{"collection":"Northern European Mythology","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/neu/hbs/hbs09.htm","path":"neu/hbs/hbs09.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/neu/hbs/hbs09.htm","text":"Sacred-Texts\u00a0Legends & Sagas\u00a0Index\u00a0Previous\u00a0Next\n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n p. 32\n \n \n \n BAN STRAHIN\n \n STRAHIN was ban of Banska that by K\u00f3sovo doth stand;\n \n And such another falcon there is not in the land.\n \n | He rose up in the morning: | \n| | \u201cHo, all my knaves, give heed! | \n \n Get ye down to the stables and saddle me my steed.\n \n Deck him out fair and seemly, and gird him with the girth;\n \n For hark and hear me, gallants, I go roving o\u2019er the earth.\n \n Weary shall be the milk-white steed, before I shall alight\n \n Where dwell my wife\u2019s good kindred in Kr\u00fashevats the white\u2014\n \n Her brave old father Yug Bogdan and her good brothers nine,\n \n Her gallant kin shall take me in and cheer me with the wine.\u201d\n \n \u2003Then forthwith all the servants unto the ban gave heed,\n \n And from the lordly stable led the white falcon steed.\n \n And then the brave Ban Strahin himself the steed arrayed;\n \n He set on him a saddle of velvet and brocade,\n \n Redder than sunset water, more shining than the sun!\n \n \n \n \n \n p. 33\n \n \n \n So the good ban put on the steed that rich caparison.\n \n So rode he forth that morning, nor ever did alight\n \n Till he came in to his wife\u2019s kin in Kr\u00fashevats the white,\n \n Where late the realm men stablished. And him Yug Bogdan saw,\n \n And with his nine gray hawks came on to greet his son-in-law.\n \n They waited little for him, but clasped him one and all;\n \n And while the servants took the steed, they brought the ban to hall.\n \n Down sat they at the ready board, and spake fair words and fine;\n \n And man and maid came in apace to serve or pour the wine.\n \n Then all those goodly Christians their thirst began to quench;\n \n Yug Bogdan set Ban Strahin beside him on the bench;\n \n Upon his right he set him, his sons on the other hand;\n \n But the remnant of his people at the table-foot must stand.\n \n The servants served before them. Nine daughters had that lord,\n \n And each fair daughter in her turn served deftly at the board.\n \n They served before their father; they served their lords that tide;\n \n \n \n \n \n p. 34\n \n \n \n But most of all Ban Strahin, for their sister was his bride.\n \n One servant stood before them to serve the red wine up;\n \n In a gold cup he measured it\u2014nine measures held that cup.\n \n Much courtesy was there to see and guests from near and far;\n \n Brothers as many came as to a banquet of the tsar.\n \n Long was Ban Strahin\u2019s tarrying; long, long did he abide,\n \n Dwelling among his wife her kin in pleasure and in pride.\n \n \u2003The guests that were in Kr\u00fashevats a bitter cry they made,\n \n And came to old Yug Bogdan and unto him they prayed:\n \n \u2003\u201cWe kiss thy silken garments, thou art our lord and chief;\n \n We therefore pray thy kindness to do us this relief.\n \n Bring Strahin thy good son-in-law to our castles and our courts,\n \n That we may do him honor as with his worth consorts.\u201d\n \n \u2003Before that mirth was over was long enough, I trow.\n \n Long the ban tarried, ere came forth the tidings of his woe.\n \n But lo, in the fair morning, when the warm sun beat down,\n \n \n \n \n \n p. 35\n \n \n \n A lad bore a white letter from Banska, the little town,\u2014\n \n Tidings from his old mother! He set it on his knee;\n \n Therein was many a bitter and dreadful thing to see,\n \n For there her curse is written most plain in Strahin\u2019s sight:\n \n \u2003\u201cWhere art thou, son? Foul fall the wine in Kr\u00fashevats the white!\n \n Evil is the wine and full of shame for thee and thy wife\u2019s kin.