The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1894-11-18
A RUSSIAN RHAPSODIsr.
Lays OF the Last Minstrel OF Russia. the
Peasant RIAbInIn.

Ivan T~rophimovich Rjabinin, a peasant rhao-
sodist, Is the sensation Of the day In Moscow.
Russians OF all classes, merchants. officials.
ladies, students, as we'll as mujiks, flock TO hear
him recite their national epics. lie is a man of
about 30, a fisherman by trade. OF medium
height and not strongly made. with dark hair
and beard. stresked with gray, his hands
knOtted, and his face furrowed by his hard oc-
c~upation. He wears the long black caftan and
tho high boots characteristic of the Russian
peasant dress; in appearance no is nothing but
a mujik. lie rises before his audience, twisting
a rag OF handkerchief between his hands, and
says: "Gnspohd, I will sing you now a bilinka
(epicl, or, as We call il, a sidTinkd (Old
song, about lila Muromets and Philomel.
the robber." lie then sits down again
and begins TO chant the episode in a
IF MsrsG frh1s @itI f fGGs : telling 10y Tia
setting free the road on Will h the robber had
levied blackmail. The, songs 49,. 49,. ..,I.,L
down by word OF mouth from father 10 son for
centuries, as were the old HOmeric stories in
Greece till put in literary form, OF the stories Of
Roland and Arthur and Charlemagne in tho
middle ages. The Russian peasants who pre-
serve these epics have never been serfs; they
village OF Garnitsa, in the government OF Olo-
nets, four hundred miles north of st. Peters
burg. J. is strange, IA hear these singers, who
live in "A land OF thick pine woods and swamps,
sing of the wide-stretching plain" THE wav-
ing feather grass" the gray old oaks" and all
WV ANAAhlts VI Nv ~ AlllhlN III
neither they nor their fathers have seen.
Ivan Rjabinin's father, who died at the age of
ninety-three, recited the greater part OF the
OlOnets biiini during the sixties Ia "A number of
scholars, who took them down in writing, for IL
is only since that time that the study OF these
epics has been seriously taken az. Ivan was his
youngest son, and has himself three sons, none
of whom, however, can sing" because they
have learned 10 read and write. He himself
knows six thousand verses OF complete episodes,
and sings only national epics. some Of which re-
late to historical times. like that of Ivan the
Terrible. In Little Russia ;he singers celebrate
the saints of the church, while Others sing
funeral and marriage songs Rjabinin can
not compose himself and only knows
what he has learned orally from his father and
others. He belongs To the Old Believers, a sect
whose moral maxims are to drink no strong
drink. TO use no tobacco, 10 sing no worldly
songs, 10 dance no vain dances" He is remark
able In his own country only for doing better
what others are able 10 do who. like him, are
usually fishermen or cobblers. The singing does
not interfere with the daily work tits an ac-
cOmplishment due 10 the lucky chance OF a good
memory. undulled By book learning and the arts
OF civilization. The schools have already teSlt
a severe blow To the transmission OF the talent
and the railroad which will soon be built
through the government Of Olnents must put an
end to the songs there. as II las elsewhere. Ivan
Rjabinin is probably the last Russian rhRpsOdist.