GRAMATINĖS KATEGORIJOS IR JŲ RAIDA

LIETUVIŲ KALBOTYROS KLAUSIMAI XVIII (1978)

PUBLICATIONS

G. K. VENEDIKTOV

ON THE HISTORY OF LITHUANIAN STUDIES IN RUSSIA: J. JUŠKA’S LETTERS TO I. I. SREZNEVSKY

(Continued)

Among the many correspondents of Academician I. I. Sreznevsky was Jonas Juška (Ivan Vasilyevich Yushkevich, 1815–1886), a well-known Lithuanian linguist and collector and publisher of Lithuanian folk songs. The personal archive of the Russian Slavist, held at the Central State Archive of Literature and Art (TsGALI) in Moscow, contains 34 letters from J. Juška to I. I. Sreznevsky. The first is dated 3.I.1856, and the last 25.IX.1878¹, as well as a congratulatory telegram dated 4.IV.1879 on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of I. I. Sreznevsky’s scholarly career². We briefly discussed the significance of these letters for the history of Lithuanian studies in our introductory remarks to the publication of the first ten letters from J. Juška³. J. Juška’s work on the “Root Dictionary of the Lithuanian Language,” the dictionary of Lithuanian-Sanskrit correspondences, and the relationship between J. Juška and I. I. Sreznevsky are discussed in greater detail in another article of ours⁴. That article also publishes the aforementioned dictionary of Lithuanian-Sanskrit correspondences enclosed with J. Juška’s letters, sample entries from the “Root Dictionary of the Lithuanian Language,” and Lithuanian terms for degrees of kinship collected in the vicinity of Panevėžys by A. Juška, J. Juška’s brother.

The remaining 24 letters from J. Juška to I. I. Sreznevsky and the congratulatory telegram are published below. Like the first ten, these letters are printed in accordance with the rules of modern Russian orthography, while preserving other features of the language of the letters. Our explanatory insertions in the text are enclosed in square brackets. A brief commentary on the letters is included in the “Notes” section, which—given the length of the publication and the limited space in this collection—contains only the explanations we consider most necessary and significant.

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¹ TsGALI, fond 436 (Sreznevsky family), inventory 1, archival unit 1433.

² Ibid., archival unit 1615.

³ See the collection: Baltic-Slavic Studies. Moscow, 1974, pp. 242–243.

⁴ Venediktov, G. K. Materials for the History of Lithuanian Studies from the I. I. Sreznevsky Archive. — In: “Lietuvių terminologija” (“Lietuvių kalbotyros klausimai,” vol. XVI). V., 1975, pp. 203–224.

12. Gramatinės kategorijos ir jų raida

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^115⁵

Dear Sir Izmail Ivanovich!

Several days have now passed since my safe return from the capital. I came back from this three-day journey so inspired and in such a frame of mind for new work as one can acquire only [sic!] through the special favor of fortune. I owe my new life exclusively to you, highly esteemed Izmail Ivanovich; I thank you, and do not know how to thank you enough. I also thank Ekaterina Fedorovna for her most solicitous hospitality; I spent those three days as if among my closest and kindest relatives.

Yesterday I visited P. I. Solovyov; he thanks you for your interest in his work and promises to present it to the Archaeological Society next April, entrusting the Society with its scholarly editing as well. Archimandrite Makary’s letter to the Bishop of Novgorod urging the keykeeper [sacristan] Solovyov to submit his work to the Holy Synod was unsuccessful [sic!]; it was returned to him because it contained certain expressions offensive to episcopal authority. I thank you most sincerely, Izmail Ivanovich, for the books you allowed me to take from your library; among them I am returning the syllabus for teaching Slavic philology, and enclosing a memorandum listing those of your books that remain with me¹. Since I do not intend to leave [sic!] the field of philology, I would like to acquire the most essential and important reference works for myself, and for a start I would like to order: 1) Beiträge zur Kunde der littauischen Sprache v. F. Kurschat, 2) a Latvian grammar and lexicon, 3) Die Sprache der alten Preussen v. Nesselmann, 4) Vergleichende Grammatik v. Bopp, 5) Geschichte der deutschen Sprache J. Grimm, 6) Etimologische Forschungen auf der Gebiete der Indo-German. Sprache v. Pott, 7) Jahrbücher für slawische Litteratur, Kund und Wissenschaft; therefore, if it would not be inconvenient, I humbly ask you, Izmail Ivanovich, to order the above-mentioned reference works for me as well, when the opportunity arises, or any others you, Izmail Ivanovich, consider useful for me, and I would send the money for this immediately. I have already finished compiling tables of the declensions of Lithuanian participles and pronouns in comparison with Old Church Slavonic; I shall now work on the conjugation of Lithuanian verbs. I have also already read several pages of the Lithuanian Bible and find a noticeable difference between the language of the Bible and the vernacular, both in composition and in grammatical forms. In analyzing the structure of the language, I find it useful to collect grammatical peculiarities as well, since they may serve as material for the history of the Lithuanian language. Petr Ivanovich, Maria Ivanovna, Aleksey Vasilyevich, and Maria Andrianovna asked me to convey their greetings to you, Izmail Ivanovich, and to Ekaterina Fedorovna; the keykeeper [sacristan] Solovyov and merchant Fedorov do so as well. In the coming days I plan to visit the librarian, Ivan Semenovich, too.

Once again, thanking you, Izmail Ivanovich, and also thanking Ekaterina Fedorovna for your kind consideration of me, with the highest respect and complete devotion, I have the honor to remain your most humble servant, highly esteemed Izmail Ivanovich.

Ivan Yushkevich

January 6, 1857.

Novgorod.

⁵ See the first ten letters in the collection cited above: Balto-Slavic Studies, pp. 244–254.

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I most respectfully beg you, Izmail Ivanovich, to convey to Ekaterina Fedorovna my profound respect for her; I send my regards to Olga Izmailovna, Lyudmila Izmailovna, Nadezhda Izmailovna, Vladimir Izmailovich, and Vyacheslav Izmailovich; and to Nikolai Aleksandrovich as well.

12.

Dear Sir, Izmail Ivanovich!

Forgive me, Izmail Ivanovich, for not having written to you for so long. The further I advance in my studies of the Lithuanian language, and the more I become acquainted with the oldest monuments of Slavic writing, the more convinced I become of the significance and importance of your guidance and assistance; the more deeply a feeling of respect and gratitude toward you takes root in my heart, Izmail Ivanovich, as the cause of a new period in my spiritual life. Please believe my words, Izmail Ivanovich: they express my very soul. The reason for my silence is the state of my work.

