ration to another. These
sentences are very like the Proverbs in the Bible, very like La
Rochefoucauld or extracts and quotations from famous works. The Serbian
sentences are striking. I have read a good deal by the great writers of
Europe, but very often a popular Serbian saying strikes me more forcibly
than a famous book.

Here is just one saying:

God is on the height, Satan is in the depth, man is in the middle. If
God will, He can be above, below and in the middle. If Satan will, he
can be below and in the middle. If man will, he can be like God
everywhere, in the middle, or above or below.

Another:

A bird envied the serpent; thou knowest earth very well. The serpent
envied the bird: thou knowest heaven very well. And both envied man:
thou knowest heaven and earth. Man replied: "My knowledge and my
ignorance make me equally unhappy."

Another:

Either snow or ice, or steam or fluid, water is always water. Either
poor or rich, or ignorant or learned, man is always man.

Another:

Only a half-good man can be disappointed in this world. But a wholly
good man never is disappointed because he never expects a reward for his
good actions.

The Serbian people _sang_ also. Sitting around the fire in the long
winter nights, the Serbian peasants sang their glorious past, their dark
present and their hopes for the future. There is a Serbian instrument
called the _gusle_, more interesting than the Greek lyre, because more
appropriate for the epic songs. It looks also like the Indian instrument
_tamboura_. Well, as the ancient Greek bards sang their Achilles, using
the lyre, and as the ancient Indian singers sang their Krishna with the
help of the tamboura, so the Serbian epic singers accompanied with the
gusle their songs on their hero of old, Marko. Marko was a historic
person, a king's son. He was the never-weary champion of right and
justice, the protector of the poor and oppressed, a believer in the
victorious good, a man who left an impression on the coming generations
like a lightning flash in the dark clouds. In every village house in
Serbia there is a gusle, and almost in every family a good singer with
the gusle. The blind bards sang on the occasion of the festival or a
meeting.

The great Pitt, when once asked from whom he learned the English history
so well, replied: "From Shakespeare." To the same question we Serbs can
reply: "From our national poetry." It is very rare for a people in the
mass to kn