PEOPLE AND POETS 5

equivalent of our bardic school system'. It lasted in Ireland until
the disasters of the seventeenth century, and was even then pro-
longed by the Courts of Poetry which met in taverns surrepti-
tiously to maintain the prestige of poetic art. In Scotland there
were bardic schools in the eighteenth century. This highly
academic atmosphere did not prevent poems entering into oral
tradition, so as to be recovered in our days on the lips of 'illiterate'
peasants in Kerry and Galway. It is not impossible for a traditional
culture to prefer elaborate to naive art; but such instances lie away
from the beaten track of this book.

Of another ballad people we have had detailed descriptions in
recent years: the Montenegrin Serbs, who treasure and still com-
pose ballads.1 The minor particulars are not of general application,
and may be omitted here, as also the possible relation between this
society and that which gave rise to the primitive (and largely
hypothetical) epics of Germany. In the high places of Montenegro
and the Dinaric Alps a heroic form of poetry and society has per-
sisted in vigour to our day. The social unit is small; it is the tribe
or family state. Wealth, commerce, and elaborate hierarchies
require an ampler space for their growth, and in fact have come to
possess the Serbian river valleys. But in the mountains, the
criterion of aristocracy is personal prowess; allegiance is given to
a leader who joins birth to valour, and it is perturbed by personal
feuds. Raids on traditional enemies, vendettas, marriage under the
figure of bride-stealing, and calamitous battles make up the stuff,
not only of entertainment, but of instruction. Where all are poor,
the poverty of the poet is not exceptional; his status is acknow-
ledged, and his improvisations are the acknowledged standards of
achievement in the group. Like a bard or a skald he has his allotted
place beside the tribal leader, and is a master of a definite technique,
though it is not erudite like theirs. On the plains the heroic ballad
is no longer at home, and traditional songs are cultivated chiefly by
the women in their dances; by women, among whom traditions
linger longer than among men.

The authority of the Montenegrin ballads encourages us to take
at their face value those social descriptions implied for countries

1 M. Braun, 'Zur Frage des Heldenliedes bei den Serbokroaten', M. Braun
und Th. Frings, 'Heldenlied', both in Beitrdge zur Geschichte der Deutschen
Sprache und Literatur, lix, 1935; M. Murko, La Poesie epique en Yougoslavie au
debut du xxe siecle, Paris, 1929; W. Wiinsch, Heldensdnger in Siidosteuropa,
Leipzig, 1937.