This song has many variants—the introductory portion of this version was given me by a peasant woman—while a young Ruthenian girl, whose brother was a soldier, said she had often heard him sing the words following:—
Brother, whence comest thou?
From beyond Dunai?
What heardest thou in Ukraine?
Nothing have I heard,
Nothing have I seen,
But horsemen on four sides.
The Russians have covered the mountain.
On that mountain a Turkish horse stands,
On the horse sits a Turk’s young son.