the seventeenth century is
the bandit-chief of the Volga, Stenka Razin, whose memory still lingers
among the peasants of those regions. He was regarded as the champion of
the people against the oppression of the nobles, and "Ilya of Murom, the
Old Kazak" is represented as the captain of the brigands under him. To
Stenka, also, are attributed magic powers. From the same period date
also the two most popular dance-songs of the present day--the
"Kamarynskaya" and "Barynya Sudarynya," its sequel. The Kamarynskaya was
the district which then constituted the Ukraina, or border-marches,
situated about where the government of Orel now is. The two songs
present a valuable historical picture of the coarse manners of the
period on that lawless frontier; hence, only a few of the lines which
still subsist of these poetical chronicles can be used to the
irresistibly dashing music.

The power of composing epic songs has been supposed to have gradually
died out, almost ceasing with the reign of Peter the Great, wholly
ceasing with the war of 1812. But very recently an interesting
experiment has been begun, based on the discovery of several new songs
about the Emperor Alexander II., which are sung by the peasants over a
wide range of country. All these songs are being written down with the
greatest accuracy as to the peculiarities of pronunciation and
accentuation. If, in the future, variants make their appearance,
containing an increasing infusion of the artistic and poetical elements,
considerable light will be thrown upon the problem of the rise and
growth of the ancient epic songs, and on the question of poetical
inspiration among the peasants of the present epoch. One of these
ballads, written down in the Province of the Don, from the lips of a
blind beggar, says that Alexander II., "burned with love, wished to give
freedom to all, kept all under his wing, and freed them from punishment.
He reformed all the laws, heard the groans of the needy, and himself
hastened to their aid." "So the wicked killed him," says the ballad, and
proceeds to describe the occurrence, including the way in which "the
black flag" was lowered on the palace, and "they sent a telegram about
the eclipse of our sun." In the far northern government of Kostroma, on
the Volga, two more ballads on the same subject have been taken down on
the typewriter, so that the bard could readily correct them. The first,
entitled "A Lay of Mourning for the Death of the Tzar Li