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the feudal system more or less prevalent among them all. There are not a few striking points of coincidence in the popular productions of all European nations. Numberless variations on a very few themes, are common to the South and to the North. And indeed, what we call poetical invention, what is it, but variety in the mode of combination? "The colors," as an able German writer remarks,* " nay even the forms in poetry, as in the kaleidoscope, already exist; accident here, and genius there, put them in new positions and thus create new pictures." But the affinity of the subjects is not the only striking resemblance. We shall show in the sequel, how often poets belonging to nations differently situated, and in cases where it is beyond question that they could not have imitated or influenced each other, have drawn precisely the same features.

In all traditionary poetry, you meet with frequent repetitions of certain stereotype phrases and terms. The same actions are almost without variation expressed in the same form of words. Our readers well know, how much also the king of popular singers, Homer, shares in this peculiarity. Besides the frequent recurrence of whole stanzas, there are also stereotype epithets, common to all popular poetry. In the Eastern-Slavic poetry, all subjects worthy of praise, are white, all fountains cool; the cuckoo is grey, the sabre is sharp, the sea is blue, etc. There are other similar epithets peculiar to each of the Slavic nations separately. In the ancient English ballads also, similar constantly recurring expressions are found my (his) own true love, applied indiscriminately to faithful and faithless lovers, just as in the Servian song, the swarthy Arab's hand is white; robes of green, my merry men all, and many others. In the Scandinavian popular ballads all cloaks are blue or grey, all damsels proud, or when mentioned by their christian names little, as little Kirstin, Sidselille, etc. the harp is golden, the noble steed grey. German popular poetry has fewer epithets; but it abounds in repetitions of certain phrases and expressions. The simplest actions or occurrences are introduced by an interrogation:

"What draws he from his pocket?
A knife, so pointed and sharp, etc.

* Wilibald Alexis, on "Balladen Poesie," Hermes, No. XXI.

What found she standing in the road?

A hazel, that was green," etc.*

Spanish and Italian popular poetry, since these languages, from their more poetical nature, are instruments more easily managed, partake least of this peculiarity; their poets take however the more liberty in borrowing thoughts and ideas from each other.

Another point of coincidence more or less common to all the different races, is the burden or refrain ; and in this they agree with most savage nations. This feature indeed has a deeper foundation in human nature than is discernible to a superficial observer. Alexander Humboldt, in speaking of the pottery of the Maypures, an American tribe, who painted with great skill grecques, i. e. certain figures of animals, meandrites, following one another in rhythmic order, observes: "The eye finds in this order, in the regular periodical return of the same forms, what the ear distinguishes in the cadenced succession of sounds and concords. Can we then admit a doubt that the perception of rhythm manifests itself in man at the first dawn of civilization, and in the rudest essays of poetry and song?" The same remark might be applied to the burden of popular songs. Emanating from a natural human want, it is, as we observed above, known to all the nations in the world; and its general use is its best justification. But what is with the Indian a mere animal ejaculation, an unmeaning heh, or hih, compared by Washington Irving to the sound of the hiccup, is with the northern ballad-singers often a picturesque idea, and always a musical phrase.

All nations employ riddles as a test of sagacity; and this custom European nations brought from the East. In most of the modern languages we find popular ballads containing a gradation of questions, to the answer of which high importance

* How ancient this peculiarity is in German poetry, is manifest from its appearing repeatedly in the oldest specimen of verse the Germans possess, viz. in the lay of Hildebrand.

Was begegnet Dir auf der Heide ?
Ein stolzer Degen jung, etc.

Was führt er auf dem Helme?
Von Gold ein Kreuzelein,

Was führt er auf der Seite ?

Den liebsten Vater sein.

What meets thee in the moor?
A knight so proud and young, etc.

What bears he on his helm ?
A little cross of gold;
What leads he at his side ?
His own dear father old..

+ Remarks on the ancient Inhabitants of America.

is often attached. In several old English ballads the lover's choice depends on the answers to the following questions:

"O what is longer than the long way?
Or what is deeper than the deep sea?
Or what is louder than the loud horn?
Or what is sharper than the sharp thorn?
Or what is greener than the green grass?
Or what is worse than a woman was?"

And he is satisfied with the answer :

"O love is longer than the long way!
And hell is deeper than the deep sea!
And thunder is louder than the loud horn,
And hunger is sharper than the sharp thorn!
And poison is greener than the green grass,
And the devil is worse than a woman was!"

