ee well,
Dearest soul, thy father's dearest son!
I have been betrothed since yesterday;
Come, to-morrow, troops of wedding-guests;
To the altar, I, perforce, must go!
I shall be another's then; and yet
Thine, thine only, thine alone till death."

P.[18]

But the warm and tender hearts of the Slavic women, nevertheless, find
means to satisfy that natural want of the female breast, to pour out
on certain objects the whole blessing of love. _Family_ connections
are among no other race regarded as so holy, the ties of relationship
are nowhere so cherished, as among the Slavi. Maternal tenderness is
the subject of very many songs; and is set by comparisons in the most
shining light. In the Russian ballad above adduced,[19] we have seen
how slightly the poet thinks of the love of the wife; her tears are
dried up by the sun, like the morning dew; while the mother's tears
gush out incessantly like the waters of the mountain stream. In a
Servian ballad, a youth wounds his hand. The Vila, a malicious
mountain-nymph, offers to cure him. But she exacts a high price,--from
his mother, her right hand; from his sister, her hair; and from his
wife, her necklace of pearls. The mother willingly gives her right
hand, and the sister her hair, but the wife refuses the necklace. The
love of a mother is often described by the image of swallows, clinging
to their own warm nest; or of tender doves, bereft of their young
ones. The rights of a mother are respected with true filial piety,
even by the barbarian hero Marko, who never fails to pay his aged
mother filial respect.

More remarkable, however, in Slavic popular poetry, is the peculiar
relation of the sister to the brother. This remark holds especially
good of Servia. Sisters cling to their brothers with a peculiar warmth
of feeling. These are their natural protectors, their supporters. They
swear by the head of their brothers. To have no brother is a
misfortune, almost a disgrace. A mourning female is represented in all
Slavic poetry under the constant image of a cuckoo; and the cuckoo,
according to the Servian legend, was a sister who had lost her
brother. Numerous little songs illustrate the great importance which
a Servian girl attaches to the possession of a brother. Those who have
none, think even of artificial means for procuring one. This is
exhibited in a pretty little ballad, where two sisters, who have no
brother, make one out of white and pink silk wound