A Survey of Russian Literature, with Selections | Page 7

and the Holy Trinity, one to the
All-Holy Birth-giver of God, and one to Yegóry the Brave. Elizabeth
the Fair then returns to town, leading the tamed dragon by her sash, to
the terror of the inhabitants and to the disgust of her mother. The three
churches are duly built, and Christianity is promptly adopted as the
state religion of Arabia. In another ballad, Yegóry is imprisoned for
thirty years in a pit under the ground, because he will not accept the
"Latin-Mussulman faith."
Among the most ancient religious ballads, properly speaking, are: "The
Dove Book," "The Merciful Woman of Compassion" (or "The Alleluia
Woman"), "The Wanderings of the All-Holy Birth-giver of God," in
addition to the songs about Yegóry the Brave, already mentioned. The
groundwork of "The Dove Book" is of very ancient heathen origin, and
almost identical with the oldest religious songs of the Greeks. The book
itself is somewhat suggestive of the "little book" in Revelation. "The
Dove Book" falls from Alatýr, the "burning white stone on the Island of
Buyán," the heathen Paradise, which corresponds to our Fortunate Isles
of the Blest, in the Western Sea, but lies far towards sunrise, in the
"Ocean Sea." The heathen significance of this stone is not known, but it
is cleverly explained in "The Dove Book" as the stone whereon Christ
stood when he preached to his disciples. This "little book," "forty
fathoms long and twenty wide," was written by St. John the Evangelist,
and no man can read it. The prophet Isaiah deciphered only three pages
of it in as many years. But the "Most Wise Tzar David" undertakes to
give, from memory, the book's answers to various questions put to him
by Tzar Vladímir, as spokesman of a throng of emperors and princes. A
great deal of curious information is conveyed--all very poetically
expressed--including some odd facts in natural history, such as: that the
ostrich is the mother of birds, and that she lives, feeds, and rears her

young on the blue sea, drowning mariners and sinking ships. Whenever
she (or the whale on which the earth rests) moves, an earthquake ensues.
There are several versions of this ballad. The following abridged
extracts, from one version, will show its style. Among the questions put
to "the Most Wise Tzar David" by Prince Vladímir are some touching
"the works of God, and our life; our life of holy Russia, our life in the
free world; how the free light came to us; why our sun is red; why our
stars are thickly sown; why our nights are dark; what causes our red
dawns; why we have fine, drizzling rains; whence cometh our intellect;
why our bones are strong"; and so forth.
Tzar David replies: "Our free white light began at God's decree; the sun
is red from the reflection of God's face, of the face of Christ, the King
of Heaven; the younger light, the moon, from his bosom cometh; the
myriad stars are from his vesture; the dark nights are the Lord's
thoughts; the red dawns come from the Lord's eyes; the stormy winds
from the Holy Spirit; our intellects from Christ himself, the King of
Heaven; our thoughts from the clouds of heaven; our world of people
from Adam; our strong bones from the stones; our bodies from the
damp earth; our blood from the Black Sea." In answer to other
questions, Tzar David explains that "the Jordan is the mother of all
rivers, because Jesus Christ was baptized in it; the cypress is the mother
of all trees, because Christ was crucified on it; the ocean is the mother
of all seas, because in the middle of the ocean-sea rose up a cathedral
church, the goal of all pilgrimages, the cathedral of St. Clement, the
pope of Rome; from this cathedral the Queen of Heaven came forth,
bathed herself in the ocean-sea, prayed to God in the cathedral," which
is a very unusual touch of Romanism.
The ancient religious ballads have no rhyme; and, unlike the epic songs,
no fixed rhythm. The presence of either rhyme or rhythm is an
indication of comparatively recent origin or of reconstruction in the
sixteenth century.
"The Merciful Woman of Compassion," or "The Alleluia Woman,"
dates from the most ancient Christian tradition, and is a model of
simplicity and beauty. It is allied to the English ballad of "The Flight

into Egypt" (which also occurs among the Christmas carols of the
Slavonians of the Carpathian Mountains), in which the Virgin Mary
works a miracle with the peasant's grain, in order to save Christ from
the Jews in pursuit. The Virgin comes to the "Alleluia Woman," with
the infant Christ in her arms, saying: "Cast thy child into the oven, and
take Christ the Lord in thy lap. His enemies, the Jews,