\n \n Behold what woes against thee are written down herein!\n \n From Yedren1 with an army is come the Turkish tsar\n \n To K\u00f3sovo, and his viziers are with him in the war;\n \n And he hath taken K\u00f3sovo with his accurst viziers.\n \n The whole strength hath he brought along of all the Turkish spears;\n \n Along the land of K\u00f3sovo hath he ta\u2019en either flood\u2014\n \n Lab and S\u00edtnitsa onward from the marble to the wood,\n \n From the maple dry to S\u00e1zliya bridged over by the arch,\n \n Through Zvechan and Chechan to the wood round K\u00f3sovo they march,\n \n \n \n \n \n p. 36\n \n \n \n The valley of their capture; thereto they haste along.\n \n And the tsar hath one army an hundred thousand strong,\n \n That one lone lord hath lent him who hath a fief of the tsar.\n \n Many lords eat of the tsars bread, and ride his steeds of war.\n \n Few arms those chieftains carry; nay, but a single blade!\n \n And yet another army is for the tsar arrayed\u2014\n \n The Turks and janissaries in Yedren\u2019s milk-white tower;\n \n And yet an hundred thousand they say are in that power.\n \n Tuk and Manjuk an army for the tsar lead as well,\n \n And death is in their onslaught and slaughter in their yell.\n \n But yet there is one army of all from far and near\u2014\n \n Vlah \u00c1liya\u2019s, that feareth not for sultan nor vizier,\n \n Nor all within the armies save as ants upon the hill.\n \n \u2003\u201cSuch is the Turkish battle, nor departs he without ill.\n \n He smote on little Banska; by the left-hand way he came;\n \n He stormed the hold of Banska, and burned it with the flame.\n \n \n \n \n \n p. 37\n \n \n \n He hath o\u2019erturned the lowest stone; thy servants fled perforce;\n \n And o\u2019er thy mother\u2019s body hath he ridden on his horse;\n \n With thy wife upon his saddlebow through K\u00f3sovo he went,\n \n And he kisses thy belov\u00e8d in the shadow of his tent.\n \n And I above burned ruins bewail this fate of mine,\n \n While thou drink\u2019st wine in Kr\u00fashevats. God send \u2019tis Death his wine!\u201d\n \n \u2003When the ban read the letter, Grief took him in her grip;\n \n Down drooped upon his shoulder the black beard of his lip;\n \n He ground his teeth together, and was very nigh to weep;\n \n And old Yug Bogdan saw him, as he rose up from his sleep.\n \n Yug\u2019s voice flashed up like fire; he spake after this wise:\n \n \u2003\u201cGod help my son! and wherefore dost thou so soon arise?\n \n And wherefore art thou troubled, good son-in-law of mine?\n \n Have thy brave brothers laughed at thee or mocked thee at the wine?\n \n Have not thy sisters served thee? Is there evil among thy kin?\n \n Tell me, my son, and straightway: what shame is found herein?\u201d\n \n \n \n \n \n p. 38\n \n \n \n \u2003The ban flashed up before him and to his father said:\n \n \u2003\u201cFather, I find no fault at all in the kin of her I wed,\n \n And my good brothers with me deal pleasantly withal;\n \n The noble ladies speak me fair and serve me in the hall:\n \n Among my wife\u2019s good kindred no fault at all doth stand.\n \n My mother out of Banska sends this letter to my hand.\u201d\n \n \u2003He tells unto his father in the fair morning-tide\n \n How all of his possession is wasted far and wide;\n \n How that the Turks have scattered his servants, knight and knave,\n \n And trampled on his mother, and his wife ta\u2019en for a slave:\n \n \u2003\u201cAnd O thou old Yug Bogdan, if she be dear to me,\n \n Also she is thy daughter and shame to me and thee!\n \n And if thou ever thoughtest a gift to me to give,\n \n Give it not after I am dead, but now while yet I live.\n \n I pray thee and I kiss thy hand: give me thy children nine,\n \n And we will go to K\u00f3sovo to seek this foe of mine\u2014\n \n Yea, this red traitor to the tsar, that hath enslaved my wife.