b o o k laborious occupations : the public-houfes re-echo with
their carols ; and in a ffill evening I have frequently
heard the air vibrate with the notes from the furrounding
villages. ' _ - ,
An ingenious author *, long reiident in Ruffia, and who
has turned his attention to the ftudy o f the national mufick,
gives us the following information upon this curious fub-
jedt. T h e general mulick that prevails among the common
people in Ruffia, from the Duna to the Amoor and the
Frozen Ocean, confifts in one fpecies o f fimple melody,
which admits o f infinite variation,-according to the ability o f
the finger, or the cUftom o f the feveral provinces in this
extenfive empire. T h e words o f the fongs are moftly in
profe, and often extempore, according to the immediate invention
or recollection o f the f in g e r ; perhaps an antient
legend, the hiftory o f an enormous giant, a declaration o f
love, a dialogue between a lover and his miftrefs, a murder,
or the defcription o f a’ beautiful g i r l : fometimes they
are merely letters and fyllables taken from fome old
accidence, metrically arranged, but feldom in rhyme,
and adapted to this general air. Thefe latter words are
chiefly ufed by mothers in finging to their children, while
the boors, at the fame time, perform their national dance
to the fame tune, unaccompanied with inftrumental mufick.
1 have been alfo informed, that the fubjedt o f the fong
frequently alludes to the former adventures o f the finger,
or to his prefent fituation; and that the peafants adapt the
* Staehlin. See his Nachrickten .yon lagen, V . II. p. 60 to 6 5 ; where (penmens
der Mufik in Rufsland, in Haygold’ s Bey- o f this air are given. _
topicks
topicks o f their common difcourfe, and their difputes with CHj^F-
each other, to this general air ; which, altogether, fo rm s 1— ,— t
an extraordinary effedt; and led me to con je tu re , as I have
before expreifed myfelf, that they chanted their ordinary
converfation.
L i l a G IIA P.