h is the fact, and to God be the glory!

"Therefore," say the Servians, in conclusion of their version of this
ballad, "God has made a hollow in the sole of every human being's foot."

The Epic Songs, properly speaking, are broadly divisible into three
groups: the Cycle of Vladimir, or of Kieff; that of Novgorod; and that
of Moscow, or the Imperial Cycle, the whole being preceded by the songs
of the elder heroes. With regard to the first two, and the Kieff Cycle
in particular, undoubtedly composed during the tenth, eleventh, and
twelfth centuries, authorities on the origin of Russian literature
differ considerably. One authority maintains that, although the Russian
epics possess a family likeness to the heroic legends of other Aryan
races, the Russians forgot them, and later on, appropriated them again
from Ural-Altaic sources, adding a few historical and geographical
names, and psychical characteristics. But this view as to the wholesale
appropriation of Oriental myths has not been established, and the
authorities who combat it demonstrate that the heroes are thoroughly
Russian, and that the pictures of manners and customs which they present
are extremely valuable for their accuracy. They would seem, on the
whole, to be a characteristic mixture of natural phenomena (nature
myths), personified as gods, who became in course of time legendary
heroes. Thus, Prince Vladimir, "the Fair Red Sun," may be the Sun-god,
but he is also a historical personage, whatever may be said as to many
of the other characters in the epic lays of the Vladimir cycle. "Sadko,
the rich Guest of Novgorod," also, in the song of that title, belonging
to the Novgorod cycle, was a prominent citizen of Novgorod, who built a
church in Novgorod, during the twelfth century, and is referred to in
the Chronicles for a space of two hundred years. In fact, the Novgorod
cycle contains less of the personified phenomena of nature than the
cycle of the Elder Heroes, and the Kieff cycle, and more of the genuine
historical element.

A regular tonic versification forms one of the indispensable properties
of these epic poems; irregularity of versification is a sign of decay,
and a complete absence of measure, that is to say, the prose form, is
the last stage of decay. The airs to which they are sung or chanted are
very simple, consisting of but few tones, yet are extremely difficult
to note down. The peasant bard modifies the one or two airs to which he
chants his