\n \n Be not afraid, my father, nor sorrow for their life;\n \n \n \n \n \n p. 39\n \n \n \n They shall wear Turkish raiment, turbans as white as milk\n \n And good green mantles, and also broad trousers wrought of silk.\n \n And at the belt long sabers as flashing as a flame.\n \n And I will call my servants, and order them by name,\n \n To saddle up the horses and draw the saddlebelts,\n \n And cover o\u2019er the horses with the strong black bear-pelts.\n \n Strong janissaries shall they be; my counsel shall they know,\n \n What time through the tsar\u2019s army we ride in K\u00f3sovo.\n \n And I will be their captain, who have their sister wed,\n \n That they may heed my counsel, and have it still in dread.\n \n And if a soldier of the tsar shall challenge us in speech,\n \n Turkish, mayhap, or Arabic; why, I can speak in each,\n \n And Manov too, and Arnaut, enough to serve that tide.\n \n To seek my foe through K\u00f3sovo, so lightly will we ride\u2014\n \n This Turk Vlah \u00c1liya that enslaved my love by might and main.\n \n For though alone among the Turks I might perish or be ta\u2019en,\n \n My brethren and I, we shall not die nor be smitten down in vain!\u201d\n \n \n \n \n \n p. 40\n \n \n \n \u2003When old Yug Bogdan heard this, he flashed like living fire;\n \n He spake unto Ban Strahin in words of wrath and ire:\n \n \u2003\u201cO thou, my son Ban Strahin, witless art thou and rash!\n \n Wilt thou lead my sons to K\u00f3sovo for these same Turks to slash?\n \n Say nothing more, my son-in-law! My sons shall not be slain,\n \n Though thy fair wife, my daughter, come never home again.\n \n Nay, nevermore, Ban Strahin, unloose thy wrath at me,\n \n For wit thou well, my son-in-law\u2014may the plague light on thee!\u2014\n \n If she have been his paramour but one night in the tent,\n \n So may she be no longer the bride of thy content;\n \n God hath slain her forever; accurs\u00e8d shall she be!\n \n And a worse thing, Ban Strahin, him she prefers to thee.\n \n Go to! The Devil take her! And for this love of thine\n \n I will give thee a better, and with thee drink the wine.\n \n I will be thy friend forever, but my children shall not go\n \n Riding amain across the plain with thee to K\u00f3sovo!\u201d\n \n \u2003But when Ban Strahin heard it, he flashed like living fire;\n \n \n \n \n \n p. 41\n \n \n \n Answered the ban to the old man in agony and ire.\n \n He will not call a servant; for a groom he takes not heed,\n \n But goeth himself to the stable to saddle the white steed.\n \n How royally he saddled him! how girded him thereto!\n \n How over flashing ear and crest the bit and bridle drew!\n \n Before the gateway of the court he led him forth alone,\n \n And held him by the bridle near the white stepping-stone.\n \n And he caught the steed by the shoulder and mounted with a bound,\n \n And looked upon his brethren, but they looked upon the ground.\n \n Upon his sister\u2019s husband Ban Strahin turned his eyes,\n \n But N\u00e9manyich looked downward at the black dust likewise.\n \n They had drunken wine and brandy enough to make one nod,\n \n And boasted that they were heroes, and sworn by the name of God:\n \n \u201cWe love thee, thou Ban Strahin, more than the tsar\u2019s whole land.\u201d\n \n But woe! the ban has never a man this day his friend to stand.\n \n It is no easy labor to K\u00f3sovo to wend;\n \n \n \n \n \n p. 42\n \n \n \n And the ban looked about him and saw he had no friend.\n \n He rode down through white Kr\u00fashevats, but aye he looked behind\n \n To see if his brave brethren would alter in their mind,\n \n And pity his affliction. No friend came to the ban.\n \n And thereupon he minded him of the hound K\u00e1raman,1\n \n Whom he loves better than the steed, and holds of richer worth,\n \n And loudly from the strong white throat the hound-call thunders forth.\n \n The hound lay in the stable, but harkened and gave heed,\n \n And swiftly in the field he ran, till he overtook the steed.\n \n And gay beside the milk-white steed the hound rejoicing springs,\n \n And on his neck the collar of corded goldwork rings.