Both in language and, presumably, in blood, the Slovaks are very close to
the Chekhs, so close that Protestant Slovaks use the old Bohemian
translation af the Bible made in 1613 by tbe followers of Huss. Indeed, till
after 1850, when the first Slovak grammar was written, authors of Slovak
birth, including the poet Kollar and the scholar Safarik, wrote in Bohemian,
regarding that as the literary form of their own tongue. Nowadays newspapers,
poetry, novels and other works are published in Slovak, but a person who
knows Bohemian can read them probably more readily than an Englishman reads
Burns.
The Slovaks claim that their vernacular, as compared with the Chekh, is purer
from contamination with foreign idioms, racier, richer in old words that are
obsolete or uaknown in Bohemia, and above all more musical and euphonious.
Admittedly, the Slovaks are singularly ricb in folk-songs -- like most
primitive songs, frequently in a minor key -- and in beautiful popular
melodies.
The county of Trencsen is especially noted for the custom of its peasants
singing in parts. As I recall hearing this music ringing from the roadside
as the workers walked together to their fields, I seem to see again how
splendidly the women carried themselves, how freely and finely they moved
in their short petticoats.
See Lichard and Kolisek "Slovak Popular Melodies" and Vajansky "Slovak
Popular Poetry" -- two delightful essays in Mr. Seton-Watson's "Racial
Problems in Hungary."
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