no man can read it. The prophet Isaiah deciphered only three pages
of it in as many years. But the "Most Wise Tzar David" undertakes to
give, from memory, the book's answers to various questions put to him by
Tzar Vladimir, as spokesman of a throng of emperors and princes. A great
deal of curious information is conveyed--all very poetically
expressed--including some odd facts in natural history, such as: that
the ostrich is the mother of birds, and that she lives, feeds, and rears
her young on the blue sea, drowning mariners and sinking ships. Whenever
she (or the whale on which the earth rests) moves, an earthquake ensues.
There are several versions of this ballad. The following abridged
extracts, from one version, will show its style. Among the questions put
to "the Most Wise Tzar David" by Prince Vladimir are some touching "the
works of God, and our life; our life of holy Russia, our life in the
free world; how the free light came to us; why our sun is red; why our
stars are thickly sown; why our nights are dark; what causes our red
dawns; why we have fine, drizzling rains; whence cometh our intellect;
why our bones are strong"; and so forth.

Tzar David replies: "Our free white light began at God's decree; the sun
is red from the reflection of God's face, of the face of Christ, the
King of Heaven; the younger light, the moon, from his bosom cometh; the
myriad stars are from his vesture; the dark nights are the Lord's
thoughts; the red dawns come from the Lord's eyes; the stormy winds from
the Holy Spirit; our intellects from Christ himself, the King of Heaven;
our thoughts from the clouds of heaven; our world of people from Adam;
our strong bones from the stones; our bodies from the damp earth; our
blood from the Black Sea." In answer to other questions, Tzar David
explains that "the Jordan is the mother of all rivers, because Jesus
Christ was baptized in it; the cypress is the mother of all trees,
because Christ was crucified on it; the ocean is the mother of all seas,
because in the middle of the ocean-sea rose up a cathedral church, the
goal of all pilgrimages, the cathedral of St. Clement, the pope of Rome;
from this cathedral the Queen of Heaven came forth, bathed herself in
the ocean-sea, prayed to God in the cathedral," which is a very unusual
touch of Romanism.

The ancient religious ballads have no rhyme; and, unlike the epic songs,
no fixed rhythm. The presence of either rhyme or rhythm is an indication