When the sun shines, it dries up the dew.

P.

[pg.324]

Servian songs begin also frequently with a series of questions, the answers to which form mostly a very happy introduction to the tale. For instance:

What's so white upon yon verdant forest?

Is it snow, or is it swans assembled?

Were it snow, it surely had been melted;

Were it swans, long since they had departed.

Lo! it is not swans, it is not snow, there,

'T is the tents of Aga, Hassan Aga, etc.