The Chrissenmas to Mayday 
which elapse between Christmas Day and Twelfth Night 
the Infant-Saviour wanders on the earth, and also that on 
Christmas Eve and Epiphany Eve the gates of Paradise 
are thrown open, and on the earth all the frozen springs 
and rivers run with healing wine, and the bare leafless trees 
bud and bloom. The peasants, particularly those of Little 
Russia and White Russia, sing what they call Kolyadki or 
Christmas songs. The term for Christmas Kolyadka is said 
to be derived from the Roman Calendar, and the Christian 
festival was grafted on an old-time festival in honour of the 
Sun, called a goddess, and worshipped with dance and 
song. The following is a sort of specimen of these songs 
I wrote on one of these legends : 
THE DYING CHILD 
Hark ! little Mother, the rain beats wild, 
See the snowflakes flying across the sky, 
Is He out in the storm, the White Christ-child, 
Hast seen Him yet, Mother, passing by ? 
0 Duschinka, work no more this e’en, 
For Father Kouzma says ’ tis a sin 
To work when the Christ-child may be seen, 
For we should be watching to ask him in. 
He wanders o’er earth at Christmastide, 
When the red sun sinketh in the west ; 
Over land and sea, and far and wide, 
Calling the sufferers to their rest. 
My bones are aching, and so is my head, 
My cheeks are burning, my eyes are dim ; 
1 am so weary, I wish I were dead — 
Oh ! I wish to-night I might see Him ! 
The wind howls wider, the door flies wide, 
In the blackness of night is it snow shines white ? 
Little Mother, what do I see outside — 
There, out in the pinewood — a golden light ? 
Say, is it the moon that shines so fair 
Or the red sun peeping thro’ black tall trees, 
Or the silver stars I see shining there ? 
I hear the far sound of the summer bees, 
I smell the scent of the limetree flowers, 
I see the brook running free as in Spring, 
Where I remember, in happier hours, 
“ The Birds of God ” * upon the wing. 
Swallows. 
95 