\n \n A pleasant thing it was; the ban rode glad on the stallion\u2019s back,\n \n And took by weald and mount and field to K\u00f3sovo the track.\n \n When he saw the host at K\u00f3sovo his heart was touched by fear,\n \n But he remembered the true God, and to the Turks drew near.\n \n Over the field of K\u00f3sovo on all four sides he went,\n \n \n \n \n \n p. 43\n \n \n \n Seeking the strong Vlah \u00c1liyah, but he could not find his tent.\n \n \u2003By the waters of the S\u00edtnitsa a marvel there was seen,\n \n By the shore of the S\u00edtnitsa was pitched a tent of green.\n \n The tent of green was very fair; it hid the grassy lawn,\n \n The golden apple on the pole shone brighter than the dawn.\n \n A spear is set before the door, and by the spear a steed,\n \n With his head deep in the nose-bag upon the oats to feed.\n \n The steed pawed fierce upon the ground with the off hoof and the near,\n \n And the ban thought unto himself: \u201cVlah \u00c1liya\u2019s tent is here.\u201d\n \n And forward rode the hero upon the milk-white steed;\n \n He took his spear from shoulder, all ready to his need.\n \n He threw the tent door open, and looked within the tent;\n \n But it was not Vlah \u00c1liya, the strong and insolent;\n \n But a dervish, to whose girdle the white beard sweeps from the chin,\n \n Lies in the shadow of the tent, and no one else therein.\n \n A luckless dervish is the Turk, but he drinks wine in a cup;\n \n \n \n \n \n p. 44\n \n \n \n He pours the wine out for himself and forthwith drinks it up.\n \n Ban Strahin looked on the dervish that was bloody to the eyes,\n \n And made salam unto him, after the Turkish wise.\n \n The drunken Turk looked on him, and spoke a word of woe:\n \n \u201cHail to thee, brave Ban Strahin of Banska by K\u00f3sovo!\u201d\n \n Now flashed up the Ban Strahin, and answered him in dread;\n \n In the fair-spoken Turkish a bitter word he said:\n \n \u2003\u201cFoul fall thy mother, thou dervish, that drinkest here this hour!\n \n Thou art so drunk thou canst not tell a Moslem from a Giaour.\n \n Wherefore dost thou speak of him? for here is found no ban;\n \n There is none here but I, and I am the tsar\u2019s true fighting man.\n \n All of the tsar\u2019s good horses are scattered near and far,\n \n And the warriors run quickly to catch them for the tsar.\n \n If I go with this thy insult to the tsar and the vizier,\n \n Know well, thou sorry dervish, thy words shall cost thee dear.\u201d\n \n | Laughed the dervish: | \n| | \u201cThou a Turk, Strahin? Good fortune go with thee! | \n \n \n \n \n \n p. 45\n \n \n \n Were I upon Mount Golech, and should haply chance to see\n \n Thee afar in the host of the tsar, well I should know thee, ban\u2014\n \n Thee and that milk-white steed of thine, and the hound K\u00e1raman,\n \n Whom aye thou lovest better than the strong stallion white.\n \n And know, thou ban of Banska, I read thy brow aright.\n \n And I know the eyes thereunder and the black beard of thy lip.\n \n Know, ban\u2014and may good fortune be of thy fellowship!\u2014\n \n That when thy guardsmen took me and made of me a slave,\n \n To thee in Suhara of the mount me miserable they gave.\n \n To the bottom of that prison didst thou cast me at that tide,\n \n And there a slave to thine and thee nine years did I abide.\n \n Nine fearful years past over, yea! and the tenth began,\n \n When filled with deep compassion thou thoughtest on me, ban.\n \n Thou badest Rado, the jailer, unbar the doors withal,\n \n And forthwith bring me upward a captive to the hall.\n \n And dost thou know, Ban Strahin, what words thy fierce lips said:\n \n \n \n \n \n p. 46\n \n \n \n \u2003\u201c\u2009\u2018Slave! Turkish snake! Now would that thou within my hold wert dead!\n \n Canst thou then, like a hero, redeem thee with a fee?