e pictures are always fresh, tangible, and striking;
but, although not seldom the effects of the sublime, and of the
deepest tragic pathos, are obtained by a perfect simplicity, nothing
could be more foreign to them than the dignified stateliness and
scrupulous refinement of the French stage.

The number and variety of the Servian heroic poems is immense. The
oldest legendary cycle is formed by their great Tzar Dushan Nemanyitch
and his heroes; by the pious prince Lazar, their last independent
chief, who was executed by the Turks after having been made prisoner
in battle; and by the death of his faithful knights on the field of
Kossovo. The two battles fought here, in 1389 and 1447, put an end to
the existence of the Servian empire. In immediate connection with
these epic songs are those of which Marko Kralyewitch, i.e. Marko the
king's son, the Servian Hercules, is the hero; at least thirty or
forty in number. The pictures, which these ballads exhibit, are
extremely wild and bold; and are often drawn on a mythological ground.
Indeed both the epic and the lyric poetry of the Servians are
interwoven with a traditional belief in certain fanciful creatures of
Pagan superstition, which exercise a constant influence on human
affairs. Witches (_Vjashtitzi_), veiled women who go from house to
house, carrying with them destruction; the plague, personified as an
old horrible looking female; and also the saints, and among them the
_thunderer_ Elias and the _fiery_ Mary who sends lightning; these all
appear occasionally. But the principal figure is the Vila, a mountain
fairy, having nearly the same character as the northern elementary
spirits; though the malicious qualities predominate, and her
intermeddling is in most cases fatal.

There are various features which serve to allay the extreme wildness
and rudeness of the oldest Servian poems. As one of the principal of
these we consider the solemn institution of a contract of brotherhood
or fraternal friendship, which the Servians seem to have inherited
from the Scythians.[49] Two men or two women promise each other before
the altar, and under solemn ceremonies, in the name of God and St.
John, eternal friendship. They bind themselves by this act to all the
mutual duties of brothers and sisters. Similar relations exist also
between the two sexes, when a maid solemnly calls an old man her
"father in God," or a young one her "brother in God;" or when a man
calls a woman his "mother