ZABOI AND SLAVOI.
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“E’en so it must be done by us
“With our children and our wives.
“And one[1] companion and no more
“On all our pilgrimage,
“From Vesna to Morana, must
“Be ours, from youth to age.
“No more may we our foreheads strike
“Before the Gods we know,
“No more to them at eventide
“With meats in offering go.
“Where erst our fathers sacrific’d,
“Where erst they praises sung,
“They’ve fell’d the groves, and all the Gods
“Down from their thrones have flung.”
“Thou singest, Zaboi, heart to heart,
“A song from the midst of woe,
“Like Lumir,[2] who with words and song
“Right well to move did know
“Proud Vyssehrad,[3] and all the land
“That heard the god-like sound,
- ↑ The introduction of Christianity abolished polygamy, and forced the Bohemians to be content with a single wife, from Vesna, the goddess of Spring and Youth, to Morana, the goddess of Death.
- ↑ Lumir. See Note A.
- ↑ Vyssehrad, High-castle, an ancient fort on a hill commanding the present city of Prague.
