FOOTNOTES:
[149] The first part of this note is mainly derived from an interesting paper by Prof. M. Murko in the Zeitschrift des Vereins für Volkskunde (Berlin), 1909, p. 13 ff., to which the reader is referred for further information and authorities. The collections of poems published by Marjanović and Hörmann have not been accessible to me.
[150] Some interesting remarks relating to the prevalence of minstrelsy—apparently among the Christian population—during the eighteenth century are to be found in Fortis' Travels into Dalmatia (London, 1778). "A Morlacco travels along the desert mountains singing, especially in the night time, the actions of ancient Slavi kings and barons or some tragic event.... Although the Morlacchi usually sing their ancient songs, yet other poetry is not altogether extinguished among them; and their musicians, after singing an ancient piece, accompanied with the guzla, sometimes finish it with some extempore verses, in praise of the personage by whom they are employed" (ib., p. 85).
[151] The following observations are based on the poems published in Krauss' Slavische Volkforschungen.
[152] Thus in a number of poems the Beg Ljubović appears as the representative of Hercegovina.
[153] Especially several of those dealing with the battle of Kossovo (1389), to which we shall have to refer in a later note.
[154] There are references to the existence of heroic poetry in the neighbourhood of Spalato and Sebenico as far back as the sixteenth century; cf. Murko, Arch. f. slav. Philol., XXVIII 378. A much earlier reference has been traced in Nicephorus Gregoras' account (Hist. Byz., VIII 14) of his mission to the court of Stephan Uroš in the year 1326, where it is stated of his followers: φωναῖς ἐχρῶντο καὶ μέλεσι τραγικοῖς· ᾖδον δ' ἄρα κλέα ἀνδρῶν ὧν οἷον κλέος ἀκούομεν οὐδέ τοι ἴδμεν. But it is extremely doubtful whether these persons were Servians.
[155] In the middle of the sixteenth century the Slovenians of Tolmino used to sing "di Mattia re d' Ungheria e di altri celebri personaggi di quella nazione" (Murko, Zeitschr. d. Vereins f. Volksk., 1909, p. 14, note). Matthias Hunyadi died in 1490.
[156] Wiener, Anthology of Russian Literature, I p. 84.