Pan Tadeusz Part 29

62 According to the tradition, Grand Prince Giedymin had a dream on the mountain of Ponary of an iron wolf, and by the counsel of the wajdelota [bard] Lizdejko founded the city of Wilno.

63 [Witenes and Mindowe (also called Mendog) were early princes of Lithuania. Giedymin (died 1341) was the founder of the power of that nation, and the father of Olgierd and Kiejstut. One son of Kiejstut was Witold, famous as a warrior and prince. One son of Olgierd was Jagiello: see p. 332. Lizdejko is said to have been the last high priest of heathen Lithuania.]

64 Zygmunt August [1548-72] was raised to the throne of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania according to the ancient rites; he girt on him the sword and crowned himself with the soft cap (_kolpak_). He was a great lover of hunting.

65 In the district of Rosieny, on the estate of Paszkiewicz, the Rural Secretary, grew an oak known under the name of Baublis, which was formerly, in pagan times, honoured as a sacred tree. In the interior of this decayed giant Paszkiewicz has founded a cabinet of Lithuanian antiquities.

66 Not far from the parish church of Nowogrodek grew some ancient lindens, many of which were felled about the year 1812.

67 [Jan Kochanowski (1530-84) was the greatest poet of Poland up to the time of Mickiewicz. Czarnolas was his country estate, on which he pa.s.sed in retirement the closing years of his life. In a famous epigram he tells of the charms of his linden tree:-

"Seat thyself underneath my leaves, O guest, And rest.

I promise thee that the sharp-beaming sun Here shall not run, But 'neath the trees spread out a heavy shade: Here always from the fields cool winds have played; Here sparrows and the nightingales have made Charming lament.

And all my fragrant flowers their sweets have spent Upon the bees; my master's board is lent That honey's gold.

And I with gentle whisperings can fold Sweet sleep upon thee. Yea, 'tis true I bear No apples; yet my Lord speaks me as fair As the most fruitful trees That graced the Gardens of Hesperides."

_Translated by Miss H. H. Havermate and G. R. Noyes_.]

68 See Goszczynski's poem, _The Castle of Kaniow_. [This poem, by Seweryn Goszczynski (1803-76) was published in 1828. The reference is probably to the following pa.s.sage: "Does that prattling oak whisper in his ear sad tales of the disasters of this land, when beneath its sky the gloomy vulture of slaughter extended a dread shadow with b.l.o.o.d.y wings, and after it streamed clouds of Tatars?"]

69 ["Those used for the candles regularly lit by the Jews on Friday at sunset, to avoid the 'work' of kindling light or fire on the Sabbath."-M.

A. Biggs.]

70 _Kolomyjkas_ are Ruthenian songs resembling the Polish _mazurkas_.

[Ostrowski states that these are popular airs that are sung and danced at the same time. Naganowski adds that the first word is derived from the town of Kolomyja in Galicia. _Mazurka_ is "merely the feminine form of Mazur," a Masovian.]

71 [Dombrowski's march, "Poland has not yet perished." Compare pp. 325, 326, 334.]

72 [See note 42.]

73 [The Jews in Poland, though not persecuted, formed a separate cla.s.s, without share in the government of the country. They were separated from the Poles by religion, customs, and language. Yet instances of intermarriage and a.s.similation were not uncommon. Compare p. 100.]

74 The _pokucie_ is the place of honour, where formerly the household G.o.ds were set, and where still the Russians hang their sacred pictures (ikons).

Here a Lithuanian peasant seats any guest whom he desires to honour.

75 [July mead (_lipcowy miod_) perhaps might better be called _linden-flower mead_. The Polish name of July, _lipiec_, is derived from _lipa_, a linden tree. See the epigram quoted in note 67.]

76 [See note 2. Since Czenstochowa was in the Grand Duchy of Warsaw, Robak finds occasion to hint at the reunion of Lithuania and the Kingdom.]

77 [The reference is to the Eastern (Orthodox) Church, the state church of Russia.]

78 [Compare p. 319.]

79 [An old jingle expressing the equality before the law of all members of the Polish gentry.]

80 [Maciej Stryjkowski (1547-83) wrote a famous chronicle that is one of the sources for the early history of Lithuania.

"Polish heraldry is comparatively simple beside that of other countries.

The use of family names was unknown till the fifteenth century; before that the different branches of one stock were only recognised by one common escutcheon. One might belong to the stock of the arrow, the two daggers, the horseshoe, the double or triple cross, etc. There were only 540 of these escutcheons for the whole of Poland. A great number of families were grouped together under each one of these signs; we shall often find a man described as being of such and such a crest."-M. A.

Biggs.

"It may be added that a wealthy and powerful n.o.bleman often rewarded his retainers and _famuli_ by 'admitting them to his escutcheon,' _i.e._ obtaining for them a diploma of honour from the King, ratifying the knightly adoption. Hence it is common to hear of the greatest and most ancient Polish families having the same armorial bearings with some very obscure ones."-Naganowski. Compare p. 319.]

81 [See p. 334.]

