e Slovaks. The first of
them is also extant in an imperfect German shape. As the coarse
dialect, in which the German ballad may be heard, is that of the
"Kuhlaendchen," a small district of Silesia, where the Slavic
neighbourhood has not been without influence, we have no doubt that
the more complete Slavic ballad is the original.

THE MOTHER'S CURSE.

The maiden went for water,
To the well o'er the meadow away;
She there could draw no water,
So thick the frost it lay.

The mother she grew angry;
She had it long to bemoan;
"O daughter mine, O daughter,
I would thou wert a stone!"

The maiden's water-pitcher
Grew marble instantly;
And she herself, the maiden,
Became a maple tree.

There came one day two lads,
Two minstrels young they were;
"We've travelled far, my brother,
Such a maple we saw no where.

"Come let us cut a fiddle,
One fiddle for me and you;
And from the same fine maple,
For each one, fiddlesticks two."

They cut into the maple,--
There splashed the blood so red;
The lads fell on the ground,
So sore were they afraid.

Then spake from within the maiden:
"Wherefore afraid are you?
Cut out of me one fiddle,
And for each one, fiddlesticks two.

"Then go and play right sadly,
To my mother's door begone,
And sing: Here is thy daughter,
Whom thou didst curse to stone."

The lads they went, and sadly
Their song to play began;
The mother, when she heard them,
Right to the window ran:

"O lads, dear lads, be silent,
Do not my pain increase;
For since I lost my daughter,
My pain doth never cease!"

SUN AND MOON.

Ah! if but this evening
Would come my lover sweet,
With the bright, bright sun,
Then the moon would meet.

Ah! poor girl this evening
Comes not thy lover sweet;
With the bright, bright sun,
The moon doth never meet.

The reader will perceive that these Slovakian songs are rhymed. There
are however also rhymeless verses extant among them; the measure of
which seems to indicate a greater antiquity, and brings them nearer to
the nations of the Eastern stock.[58]

Of all the Slavic nations, the POLES, as we have already remarked, had
most neglected their popular poetry. There were indeed several
collections of popular ballads published, partly by Polish editors,
with the title of popular poetry in Poland. But they all, without
exce