t different dates have been observed for the opening of
the New-Year?

15. What remarkable fact is true of the preservation of the
Russian epic songs?

16. How were the religious ballads brought before the people?

17. Describe some of the characteristics of these ballads.

18. Into what three groups do the epic songs naturally fall?

19. What is the Lay of Sadko?

20. What are the favorite subjects of the songs of the
"Imperial Cycle"?

21. What interesting discovery of modern epic songs has
recently been made?

22. Why have the songs of the Kieff Cycle died out in their own
country?

BIBLIOGRAPHY

_The Epic Songs of Russia._ Isabel F. Hapgood.

_Myths and Folk-Tales of Russians, Western Slavs, and Magyars._
Jeremiah Curtin.

_Cossack Fairy-Tales._ R. Nisbet Bain.

_Sixty Folk-Tales from Exclusively Slavonic Sources._ A. H.
Wratislaw.

_Russian Fairy-Tales._ R. Nisbet Bain.

_Fairy-Tales of the Slav Peasants and Herdsmen._ From the
French of Alexander Chodsko.

_Songs of the Russian People and Russian Folk-Tales._ W. R. S.
Ralston.

_Slavonic Fairy-Tales._ M. Gastner.

_Slavonic Literature and its Relations to the Folk-Lore of
Europe._ M. Gastner.

_Russian Folk-Songs as Sung by the People._ Mme. Eugenie
Lineff.

FOOTNOTES:

[1] A Tatar word, signifying "tower"; used to mean the part of the house
where the women were secluded, in Oriental fashion.

[2] Lord, in the original, is Gosudar, the word which, with a capital,
is applied especially to the emperor.

[3] The dramatist Ostrovsky has made effective use of this game, and the
more prophetic couplets of the song, in his famous play: "Poverty is not
a Vice." Other national customs and songs are used in his play.

CHAPTER II

THE ANCIENT PERIOD, FROM THE INTRODUCTION OF CHRISTIANITY TO THE TATAR
DOMINION, 988-1224.

As soon as Prince Saint Vladimir introduced Christianity into Russia, he
and his sons began to busy themselves with the problem of general
education. Priests came from Greece and Bulgaria to spread the Gospel in
Russia; but they thought only of disseminating Christianity, and were,
moreover, not sufficiently numerous to grapple with educational
problems. Accordingly, Vladimir founded schools in Kieff, and ordered
that the children of the best citizens should be taken