y gentlemen who take a general
interest in Slavic affairs. Another learned society, called "The
Scientific society of Upper Lusatia," a union of scholars, had been
founded previously. In 1836, this society offered a premium for
collecting a certain number of genuine songs with their melodies,
still extant among the common people. The result has been a very
valuable collection. The first numbers appeared in 1841; and the whole
will form a standard work in the literature of popular poetry. It was
an agreeable surprise to find, that even these isolated Slavic tribes,
who have been so long separated from other nations related to them,
were still in possession of a store of genuine Slavic ballads and
ancient melodies; while, on the other hand, many other ballads were
found among them, in which the influence of their German neighbours,
or perhaps their own influence on the latter, could be distinctly
traced. Ballads and ditties, known to have been sung centuries before
in Hessia or on the Rhine, rose suddenly from the night of an unheeded
existence: disguised, indeed, but easily recognized, in a Slavic
dress, which bore indications of the same antiquity.[10]

2. _Language of the Sorabians in Lower Lusatia_.

Lower Lusatia, or the north-eastern part of the Lusatian territory,
together with the adjacent circle of Cotbus in Brandenburg, has about
the same number of Vendish inhabitants as the upper province. The
dialect they speak has a strong affinity with the Polish; but is, like
that of their brethren in Upper Lusatia, corrupted by German
interpolations, and even in a still greater degree. It is obviously on
the decline; and we can only expect, that after the lapse of a hundred
years or less, no other vestige of it will be left than written or
printed documents.

The first book known to have been printed in this dialect, which is
written according to a peculiar combination of the German letters, is
Moeller's Hymns, Catechism, and Liturgy, Bautzen 1574. Their present
literature, like that of Upper Lusatia, is confined to works for
religious instruction, grammars, and dictionaries. Of the former they
possess no small number. They have also a complete version of the
Bible. The New Testament was translated for them as early as 1709, by
Fabricius, and printed together with the German text. It has been
repeatedly reprinted; and in the year 1798 a translation of the Old
Testament by Fritze was added.[11]

FOOTNOTES:

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