or sister in God." This is mostly done in
cases of distress. When a person, thus appealed to, accepts the
appellation, they are in duty bound to protect and to take care of the
unfortunate, who thus give themselves into their hands; according to
the prevailing notion, a breach of this contract is severely punished
by Heaven. Marko Kralyevitch was united in such an alliance with the
Vila; in modern times we find it sometimes between Turks and Servians
in the midst of their most bitter feuds.

The traditional ballads of the Servians, referring to the heroes of
their golden time, are undoubtedly in their groundwork of great
antiquity; but as until recently they have been preserved only by
tradition, it cannot be supposed, that they have come down in their
present form from the original time of their composition; which was
perhaps nearly cotemporary to the events they celebrate. In most of
them frequent Turcisms show, that the singer is familiar with the
conquerors and their language. According to Vuk, very few are in their
present form older than the fifteenth century.

The more modern heroic ballads--for the productiveness of this
remarkable people is still alive--are essentially of the same
character. They may be divided into two parts. One division, probably
composed during the last two centuries and down even to the present
time, is devoted to a variety of subjects, public and private. Duels,
love stories, satisfaction of blood-revenge, domestic quarrels and
reconciliation, are alternately related. The variety of invention in
these tales is astonishing; the skill of the combinations and the
final development surpasses all that hitherto has been known of
popular poetry. One of the most remarkable of them is a narrative of
1227 lines; which relates to the marriage of a young man, Maxim
Tzernovitch, son of Ivan Tzernovitch, a wealthy and powerful
Servian. The father goes to Venice to ask in marriage for his son the
daughter of the Doge. He describes him as the handsomest of young men;
but, when he comes home, he finds him metamorphosed by the smallpox
into the ugliest. By the advice of his wife, he substitutes another
handsome young man to fetch home the bride with the procession of
bridal guests; promising him the principal share in the bridal gifts;
for he commits the fraud less from covetous views than from pride,
being afraid of being put to shame as unable to keep his word before
the haughty Venetians. They succee