The Superior times. [volume] (Superior, Wis.) 1870-1912, 1876-09-22
Servian Dance and Song.

TheServian correspondents of the Lon.
don Telegraph says: ''KOlo is an eX.
ercise suited to the torrid weather
reigning. If it do not excite the be.
holder, it does not warm the perform
er. Laughter makes one hot, but
looking on the Servian dances causes
only puzzled smile. What manner
of men are these who, in European
dress, in cloth of Leeds and arms of
Sheffield, can find delight in holding
one another by the waistband and dane
ing just like bearl | have tried in
vain to distinguish shuf1les or cuts, or
! any form of step. They slowly raise
one foot and slowly drop it down, then
the other, and then the first again.
| Admirers of Servia declare the mill
tary intelligence of her people so
great that no drill comes unwelcome
to them. | should conceive that
the goose step and marking time
were peculiar favorites. Saving only
that they don't hold each Others
WaiStband, nor perform the evolution
in circle, they may quite fancy that
/ they are dancing kalo all, the while.
When the lasSeS jOin-a sport which |
have not yet been SO favored as to see
the party reYOlves in stamping.
am told this makes the dance much
more graceful-One does not quite see
how. If one bear is not thrilling to
watch, neither will ten be, though a
she creature or two be distributed
among them. Other fair haired Young
soldiers sing. For my part | prefer
the dance.
1t may be silly, but it is not painful
There Is one person in the world might
feel moved bv the Seryian song. Mr.
Darwin would be delighted with it, as
Il surviving link Thus, perhaps, the
primeyal man expressed the simple
sentiments of his unsophisticated soul.
The air may be divided into drawls,
yaWns, and bawls. After discoursing
such music through the mouth until
the ambient air is thrilling. they re-
peat the melody through the nose. 1t
is terrible to hear the GOSpOdin Pro-
fesSOr Tecite the lament of the ancient
Serb, who flies to escape the Turk. Of
how many verses this ballad consists
is unknOWn-never yet has the end
been reached. For the mode of com
position has that elasticity character
iStiC of an ineXhaustible Imagination.
The refugee bids adieu to each mem
Der OF his family. \ verse to his
wife. one to his brother Ivan. another
to AilOsch, a fourth to his mades
aunt, etc. Suppose him to have a
large family-lOtS of brothers, sisters,
and children. not to name his parents
and his mother-in-laW-each Of them
must have a verse. differing only from
the others before and after by the
change of Christian name. II the
nearer survive this enumeration, there
remains an ineXhaustible fund Of po-
etry on natural objects about the eX-
lies home the church, the tree, the
brook, the mountains, and so on. All
the music have heard rs yet seems
TO be included in compass Of four
notes. No foreigner here-and we are
many-haS ears 50 keen as to diStin
guish one tune from another. But
there must be more in it. 1Ou see
eyes light mp ana faces flush at the
strain which seems to your unaccus-
toned hearing all one stupid mono
tone. The Oriental character is evil
dent, and Il man skilled in that extra
ordinary science would probably dis
play to you 4 score of delicate grada.
tons where you only recognize one
draWl. The chants we heard at mass
to-day were an exception, but they
't.E' probably descended from an older
time than the Turkish conquest. Some
of them had Tilt and ring very diff
ferent from the measured strains of
our own sacred usuage-so different,
in fact, that they reSembled z spater-
song of the earlier sort"