W. R. S. Ralston 
Songs of the Russian People, as Illustrative of Slavonic Mythology and Russian Social Life 

Whilst the greatest effort has been made to ensure the quality of this text, due to the historical nature of this content, in some rare cases there may be minor issues with legibility. In the translations contained in the present volume I have attempted to give, in every case, as literal a version of the original as possible. My rule has been to translate the songs into prose, line for line and word for word, and this rule has scarcely ever been broken. Only here and there, in the introductory chapter and in that on Marriage, I have been some times almost unconsciously led into following, to some slight extent, the rhythmical flow of the Russian.