2 Rusyn Soldier folk poems

Taken from Alexander Bonkalo’s “The Rusyns” 1940:

POEM 1

Greetings to you emperor, my good emperor, my royal emperor!
We defeated the French and I long to go home.
Greetings to you emperor, my good emperor, you made me a soldier;
Do me the favor to enlist also my lover!
Help us, good lord, to beat the Turks.
And in that nice country to embrace the girls.

POEM 2

Don’t cry my rose, don’t cry
Because you will cry your eyes out.
Levoca is a far away place
Where they take me in haste.

A bloody creek flows
Near Uzhhorod with a splash,
My loving rose inquires if my skull was crushed?
No, it’s not blood of that sort.

It’s not from my head,
It’s from my enemy’s instead.
Cut in pieces by my sword.

2010 in review

The stats helper monkeys at WordPress.com mulled over how this blog did in 2010, and here’s a high level summary of its overall blog health:

The Blog-Health-o-Meter™ reads Fresher than ever.

Crunchy numbers

A Boeing 747-400 passenger jet can hold 416 passengers. This blog was viewed about 7,400 times in 2010. That’s about 18 full 747s.

 

In 2010, there were 11 new posts, growing the total archive of this blog to 101 posts. There were 5 pictures uploaded, taking up a total of 570kb.

The busiest day of the year was March 29th with 82 views. The most popular post that day was Tales and traditions of Hungary, by F. and T. Pulszky 1851.

Where did they come from?

The top referring sites in 2010 were en.wordpress.com, forum.sword-buyers-guide.com, martialtalk.com, search.aol.com, and slinging.org.

Some visitors came searching, mostly for janosik, fokos, ciupaga, viking axe, and fokos axe.

Attractions in 2010

These are the posts and pages that got the most views in 2010.

1

Tales and traditions of Hungary, by F. and T. Pulszky 1851 June 2008
1 comment

2

The Skillful Woodsman Manual November 2008
1 comment

3

Link: Hurstwic Viking Axe March 2009

4

Russian peasant in 1812 British Caricature April 2009

5

Zbojnicki Dance January 2009

The New and complete American encyclopedia 1808

The inhabitants ire a mixture of the descendants of the ancient Hunns, Sclavonians, Camani, Germans, Walachians, Greeks, Jews, Turks, and a wandering people called Zigduns, said to b: of uncertain origin, but probable the fame as those we call Gypsies. The Hungarians are said to be of a sanguine choleric temper, and somewhat fierce, cruel, proud and vindictive. They have been always reputed good soldiers, being much more inclined to arms, martial exercises and hunting, than to arts, learning, trade, or agriculture. The nobility affect great pomp and magnificence, and are much addicted to feasting and carousing. The men in general are strong and well proportioned. They shave their beards, but leave whiskers on the upper lip ; wearing fur caps on their heads, a closebodied coat girt with a fain, with a short cloak or mantle over all, buckled under the arm) leaving the right hand at liberty. Their horse are called Hussars, and their foot Heydukes. The former wear a broad sword, or scymeter, and carry a hatchet or battle-ax. Their horses are fleet, but not near so large as the German horses, and therefore they stand upon their short stirrups when they strike. The heydukes usually wear feathers in their caps, according to the number of the enemies they pretend to have killed. Both horse and foot are an excellent militia, very good at a pursuit, or ravaging and plundering a country but not equal to regular troops in a pitched battle.

Johann Georg Kohl 1843

Austria, Vienna, Hungary, Bohemia and the Danube, Galicia, Styria, Moravia, Buckovina, and the military frontier

Johann Georg Kohl 1843
” It is often very difficult,” continued my informant, ” to say whether these Bacony foresters are swineherds or robbers. Their wandering and uncertain mode of life, and their superiority in strength to their more settled countrymen, are circumstances by no means favourable to their honesty. It is of them that the poet says:

“Fern von Liebe, Lust und Leben,
Weil’ ich Mer im diistern Wald,
Wo im Sturm die Eichen beben,
Und der Wolfe Heulen schallt.
Sonnenschein und Sturmeswiithen
Schwarzten Brust mir mid Gesicht,
Und die borst’ge Heerde hiiten
Im Gebiisch ist meine Pflicht.
Keine Menschenstimme dringet
Durch die Oede an mein Ohr,

Selbst das Voglein flieht und singet
Lieber fern in Busch und Rohr.
Aus dem Thale nur zuweilen
Suninit herauf der Glocke Klang, &c.*

” The bad character of these swineherds has given rise to a law in Hungary, that any one absent from his herd without permission, is regarded as a robber, and punished accordingly. These men, however, on the whole, are not so bad as might be supposed; they never harm the poor, and they pay proper respect to the clergy, confining their depredations to the rich nobility, for they are friends of liberty and equality. About two years ago they attacked a castle and plundered it of seventeen thousand florins ; but within six months afterwards, I saw the sparrows build their nests in the skulls of those who had performed this exploit.”

The principal weapon which the ” Gonasz” (swineherd) carries, is a small, neatly made hatchet, fixed to a handle about three feet long, which serves as a walking stick, a pastoral crook, or to cut wood for fuel. When several of them meet in the forest, they often amuse themselves by throwing this weapon at a mark, and in this game they have attained an extraordinary degree of skill.