At the beginning of last January I began reading the Lithuanian Bible, starting with the New Testament, with the Gospel, because, in order to compare Lithuanian with Slavic, I had at hand the oldest and already studied language of the Ostromir Gospel. After that I read the Acts and the Epistles of the Apostles, and, having proceeded to the Old Testament, I read the books of Moses, Joshua, Judges, Kings, Chronicles, Ezra, Nehemiah, Job, the Psalter, Proverbs, the Song of Songs, and the Wisdom of Solomon, up to the Prophet Isaiah—in all, more than two thirds of Holy Scripture. As I read, I underlined every phrase in which I encountered a new word, a word whose meaning was unclear, or one that had a different meaning. I entrusted the copying of the underlined phrases to pupils in the fourth and fifth grades, and they have already given me more than five thousand slips, each bearing a separate phrase and, in its upper left corner, one or two initial syllables of the following word. I am now setting about compiling the foundation of the proposed root-word dictionary. The language of the Bible is far from the language spoken by our Lithuanians today; it differs from the latter not so much in vocabulary as in grammatical forms, which distinguish a past period in the development of the Lithuanian language. I have copied out separately all the words and grammatical forms that have fallen out of use. In studying the language of the Lithuanian Bible, I intend to try to determine the extent of the influence of foreign elements on the Lithuanian language, introduced through the translation of Holy Scripture. For this purpose, I would very much like to read Mr. Buslaev’s article on the influence of Christianity on the Slavic language. Having examined the language of the Lithuanian Bible, I would like to become acquainted with other ancient monuments of the Lithuanian language, and have the following in mind: 1) The Lord’s Prayer, 13th–14th c. (Dr. St. nar. Lit. Narb. T. 1, pp. 461–468, and in Zhurn. Nar. Pr. vol. LVI, an article on the Lithuanian people by Borichevsky); 2) A Lithuanian Catechism in the Samogitian (Žemaitian) dialect, 1547; 3) The baptismal rite (Forma kriksz-tima), by Dabmann, in Königsberg, 1559; 4) (Postille, arba sakimai kuniga Wujka, żemajtisz kaj izgulditi par K. Mikołą Dauksza) The Postil, or sermons of St. Wujka, rendered in Samogitian by Michael Dauksha in Vilna, 1599 (translated from Polish); 5) Articles of sermons (Punktaj sakimu) by Konstantin Širvydas, in Vilna, 1629; 6) The Book of Christian Devotion (Kniga Nobaż-nisties Krikszczioniszkos), in Kėdainiai, 1653. Some more recent Lithuanian works that are available for sale I can order for myself from Vilna. Of these, I consider the most important for my work to be the Samogitian Bishopric (Žemajtių wiskupiste) by Bishop Valančius and the writings of Daukantas (translation

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of the fables of Phaedrus and Cornelius Nepos). I hope soon to receive from my brother up to three thousand Lithuanian words collected from the living folk speech of Lithuanians in the vicinity of the town of Panevėžys. This is important material for my work. But I have not abandoned my other intention—preparing for the examination; I devote every free moment to studying the language of the oldest monuments of Slavic, both Cyrillic and Glagolitic, mostly from the excerpts I have. I owe nearly all my scholarly aids to you, Izmail Ivanovich; thank you, thank you. I truly feel ashamed that I took so many books from your library and have kept them for so long; please be so kind as to tell me to send back any books you need. Such an instruction would ease my mind about having kept your books, and embolden me to ask you, should the need arise, for other scholarly aids. Filled with the liveliest gratitude to you, Izmail Ivanovich, for your kind disposition toward me, I have the honor to remain, with the highest respect and complete devotion, your most humble servant.

I. Yushkevich

19 February 1857

Novgorod.

Please convey my profound respect to Ekaterina Fedorovna. I send my regards to Olga Izmailovna and all your dear children.

Pyotr Ivanovich, Aleksey Vasilyevich, Maria Andrianovna, and Ivan Kupriyanovich asked me to send you their regards. Maria Ivanovna is now in Petersburg. The sacristan Solovyov, Ivan Semyonovich, Konshin, and Fedorov also send you their regards.

I most respectfully thank you, Izmail Ivanovich, for the offprints on Schleicher’s grammar; I received them back in January.

13.

Dear Sir,

Izmail Ivanovich!

I scarcely know how to thank you, Izmail Ivanovich, for your kindness toward me. Recently I received from you an offprint of F. Buslaev’s Polish dissertation, On the Influence of Christianity on the Slavic Language, and two Lithuanian books: 1) The Rural Poem by Chr. Donelaitis^а and 2) Punktaj Sakimu by Kon. Širvydas; as well as a considerable number of offprints of Mr. Mikucki’s eighth and ninth reports—from the Committee of the Imperial Academy of Sciences. I read Mr. Buslaev’s dissertation with admiration and found it a very useful resource, owing to the author’s ingenious view of the historical development of the lexical aspect of language. This bears very closely on my present work. The Lithuanian books mentioned are of considerable importance for the study of the Lithuanian language. I know of no Lithuanian work in which the rural life of the Lithuanian people is expressed more fully and vividly than in the four seasons, the rural poem by Chr. Donelaitis. Punktaj Sakimu (Articles of Sermons) is important for its language, which reaches back to the earliest period of Lithuanian writing—the 16th–17th centuries. As for the offprints of Mr. Mikucki’s eighth and ninth reports, I am at a loss. I think they were intended for some other purpose and sent to me by the Committee by mistake.

Having received two new sources for my work, I set aside for a time the processing of the words copied from the Bible and began reading Donelaitis. On the first pages, I read rather slowly, because nearly every word had to be examined. But, having the highest regard for your advice and

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In accordance with your instructions, Izmail Ivanovich, in my deliberations I confine myself to defining the meanings of the word under discussion, illustrating them with phrases in which it occurs, and comparing Lithuanian roots only with Slavic ones. I allow myself [sic!] only to compare Lithuanian words with Latvian and Old Prussian words, making use, for the latter two languages, of Stender’s lexicon and the lexicon included with Mr. Nesselmann’s edition of the three Prussian catechisms. But I have included Latvian and Old Prussian in my studies for my own benefit, wishing to become acquainted with these languages as close relatives of Lithuanian. The inclusion of Latvian and Old Prussian words and roots in the root dictionary I have in mind will depend entirely on your advice and instructions, Izmail Ivanovich, which I hold in the highest regard and shall faithfully carry out. I write the words on cards; I assign a separate card to each root. If words derived from one root do not fit on a single card, I attach a second card to it, numbered accordingly. I have arranged the cards alphabetically by letter. For each letter I have made two sections of cards. In one I have placed cards listing roots that have developed into various forms; the other contains cards with roots appearing in one, two, or three forms. For now, the cards are arranged in piles on the table. These piles grow every day.

We are having clear spring days, reminding us that summer is approaching. Having magnanimously forgotten all the discomforts you experienced in Novgorod last summer, would you care, Izmail Ivanovich, to arrange lodgings for yourself in Novgorod for the coming summer as well? Indeed, it would be wonderful! The well-known house of the merchant Fedorov is now occupied, but another good apartment could be found.

With the highest respect and complete devotion, I have the honor to remain your most obedient servant, highly esteemed Izmail Ivanovich,

И. Юшкевич

March 25, 1857

Novgorod

Please convey my highest respects to Ekaterina Fedorovna and assure her that I and all their acquaintances in Novgorod would be delighted to offer them our services, should they see fit to honor Novgorod with a visit in the summer.

I humbly bow to Olga Izmailovna, Lyudmila Izmailovna, Nadezhda Izmailovna, Vladimir Izmailovich, and Vyacheslav Izmailovich. To Nikolai Aleksandrovich as well.

14.

Dear Sir, Izmail Ivanovich!

Yesterday I received your letter, and today Petr Ivanovich sent Mr. Mikutski’s offprints, together with a note, to the author in Vilna, specifying the error. Please generously forgive me, highly esteemed Izmail Ivanovich, for not informing you at once of this mistaken dispatch; I might lay part of the blame for the delay in replying on the unreliability of our post office, which holds up letters and notices for whole weeks—for example, your present letter was received at the St. Petersburg post office on March 28, whereas I received it on April 4. Ivan Kupriyanovich, awaiting the final sheets of the fifth volume of the Proceedings of the Second Department, supposes that perhaps there is only a

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The person assigned to Novgorod ended up in Vilnius through the same mistake as the person from Vilnius in Novgorod.

