CZECHOSLOVAKIA, HUNGARY 273

those of the Austrian and Hungarian contingents which made up
the Imperial armies. Lyrical poems vastly outnumber the narrative
verses; the actors are humble, and the action tends to take place in
inns or other plebeian surroundings. Though landsknechts and
raters are not mentioned, much space is given to stories of crime.
Taken as a whole, the Czechoslovak corpus resembles the later
German balladry as It had become after the middle of the seven-
teenth century. It is from Germany that the more interesting sub-
jects derive, together with the technique and some of the music.1

German ballads or ballads which have crossed Germany give
rise to over a score of those current in Moravia. The saga of Hero
and Leander appears in two forms (185, 187), and, owing to its
lyrical degeneration, it is hard to mark off from other drowning
ballads, which may be its derivatives or be based on actual events
(90^ 129). The Danube takes the place of the Hellespont, and
serves as well. The Samaritan woman is identified with the
Magdalene (The Sinner 3) in a ballad which, though crude, is im-
pressive in its ruthlessness. The Murderer (189) is an offshoot of
Hallezcijn; it belongs to the group in which the girl is actually
killed, and later avenged by her three brothers. All Czech ballads
of supernatural adventure owe either their origin or their trans-
mission to Germany: they include The Shroud and—a variant—
The Dead Man (i 10, 160), The Orphan at her Mother's Grave (159),
The Girl at her Loner's Grave and at her Mothers Grave (86, ioa),
The enchanted Daughter (146) who has been metamorphosed by a
curse into a tree, and another Dead Man (112), Janosko, who is
Sweet William to Kacenka's Lenore. The Shroud is more gloomily
suggestive in Czech than in the surviving German versions of Der
Yorwirth, and some of the other pieces are not unworthily ren-
dered. The luckless Wedding (89) seems to be a rationalized version
of Elveskud. Herman is the hero. He goes for his bride, but
robbers set on him and kill him; his bride is brought home in
ignorance of his death, but she hears bells tolling and kills herself
on his bier. Under the same number Susil included a ballad con-
substantial with the German Count Frederick, in which a bride is
accidentally killed by her husband's sword. The soldier's return is

1 F. Susil, Moravske ndrodni Pzsne, Brno, 1868-74. Some Idea of the older
Czech literature may be obtained from W. Szegeda, Tschechoslovcakische
Anthologie von den Heldensagen bis sur Gegemcart. Numbers In the test corre-
spond to Susil's numeration.

4615 Nn