\u2019\n \n \u2003\u201cSo ran thy question to me, and I told the truth to thee:\n \n \u2003\u201c\u2009\u2018My life now could I ransom, could I come to my hall,\n \n To my father\u2019s land and my birthplace and my fiefs one and all\u2014\n \n My many farms and freeholds, the price of liberty.\n \n But thither to go, too well I know, hardly thou trustest me.\n \n I will give thee a good bondsman, even God who does not feign,\n \n And another bondsman, his good faith, that I bring that ransom again.\u2019\n \n \u2003\u201cThou gavest thy trust to me that tide to go to my white hall,\n \n To my father\u2019s land and my birthplace, and my fiefs one and all.\n \n I came to my sad birthplace; no more I knew good luck;\n \n On my houses and my birthplace the pestilence had struck.\n \n It smote the men and women; in my houses none had stayed,\n \n And my whole house had perished and my whole possession strayed.\n \n Fast-barred was all my sire\u2019s estate, and bolted was the door.\n \n \n \n \n \n p. 47\n \n \n \n The Turks took farm and freehold for their own forevermore.\n \n And when I saw my houses all closed against me stand,\n \n That I had neither friend nor goods, then a good plan I planned.\n \n I rode post unto Yedren, to the vizier and the tsar,\n \n And the vizier boasted me for a hero in the war.\n \n The tsar\u2019s vizier clothed me and gave a tent to me,\n \n And the great raven charger and shining panoply.\n \n For the tsar\u2019s man forever in his book my name they set,\n \n And thou hast come to me to-day to claim of me thy debt.\n \n But, ban, I have not a penny; and woe is on thee this day,\n \n That thou comest to die in folly amidst the tsar\u2019s array.\u201d\n \n \u2003The ban looked on the dervish. Forthwith the man he knew;\n \n From the steed he vaulted, and clasped him, and to his bosom drew:\n \n \u2003\u201cBrother in God, old dervish, no debt is due to me.\n \n I seek no money, brother, nor any ransom fee.\n \n I seek the strong Vlah \u00c1liya, who hath overthrown my hall,\n \n And hath taken my belov\u00e8d to be his bounden thrall.\n \n \n \n \n \n p. 48\n \n \n \n Tell me of him, thou dervish, and do not me betray\n \n Unto the Turkish army, who are yearning me to slay.\u201d\n \n \u2003\u201cBy God,\u201d then said the dervish, \u201cthou ban, thou falcon-one,\n \n The strength of this my faith to thee is firmer than the stone.\n \n Shouldst thou with the sword\u2019s edges smite half the army dead,\n \n Yet would I not betray thee, nor trample on thy bread.\n \n Though I ate of it in prison, thou gavest me store of wine;\n \n Thou gavest the milk-white loaves to me that I might freely dine;\n \n Oft in the sun\u2019s light glorious I warmed me in the morn;\n \n Thou didst set me free upon my word, wherein I am forsworn.\n \n I could not keep my word to thee, returning to thy hall:\n \n Faith it was hard for me to keep without the wherewithal!\n \n And for the Turk, Ban Strahin, Vlah \u00c1liya insolent\u2014\n \n On the high mount of Golech he pitches now his tent.\n \n But, Strahin, go from K\u00f3sovo, or a fool\u2019s death diest thou here;\n \n Trust not thy hand, nor the sharp brand, nor the venom of the spear.\n \n \n \n \n \n p. 49\n \n \n \n To pass that Turk in the mountain, it is a hero\u2019s deed;\n \n In his arms alive will he take thee, thy weapons and thy steed.\n \n He will break thine arms asunder; he will blind thee living, O ban.\u201d\n \n \u2003Laughed Strahin: \u201cDervish, pity me not because of any man,\n \n But to the Turkish army betray me not this tide.\u201d\n \n \u2003And thereupon the dervish unto the ban replied:\n \n \u2003\u201cMy faith is firmer than the stone, and plighted thee indeed.\n \n For even shouldst thou madden the anger of thy steed,\n \n And riding on the army the half thereof shouldst slay,\n \n Yet I will not at any time thee to the Turks betray.