I was greatly pleased that you, highly esteemed Izmail Ivanovich, requested from me sample cards for the root dictionary I have in mind. I am sending you several in the form they are in³. But I consider it my duty to say that they are far from complete. While gathering materials for the proposed root dictionary, I write down on cards only those words that I come across in my reading. Their number increases daily, and the mass of materials grows; but I shall bring them into an organic system only when I have examined all the Lithuanian sources at my disposal. From the materials collected, only what is essential and accords with the purpose will be selected [sic] for the work. As for the scope of the proposed work, I think it could be limited to those forms that help explain the various types of roots and their meanings. I do not explain Latvian and Old Prussian words with examples, but cite them only to show which roots have been preserved in the branches closest to the Lithuanian language. I am now reading Donelaitis’s work and have already excerpted up to 600 roots from it. The words excerpted from the Lithuanian Bible (up to 6000) are still awaiting analysis. The cards I am sending contain forms from Donelaitis, and only a few from the Gospel. Of the seven roots I am sending, two, it seems, are not found in the Slavic language: lik and mau.

I cannot help admitting to you, highly esteemed Izmail Ivanovich, that my knowledge of contemporary philology is very limited, and my view of the work I am undertaking may be quite mistaken. If I dare to take on so important a task, requiring broad and thorough knowledge of contemporary philology, and if I can accomplish anything useful, it is only under your guidance. Therefore, highly esteemed Izmail Ivanovich, place me under a new obligation of filial gratitude if, having judged from the sample cards I am sending you my conception of the work begun and the methods I employ, you do not refuse [sic] to communicate frankly and directly your opinion of my work, together with your paternal advice. I sincerely thank you, highly esteemed Izmail Ivanovich, for the Lithuanian books you have already sent and for your promise to send more, if you find any; I am only afraid of keeping them too long. We would very much like to read your speech delivered at the university ceremony, apparently on the paleographic features of ancient Slavic-Russian manuscripts. I have the honor of congratulating you, highly esteemed Izmail Ivanovich, and your entire family on the approaching feast of the Resurrection of Christ, and of wishing you good health and every happiness.

With the highest respect and complete devotion, I have the honor to remain your most obedient servant, highly esteemed Izmail Ivanovich,

И. Юшкевич

April 5, 1857

Novgorod.

15.

Dear Sir, Izmail Ivanovich!

For a long time my conscience has troubled me because I have kept your books for so long. Please forgive me generously for this, highly esteemed Izmail Ivanovich! Today I sent the following of them to the editorial office of the Scholarly Notes of the Second Division of the Academy of Sciences: 1) The Four Seasons by Donelaitis [sic], 2) Punktai

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Shirvydas’s Sakimu, 3) Shirvydas’s Dictionarium, 4) Mielcke’s Lithuanian grammar, 5) On the Elements and Forms of the Slavic Language by Katkov, 6) On the Relationship of the Slavic Language to Related Languages by Hilferding. I venture to keep your other books with me for a little longer, but with the greatest apprehension, lest I abuse too greatly your generous readiness, by which you deigned to open your entire library to me; I console myself with the supposition that you will be frank with me and directly order me to return all your books whenever you wish to have them with you.

I found Donelaitis’s pastoral poem to be a very rich source for my work. Although almost all the forms of the Lithuanian language occurring in Donelaitis’s pastoral poem have been included in Nesselmann’s Lithuanian lexicon, Nesselmann for the most part does not indicate where they were borrowed from, nor does he explain their meanings with examples. I copied all these forms onto cards, explained them with examples, and translated them into Russian. Shirvydas’s dictionary, too, was incorporated into Nesselmann’s lexicon. I received Shirvydas’s Dictionarium (5th ed., 1713, 454 pp.), his Punktai Sakimu (1st ed. 1629, 2nd ed. 1845), and Mielcke’s Grammar as a gift from L. Ivinskis, publisher of the Lithuanian calendar, with whom I began corresponding. L. Ivinskis, senior teacher at the parish school in the town of Rietavas, Telšiai district, has for ten years now been publishing the Lithuanian calendar in the pure Samogitian dialect, in which he includes some historical and statistical information about Lithuania in general and the Samogitians. He also studies Samogitian folk poetry.

I am now working on compiling the words, whose number has already reached 10,000. I hope that during the coming holidays I will make considerable progress with my work. I greatly regret only that you did not deign to visit us in Novgorod this summer. I owe you so much, most highly esteemed Izmail Ivanovich, that I truly do not know how to thank you. Thank you, thank you. With the highest respect and complete devotion, I have the honor to remain your most obedient servant, most highly esteemed Izmail Ivanovich.

И. Юшкевич

June 9, 1857, Novgorod

I have the honor to convey my highest respects to Ekaterina Fedorovna; I bow most humbly to Olga Izmailovna, Lyudmila Izmailovna, Nadezhda Izmailovna, Vladimir Izmailovich, and Vyacheslav Izmailovich.

Petr Ivanovich, Maria Ivanovna, Aleksei Vasilievich, and Maria Andrianovna asked me to convey to you and Ekaterina Fedorovna their deepest respects. They greatly regret that they are beginning to lose hope of your coming to the city of Novgorod this summer.

16.

Dear Sir,

Izmail Ivanovich!

By yesterday’s post I sent my notebooks to the editorial office of the Scholarly Notes of the Second Department of the Academy of Sciences. They were prepared in connection with Mr. Schleicher’s publication of the Lithuanian chrestomathy. Of the pieces included in Mr. Schleicher’s book, I translated from Lithuanian into Russian five songs, a number of riddles, proverbs and sayings, and several tales. In my translation I tried to preserve, as far as possible, the literal fidelity of the original-

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…and to add such Russian expressions through which the life of the Lithuanian peasant would shine through and by which his view of nature and, in general, his individuality would be defined as clearly as possible. But it is not easy to express the nuances of the Lithuanian peasant’s concepts and thoughts in Russian, and it was all the more difficult for me because I am little acquainted with Russian rural life and the way of life of Russian peasants; hence my translation seems to have turned out not very successful or fluent. In translating the tales, I allowed myself to depart somewhat from the literal accuracy of the original because they were published in the form in which they had been transcribed from the lips of an uneducated Lithuanian peasant or peasant woman; the simple, awkward narration on the one hand, and the peculiarities of the Lithuanian language on the other, left me no possibility of translating them word for word. In any case, however, I endeavored to preserve the fullness of their content and those features that characterize the Lithuanian peasants’ view of nature and way of thinking. These deviations of the translation of the tales from the original concern only the form of the narration. As for the Lithuanian songs, I very much regretted that I did not have Berg’s collection of songs at hand; I think that perhaps I would have found in it the very Lithuanian songs that I translated, and I could have compared his translation with mine. Among the Lithuanian riddles, proverbs, and sayings, I found few that were similar to Russian ones, and very few that were entirely alike. In translating the similar ones, I did not depart from the wording of the original; consequently, in Russian translation they display a certain original peculiarity. I am now engaged in sorting through Lithuanian roots.

With the highest respect and complete devotion, I have the honor to remain Your most humble servant, highly esteemed Izmail Ivanovich.

July 20, 1857

Novgorod

I. Yushkevich

I have the honor to convey my highest respect to Ekaterina Fedorovna; I respectfully bow to Olga Izmailovna, Lyudmila Izmailovna, Nadezhda Izmailovna, Vladimir Izmailovich, Vyacheslav Izmailovich, and Pavel Izmailovich.

17.

Dear Sir, Izmail Ivanovich!

I am very, very much to blame before you, highly esteemed Izmail Ivanovich, for not having informed you for so long about the state of my work, whose conception and both spiritual and material support I owe entirely to you. I cannot boast of any notable progress, but from now on it advances daily. The reasons for its slow progress are my official duties, the scope of the work itself, and my poor health. I hope to have an opportunity soon to speak with you in person about certain circumstances relating to this matter; for now, I will say only that a great deal of material collected from sources has accumulated, and I hope to present you at least the beginning of my work in the middle of next December.

