66 Simple, plain, and natural! The young man wants a rich bride. He fcours over the heaths and the vallies. Cafts an eye over all the country. He fees a peafant's cottage-yard, with pieces of linen hanging to dry. The door is ornamented with old plated buttons and other flat pieces of metal nailed to it. A good ftore of flesh hanging under the eavesThis must be a wealthy family," fays he. In he goes; finds an amiable young woman, generally of a fallow complexion, of which his imagination makes lilies and rofes, with long blond hair flowing down her neck and bofom, which is the common description of the natives; he renews his vifits, the father gives ker to him, and unites them for ever in the bands of love. II. Again, an epithalamium. It was doubtless compofed fo long ago as the Roman Catholic times, as we fee by the mention of the mother of our Saviour, according to the notion of the then prevailing fuperftition, The hunting-line therein mentioned, is the leathern thong held in the hand for guiding the horse. "The "halters kept hanging on the beams "of the fun," is truly poetical: an agreeable image. Even the fun is endeavouring to fupplant the young bridegroom, by laying hindrances in the way of his rapid progrefs to his bride. It is not a stranger, a cold wedding-gueft, a lazy, old acquaintance, who already, for half a century, has felt the breezes and the blights of love, that unties the hunting-line from the thicket: the reftlefs and eager youth, to whom every minute is as long as ten years, which keeps him from the embraces of his bride, fprings out of his cabitka, fhakes the entangled hunting-lines afunder, mounts his horfe without delay, and haftens forward on the wings of love. ing therefore we stayed fo long." Certainly the bridegroom (think the chorus, as entering into the thoughts of the bride,) fnatched them hastily from the bufhes. He therefore asks, "Who took them from the apple 66 tree This the young bridegroom did, (replies the other chorus,) drawn by the centre of all attraction to youth, the kindling fpark of company. But to the fong itself: Welcome, welcome, wedding-compaWelcome, after the journey! ny! Who kept you well upon the journey? Who fhewed to you the tract? "God kept us well upon the journey; "Maria fhewed to us the tract." What kept you on the way fo long? The hunting-line was hung upon the apple tree, "The halters on the beams of the fur." Who took the hunting-line from the apple-tree, The halters from the beams? That the youthful bridegroom did, "He took the hunting-line from the apple-tree, "The halters from the beams of the fun." III. But the damfel, his beloved, the defire and the life of his foul, for whofe fake he undertook this wearifome journey, and despised every dif. ficulty, is fled. The virgin has concealed herself, from female modesty. "Where is my promifed, my be"trothed?"-The parents and relations of the bride, who have hid her, make answer: Very well, very well, thou bridegroom! Who bid thee come with company? There feem to be two alternate Could't thou not have come in private? Ed. Mag. April 1796. Kk The The bride heard the bag pipes blow*. How naive! "Who bid thee come with company! Couldst thou not have come in private ?"-Now thou mayst go and feek her, traverfe the whole country. Run over all Vierland, fpeed through all Harrien, (two circles of Efthonia.) In Har. rien her nuptial prefents are already diftributed she has already another bridegroom. And how was the dref. fed? As gaily as the people of the city; with white beads, her headdrefs was adorned. In city manners did the appear, perfumed with liquid odours.-Every thing is combined that could render his ardent paffion ftill more ardent. He runs about the fields, and then fearches every corner of the house, till at laft he finds his jewel. He that does not perceive nature here, perceives her nowhere. It is the language of infulting jocularity, the fportive taunts of fuch as find pleasure in teazing a lo ver. The treafure, however, is only kept from him for a time, to make it of more value to him afterwards. Is the bride fitted out by her parents? then they give her fomething towards houfe-keeping, linen, wearing-apparel, and a cow or a fheep, &c. But, if the be an orphan, this cannot be expected. How trifling and fcanty muft the prefents appear in comparison of thofe ufually given about among the guests on fuch occafions-The following ballad is fung by an orphan at the time of dif tributing the presents: IV. I am alone, like the fparrow-hawk; And yet the fparrow-hawk has five be fides herself. I am alone, like the duck; And yet the duck always goes in pairs. And yet the crane has fix besides herself. Yet he has two children. *The bridegroom approaches with music. + The nuptial prefents given by the bride. To whom thall I lament my woes? me? The flowers will fade: Shall I complain to the meadow-grafs ? "The blades of grafs grows thick on my grave, "The blue mift of the forest is before my eyes, And on my feet the weeds and the bushes are grown.". An elegy, which, for truth of expreffion, may be ranked with thofe of Ovid. Who does not here participate in the bitter reflections of an orphan! She is going to enter on a new condition; and the has no one on whom he can lean. And yet he must make prefents!-She calls to her parents in the grave, in doleful mockery," Dear father, help me "to fhut the great cheft which con"tains my dowry. It is fo full that "I cannot of myself fhut down the cover. Give me, mother, the bri"dal prefents, which the guests are "expecting!" But their fituation is their fufficient excufe. If Irony it is too full of prefents. She cannot fhut the lid alone, it is fo heaped with precious things. 1 If this ballad fails to pleafe on the first perufal, it will certainly meet with better fuccefs on the second or third. It is the expreffive language of nature. The fimiles of the duck and the pelican, (or rather the fpoonbill,) are probably shocking in our more refined nations, where we are frequently hearing of oftriches, pho nixes, cameleons, and creatures of which nothing is known, in general, except the name. But, if we confider, that a poor country girl is here fpeaking, who can only take her fimiles from the objects she is daily converfant with, we fhall eafily pardon her for using them. After frequently reading the foregoing, we enter into the genius of the poeticallycomplaining maid; we think with her fpirit, fympathize with her feelings, and are pleafed with her language, as the language of nature. Shine, that we may be warm without cloth, VI. The fummer is fhort in Eft- V. A fong of the reapers. At the corn-harveft, the females have no other cloathing than a fhift, tied about the waift with a fring, or a ftripe of lift. No coat or gown have they, no neckcloth or handkerchief: their whole apparel confifts in a fhift, a ribband about the head to tie up the hair, and a few beads that hang about their neck.