are extremely wild and bold; and are often drawn on a mythological ground.  Indeed both the epic and the lyric poetry of the Servians are interwoven with a traditional belief in certain fanciful creatures of Pagan superstition, which exercise a constant influence on human affairs.  Witches (Vjashtitzi), veiled women who go from house to house, carrying with them destruction; the plague, personified as an old horrible looking female; and also the saints, and among them the thunderer Elias and the fiery Mary who sends lightning; these all appear occasionally.  But the principal figure is the Vila, a mountain fairy, having nearly the same character as the northern elementary spirits; though the malicious qualities predominate, and her intermeddling is in most cases fatal.

There are various features which serve to allay the extreme wildness and rudeness of the oldest Servian poems.  As one of the principal of these we consider the solemn institution of a contract of brotherhood or fraternal friendship, which the Servians seem to have inherited from the Scythians.[49] Two men or two women promise each other before the altar, and under solemn ceremonies, in the name of God and St. John, eternal friendship.  They bind themselves by this act to all the mutual duties of brothers and sisters.  Similar relations exist also between the two sexes, when a maid solemnly calls an old man her “father in God,” or a young one her “brother in God;” or when a man calls a woman his “mother or sister in God.”  This is mostly done in cases of distress.  When a person, thus appealed to, accepts the appellation, they are in duty bound to protect and to take care of the unfortunate, who thus give themselves into their hands; according to the prevailing notion, a breach of this contract is severely punished by Heaven.  Marko Kralyevitch was united in such an alliance with the Vila; in modern times we find it sometimes between Turks and Servians in the midst of their most bitter feuds.

The traditional ballads of the Servians, referring to the heroes of their golden time, are undoubtedly in their groundwork of great antiquity; but as until recently they have been preserved only by tradition, it cannot be supposed, that they have come down in their present form from the original time of their composition; which was perhaps nearly cotemporary to the events they celebrate.  In most of them frequent Turcisms show, that the singer is familiar with the conquerors and their language.  According to Vuk, very few are in their present form older than the fifteenth century.

The more modern heroic ballads—­for the productiveness of this remarkable people is still alive—­are essentially of the same character.  They may be divided into two parts.  One division, probably composed during the last two centuries and down even to the present time, is devoted to a variety of subjects, public and private.  Duels, love stories, satisfaction of blood-revenge, domestic quarrels