and in it three coffins. Over the Holy Virgin's, the birds are
warbling or flowers are blossoming; over John the Baptist's, lights are
burning; over Christ's, angels are singing.

As might be expected, the Holy Virgin is a very popular subject of song.
In numerous ballads she delivers a temperance lecture to St. Vasily the
Great on his drunkenness, putting to him various questions, such as,
"Who sleeps through matins? Who walks and riots during the liturgy?"
[St. Vasily being the author of a liturgy which is used on certain
important occasions during the church year.] "Who has unwashed hands?
Who is a murderer?" and so on, through a long list of peccadilloes and
crimes. The answer to each question is, "The drunkard." Poor St. Vasily
dashes his head against a stone, and threatens to put an end to himself
on the spot, if his one lapse in five and twenty years be not forgiven.
Accordingly the Holy Virgin steps down from her throne, gives him her
hand, and informs him that the Lord has three mansions: one is the House
of David, where the Last Judgment will take place; through the second
flows a river of fire, the destination of wizards, drunkards, and the
like; and the third is Paradise, the home of the elect. The imagery in
the very numerous and ancient poems on the Last Judgment, by the way, is
purely heathen in character. The ferryman over the river of fire
sometimes acts as the judge, and the punishments to which sinners are
condemned by him recall those mentioned in the AEneid, and in Dante's
Divina Commedia, the frescoes on the walls of churches bearing out the
same idea.

Adam and Eve naturally receive a share of the minstrel's attention, and
"Adam's Wail" before the gates of Paradise is often very touching. In a
ballad from White Russia, Adam begs the Lord to permit him to revisit
Paradise. The Lord accordingly gives orders to "St. Peter-Paul" to admit
Adam to Paradise, to have the song of the Cherubim sung for him, and so
forth; but not to allow him to remain. In the midst of Paradise Adam
beholds his coffin and wails before it: "O, my coffin, coffin, my true
home! Take me, O my coffin, as a mother her own child, to thy white
arms, to thy ruddy face, to thy warm heart!" But "St. Peter-Paul" soon
catches sight of him, and tells him that he has no business to be
strolling about and spying out Paradise; his place is on Zion's hill,
where he will be shown books of magic, and of life, and things in
general.

There i