\u201d\n \n \u2003The ban spoke and departed, but he turned on the stallion white:\n \n \u2003\u201cDervish, thou waterest thy steed at daybreak and at night\n \n In the waters of S\u00edtnitsa. Say where the fords are found\u2014\n \n The fords in the cool water\u2014that my horse may not be drowned.\u201d\n \n \u2003Said the dervish: \u201cThou Servian falcon, a ford shalt thou find indeed,\n \n Where\u2019er thou enterest the water, for thy valor and thy steed.\u201d\n \n \u2003The ban forded that water; on the milk-white steed he sped\n \n \n \n \n \n p. 50\n \n \n \n Over the mount of Golech with the great sun overhead.\n \n It warms all things beneath it, both the near and the far,\n \n And it shines down on K\u00f3sovo and the army of the tsar.\n \n \u2003And now behold Vlah \u00c1liya, the strong and insolent,\n \n Ban Strahin\u2019s bride that kisses in the shadow of the tent.\n \n He hath an evil custom, for ever does he fall\n \n In slumber of a morning, when the sun beats over all.\n \n He dreamed a dream upon that tide, and heavy lay his head\n \n On the breast of the belov\u00e8d that Str\u00e1hinya had wed.\n \n At the tent door she fondled him, but her eyes went to and fro\n \n Over the Turkish army on the field of K\u00f3sovo.\n \n She sees what manner are the tents, what steeds the heroes ride,\n \n And by mischance towards Golech she turned her eyes aside.\n \n She slapped the Turk on the right cheek; and, \u201cMaster,\u201d did she cry,\n \n \u201cRise up, Vlah \u00c1liya! stir thyself! or forthwith mayst thou die!\n \n Now belt thou on thy war-belt and thy fair mail likewise!\n \n Ban Strahin comes that will cut off thine head, or blind thine eyes.\u201d\n \n \n \n \n \n p. 51\n \n \n \n \u2003Vlah \u00c1liya wakened from his dream and flashed up like the fire;\n \n | His eye was proud, he laughed aloud: | \n| | \u201cThou Str\u00e1hinya\u2019s desire, | \n \n Thou art afraid, Wallachian maid; thou fearest him eachwhere!\n \n When I bear thee unto Yedren, yet wilt thou see him there!\n \n \u201cYon captain is not Strahin; a tsar\u2019s man rideth here:\n \n Either the tsar hath sent him, or Mehmet, the vizier.\n \n He bids that I submit me, nor smite the host of the tsar.\n \n Tsar and vizier, mayhap they fear to feel my scimitar.\n \n Fear not, what time I smite him with the keen, shining sword\n \n That no more captains of the tsar come hither for their lord.\u201d\n \n | But the ban\u2019s bride spake unto him: | \n| | \u201cMy master, prithee see! | \n \n That is no Turkish captain\u2014a blindness light on thee!\u2014\n \n Nay, but my master Strahin, that did my body clip.\n \n Do I not know both eye and brow and the black beard of his lip?\n \n Do I not know his milk-white horse with the spot of brown and tan,\n \n \n \n \n \n p. 52\n \n \n \n And the tawny hound beside him, the good hound K\u00e1raman?\n \n | Jest not with life, my gallant lord.\u201d | \n| | But when Vlah \u00c1liya heard, | \n \n The wrathful Turk leaped to his feet and straight began to gird:\n \n His girdle with the poniards and the scimitar thereto.\n \n And he giveth heed to the black steed, while the ban nearer drew.\n \n The ban is very careful, but he cursed him, nor bowed his head\n \n After the Turkish fashion; and unto him he said:\n \n \u2003\u201cArt thou then there, thou dastard\u2014thou traitor to the tsar?\n \n Whose women hast thou taken that round thy camp-fires are?\n \n And whose belov\u00e8d hast thou kist in the shadow of the tent?\n \n Come out to battle against me, thou strong and insolent.\u201d\n \n \u2003The Turk was very angry. He sprang with might and main\n \n Unto the shoulder of the horse, and caught the bridle-rein.\n \n The ban bode not his coming, but straight against him drove;\n \n He lifted the iron spear on high, and hurled it from above.\n \n And the strong Turk, Vlah \u00c1liya, reached out and caught the spear,\n \n \n \n \n \n p. 53\n \n \n \n | And he spake unto Strahin: | \n| | \u201cDastard, what dost thou here? | \n \n Here are no maids of Sh\u00famadin to scatter with a cry,\n \n But who fears not vizier or tsar, Vlah \u00c1liya am I!