them; while the great
mass has a different character. Indeed, such an immense number of
ballads have originated in the rich and fertile steppes of the
Ukraine, that it would seem as if each bough of their forest trees
must harbour a singer, and each blade of grass on these endless
blooming plains whisper the echo of a song.[30] The pensive character
of the Great Russian popular poetry becomes, in that of the
Malo-Russian and Ruthenian, a deep melancholy, that finds vent in a
great variety of sweet, elegiac, melodies. According to the author of
a little collection of their popular songs, published first in a
German translation, "these are the after-pains of whole generations;
these are the sorrows of whole centuries, which are blended in one
everlasting sigh!" [31] If we look back to the history of these
regions, we cannot doubt that it is the spirit of their past, that
breathes out of these mournful strains. The cradle of the Kozak stood
in blood; he was rocked to the music of the clashing of swords. For
centuries the country on both banks of the Dnieper as far as to the
northwestern branch of the Carpathian mountains, the seat of this
race, was the theatre of constant warfare and aggression; there was no
time for the blessings of a peaceful development. Their narrative
ballads have, therefore, few other subjects than the feuds with Poles
and Tartars; the Kozak's parting with his beloved one; or his lonely
death on the border, or on the bloody battle field! No wonder that
their little lyric effusions have imbibed the same melancholy spirit.

These vast level regions were the principal thoroughfares of the
hordes of Mongols and Tartars, who from the thirteenth to the
fifteenth century overspread Russia, and penetrated as far as Silesia.
In Northern Russia, at least, a shade of the old forms and
constitutions was preserved; and native princes reigned under Mongol
dominion; but in the South every thing was broken up, and the country
laid completely waste. Fugitives, reduced to a life of plunder and
booty, congregated here and there; the country on the Lower Don, near
the entrance of this river into the sea of Azof, was one of their
strongholds; another portion found refuge on the islands of the
Dnieper, just below the present site of Yekatrinoslav. Here they
fortified themselves in little rude castles; while, after all, their
situation out of the track of the wild barbarians was their best
shelter.

The first named regi