On this occasion, I have the honor to congratulate Ekaterina Fedorovna on the approaching feast day of her patron saint, and you, highly esteemed Izmail Ivanovich, on the name day of the celebrant, and to wish you the fulfillment of all your wishes and every good thing in the world.

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With the highest respect and complete devotion, I have the honor to be your most obedient servant, highly esteemed Izmail Ivanovich.

I. Yushkevich

November 23, 1857

City of Novgorod

I have the honor of expressing my highest respect to Ekaterina Fedorovna, and of offering my humble greetings to the young ladies, Vladimir and Vyacheslav Izmailovich.

18.

Highly esteemed Izmail Ivanovich!

Your letter, which I had the honor of receiving yesterday, provided new evidence of your benevolence toward me. Indeed, I hardly know how to thank you for your kindness toward me. Thank you! Thank you! Your invitation to come straight to your home is very dear to me, and I shall gladly accept it.

By today's post I am sending the beginning of my work to the editorial board of the Scholarly Notes; I shall prepare the following sheets as well by the holidays. I am also sending the notes of Antony Malinovsky on the Novgorod cathedrals: St. Sophia, St. Nicholas, and the Sign Cathedral, together with three copies of the Lithuanian Calendar for 1858, sent to me by its publisher, L. Ivinsky. Mr. Ivinsky has been publishing the Lithuanian Calendar for eleven years now. Added to the Calendar for 1858 are: an account of the most important events in world and Lithuanian history; a list of the principal writings [sic] and languages on the globe; a statistical table of the states of Europe; a list of fairs and church holidays in the Samogitian diocese; four didactic folk tales from the vicinity of the town of Tver (Telšiai district); two folk songs; two pages of folk sayings and proverbs; and instructions for practical treatment of certain illnesses. Among the additions to the Calendar for 1857, besides other articles, mostly the same as those in the Calendar for 1858, were a fairly detailed statistical description of Telšiai district with general conclusions and two folk tales. I cannot refrain from telling you, highly esteemed Izmail Ivanovich, about the work that diverted me for some time from my principal work. Compelled by repeated attacks in our pedagogical journals on the glaring shortcomings of the method of teaching geography in our schools, I wrote a short article on the methods and techniques of my teaching and sent it to the editorial board of the Journal of the Russian Pedagogical Herald⁴. I should very much like to know what Mr. Vyshnegradsky thought of it. I flatter myself with the hope of having the honor of discussing all this with you in person.

With the highest respect and complete devotion, I have the honor to be your most obedient servant, highly esteemed Izmail Ivanovich.

I. Yushkevich

December 16, 1857

City of Novgorod

I have the honor of expressing my highest respect to Ekaterina Fedorovna. I offer my greetings to the young ladies and to my friends Vladimir Izm[ailovich] and Vyacheslav Izm[ailovich].

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19.

Most esteemed Izmail Ivanovich!

I am very ashamed that I have not written to you for so long; the reason is an eye ailment, because of which I have spent all the time from New Year until now in almost complete inactivity. Ah, how tedious and wearisome this time has been for me! Now, although I am still continuing my treatment, I am already beginning to work a little. As for my own work, I am awaiting a new and rich source: Luka Ivinsky, publisher of the Lithuanian calendar known to you, promised to send me for review the first three parts of the Polish-Samogitian dictionary he is compiling. As for my little article on the teaching of geography, it was printed in Nos. 2 and 3 of the Russian Pedagogical Herald, but I have not yet received offprints of it and do not know whether any exist. Are you not thinking, Izmail Ivanovich, of coming to us in Novgorod for the summer? Ah, how glad we would be if you came to us; I would find you the very best summer residence.

With the deepest respect and complete devotion, I have the honor to be your most humble servant, most esteemed Izmail Ivanovich.

Ivan Yushkevich

13 April 1858

Novgorod.

I have the honor to convey my profound respect to Ekaterina Fedorovna; I send my humble regards to Vladimir Izmailovich, Vyacheslav Izmailovich, and the young ladies.

Petr Ivanovich, Maria Ivanovna, Petr Ivanovich Solovyov, Ivan Kupriyanovich, and Nikolai Karlovich Otto send you their respectful regards.

20.

Your Excellency, most esteemed Izmail Ivanovich!

Your letter greatly delighted me, for its cordial expressions showed that I still enjoy your former kindness. I thank you, most esteemed Izmail Ivanovich; I thank you for your affections, and also for your friendly advice to spare my eyes; indeed, I still cannot yet undertake any serious work and continue to use the water and homeopathic drops.

I have the honor to congratulate you, most esteemed Izmail Ivanovich, on your promotion to full State Councillor; all your acquaintances in Novgorod were delighted to learn that you had been granted this imperial favor. At last, your services to science, so important and so multifaceted, have been rewarded, at least in part.

We are very glad that you promise to visit us, even if only in passing; I flatter myself with the hope that you will honor me by coming directly to my home: I have two separate rooms where you could settle in as if in your own home. By the way, while passing through Novgorod you could see the new stone house of Engineer Colonel Geneva, with its wooden wing, a small, charming garden, and all the conveniences of a well-appointed home, for sale at a price of 6 to 7 thousand silver rubles. It is one of the best houses in Novgorod; it can bring in an annual income of 500 to 7000 silver rubles [sic!], the upper floor from 250 to 300, the lower from 150 to 200, and the wing from 150 to 200; the upper floor is especially magnificent. The whole house is now unoccupied; it stands on Moskovskaya Street near the Lutheran church.

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We most humbly thank you, Izmail Ivanovich, for informing us of the arrival of Academicians Pogodin and Kuniks; Mr. Pogodin has already sent Ivan Kupriyanovich his printed extracts concerning the historical sites of ancient Novgorod, so that they may be verified on the spot. We are also awaiting Count Uvarov from Moscow; and for the examination we are awaiting our trustee, Prince Shcherbatov, but meanwhile rumors have been circulating in recent days that he has submitted his resignation. Is this true or not? We do not know. P. I. Solovyov is very pleased that his work has appeared in print and is awaiting its offprints, but is troubled that he cannot obtain from Mr. Savaitov the statute of St. Sophia Cathedral to submit it to the Sophia Library for cataloguing. My work is now progressing very slowly; I hope to devote myself to it more seriously during my free time. As for my trip to Lithuania, I still know nothing. It depends on our family circumstances; perhaps my brother will come to me in Novgorod from Lithuania, but before anything is decided, I hope to have the honor of seeing you in person, highly esteemed Izmail Ivanovich, and, while awaiting this desired moment, with the deepest respect and complete devotion, I have the honor of remaining forever Your Excellency’s most obedient servant.

Ivan Yushkevich

May 10, 1858. Novgorod

I have the honor of conveying to Ekaterina Fedorovna my highest respect; I send my deepest regards to the young ladies, Vladimir and Vyacheslav Izmailovich.

Ivan Kupriyanovich, Petr Ivanovich, Maria Ivanovna, and P. I. Solovyov send you their respectful regards.

21.

Your Excellency, highly esteemed Izmail Ivanovich!

I very much regret that, when returning through St. Petersburg, I did not find you at home and was unable to speak with you about certain matters relating to the results of my recent trip to Lithuania.