My companion went on to inform me he had once witnessed an instance of this in Pesth, whither two ” Gonaszi” had driven a pair of buffaloes for sale. The animals had somehow become suddenly enraged, and had rushed down a hill and over the Danube bridge into the very centre of a crowded market-place. The one was soon taken, but the other continued overthrowing and treading down every thing in its way, and no way remained but try to hit him with the hatchet. This was accordingly done, and the weapon thrown so accurately, that the animal, though in the midst of a crowd, was struck exactly in the right place, and instantly fell to the ground. Their skill in the use of this weapon is, however, by no means always desirable, for they are often tempted to try it on men as well as on trees and buffaloes. In their quarrels among themselves, these hatchets often play as important a part as the daggers among the Spaniards. One may often observe them, when they are inclined to come to blows, suddenly turn round and wheel away to a considerable distance, in order to obtain the space necessary for throwing the hatchet, and if they have a mind to attack a stranger, they often throw a hatchet at him, as other banditti will fire a pistol.

Kita’iescha

From: The Poles in the seventeenth century By Henryk Krasiński 1843

There are on the Carpathians, individuals, who are born, and who die without ever going down to the plains. Some engage in smuggling Hungarian wines, and at times shew themselves in great numbers in the fairs to purchase salt and gunpowder, and to vend skins. They are then all armed, not only with their axes, but with short staves called Kitai’escka, incrusted with silex, which they handle with great dexterity, and with which they can easily break the best sabres. When they make their appearance in any place, they know, by means of a chain of spies maintaining an easy correspondence, that the troops are not present, or that their number is very small.

The following is the manner in which they prepare their Kita’iescha: they select a young tree, either a crab or a pear tree perfectly straight, of about an inch in diameter. They then incrust upon the whole surface of it, fragments of silex; a year, or longer after, when the bark of the tree has grown over them, they cut down the tree and leave it to dry in the sun ; they then trim and fashion it into a staff, which in this manner, is covered with an incrustation of silex, and which is then capable of inflicting very dangerous wounds.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Needless to say I am looking for a period illustration of such a stick but no luck so far.

The Poles in the seventeenth century By Henryk Krasiński 1843

They have over them chiefs, resembling the chiefs of clans, to whom they render an imperfect obedience. These chiefs sometimes wear an eagle’s plume on their hat, and round their necks a cord, decorated with pieces of gold. The ordinary costume of the Mountaineers is composed of a short tunic of grey cloth, confined at the waist by a leathern belt, to which are attached on the left side a sort of hanger and a small axe, which they are so skilful in hurling, that, at the distance of fifty yards, they infallibly destroy a man or a beast. A large collar* falling over their shoulders, a broad-brimmed straw-hat, tight trousers, and common buskins, are the characteristics of their attire.

They have a species of dance amongst them, which a stranger can scarcely behold without shuddering. During its continuance, they whirl their axes around the head of their partners, in the most fearful proximity.

Knives from Zakopane region

“From Peasant Art in Austria and Hungary” 1914

A picture of some knives from the Zakopane region on the Poland, Slovak border.

ROUMANIAN SMUGGLERS.

CHATTER BOX
Published for the Proprietors by W. WELLS GARDNER, 10 Paternoster Row, London. Printed by John Strangeways,] [Castle Street, Leicester Square

No. 18. March 30, 1872. Weekly—One Halfpenny.

ROUMANIAN SMUGGLERS.

ROUMANIA, otherwise called Wallachia and Moldavia, a country watered by the Danube, and not far from the Black Sea, is inhabited by a wild and lawless set of people, who have proved themselves very difficult to rule, and who are constantly changing their government.

Smuggling in this land is by no means confined to the lower classes. Even the nobles are engaged in it. They smuggle goods chiefly to and from Austria, through the wild passes of the Carpathian Mountains. The horses they employ in this trade are small, wiry, and strong; as to the appearance of the men themselves, it is certainly picturesque, their costume being a mixture of that of several nations. The hat is Hungarian, generally gaily decorated; on their shoulder is an embroidered leather strap, which indicates that its owner has once served as a soldier in the Austrian armv; the linen shirt has a Wallachian cut. and the girdle round the waist, which is richly embroidered, betrays the same nationality. The foot-gear of the men in our illustration is not Wallachian, for they always wear sandals, and our cavalier with the hatchet in his hand wears high bpots. It is a strange article which these men are going to smuggle over into Austria, and which they carry in stone pitchers—it is leeches, which are abundant in Roumania, and upon which there is a heavy export duty. It is through one of the narrow, steep passes of the Carpathian .Mountains that these smugglers are passing, wishing of course to avoid the Custom-houses. They carry other things as well as leeches, probably a good stock of tobacco; and if they succeed m keeping their booty safe they will make a large profit. Seven villages in a lonely valley among the Carpathian Mountains are famous as the abode of smugglers, and to these places the government often send an armed band of Custom-house officers, who search every house, and generally carry off rich spoil, in spite of the clever way in which the smugglers hide their contraband goods. J. F. C.

1844 Description of the “mountaineers” in the Carpathians.

“The mountaineers here are called Huzzulen as in Bukovina. We found two of them sitting by the fire at the inn, leaning upon their hatchets. They told us that they were never without their hatchets, that they travelled with them, danced with them, and wore them as a part of their Sunday finery. They went to church with their hatchets, but did not take them into the church. They hung them upon wooden posts outside, from which each on coming out took down his own again.”

Taken from Austria: Vienna, Prague, Hungary, Bohemia, and the Danube; Galicia, Styria, Moravia, Bukovina, and the Military Frontier by Johann Georg Kohl 1844

Mountain Axe at ISMAC XI 2011

Wow, I have really neglected this site for the last year or so haven’t I? Like anyone is reading:)

So here is an update…while I may have let the site slack a bit I have been keeping up with my axe work and was lucky enough to present a class on the subject at the most recent ISMAC event.

Turnout for the whole event was way down this year so it may come as no surprise that the axe class was not well attended. This did allow me to go over almost everything I knew to the small class who grabbed most of the concepts right up. We stuck with the single handed grip and more northern expression of the mountain axe and only touched on the Hungarian method lightly. The small class size also allowed us to do some controlled bouting with the axe trainers.