\n \n And I dread not any hero in the army of the tsar;\n \n To me as ants upon the grass all in that army are.\n \n And thou thinkest in the lists this tide to battle with me here!\u201d\n \n \u2003He spake and very suddenly he cast the battle-spear,\n \n Eager to wound. But the good God aided Ban Strahin well.\n \n His white steed, when the spear flew by, down on his knees he fell.\n \n High overhead the great spear flashed, and broke on a stone in three.\n \n Up to the boss that guards the hand was it broken utterly.\n \n Now when the spears were broken, each champion drew his mace;\n \n Vlah \u00c1liya smote on Strahin and beat him from his place,\n \n Forward from out of the saddle on the white neck of the steed.\n \n Now the good God aided Strahin in the moment of his need.\n \n Nor Turk, nor Serb a steed doth curb of half that worth to-day.\n \n The beast swung head and shoulder in the middle of the fray,\n \n \n \n \n \n p. 54\n \n \n \n And his lord out of that danger to the saddletree threw back;\n \n And upon that Turkish devil the ban made his attack.\n \n But the Turk out of the saddle would neither fall nor flee,\n \n Though \u2019neath the blows his horse had sunk in the black dust to the knee.\n \n The spiky maces in their hands were shattered left and right,\n \n And forth they drew the sabers, and anew they fought the fight.\n \n But lo, the great Ban Strahin at his belt had such a blade\n \n That a pair of smiths must forge it with three men there to aid!\n \n From Sunday unto Sunday till the steel was waxen cold\n \n Had those same craftsmen cooled it within the earthen mold;\n \n And thereafter had they sharpened it by laying on the sledge.\n \n Smote the Turk, but Strahin waited edge against saber-edge,\n \n Till he smote hard against it, and the Turk\u2019s blade broke in half.\n \n This saw the ban and in he ran, and in his heart did laugh\n \n As he prest in upon him, smiting on either hand,\n \n To strike his head from his shoulders with the edges of the brand.\n \n \n \n \n \n p. 55\n \n \n \n Hero smote against hero; the Turk good ward he made,\n \n He kept his head and shoulders with the truncheon of the blade.\n \n With the remnant of his weapon he beat the saber back;\n \n And bit by bit as he smote on it to pieces did he hack\n \n The saber of Ban Strahin. Two blades in fragments lay.\n \n \u2003Then leaped they from the horses, and hurled the hilts away.\n \n They gripped each other by the throat like dragons at that tide;\n \n All day till noon they wrestled upon the mountain side;\n \n Till on the Turk\u2019s pale lips the foam like snow new-fallen stood,\n \n And the white foam on Strahin\u2019s lip was flecked with drops of blood;\n \n The blood upon his garments and on his jack-boots ran.\n \n But when the pain had gripped him, at last out spake the ban:\n \n \u2003\u201cMy love, God\u2019s curse upon thee! What travail dost thou see?\n \n Take up a splinter of the sword, and strike the Turk or me.\n \n Think which of us, belov\u00e8d, is dearer unto thee.\u201d\n \n | But thereto the Turk spake fiercely: | \n| | \u201cBelov\u00e8d of the ban, | \n \n \n \n \n \n p. 56\n \n \n \n Strike him, for thou shalt never more be dear unto the man;\n \n But aye his sharp reproaches against thee shall be bent,\n \n Because thou once wast with me in the shadow of the tent.\n \n But I will love thee always, nor ever thee disdain.\n \n In Yedren thirty serving-maids shall bear thy sleeves and train;\n \n Sugar and honey ever more shall be set for thee to eat;\n \n With ducats will I deck thee from thy head unto thy feet:\n \n | Strike now the ban.\u201d | \n| | All womankind are lightly led astray. | \n \n She leaped and grasped a splinter of the sword-blade where it lay.