ount Musin-Pushkin, among a collection which he
had purchased from a monastery. Unhappily, Count Musin-Pushkin's
valuable library was burned during the conflagration of Moscow, in 1812.
But the _Slovo_ had been twice published previous to that date, and had
been examined by many learned paleographists, who decided that the
chirography belonged to the end of the fourteenth century or the
beginning of the fifteenth century.

Igor Svyatoslavitch was the prince of Novgorod-Syeversk, who in 1185,
made a raid against the Polovtzy, or Plain-dwellers, and the Word begins
thus:

Shall we not begin our song, oh brothers,
With the story of the feuds of old;
Song of the valiant troop of Igor,
And of him, the son of Svyatoslaff,
And sing them as men now do sing,
Striving not in thought after Boyan.[4]
Making this ballad, he was wont the Wizard,
As a squirrel swift to flit about the forest,
As a gray wolf o'er the clear plain to trot,
And as an eagle 'neath the clouds to hover;
When he recalleth ancient feuds of yore,
Then, from out the flock of swans he sendeth
In pursuit, ten falcons, swift of wing.

The whole expedition is described in this poetical style, in three
hundred and eighty-four unrhymed lines, with a curious mingling of
heathen beliefs and Christian views. God shows Igor the road "to the
land of Polovetzk, to the Russian land," and on his return from
captivity, Igor rides to Kieff to salute the Holy Birth-giver of God of
Pirogoshtch, while the Polovtzy are called "accursed," in contrast with
the orthodox Russians. But the winds are called "the grandchildren of
Stribog," and the Russian people are alluded to as "the grandsons of
Dazhbog," both heathen divinities, and other mythical and obscure
personages are introduced.

With this epic lay, the first period of Russian literature closes.

QUESTIONS FOR REVIEW

1. How did Vladimir and his son provide for the education of
their people?

2. What kind of literature naturally grew out of the learning
of the monasteries?

3. What was the chronicle of Nestor? What special interest has
it?

4. Quote some of the precepts from the "Exhortation of
Monomachus."

5. By what good fortune has "Igor's Raid" been preserved?

6. What is the character of this Epic Song?

FOOTNOTES:

[4] Evidently an ancient epic bard.

CHAPTER III

SECOND PERIOD, FROM THE