The principal aim of my trip was both to gather new materials for the Lithuanian-Slavic etymological dictionary that I am compiling and to determine more precisely the chief dialects of our Lithuanians, as well as to clarify the materials I already have. I therefore intended to travel through all parts of our Lithuania, to listen more closely to the speech of Lithuanian peasants, and to converse with those knowledgeable about and interested in the Lithuanian language and Lithuanian antiquities. In reality, however, it turned out that in so short a time—just one month—it was impossible to visit the opposite ends of our Lithuania; I therefore had to limit myself to visiting the towns of Vorn, Eiregola, and Pusholat and their environs. The language of the Lithuanians living in the Vorn parish and the neighboring parishes may serve as a model of the Samogitian or Žemaitian dialect; the language of the Lithuanians of the Eiregola parish may serve as a model of the Panemunian Lithuanian dialect; and the language of the Pusholat and, generally, Panevėžys Lithuanians may be taken as the standard dialect of the Lithuanians proper—that is, of Lithuanians living in the counties of Panevėžys, Ukmergė, and Novo-Alexandrovsk, in the provinces of Vilnius and Grodno. In these three districts I transcribed from the mouths of Lithuanian peasants folk Lithuanian songs, tales, proverbs, and sayings, and collected 40 Samogitian songs,

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12 in the Eiragol dialect [sic!] or Panemunė dialect and 30 in the Pusolatas dialect, or Lithuanian proper. Now, during the month of August, I copied them out neatly and translated them into Russian, stanza by stanza, verse by verse. In addition, I brought with me up to 50 songs copied by my brother, as well as several poems copied by unknown persons, among them a remarkable poem about spring, consisting of 25 stanzas, each stanza having 8 irregular verses, and a poem about the division of work among members of a rural family in summer. The first of these have already been translated by me into Russian.

I would like to publish my songs as a separate collection together with a Russian translation, including in the preface my notes on the peculiarities of each of the three Lithuanian dialects in which these songs were published. I would add three Lithuanian folk songs in the language of the Swieciany Lithuanians, which already bears the influence of Belarusian. I copied these three songs from the words of a Swieciany Lithuanian woman who was travelling with me by steamer from the town of Swieciany to St. Petersburg. The collection of songs could be enlarged by adding songs copied by my brother and by unknown persons. I would only wish to publish them under the auspices of the Academy of Sciences or the Russian Geographical Society, so as to avoid censorship—not because they contain anything contrary to the rules of censorship, but so that it would not keep them for a long time.

The publication of these songs would be important in that it would present fresh examples of three dialects of our Lithuanians, which are very little known to Mr. Schleicher. In the orthography I tried to preserve every nuance of popular pronunciation; instead of the softening i, I used everywhere an acute mark /'/ over the consonant being softened, to make reading easier for those unaccustomed to treating i as a softening sign. Of the 130 songs in my possession, I found not a single one in Nesselmann’s collection of songs.

I think I will publish the tales, proverbs, and sayings I copied later, together with the tales, proverbs, and sayings copied by my brother.

For my root dictionary I have acquired a considerable stock of materials. I found many new basic forms of the language in the songs and tales mentioned above, copied in villages that were mostly remote and surrounded by forests, and from old people who spoke only their native language. I recorded many new words in conversation with them. I also acquired several printed books that I did not previously have. Among them, a remarkable one concerns the customs of the ancient Lithuanians (Dovkont, under the pseudonym Laukia). But I found an incomparably richer source in my brother’s newly revised handwritten lexicon of the Pusolatas dialect (14 versts from the town of Panevėžys). Here the meaning of each word is illustrated by an example taken from living speech, together with the word being explained. Each word is accompanied by its synonyms, whose meanings are explained in their proper places. Thus, for example, the word kalbéti, “to speak,” is provided with 50 synonyms. This feature of the lexicon mentioned is very important for a Lithuanian lexicographer. The translation is into Polish, because my brother does not know Russian. My brother wishes to publish it this year, but fears that censorship may hold it up for a long time. It may run to as many as 400 printed pages in 8°.

I am not sending you my songs now, because their Russian translation has not yet been copied out neatly, and because I hope to be in Petersburg in the first half of September with my brother, whom I am expecting to come to me. — I have heard that at present there is no permanent censor of Lithuanian books, and that censorship has temporarily been entrusted to two persons; might I somehow put myself forward for this position?

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With the deepest respect and complete devotion, I have the honor always to remain Your Excellency’s most obedient servant, highly esteemed Izmail Ivanovich.

Ivan Yushkevich

27 August 1858

Novgorod.

I have the honor to convey my highest respect to Her Excellency Ekaterina Fedorovna. I send my humble respects to Olga Izmailovna, Lyudmila and Nadezhda Izmailovna, and Vladimir and Vyacheslav Izmailovich.

I am greatly at fault with you and Elizaveta Grigoryevna for not having delivered your parcel to her in person. This happened against my wishes; I was in Riga for only a few hours, and Bolder-aaa is 12 versts from Riga, so there was no time for me to go there; I sent the parcel by post.

Maria Ivanovna, Ivan Kupriyanovich, Otto, Solovyov, and Fedorov send you their respectful greetings and always remember you fondly. Petr Ivanovich is now travelling among the schools.

22.

Your Excellency, highly esteemed Izmail Ivanovich!

Please forgive me generously, highly esteemed Izmail Ivanovich: I unintentionally took advantage of the kindness you so highly value toward me. I thought I had already returned all your books except the Holy Scriptures in Lithuanian, so I was greatly surprised and distressed when Ivan Kupriyanovich told me that you were asking for Kellgren. Yesterday I sent it to the editorial office of Scholarly Notes, but forgive me for not including a letter with the parcel; Ivan Kupriyanovich told me about it in class, and there was so little time left that I barely managed to prepare the parcel and send it to the post office. As for Kellgren, I remember nothing. I kept thinking that I had already given it to you and had ordered a copy for myself from Eger in the previous year, but mine has somehow gone astray, and I cannot find it for the time being. I have kept the Holy Scriptures of yours in my possession because I cannot do without them, but as soon as you order me, I will send them to you at once, with sincere thanks. I am truly ashamed that I have kept your books for so long, since you may need them yourselves. I would acquire a Lithuanian Bible for myself if only it were possible to order one from somewhere.

I am truly ashamed before you, highly esteemed Izmail Ivanovich, that for so long I have not yet fulfilled the promise I made concerning my work. Among other things, the chief cause of this delay was an eye disease, the aftereffect of which was eye irritation that prevented me from working enough for the progress of the work to become more noticeable. No less obstructive were my daily official duties, which consumed all my best hours and deprived me of all freshness of strength and vigor of spirit. I hope soon to move to the village of Medved; I think that the new position will be freer and easier and will allow me to pursue the work I have undertaken with greater energy and success.

I am not sending the Lithuanian songs because I am awaiting from my brother some explanatory information concerning those manifestations of folk life that occur in the songs I have collected.

I am sending with this letter the names of degrees of kinship in the Lithuanian language. They were collected by my brother, Father Anthony; I arranged them according to their mutual relations and translated them into Russian.⁵

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I have the honor to congratulate you, highly esteemed Izmail Ivanovich, and Her Excellency Ekaterina Fyodorovna on the coming holidays, and to wish you good health and every blessing in life. I do not think I shall be in St. Petersburg during these holidays, because, on family business, I am going to Moscow for three days, and by New Year I must hurry to Medved village to take up my new post; I think that by then the order will have been issued.⁶

With profound feeling of the highest respect and complete devotion, I have the honor always to remain Your Excellency’s, highly esteemed Izmail Ivanovich, most obedient servant

Ivan Yushkevich

December 17, 1858

Novgorod.

I have the honor to convey my profound respect to Her Excellency Ekaterina Fyodorovna. I have the honor to send my respectful greetings to Olga Izmailovna, Lyudmila and Nadezhda Izmailovnas, Vladimir and Vyacheslav Izmailovich, and to congratulate them on the coming holidays.

23.

Your Excellency, most highly esteemed Izmail Ivanovich!