In a Servian ballad a girl sits on the banks of the sea, inquiring :

"What's broader than the mighty sea?

And what is longer than the field?

And what is swifter than the steed?
What sweeter than the honey dew?
What dearer than a brother is?"

A fish rises from the water, and gives her the following an

swer:

"O maid, thou art a foolish girl!

The heaven is broader than the sea;
The sea is longer than the field;
The eye is swifter than the steed;
Sugar more sweet than honey dew;
Dearer than brother is thy love."

Of a very similar description are the riddles of the Danish hero Vonved; and it is quite in the character of northern heroism, that all persons not able to solve them, were punished with death. The same riddles exist in Swedish, as a separate ballad.

We could adduce many other instances of a similar surprising coincidence. Besides love and the admiration of heroic

deeds, the feeling most strongly manifested in popular poetry, is the belief in an Omnipotent Providence and its retributive justice. This belief appears most prominent in German popular poetry. A multitude of examples occur at once to the writer, and probably to every reader familiar with German literature. In a well known Low-German nursery tale, "Van den Machandelboom," the concealed murder of the little boy, committed by his step-mother, comes so tragically to light, that no ancient tragic poet could have found in the atrocious deeds and final punishment of the Atridæ, a subject better rounded off, or answering better to the prescriptions of Aristotle. There is also a horrible ballad, where "three knaves," as they are called, come to an inn, and, after having peaceably taken lodgings, steal at night every thing they can find; and not being able to agree who shall have the beautiful daughter of the hostess, they cut her in three pieces, in order to divide her among themselves. It ends with the following verses:

"And where there fell a drop of blood,
A year an angel singing stood;

And where the murderer put his sword,
A year a raven sat and croak'd."

A beautiful Servian tale, called the Sisters-in-Law, offers a most striking instance of coincidence in the popular representations between two nations entirely different in situation and character, and where even the suspicion that one was borrowed from the other cannot occur. A young woman, jealous of the love her husband has for his unmarried sister, after having calumniated her in various ways, kills her own child and accuses poor Jelitza of this atrocious crime. Jelitza is punished in the manner she herself dictates, in case she should be found guilty. She is bound to the tails of wild horses, and her limbs are scattered through the fields:

"But where'er a drop of blood fell from her,

There a flower sprung up, a fragrant floweret ;
Where her body fell when dead and mangled,
There a church arose from out the desert."*

The sister-in-law is soon after seized with a dreadful disease, which lasts"nine anniversaries ;" she is brought to Jelitza's

Bowring's Translation.

church, to be there absolved and saved; but a voice from the church forbids her to come in; in utter despair she submits herself to the same punishment the innocent sister has suffered : "But where'er a drop of blood fell from her,

There sprung up the rankest thorns and nettles.
Where her body fell when dead, the waters
Rushed and form'd a lake both still and stagnant.'

In accordance with this popular feeling, their ballads seldom, if ever, end with a moral dissonance, or want of poetic justice. Their lyric songs indeed do often; for they are the expressions of momentary feeling, and, as such, the mirrors of an individual state of mind. Spanish and Servian ballads do, likewise, sometimes thus terminate; for they lay, in general, no claim to completeness; they are, the former only historical. the latter only plastic representations of certain isolated situations; they seldom profess to relate the whole story, as do the ballads of the Teutonic nations, especially the English and Scotch. In these latter we see frequently not only divine justice, but even worldly retribution, taking place. Lamkin and his accomplice, the treacherous "nourrice," in the Scotch ballad, are deservedly executed; in the German ballad, the angels sing about Annie's grave, and the ravens croak around the wheel where her murderer is exposed. In another ballad of this nation, we even see an angel descending from Heaven to order the body of the innocently murdered youth to be buried. The same feeling is also manifested in the prevalence of the popular belief, that trees or flowers, planted on graves, are animated by the souls of the dead buried therein. And here we meet with a striking point of coincidence even in an Afghaun tale. Every reader knows the conclusion of Fair Margaret and Sweet William :

"Margaret was buried in the low chancèl,

And William in the higher;

Out of her breast there sprung a rose,

And out of his a briar.

"They grew as high as the church top,

Till they could grow no higher;

And there they grew in a true lover's knot,
Made all the folks admire."

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