82 ["The _tarataika_ is species of capote; the _czamara_ a long frock-coat, braided on the back and chest like a huzzar's uniform, and with tight sleeves. The _sukmana_ is a sort of peasant's coat made of cloth, the wearing of which by Kosciuszko indicated his strong democratic tendencies, and sympathy with the lower cla.s.ses."-M. A. Biggs.]

83 The beaks of large birds of prey become more and more curved with advancing age, and finally the upper part grows so crooked that it closes the bill, and the bird must die of hunger. This popular belief has been accepted by some ornithologists.

84 It is a fact that there is no instance of the skeleton of a dead animal having been found.

85 Birdies _(ptaszynki)_ are guns of small calibre, used with a small bullet. A good marksman with such a fowling-piece can hit a bird on the wing.

86 ["It may be interesting to know that one of the yet surviving friends and schoolfellows of Mickiewicz, Ignatius Domejko, the present Rector of the University of Santiago (Chili), related during his stay in Warsaw last year (1884) that he challenged the young poet, then at Wilno, to find a proper name riming with Domejko. Mickiewicz improvised a verse riming Domejko with Dowejko. It is not, however, quite certain whether there was actually a family of that name."-Naganowski.]

87 Little leaves of gold lie at the bottom of bottles of Dantzic brandy.

[The city, formerly under Polish rule, was annexed to Prussia at the time of the Second Part.i.tion, 1793.]

88 ["The bigos was not of course prepared then and there on the spot. It is usually made in large quant.i.ties, put into barrels, and stored in cellars. The oftener it is heated the more savoury it is."-M. A. Biggs.]

89 [See p. 333.]

90 Queen Dido had a bull's hide cut into strips, and thus enclosed within the circuit of the hide a considerable territory, where she afterwards built Carthage. The Seneschal did not read the description of this event in the _Aeneid_, but in all probability in the scholiasts' commentaries.

N.B.-Some places in the fourth book are by the hand of Stefan Witwicki.]

91 Once in the Diet the deputy Philip, from the village of Konopie (hemp), obtaining the floor, wandered so far from the subject that he raised a general laugh in the chamber. Hence arose the proverb: "He has bobbed up like Philip from the hemp."

92 [There is here an untranslatable pun in the original; _niemiec,_ the Polish word for _German_, is derived from _niemy_, _dumb_.]

93 [In the original: "And the Word became--" "These words of the Gospel of St. John are often used as an exclamation of astonishment."-M. A. Biggs.]

94 ["Of all spoils the most important were the _spolia opima_, a term applied to those only which the commander-in-chief of a Roman army stripped in a field of battle from the leader of the foe."-_Smith's Dictionary of Antiquities_. They were awarded but three or four times in the course of Roman history.]

95 [In the original there is here an internal jingle between _klucznik_ (warden) and _puszczyk_ (screech owl).]

96 [This festival furnished the subject and the t.i.tle for Mickiewicz's greatest poem, next to _Pan Tadeusz_. The poet's own explanation of it is in part as follows: "This is the name of a festival still celebrated among the common folk in many districts of Lithuania, Prussia, and Courland. The festival goes back to pagan times, and was formerly called the feast of the goat (_koziel_), the director of which was the _kozlarz_, at once priest and poet. At the present time, since the enlightened clergy and landowners have been making efforts to root out a custom accompanied by superst.i.tious practices and often by culpable excesses, the folk celebrate the _forefathers_ secretly in chapels or in empty houses not far from the graveyard. There they ordinarily spread a feast of food, drink, and fruits of various sorts and invoke the spirits of the dead. The folk hold the opinion that by this food and drink and by their songs they bring relief to souls in Purgatory."]

97 [See note 1]

98 [The original here has a delightful pun. Gerwazy misunderstands his lord's high-flown word _wa.s.salow_ (va.s.sals) as _wonsalow_ (mustachioed champions). A long mustache was the dearest adornment of a Polish gentleman; compare Gerwazy's description of Jacek on pages 43 and 115, where _wonsal_ is the t.i.tle given him in the original.]

99 [The last three names might be translated, _Cuttem, Slashem, Whackem._]

100 [The _buzdygan_ or mace was the staff of office of certain subordinate officers in the Polish army, as the _bulawa_ was that of the _hetmans_ or generals. Each was a short rod with a k.n.o.b at the end, but the k.n.o.b on the _bulawa_ was round, that on the _buzdygan_ was pear-shaped, with longitudinal notches.]

101 [See note 82.]

102 In Lithuania the name _okolica_ or _zascianek_ is given to a settlement of gentry, to distinguish them from true villages, which are settlements of peasants. ["These _zascianki_ were inhabited by the poorest of the lesser n.o.bility, who were in fact peasants, but possessed of truly Castilian pride. The wearing of a sword being restricted to n.o.bles, it was not unusual to see such _zasciankowicze_, or peasant n.o.bles, following the plough bare-footed, wearing an old rusty sword hanging at their side by hempen cords."-Naganowski. In this volume _hamlet_ has been arbitrarily chosen as a translation for the name of these villages of gentry.]