UKRAINIA 377

rhymed in couplets, though the rhyme may be Imperfect or fail
altogether; but the length of the line is entirely free. They are de-
voted to narratives, but are not the only medium for narrative verse.
A twenty-stringed lute (the 'kobza') is used for them, the instru-
mentalist filling In the Interstices of the lines with Improvisations.
An attempt has been made to devise a system of scansion common
to the 'durni' and cbylinyJ5 but there Is here even less evidence for
the recurrence of certain stresses and pauses. The two types are not
identical, but, in view of the metrical irregularity also apparent in
Igor's Expedition, it seems natural to believe that the 'byliny" and
the 'dumi5 are independent derivatives from the old prosody of
Kiev.

The themes of the £dumi* are modern and historical. They are
concerned with expeditions against the Turks, the complaints and
escapes of prisoners, and the Cossack against the Poles. The style
and treatment are generally undistinguished, and even plebeian.
One misses the supernatural, which diversifies the action of some
of the best 'byliny'. Aleksei Popovic and the Storm in the Black Sea
(44) Is a Jonah legend, marred by an excess of words. The crimes
to which this unpardonable sinner confessed are trivial—they
include irreverence and failure to say his prayers—and the whole
piece is in painful contrast to the vivid imagination that shapes the
song of Sadko. The name of the hero is also that of one of the
'bogatyrs'; but it means no more than Alec the Priest's Son, so that
one cannot be certain of the identity. Aljosa Popovic, however,
was, as we have seen, involved In one or two serious pieces of ballad
wrongdoing. The escapes are those of Samuil Koska from Trebi-
zond (45) and of three brothers from Azov (35), the latter being
raised above the commonplace by a dash of tragedy. The best of
the cdumi' is that of Marusja Bogoslavka (46). The plot Is very
simple. The lady has herself turned Turk by entering a Turkish
harem (doubtless as a captive), but on Easter Eve, while her lord
is at prayers, she frees five hundred Cossacks from his dungeons,
sending by them a hopeless message to her parents. There is a
naive but effective use of psychology and indubitable pathos in the
ending; Marusja saved others, herself she could not save:

This request alone I make you, pass not by Boguslav's town*
To my father dear and mother make this news known:

that my father dear grieve not,
alienate not store of treasure, ground or plot,
4615 c