69
The Mother's Curse.
Časně ráno po neděli.
Hermann combed his faithful charger:
When his mother to him hastened,
And she offered him four apples—
"Whither art thou speeding, Hermann?
Wherefore hast thy courser saddled?"
"I am going to my maiden,
this manner of counting has been obsolete in Bohemia for two centuries at least.
In measure and manner this song resembles the servian Kralitze, or song of the queen, of which some account will be found in Vuk's Servian Dictionary (art. Kralitze.) The bohemians have not so many of these national compositions as the servian's, nor have they preserved those slavonian habits, which remoteness from european influences has left untouched among the latter. The peculiarities which characterise a sect or people must be sought where civilization, or intercourse with other nations, has not yet amalgamated or destroyed their individuality. But these songs in praise of her who becomes the chosen queen of the village, are common among all the slavonian tribes. We have our drawing for king and queen on twelfth night, but there is no antique poetry, that I recollect, to adorn the sport.