I sincerely regret that, owing to ill health, I cannot have the honor of calling on Your Excellency in person and asking you to be so kind as to excuse me before the Second Department of the Academy of Sciences for having kept Mr. Akelevich’s notes on the Lithuanian language in my possession for so long. The press of official duties did not allow me to carry out sooner the commission so flattering to me, with which the Second Department honored me. I now have the honor of submitting Mr. Akelevich’s first manuscript, entitled “Something about Lithuania,” together with my remarks on it; I shall endeavor to examine the second and return it to the Department as soon as possible.

With profound respect and complete devotion, I have the honor to remain Your Excellency’s most obedient servant.

И. Юшкевич

March 5, 1860

St. Petersburg.

I have the honor to convey to Her Excellency Ekaterina Fedorovna the assurance of my highest respect.

24.

Your Excellency, most highly esteemed Izmail Ivanovich!

I have the honor to thank you most respectfully, most highly esteemed Izmail Ivanovich, for sending me the philological studies of Casp. Wilh. Smith; I found them very interesting. In sending them back [herewith? — the word is unclear], I have the honor to enclose my own notes on them as well.

On this occasion, I cannot but confide to you, most highly esteemed Izmail Ivanovich, that I am interested in the fate of “my Lithuanian dialects.” If they should be honored with publication in the Proceedings of the Second Department, I would most respectfully ask that you allow me to proofread them.

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With profound respect and complete devotion, I have the honor to remain Your Excellency’s most obedient servant

Ivan Yushkevich

September 27, 1860, Petersburg.

I have the honor to convey my profound respect to Her Excellency Ekaterina Fedorovna.

25.

Your Excellency, Izmail Ivanovich!

I am greatly at fault toward you, Izmail Ivanovich, for having gone so long without writing you even a word. But I can lay part of the blame on circumstances. On arriving in Kazan, I first intended to visit Viktor Ivanovich⁸ and become at least somewhat acquainted with the particularities of the city, but my numerous official duties and obligations deprived me of every opportunity to make use of the time favorable for this. Meanwhile, I became somewhat unwell, probably as a result of the influence of the climatic peculiarities of the Kazan area, which usually affect newcomers more strongly. Thus time passed unnoticed. I saw Viktor Ivanovich only twice; I know Kazan only from what I have been told, and managed to travel through only some of its streets.

Before saying anything about Kazan, I ought to recall my impressions of the journey, but there was nothing particularly remarkable about them. I traveled from Petersburg to Kazan without stopping for seven days: as far as the city of Vladimir by passenger train on the railway, and from Vladimir in my own kibitka by post-horses. The road was fairly bumpy in places, the weather was bad, and blizzards raged with only brief pauses. Below the city of Nizhny, we had to travel for up to 300 versts on the ice of the Volga River. Along this stretch, the traveling nature-lover’s eye can find delight in the picturesque high bank of the Volga, which is endlessly varied and, in many places, entirely bare of snow because of its steepness.

I entered Kazan at night. The next day I traveled along its main street, Voskresenskaya, to my school. At first sight, the city struck me as rather large and beautiful in its outward appearance. It is situated on uneven terrain along the left bank of the Kazanka River. It also has two lakes within it, Kaban and Chornoye, and is further cut through by the Bulak stream. Thus, there is a great deal of water in Kazan, but it is full of infusoria and quite unfit for use. Water for cooking and drinking is brought from a single well for the entire city.

Kazan’s climate is generally unhealthy. In winter there are constant severe frosts; 20 degrees below zero on the Réaumur scale is considered ordinary and not at all dreadful by the local inhabitants. In spring, the city is flooded all around by the overflow of the Kazanka River and the Volga River, whose waters join those of the aforementioned lakes. At this time persistent fevers appear; they intensify and become more frequent in summer, when the meadows and valleys that had been under water begin to dry out and fill the air with harmful vapors.

The main street in Kazan is Voskresenskaya; it runs along elevated ground between the lakes, from the University to the Kremlin. Our military school is located in the Kremlin and occupies almost half of it. It is in the northwestern-

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[western] part of the city, on the high bank of the Kazanka River. The school consists of two enormous three-story buildings, forming a sizeable square in the middle. In one of the wings belonging to it [sic] is my apartment, directly opposite the large doors of the Cathedral, very close, just across the street; hence the inconvenience that the peal of bells completely drowns everything out. The apartment is enormous, consisting of ten inconveniently arranged rooms.

The school now has 540 pupils (its capacity is 800), 32 teachers, and 4 priests teaching religious instruction; in addition, for non-Orthodox pupils there are a Catholic priest, a pastor, and a mullah.

My chief duty consists in directing the teaching work of the instructors and overseeing the proper upbringing of the companies; it takes up most of my time—from 8 in the morning until 6:30 in the afternoon. Only the evenings remain for my Lithuanian etymological dictionary; during my month and a half in Kazan, I have only been able to compile tables of words beginning with vowel sounds. I hope, however, that when order is restored and teaching work gets back on track, I shall have more free time.

Viktor Ivanovich is so considerate and kind to me that he has offered me every possible assistance. He enjoys universal respect in Kazan and is always surrounded by his students and young scholars; but it seems he is dissatisfied with his position and wishes to leave Kazan as soon as possible, and therefore is temporarily renting an apartment at Ryazanov’s hotel. In Kazan I found my schoolmate, a native Lithuanian and researcher of the Lithuanian language, Ugyansky, who is now an extraordinary professor of Greek literature at Kazan University.

With the highest respect and complete devotion, I have the honor to remain, Izmail Ivanovich, your most obedient servant.

Ivan Yushkevich

March 22, 1862. Kazan. Military School.

I have the honor to convey to Her Excellency Ekaterina Fedorovna my profound respect.

My most respectful greetings to the deeply esteemed Olga Izmailovna; I also bow to Vladimir and Vyacheslav Izmailovich, future fellow workers in scholarship; I kiss clever Borya. Greetings also to Lyudmila, Nadezhda, and Vera Izmailovna.

26.

Your Excellency, Izmail Ivanovich!

The manuscript collections of Lithuanian words and Lithuanian songs sent to the Department by Mr. Mikutski have been examined by me. I venture to say a few words about them, since they struck me [sic].

The words are contained in two collections; in both, they are arranged in alphabetical order. The first collection consists of 15 leaves and contains up to 1,500 words; the second consists of 10 and contains up to 900 words. At the end of the first collection is a family song now in widespread use: Oj, dėvulajti, ne galū, Oh, my God, I cannot; while the final leaf of the second collection contains Lithuanian sayings, riddles, and proverbs.

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The words in the first collection are translated first into Polish and then into Russian, using one, two, or three near-synonyms, and most of them are illustrated with examples. The examples, however, are left untranslated; only a few are translated into Polish. It seems that they were all gathered from Lithuanian books, whose titles are indicated by initial letters or syllables: D., Dauk., Dauksz., Sz., Szir., N.T.d.f., N.T.n.f., K.K., P.M., Ped. Mir., Bals, Rož., Brom., but no explanation of these abbreviations is provided. From the content of the examples and their language, it is evident that they were borrowed from religious books of past centuries: the 16th, 17th, and 18th. Nevertheless, a considerably larger part of the words belongs to those commonly used in everyday speech; the rest are regional dialect forms, and a few are provincial. Whatever their usage may be, in any case they constitute useful material for a Lithuanian lexicon, though material awaiting careful elaboration. The meaning and usage of many words in this collection, it seems, ought to be expressed more precisely and fully, and illustrated with examples preferably drawn from pure, living speech, because the influence of the Polish language is conspicuously evident in all Lithuanian books, especially those on religious subjects. For example, just as in Polish głowny is derived from głowa, and okoliczność from około, Szirwid derives galvingas from galva in the sense of główny, and aplinkibė from aplink, ‘around,’ in the sense of okoliczność; yet the word aplinkibė, meaning ‘circumstance,’ is not used at all in living speech. Although all our compilers of Lithuanian books were native Lithuanians, such as Daukuszu, Szirwid, Pobreža, Goylevič, Rupeika, and others, they received their schooling in Polish and Latin and only later took up the Lithuanian language and compiled Lithuanian books.

