earlier day. The rough genuine music of the old ballad has indeed often helped to recall our poets to nature and simplicity. Sir Philip Sydney saw and felt its power for this purpose, and his famous words in the 'Defence of Poesy,' uttered three hundred years ago, have perhaps never during all that time been altogether without their influence, and have been sounding in the ears of the last half-century with even more than the authority of their first utterance, helping to restore force and purity of style. "I must confess my own barbarousness," says he. "I never heard the old song of Percy and Douglas that I found not my heart more moved than with a trumpet." This very "old Song" modernised into our ballad of 'Chevy Chase,' Bishop Percy was the first to publish; and though, as Sir Philip Sydney says, it is "evil appareled in the dust and cobwebs of a barbarous age," there are trumpet notes in it which have stirred many a heart since his ceased to beat, and which will thrill the hearts of centuries to come,-perhaps after wars of nations and races shall have become as traditionary as the old Border feud, celebrated by Chevy Chase.' The Reliques' were followed by many collections of old songs and ballads; foremost in time and in merit among which stands Sir Walter Scott's Border Minstrelsy. "In early youth," says he, "I had been an eager student of Ballad poetry, and the tree is still in my recollection beneath which I lay, and first entered upon the enchanting perusal of Percy's 'Reliques of Ancient Poetry."" The effect of this early bias is well known to every reader. "In the text and notes of this early publication," says Mr. Lockhart, in the preface to the 'Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border,' 1833, “we can now trace the primary incident or broad outline of almost every romance, in verse or in prose, which Sir Walter Scott built in after life on the history or traditions of his country." Had the 'Reliques' done nothing more than produce the Scott literature of the last half century, we may well say that few modern books have been followed by such splendid results. But besides the works of the northern minstrel himself and of all his school, "without number numberless," throughout the minds of all the poets of the nineteenth century, and in very many of those of their writings which seem likely to live, we can trace the influence and hear the music of the old ballad. 'The Ancient Mariner' and 'Christabel,' for example, as well as the spirit of that spiritual poem, "All thoughts, all passions, all delights, Whatever stirs our mortal frame, Are all but ministers of love, And feed his sacred flame;" does not the old minstrelsy breathe through them all? Wordsworth and Southey, too, seem to have had the same love for the ancient ballad poetry, but failed in the lyrical power necessary to imitate it well. No one ever heard any of the 'Lyrical Ballads' of the Lake poets sung, and the simplicity of language—the language of actual lip-for which Mr. Wordsworth contended, and which is really visible in our ancient ballads and songs, was travestied, not imitated, in 'Peter Bell,' 'the Idiot Boy,' and 'the old Woman of Berkeley. However, in Southey's fine little lyrical ode of the 'Holly Tree,'* and in his 'Chronicle of the Cid,' there is much of the quaint spirit of the ancient minstrelsy; and in Wordsworth's three exquisite poems on the Yarrow, there breathes the purest and * The holly-tree, which gave birth to Southey's poem, and which he often used to stop to admire, stands near the turnpike-road, in a field "a little west of the village of Portinscale, a mile and a half from Keswick. It is a fine old bush, smooth-leaved at top, like the high leaves upon the holly-tree." |