A Survey of Russian Literature, with Selections | Page 5

of
the most prominent and interesting of these Christianized carols is the
Sláva, or Glory Song. Extracts from it have been decoratively and most

appropriately used on the artistic programmes connected with the
coronation of the Emperor Nicholas II. This Glory Song is used in the
following manner: The young people assemble together to deduce
omens from the words that are sung, while trinkets belonging to each
person present are drawn at random from a cloth-covered bowl, in
which they have been deposited. This is the first song of the series:
Glory to God in Heaven, Glory! To our Lord[2] on this earth, Glory!
May our Lord never grow old, Glory! May his bright robes never be
spoiled, Glory! May his good steeds never be worn out, Glory! May his
trusty servants never falter, Glory! May the right throughout Russia,
Glory! Be fairer than the bright sun, Glory! May the Tzar's golden
treasury, Glory! Be forever full to the brim, Glory! May the great rivers,
Glory! Bear their renown to the sea, Glory! The little streams to the
mill, Glory! But this song we sing to the Grain, Glory! To the Grain we
sing, the Grain we honor, Glory! For the old folks to enjoy, Glory! For
the young folks to hear, Glory![3]
Another curious old song, connected with the grain, is sung at the
New-Year. Boys go about from house to house, scattering grain of
different sorts, chiefly oats, and singing:
In the forest, in the pine forest, There stood a pine-tree, Green and
shaggy. O, Ovsén! O, Ovsén! The Boyárs came, Cut down the pine,
Sawed it into planks, Built a bridge, Covered it with cloth, Fastened it
with nails, O, Ovsén! O, Ovsén! Who, who will go Along that bridge?
Ovsén will go there, And the New-Year, O, Ovsén! O, Ovsén!
Ovsén, whose name is derived from Ovés (oats, pronounced avyós),
like the Teutonic Sun-god, is supposed to ride a pig or a boar. Hence
sacrifices of pigs' trotters, and other pork products, were offered to the
gods at the New-Year, and such dishes are still preferred in Russia at
that season. It must be remembered that the New-Year fell on March
1st in Russia until 1348; then the civil New-Year was transferred to
September 1st, and January 1st was instituted as the New-Year by Peter
the Great only in the year 1700.
The highest stage of development reached by popular song is the heroic

epos--the rhythmic story of the deeds of national heroes, either
historical or mythical. In many countries these epics were committed to
writing at a very early date. In western Europe this took place in the
Middle Ages, and they are known to the modern world in that form
only, their memory having completely died out among the people. But
Russia presents the striking phenomenon of a country where epic song,
handed down wholly by oral tradition for nearly a thousand years, is
not only flourishing at the present day in certain districts, but even
extending into fresh fields.
It is only within the last sixty years that the Russians have become
generally aware that their country possesses this wonderfully rich
treasure of epic, religious, and ceremonial songs. In some cases, the
epic lay and the religious ballad are curiously combined, as in "The
One and Forty Pilgrims," which is generally classed with the epic songs,
however. But while the singing of the epic songs is not a profession,
the singing of the religious ballads is of a professional character, and is
used as a means of livelihood by the kalyéki perekhózhie, literally,
wandering cripples, otherwise known as wandering psalm-singers.
These stikhí, or religious ballads, are even more remarkable than the
epic songs in some respects, and practically nothing concerning them is
accessible in English.
In all countries where the Roman Church reigned supreme in early
times, it did its best to consign all popular religious poetry to oblivion.
But about the seventeenth century it determined to turn such fragments
as had survived this procedure to its own profit. Accordingly they were
written over in conformity with its particular tenets, for the purpose of
inculcating its doctrines. Both courses were equally fatal to the
preservation of anything truly national. Incongruousness was the
inevitable result.
The Greek, or rather the Russo-Greek, Church adopted precisely the
opposite course: it never interfered, in the slightest degree, with popular
poetry, either secular or religious. Christianity, therefore, merely
enlarged the field of subjects. The result is, that the Slavonic peoples
(including even, to some extent, the Roman Catholic Poles) possess a

mass of religious poetry, the like of which, either in kind or in quantity,
is not to be found in all western Europe.
It is well to note, at this point, that the word stikh (derived from an
ancient Greek