{"collection":"Northern European Mythology","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/neu/hbs/hbs34.htm","path":"neu/hbs/hbs34.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/neu/hbs/hbs34.htm","text":"NOVAK and Rado drank the wine near Bosna the river cold,\nWith B\u00f3gosav. When they had drunk as much as they could hold,\nPrince Bogosav began to speak:\n\u201cStar\u00edna Novak,\u201d said he,\n\u201cMy brother sworn, now speak the truth, so may God prosper thee!\nWhy didst thou join the outlaws? What constraint on thee was laid\nTo go to the wood to break thy neck, and to ply a wretched trade?\nAnd in thine age, moreover, when thy season was past and sped?\u201d\nStar\u00edna Novak spake to him:\n\u201cPrince B\u00f3gosav,\u201d he said,\n\u201cMy brother sworn, since thou askest me, I will even tell thee the truth;\nBut it was through a hard constraint that I fled, in very sooth.\nThou mayst remember, when Y\u00e9rina did Sm\u00e9derevo rear,\nShe made me a day laborer. I labored there three year.\nWood and stone did I haul for her with my oxen and my wain,\nAnd in the space of full three years not a penny did I gain;\nNot even bark sandals for my feet could I win my labor by.\nAnd that I should have pardoned her. When the town was builded high,\nShe would build towers and gild the doors and windows of the hold.\nEach house in the vilayet she taxed three measures of gold,\nThat is three hundred ducats. Who gave, in the place might live;\nBut I was poverty-stricken, and had no gold to give.\nWith the mattock, wherewith I had labored, to the outlaws I fled amain.\nI could not stay where Y\u00e9rina, the accurs\u00e8d one, did reign,\nBut ran to the cold Drina, and to rocky Bosnia fled.\nWhen I came near Rom\u00e1niya, there Turkish wooers led\nA Turkish damsel homeward. In peace they passed by me.\nThere remained the Turkish bridegroom; on a great brown steed was he.\nIn peace that Turkish bridegroom he would not let me pass,\nBut forth he drew a triple whip with three knobs of yellow brass.\nThrice he smote me on the shoulders. Thrice I prayed him in God\u2019s name:\n\u201c \u2018I pray thee, Turkish bridegroom, mayst thou have courage and fame!\nMayst thou have a happy marriage, but pass me by in peace!\nThou seest how poor a man am I.\u2019\n\u201cBut the bridegroom would not cease;\nBut rather in his anger began to smite the more.\nThen at last was I angry, for my shoulders were waxen sore.\nWith the mattock on my shoulder, the bridegroom did I smite\nWith one blow from the brown steed\u2019s back, though the stroke was passing light.\nAnd then I leaped upon him, and smote him where he lay,\nTwice or thrice, till his spirit from the body fled away.\nI reached my hand in his pockets, and there found purses three;\nI put them in my bosom, and girt his saber on me.\nI left the mattock at his head that the Turks might have withal\nSomething to bury him with; the steed I mounted, brown and tall.\nTo the wood of Rom\u00e1niya I went; the wooers saw me there;\nBut wished not to pursue me, or haply did not dare.\n\u201cIt is forly year. The forest is better known to me\nThan the house of my habitation was ever wont to be.\nThe roads across the mountains I watch them and I hold.\nFrom the youths of S\u00e1rayevo I take their silver and gold,\nAnd their linen and velvet for me and mine; and I can go abroad\nAnd stand in the place of danger, for I fear none but God.\u201d","title":"HOW STAR\u00cdNA NOVAK BECAME A HAYDUK","type":"page"}