\n \n She wrapped it in a napkin, lest it should wound her hand,\n \n And she sought to smite her wedded lord with the fragment of the brand,\n \n And guard Vlah \u00c1liya\u2019s head. She cut the silver plume in twain;\n \n She clove the milk-white turban that guarded him in vain;\n \n The blood flowed down the hero\u2019s face, and was like to blind his eyes,\n \n And the ban dreaded sore that tide to die in foolish wise.\n \n But suddenly within him the thoughts together ran,\n \n \n \n \n \n p. 57\n \n \n \n And out of his white throat he called on the hound K\u00e1raman\u2014\n \n A hound trained to the hunting. He called the hound by name,\n \n And with a bound the tawny hound to help his master came,\n \n And bit the ban\u2019s belov\u00e8d. A dog all women fear;\n \n She threw the blade upon the ground, and cuffed the hound on the ear.\n \n Screaming she fled across the mount; afar they heard her cry;\n \n But the strong Turk looked after to see where she did fly.\n \n And new strength burst upon the ban, and courage great and new,\n \n And hither and yon he drove the Turk, and wrestling overthrew.\n \n Howe\u2019er so hard the Turk might guard, he struck from underneath,\n \n And, leaping in under the chin, he fastened with his teeth,\n \n As the wolf throttling a lamb. Then he leaped up from the ground,\n \n And with a mighty voice he called after the tawny hound,\n \n That the beast should cease pursuing the maid the ban had wed;\n \n And swift along the mountain to the Turkish host she fled.\n \n But the ban would not let her; he caught her by the hand;\n \n \n \n \n \n p. 58\n \n \n \n He brought her back unto the place where the dappled steed did stand.\n \n He took the horse by the shoulders; he threw her on behind;\n \n Then rode he deviously along, the homeward way to find.\n \n Away from the tsar\u2019s army he turned the bridle-rein,\n \n Till he came in to his wife\u2019s kin at Kr\u00fashevats on the plain,\n \n And old Yug Bogdan and his sons rose, when they saw him come;\n \n They took him to their bosoms, and gave him welcome home.\n \n But when Yug Bogdan saw his plight his tears ran down amain:\n \n \u2003\u201cNow fair be all thy fortune, that thou art home again.\n \n Strong are the Turkish heroes, the soldiers of the tsar;\n \n A fighting man to wound the ban they must have sought afar.\u201d\n \n \u2003But the nine brothers feared him, till the ban to them spake:\n \n \u2003\u201cDread nothing, my good brethren, nor be troubled for my sake.\n \n With the tsar there was no hero to conquer me in fight.\n \n Would ye then hear who wounded me, and whose hand did me smite?\n \n When with the Turk I battled, O thou good father mine,\n \n \n \n \n \n p. 59\n \n \n \n Then my belov\u00e8d smote me\u2014this dearest child of thine;\n \n She set aside my love that tide, and to the Turk gave aid.\u201d\n \n \u2003Yug flashed up like a living fire, and to his sons he said:\n \n \u201cSlash the she-wolf in pieces with the nine blades of the brands!\u201d\n \n The strong sons heard their father, and upon her set their hands.\n \n But Strahin will not let them. He speaketh to them apace:\n \n \u2003\u201cMy nine good brethren, wherefore do ye yourselves disgrace?\n \n Why are your knives unscabbarded? Heroes ye are, I know!\n \n But why were not your sabers with me at K\u00f3sovo,\n \n To do great deeds against the Turk when danger ran most high?\n \n And harken this, my brethren; your sister shall not die.\n \n Without your aid already, all I wished, she had been slain.\n \n Yet, should I slaughter all her kin, no comrade then would drain,\n \n Reveling with me deliciously, the cool cups of the wine.\n \n So now have I given my pardon unto this bride of mine.\u201d\n \n \u2003There are not many on earth to match him, man to man,\n \n And scanty are the heroes as gallant as the ban.\n \n \n \n Next\n \n \n \n \n \n Footnotes\n \n \n \n \n \n p. 35\n \n \n \n 1 Adrianople.\n \n \n \n \n \n p. 42\n \n \n \n 1 In Servian this word is accented on the second syllable.","title":"BAN STRAHIN","type":"page"}