The second, smaller collection of words has quite a different character. Here the words are translated by a single Polish word, are not illustrated with examples, and are accompanied by no indication of their sources. With few exceptions, they all belong to local dialects and, it seems, were all drawn from the pure, living speech of our Lithuania; most of them are used by Lithuanians living around the towns of Pasvalys and Biržai in Panevėžys County. In 1860, Mr. Mikucki invited enthusiasts of the Lithuanian language, through the newspaper „Kurier Wileński“, to collect Lithuanian words and works of Lithuanian folk poetry and send them to him in Warsaw. These words were probably sent to him in response to that appeal. Whatever the case, the words in this collection constitute rich and, for the most part, new material for a Lithuanian lexicon. It seems that they can be thoroughly studied only in Lithuania itself, amid the living speech in which they are used.

The Lithuanian songs collected by Mr. Mikucki are divided into round-dance songs and wedding songs; they all belong to the folk works of past centuries, and the custom of singing them has survived to this day, though in very few localities. They are therefore of particular ethnographic and philological importance.

The round-dance songs „Sutartinés (sutarti, to agree), dainės or saugės (saugū, saugā, saugti, to lead a song, to echo it, lagging a little behind) are divided into dvejsaugės (dvėju, in twos + saugti), trīsaugės, and ketursaugės. There are 12 of the first, 37 of the second, and 34 of the last. Each type of these songs is separated from the others: first come the dvejsaugės, then the trīsaugės, and finally the ketursaugės. At the beginning of the first type of song (dvejsaugės) there is the following explanation in Lithuanian: „Dvejsaugės are so called because they are sung by two people; the first singer is called the leader (vadovu arba rinkėju. Vedū vedu, renku, rinkāu, rinkti, to gather), and the second the follower (sūkėju arba užsūkėju arba sekėju. Seku, sekāu, sekti, I follow, …ed, …ing). The first (vadovs) begins to sing the first stanza, and the second (sūkėjus) sings after him, always lagging behind him by a

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certain interval. These songs (dvėjsaugės) differ from the trīsaugės, which are sung by three people—the first two sing as in the dvėjsaugės, while the third sings meanwhile without a set melody—and from the keturšaugės, sung by four people, in that they have one leader, who starts the song. Those singing keturšaugės are divided into two choirs“. All the šaugės are written in the East Lithuanian dialect, but the nuances of pronunciation among the eastern Lithuanians seem to have been smoothed out, probably by their collector. Much more of the East Lithuanian dialect’s distinctive sound is represented in the wedding songs. There are few wedding songs—or, more accurately, there is just one, a sad, mournful bride’s song, rauda išteken­tós (rauda, lament, a lamenting song; raudojų, -jau, -doti, to weep, to wail; tekū, tekėjau, tekėti, I flow, to flow; ištekėti, to get married)—which she sings on various occasions during the wedding ritual: when she is seated at the table on Sunday morning, when the bridegroom arrives at the yard, when he enters the vestibule, when he enters the house, when he is seated at the large table, when the best man hands her the bridegroom’s wreath, when they set out to take her to the bridegroom, while walking through the house, after the ceremony has been completed, as she takes leave before departing for the wedding ceremony, on returning from church at the gate of her parents’ home, after entering the yard, while thanking people for gifts, while scolding the matchmaker the day after the wedding ceremony, when her dowry is loaded onto a cart, and when she herself gets into the carriage. The rauda išteken­tós is sung during wedding rituals in only a few localities; it is absent from the fairly detailed description of wedding customs among the Lithuanians living around Panevėžys that I have in manuscript. After the rauda come four more songs that may be classified as wedding songs. They too are written in the East Lithuanian dialect.

In the printed collections of Lithuanian songs known to me, there are neither saugės nor raudos, and very few songs sung in our eastern Lithuania have been printed at all[так!]; therefore, publishing the saugės and raudos as purely folk songs would be very useful both philologically and ethnographically. I have 150 Lithuanian folk songs collected by my brother and me; among them are 25 saugės. I am thinking of publishing them and am waiting for a favorable time to do so, but at present I have taken up compiling a Russian-Lithuanian grammar⁹ for schools and a textbook for classroom reading, and have therefore temporarily set aside my work on compiling a Lithuanian root dictionary; for now, I cannot undertake any other work either. It would be possible to publish in a single collection all the Lithuanian songs, both those I have and those sent by Mr. Mikucki.

As for the „rauda išteken­tós“, it could be printed together with the wedding customs in Lithuanian that I have, along with a Russian translation; it would fit well there and help give a fuller depiction of this feature of Lithuanian folk life.

Allow me, Izmail Ivanovich, to say a few words here about myself as well. I have already written to the Curator of the Vilna Educational District, Prince Shirinsky-Shikhmatov, about my compiling a Lithuanian-Russian grammar for schools and a Lithuanian textbook for classroom reading, and asked to be included among the candidates for a headmaster’s position at one of the gymnasiums in that part of the Vilna Educational District which is inhabited by native Lithuanians. With my letter I sent two of my pamphlets: On Lithuanian Dialects and Schleicher’s Lithuanian Grammar¹⁰, and four pamphlets on pedagogical subjects¹¹. I have not yet made such a request to the Minister of Public Education; perhaps it would be better to put this off until I have finished compiling the Lithuanian grammar.

Viktor Ivanovich delivered a speech in Slavic at the university over dinner, given on September 8 on the occasion of the celebration of the thousandth anniversary of Russia[так!]. I am sending with this letter that speech and the Old Church Slavonic[й] memorial on Cyril and Methodius, published by Viktor Ivanovich.

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With the highest respect and complete devotion, I have the honor always to remain Your most humble servant, Izmail Ivanovich.

Ivan Yushkevich

September 18, 1862, from Kazan

I have the honor most humbly to ask Her Excellency Ekaterina Fedorovna and Olga Izmailovna to convey my highest respect and my friendly greetings to Vladimir, Vyacheslav, and Boris Izmailovich, as well as to Lyudmila [sic!], Nadezhda, and Vera Izmailovna.

27.

Your Excellency, Izmail Ivanovich!

I cannot write even a few lines to you, Izmail Ivanovich, without beginning with an expression of gratitude, with which I am deeply filled toward you for your friendly advice and your constant attention to my work on the Lithuanian language; indeed, I do not know how to thank you for it.

I am sending my manuscript of the Lithuanian Grammar to the Academy and entrusting it to your kind attention. Its dispatch was delayed because, while traveling, my eyes became so inflamed that, after arriving home, I had to refrain from all reading for two weeks.

This week I shall try to send a petition concerning my Lithuanian textbooks to the chief of the western provinces; but I do not yet know how I shall do so—through my own superiors or through the Kazan military governor-general. Until now I have not pursued this matter because I considered it necessary first to send the manuscript to the Academy.

A few days ago, in Russ[ky] Invalid, I read an article by Mr. Gilferding, “On the Pacification of Poland.” Among other things, he considers the introduction of the Lithuanian language in place of Polish throughout the Lithuanian-Russian provinces the principal means of ensuring the Poles’ lasting pacification. This word in favor of Lithuanian has strengthened our cause; God grant that this truth spread as widely as possible and be recognized.

