Serbian Folk-lore. Anonymous

our English Parliament. The whole discussion, with the arguments of the various speakers, took the form of a long song or poem, which was recited in the open air before the villagers assembled to hear the course and result of the debate. Perhaps in a similar manner the military and naval incidents, the contentions of mighty chiefs, the debates before the tent of Agamemnon, or in the council-house of Troy, were thrown into verse by the Father of poetry, the Prince of story-tellers, or, if the reader holds to the Wolfian theory, by the professional rhapsodists, and thus made known throughout Greece in the form of the Iliad. At any rate we have, in the practice still living in Serbia, an instance of the way in which a Serbian Homer would naturally have communicated to his countrymen all the details of meetings at the council-board and skirmishes in the plain which diversified the history of a siege, in the varying fortunes of which their interest was enlisted.

      W. Denton.

THE BEAR’S SON.

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      ONCE upon a time a bear married a woman, and they had one son. When the boy was yet a little fellow he begged very hard to be allowed to leave the bear’s cave, and to go out into the world to see what was in it. His father, however, the Bear, would not consent to this, saying, ‘You are too young yet, and not strong enough. In the world there are multitudes of wicked beasts, called men, who will kill you.’ So the boy was quieted for a while, and remained in the cave.

      But, after some time, the boy prayed so earnestly that the Bear, his father, would let him go into the world, that the Bear brought him into the wood, and showed him a beech-tree, saying, ‘If you can pull up that beech by the roots, I will let you go; but if you cannot, then this is a proof that you are still too weak, and must remain with me.’ The boy tried to pull up the tree, but, after long trying, had to give it up, and go home again to the cave.

      Again some time passed, and he then begged again to be allowed to go into the world, and his father told him, as before, if he could pull up the beech-tree he might go out into the world. This time the boy pulled up the tree, so the Bear consented to let him go, first, however, making him cut away the branches from the beech, so that he might use the trunk for a club. The boy now started on his journey, carrying the trunk of the beech over his shoulder.

      One day as the Bear’s son was journeying, he came to a field where he found hundreds of ploughmen working for their master. He asked them to give him something to eat, and they told him to wait a bit till their dinner was brought them, when he should have some—for, they said, ‘Where so many are dining one mouth more or less matters but little.’ Whilst they were speaking there came carts, horses, mules, and asses, all carrying the dinner. But when the meats were spread out the Bear’s son declared he could eat all that up himself. The workmen wondered greatly at his words, not believing it possible that one man could consume as great a quantity of victuals as would satisfy several hundred men. This, however, the Bear’s son persisted in affirming he could do, and offered to bet with them that he would do this. He proposed that the stakes should be all the iron of their ploughshares and other agricultural implements. To this they assented. No sooner had they made the wager than he fell upon the provisions, and in a short time consumed the whole. Not a fragment was left. Hereupon the labourers, in accordance with their wager, gave him all the iron which they possessed.

      When the Bear’s son had collected all the iron, he tore up a young birch-tree, twisted it into a band and tied up the iron into a bundle, which he hung at the end of his staff, and throwing it across his shoulder, trudged off from the astonished and affrighted labourers.

      Going on a short distance, he arrived at a forge in which a smith was employed making a ploughshare. This man he requested to make him a mace with the iron which he was carrying. This the smith undertook to do; but putting aside half the iron, he made of the rest a small, coarsely-finished mace.

      Bear’s son saw at a glance that he had been cheated by the smith. Moreover, he was disgusted at the roughness of the workmanship. He however took it, and declared his intention of testing it. Then fastening it to the end of his club and throwing it into the air high above the clouds he stood still and allowed it to fall on his shoulder. It had no sooner struck him than the mace shivered into fragments, some of which fell on and destroyed the forge. Taking up his staff, Bear’s son reproached the smith for his dishonesty, and killed him on the spot.

      Having collected the whole of the iron, the Bear’s son went to another smithy, and desired the smith whom he found there to make him a mace, saying to him, ‘Please play no tricks on me. I bring you these fragments of iron for you to use in making a mace. Beware that you do not attempt to cheat me as I was cheated before!’ As the smith had heard what had happened to the other one, he collected his workpeople, threw all the iron on his fire, and welded the whole together and made a large mace of perfect workmanship.

      When it was fastened on the head of his club the Bear’s son, to prove it, threw it up high, and caught it on his back. This time the mace did not break, but rebounded. Then the Bear’s son got up and said, ‘This work is well done!’ and, putting it on his shoulder, walked away. A little farther on he came to a field wherein a man was ploughing with two oxen, and he went up to him and asked for something to eat. The man said, ‘I expect every moment my daughter to come with my dinner, then we shall see what God has given us!’ The Bear’s son told him how he had eaten up all the dinner prepared for many hundreds of ploughmen, and asked, ‘From a dinner prepared for one person how much can come to me or to you?’ Meanwhile the girl brought the dinner. The moment she put it down, Bear’s son stretched out his hand to begin to eat, but the man stopped him. ‘No!’ said he, ‘you must first say grace, as I do!’ The Bear’s son, hungry as he was, obeyed, and, having said grace, they both began to eat. The Bear’s son, looking at the girl who brought the dinner (she was a tall, strong, beautiful girl), became very fond of her, and said to the father, ‘Will you give me your daughter for a wife?’ The man answered, ‘I would give her to you very gladly but I have promised her already to the Moustached.’ The Bear’s son exclaimed, ‘What do I care for Moustachio? I have my mace for him!’ But the man answered, ‘Hush! hush! Moustachio is also somebody! You will see him here soon.’ Shortly after a noise was heard afar off, and lo! behind a hill a moustache showed itself, and in it were three hundred and sixty-five birds’ nests. Shortly after appeared the other moustache, and then came Moustachio himself. Having reached them, he lay down on the ground immediately, to rest. He put his head on the girl’s knee and told her to scratch his head a little. The girl obeyed him, and the Bear’s son, getting up, struck him with his club over the head. Whereupon Moustachio, pointing to the place with his finger, said, ‘Something bit me here!’ The Bear’s son struck with his mace on another spot, and Moustachio again pointed to the place, saying to the girl, ‘Something has bitten me here!’ When he was struck a third time, he said to the girl angrily, ‘Look you! something bites me here!’ Then the girl said, ‘Nothing has bitten you; a man struck you!’

      When Moustachio heard that he jumped up, but Bear’s son had thrown away his mace and ran away. Moustachio pursued him, and though the Bear’s son was lighter than he, and had gotten the start of him a considerable distance, he would not give up pursuing him.

      At length the Bear’s son, in the course of his flight, came to a wide river, and found, near it, some men threshing corn. ‘Help me, my brothers, help—for God’s sake!’ he cried; ‘help! Moustachio is pursuing me! What shall I do? How can I get across the river?’ One of the men stretched out his shovel, saying, ‘Here! sit down on it, and I will throw you over the river!’ The Bear’s son sat on the shovel, and the man threw him over the water to the other shore. Soon after Moustachio came up, and asked, ‘Has any one passed here?’ The threshers replied that a man had passed. Moustachio demanded, ‘How did he cross the river?’ They answered, ‘He sprang over.’ Then Moustachio went back a little to take a start, and with a hop he sprang to the other side, and continued to pursue the Bear’s son. Meanwhile this last, running hastily up a hill, got very tired. At the top of the hill he found a man sowing, and the sack with seeds was hanging on his neck. After every handful of seed sown in the ground, the man put a handful in his mouth and eat