trample it.
First Chorus: But wherewith will ye trample it?
Second Chorus: Horses will we turn into it.
First Chorus: But we will catch the horses.
Second Chorus: Wherewith will ye catch them?
First Chorus: With a silken rein.
Second Chorus: But we will ransom the horses.
First Chorus: Wherewith will ye ransom them?
Second Chorus: We will give a hundred rubles.
First Chorus: A thousand is not what we want.
Second Chorus: What is it then, that ye want?
First Chorus: What we want is a maiden.

Thereupon, one of the girls of the second choir goes over to the first,
both sides singing together: "Our band has lost," and "Our band has
gained." The game ends when all the girls have gone over to one side.

The funeral wails are also very ancient. While at the present day a very
talented wailer improvises a new plaint, which her associates take up
and perpetuate, the ancient forms are generally used.

From the side of the East,
The wild winds have arisen,
With the roaring thunders
And the lightnings fiery.
On my father's grave
A star hath fallen,
Hath fallen from heaven.
Split open, O dart of the thunder!
Damp Mother Earth,
Fall thou apart, O Mother Earth!
On all four sides,
Split open, O coffin planks,
Unfold, O white shroud,
Fall away, O white hands
From over the bold heart,
And become parted, O ye sweet lips.
Turn thyself, O mine own father
Into a bright, swift-winged falcon;
Fly away to the blue sea, to the Caspian Sea,
Wash off, O mine own father,
From thy white face the mold.
Come flying, O my father
To thine own home, to the lofty terem.[1]
Listen, O my father,
To our songs of sadness!

The Christmas and New-Year carols offer additional illustrations of the
ancient heathen customs, and mythic or ritual poetry. The festival which
was almost universally celebrated at Christmas-tide, in ancient heathen
times, seems to have referred to the renewed life attributed to the sun
after the winter solstice. The Christian church turned this festival, so
far as possible, into a celebration of the birth of Christ. Among the
Slavonians this festival was called _Kolyada_; and the sun--a female
deity--was supposed to array herself in holiday robes and head-dress,
when the gloom of the long nights began to yield to the cheerful lights
of the lengthening days, t