Pagina 758 di 788

96 [This festival furnished the subject and the title for

Mickiewicz's greatest poem, next to Pan Tadeusz. The poet's own

explanation of it is in part as follows: "This is the name of a

festival still celebrated among the common folk in many districts

of Lithuania, Prussia, and Courland. The festival goes back to

pagan times, and was formerly called the feast of the goat

(koziel), the director of which was the kozlarz, at once priest

and poet. At the present time, since the enlightened clergy and

landowners have been making efforts to root out a custom

accompanied by superstitious practices and often by culpable

excesses, the folk celebrate the forefathers secretly in chapels

or in empty houses not far from the graveyard. There they

ordinarily spread a feast of food, drink, and fruits of various

sorts and invoke the spirits of the dead. The folk hold the

opinion that by this food and drink and by their songs they bring

relief to souls in Purgatory."]

97 [See note 1]