MARKO KRALJEVIĆ AND THE VILA[1]
Two pobratims rode on the way together,
Over fair Miroč mountain;
Kraljević Marko was the one,
The other was Vojvoda Miloš[2];
Both of them rode on noble steeds,
Both bore their battle-spears,
And each kissed the white face of other
For the love that is between two pobratims.
Sleep drew nigh to Marko as he sat on Sharatz,
And to his pobratim[3] he said:10
"Ah, my brother, Vojvoda Miloš!
Sleep sits heavy on mine eyelids,
Sing to me, brother, and refresh me."
But Vojvoda Miloš made answer:
"Ah, my brother, Kraljević Marko,
Fain would I sing to thee, brother,
But last night I drank much wine
With Vila Ravijojla on the mountain,
- ↑ Vila: a species of nymph that haunted the wooded mountain-slopes and frequented springs. In Serbian song Vilas are represented as jealous and capricious beings but on the whole not unfriendly to mankind. They are still believed in by the peasants. A man who was in the service of my wife's family in Serbia saw a Vila on several occasions, and was reduced each time to a pitiable state of terror, from which I gather that the kind things said of them may be merely lip-service, an attempt to propitiate; cf. our "good folk."
- ↑ Miloš Obilić.
- ↑ Pobratim, lit. half-brother. When two men, not related, swear everlasting friendship, each becomes pobratim to the other. Formerly this was a very sacred alliance. For a wonderful description of the mystical nature of the bond, see Večnost by Janko Veselinović (Clarendon Press, 1918).
Posestrima is the corresponding feminine form. The vanquished Vila became Marko's "sworn sister." See "Musa the Outlaw," also "Leka's Sister," l. 408.
