he
SERVIANS. We have seen already in this work, that the inhabitants of
the Turkish provinces of Servia and Bosnia, of Montenegro, of the
Austrian kingdom of Slavonia, of Dalmatia and Military Croatia, speak
essentially the same language; which is likewise the vernacular
dialect of numerous Servian settlements in Hungary, along the
south-western shore of the Danube. Of this language, which has been
alternately called Illyrian, Servian, Morlachian, Bosnian, Croatian,
Rascian, and perhaps by still other different appellations, it may be
truly said, that it has more names than dialects; and even the few of
these latter differ so slightly, that the difference would scarcely be
perceived by a foreigner. It is also true, that, on account of the
various systems of writing which have been adopted by the different
sections of this race, the foreigner will sometimes find it more
difficult to understand the language as written than as spoken.

The inexhaustible mine of Servian popular poetry belongs then to the
whole nation; although, of course, neither the productiveness is every
where the same, nor the power and opportunity of preservation. For its
favourite home we must look to those regions where modern civilization
has least penetrated; viz. to Turkish Servia, Bosnia, Montenegro.
There also the vernacular language is spoken with the greatest purity.

An intelligent Italian traveller, Abbate Fortis, published about a
hundred years ago an interesting description of the Morlachians, that
is, the Croatian Servian inhabitants of Dalmatia, a tribe
distinguished by wild passions and proud contempt of civil life; but
full of poetical feeling, and much attached to old usages and the
recollections of their ancestors. He printed for the first time some
of their beautiful ancient ballads; but although they were much
admired in the German versions which Herder and Goethe gave of them
(through the French), the region of their birth remained a _terra
incognita_. To a few literati only it was known, that many of these
ballads, although in a spurious shape, had been collected by the
Franciscan monk, Andreas Cacich Miossich; and also that a great many
fragments of remarkable popular heroic songs were scattered, as
illustrations, through the Croatian and Dalmatian dictionaries of
Bellosztenecz, Jambressich, and Delia Bella. It was known, too, but
only by a few, that even ancient Servian historians referred to
similar songs.

Vuk Stephanovit