-The men wear a pair of linen trowfers befides the fhirt-all go barefoot. How cutting to the German landlords ought the laft line but one of the following fonnet to be! As its proper effect, it should teach them a little humanity: for never were human creatures treated with less than the Efthonian and Livonian peasants. The 3d, 4th, and 5th, are certainly ingenious and fignificant. They are a tiffue of delicate fentiment, farcafm, and fimplicity. Shine, fhine, thou fun! Bright and chearful be the day! ** So Perg is the head-drefs of an unmarried woman, confifling of a circle of pafteboard, decorated with pieces of filks tied about with artificial treffes, and keeping the hair tos gether. So long the hay-making lafts, While the stack is not yet made.- Ah! 'tis better to live in the bottomlefs pit, More happy to be unhappy in hell, Before fun-rife we are already at work, And we must all be kept difperfed. A great broad piece of meadow is fet them as a tafk-they muft divide it in breadth, and thus are kept mowing at a distance from each other. Accordingly, the comforts of fociety and converfe are denied them at this feason; and to this it is that the laft line alludes. VII. A counterpart to the former. In the fpring feafon there is frequently fuch a dearth, that the peafants are obliged to fodder their cattle with the half rotten ftraw of their thatched roofs. This is neceffary for me to premife, for rendering intelligible the fecond line. For the elucidation of the fourth line it must be remarked, that the boor has no chimney in his thatch, but the fmoke, after curling round his room, at length finds its way out at the door. Only the German houfes have the luxury of chimuies. Ever fince the chimnies came in "to the village" is the fame as to fay, Ever fince the Germans fettled themselves in the country. The lord may take as many people as he pleafes, and what people from the farm, to be domeftics in his houfe and this explains the laft line. I must not leave it unnoticed, that the tributes paid to the lord are called righteoufneffes. This makes the meaning of the feventh line clear. This is the caufe that the country is ruined, And the ftraw of the thatch is eaten a way, The gentry are come to live in the land. And the proprietor upon the white floor! The fheep brings forth a lamb with a white forehead, This is paid to the lord for a righteouf nefs fheep: The fow farrows pigs, They go to the fpit of the lord: They go into the lord's frying pan : nag: They must go to look after my lord's poul ⚫ try. Can one defire a more juft and lively difplay of the wretched fituation of thefe poor people in regard to their lords, than this ballad, the refult of their feelings and their waeful experience? VIII. To whomever has been prefent with a woman in labour, has been witness to her agonies, has heard her groans in bringing forth, how just will the following images appear! The fympathizing feelings of the affiftants are even excruciating. But how great is the joy, when the hour of pain is over, and the family is increafed by a fon or a daughter! A crooked piece of wood, in the form of a half-circle, or rather a large horfe-fhoe, connects the two poles or fhafts of the cart, over the horse's head. The fabricating of thefe crock ed "What has the Creator fent you? "Has he fent you a Krummholtzhohler? "Or a fecretary for the landlord? "Or one that plies the reel?" God has made a Krummholtzhohler † ! · The boors laugh under the bench, The children under the table, The hufband in the room. IX. A ballad fung while fwinging. The fwing is a dear paftime with the Ethonians. By this vibrating motion, the foul finks into a kind of flumber, and for a time forgets its mifery. What the "gate" was among the Orientals, ("He shall be praised in the gate." "Ha"man faw him in the gate." "They "They are crushed in the gate." They that fit in the gate fpeak a "gainst me." "Shall not be a"hamed when they speak with their "enemies in the gate." " Lay a "fnare for him that reproveth in "the gate." "Eftablish judgment "in the gate," &c.) that fame is the fwing with this nation. Here the young and old affemble together; the father enjoys himself with his fons, the mother with her daughters. Here they talk over all the news of the place, difcufs characters, and, perhaps, quarrels. Every one brings fome provifion with him, because, on a holiday, they pafs the greater part of the afternoon here, and the whole of the evening. He that has, gives to him that has not. The Kubijas is a perfon placed over the boors, who, with his family, is exempt from all work as a ferf; he therefore has the means of managing his own acres, and looking after their produce, as he and his people have nothing else to do; accordingly, he is much richer than the other boors. One or other of his fellow-vaffals is ever bringing him fome prefent, by way of bribe, either to remit him a day's work, unknown to the lord, or otherwise to spare him. It is therefore, with great naîveté, faid in the laft line: " Of the Kubija's daughter I found a golden "coif." How different from the poor fatherlefs and motherlefs orphan! " Of the orphan I saw on 66 ly the falfe treffes."-All these findings were things which the girls had dropped in running away as faft as they could. The two upright pofts to which the fwing is fufpended, fometimes by the velocity of the motion * The hot-bath is a neceffary of life here as well as Ruffia; it is ufed weekly, and fometimes much oftener, by people of all conditions. My worthy correfpondent is an ingenious commentator, though somewhat prolix. However, instead of his explanation on the foregoing page, I should rather think, that krummholtzhohler is merely wood-fetcher Krummholtz is a fpecies of pine; the pinus montana; and hohlen fignifies, to fetch; krumm likewife means crooked. |