undergoes the treatment which his poor brother had indicated for his own
soul. When rich Lazarus looks up from his torment and beholds poor
Lazarus in Abraham's bosom, he addresses him as "Brother, my own
brother." Here one version comes to a sudden end, and the collector who
transcribed it, asked: "What?" "He repented," answered the peasant woman
who sang it, "and called him 'brother' when he saw that he was well
off." In other versions, a long conversation ensues, in the course of
which poor Lazarus reminds rich Lazarus of numerous sins of omission and
commission, and inquires, with great apparent solicitude, what has
become of all his gold, silver, flowered garments, and so forth, and
assures him that he would gladly give him not a drop but a whole
bucketful of water were he permitted to do so.

But to the share of no saint does a greater number of songs (and
festivals) fall than to that of John the Baptist. In addition to June
24th, which still bears the heathen name of _Kupalo_, in connection with
St. John's Eve, and which is celebrated by the peasants in as thoroughly
heathen a fashion as is the Christmas festival, in honor of the
Sun-goddess, Kolyada, he has three special days dedicated to him. Two of
these deserve mention, because of a curious superstition attached to
them. On St. John's Day, May 25th, the peasants set out their cabbages;
but on the autumn St. John's Day, August 29th, they must carefully avoid
all contact with cabbages, because it is the anniversary of the
beheading of John; no knife must be taken in the hand on that day, and
it is considered a great crime to cut anything, particularly anything
round, resembling a head. If a cabbage be cut, blood will flow; if
anything round be eaten--onions, for example--carbuncles will follow.

In concluding this brief sketch of the religious ballads of the
Slavonians, I venture to quote at length, a masterpiece of the Wandering
Cripples' art. It is a Montenegrin version of a legend which is common
to all the Slavonic peoples, and contains, besides an interesting
problem in ethics, an explanation of the present shape of the human
foot. In some versions the emperor's crown is replaced, throughout, by
"the bright sun," thus suggesting a mythological origin. It is called
"The Emperor Diocletian and John the Baptist."

Two foster brothers were drinking wine,
On a sunny slope by the salt seaside;
One was the Emperor Diocletian,
The other, John t