Please accept the assurance of my deepest respect and complete devotion, with which I have the honor always to remain Your most humble servant, Izmail Ivanovich.

Ivan Yushkevich

September 10, 1863, Kazan

28.

Your Excellency, Izmail Ivanovich!

Please forgive me generously, Izmail Ivanovich, for taking the liberty, relying on your constant kindness toward me and your attention, of troubling you with the following request.

While preparing a Lithuanian-Russian grammar and a Lithuanian-Russian dictionary for publication, I would like first to print a number of Lithuanian folk songs in Russian letters as an experiment, in order to see to what extent an alphabet of Russian letters can be adapted to the Lithuanian language,

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if one also takes into account the phonetic peculiarities of its local dialects. Therefore, sending herewith thirty-three Lithuanian songs with their translation into Russian, I have the honor respectfully to ask you, Izmail Ivanovich, to kindly petition for their publication among the Academy’s publications¹². Should this prove impossible, I am ready to bear the costs of printing them, if only they may be published. I would like to print 200 copies. If the printing goes well, more could be prepared for publication. Over the past two years, 1,500 songs have been transcribed by me and my brother from the words of Lithuanian male and female singers.

Daring to flatter myself with the hope that you, Izmail Ivanovich, will not reject my request, I have the honor to remain, with the deepest respect and complete devotion, Your Excellency’s most humble servant

Иван Юшкевич

28 November 1866

Nizhny Novgorod.

29.

Your Excellency, Izmail Ivanovich!

In November of last year, I had the honor of sending Your Excellency Lithuanian folk songs, with the respectful request that they be published by the Academy. Now, while reading in the Petersburg Gazette the report on the II Department of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences, I find the gratifying news that the aforementioned songs are to be published among the Academy’s publications¹³. Thus, my wish concerning these songs has been fulfilled even better than I could have hoped. It remains for me to express to Your Excellency my heartfelt gratitude both for your gracious attention to my work and for your most flattering opinion of it, and at the same time to renew my respectful request for 200 offprints for my own use. I shall cover the expenses for this either by sending the amount due by post or in person during the coming summer holidays.

Taking this opportunity, I cannot help adding a few words about the change in my circumstances. His Excellency the Minister of Public Education was pleased to offer me a transfer to the Kingdom of Poland or to another department, probably as a result of the general measure under which Catholics born in the western provinces will in future not be permitted to hold administrative positions (inspector and director posts) in the Ministry of Public Education’s educational service. Accordingly, at the suggestion of the trustee of the Kazan Educational District, I agreed to take a position as a Latin teacher at the Yekaterinburg Gymnasium, bearing in mind that teachers’ pensions there under the old staffing regulations are the same as in the gymnasiums of the capitals, that is, 700 rubles. Reconciling myself to my new position, I am now taking up ancient philology. I hope that, with a teaching post, I shall have more time to devote to the Lithuanian language as well. Life in the Urals should not weaken my commitment to Lithuanian studies.

Please accept the assurance of my constant deepest respect and complete devotion, with which I have the honor to remain Your Excellency’s most humble servant

Иван Юшкевич

12 February 1867

from the city of Yekaterinburg.

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30.

Your Excellency, Izmail Ivanovich!

Last summer Your Excellency allowed my brother Antonius and me to send you the letter а of the Lithuanian-Russian dictionary we are compiling. We expected to finish it by October, but it proved to be twice as long as the letter m¹⁴. I have already received 73 sheets of his draft from my brother, and expect at least as many more from him. The sheets I have prepared are already being copied out neatly by Usanin, a pupil in the eighth grade at the Third Kazan Gymnasium, who, out of a love of languages, willingly undertook this work so that, in copying it, he might become somewhat acquainted with the Lithuanian language. Judging by the pace of the work, I believe that the letter а cannot be completed before the final days of next November. I shall then hasten to submit it for Your Excellency’s gracious consideration.

With the deepest respect and complete devotion, I have the honor to remain Your Excellency’s most obedient servant.

Иван Юшкевич

October 5, 1876

in the city of Kazan

at the Third Gymnasium.

31.

Your Excellency, Izmail Ivanovich!

On the 25th of this March I mailed the letter а of the draft Lithuanian-Russian dictionary we are compiling, addressed to Your Excellency at the Academy of Sciences’ Second Department. The dispatch of letter а was delayed by three months because of my correspondence with my brother concerning the use of letter signs and accent marks. Meanwhile, however, work on the Lithuanian dictionary did not cease, either for me or for my brother. All time free from official duties is devoted to this work. I have already translated the letter б[так!] and am finishing the translation of letter d. The translation into Russian is proceeding rather slowly, however, because we encounter many Lithuanian words from the rural life of ordinary people for which it is sometimes difficult to find suitable Russian equivalents; but here in Kazan, among the Russian people, I find it possible to overcome these difficulties, which I would not have been able to do had I undertaken the translation into Russian while living in Lithuania. I translated letter т last summer in Lithuania, and therefore I find it necessary to review it once more.

Checking the Latvian words took a great deal of time and presented considerable difficulties; therefore, we decided to exclude them [так!] from the dictionary.

I would consider it necessary, for a more precise and clear understanding of the etymological structure of the Lithuanian language, to explain derivational increments and grammatical endings. In the introduction appended to letter а, I said that this explanation would be included, but it is not yet ready. I am now collecting materials while translating, and it will be ready by the time the dictionary is completed.

I changed the previous title, “Materials,” to “Draft Lithuanian-Russian Dictionary,” because I would like, by making use of my brother’s very rich material, to make this work more suitable and more useful. I am ready to check the materials on site, where they were collected, and to review the whole

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work and revise it, if only Your Excellency would deign to point out its shortcomings to me.

This coming summer, around July 15, I hope to be in Petersburg, and therefore flatter myself with the hope of learning Your opinion of this work of mine in person.

With the deepest respect and complete devotion, I have the honor to remain Your Excellency’s most obedient servant

Ivan Yushkevich

29 March 1877

in Kazan

32.

Your Excellency, Izmail Ivanovich!

I had the honor of receiving, through I. A. Baudouin de Courtenay, your letter concerning the dispatch of my manuscript, letter a, to Professor Potebnya [sic]. I hardly know how to thank you for your keen interest in our work. All that remains for me is to consider how to carry it further and make it as suitable as possible.

In letter b and those that follow, words with fixed stress are distinguished from words with mobile stress. It seems this will be a useful addition. This distinction ought also to be made in letter a; therefore, I venture most humbly to ask you, Izmail Ivanovich, upon the return of the manuscript by Mr. Potebnya, to kindly send it to me and, if possible, together with letter m, which you permitted me to leave with you last summer. The signs distinguishing fixed-stress words from mobile-stress words are the same two signs as those used for stress: a slanting stroke from right to left (') above a long syllable and one from left to right (') above a short syllable, but with a small stroke added at an angle underneath them, thus: ∠ — above a long syllable, \ — above a short syllable. I fear only that this addition may make printing more difficult.

Without doubt, Izmail Ivanovich, you will come to Kazan this summer with Vladimir Izmailovich and Vyacheslav Izmailovich for the congress of the Archaeological Society. I very much regret that I am leaving for Lithuania for the summer and thus lose the opportunity to invite you to stay at my home; all I can do now is ask whether you might care to come straight to my apartment, which I have kept for myself for the coming year as well. It is in the center of the city, quite close to the University, on Rybno-Ryadskaya Street, in M. A. Alexandrov’s house. It is the first house from Nikolaevskaya Square, a red brick building opposite the Novgorod Hotel. A thoroughly reliable man, Semyon, has been left to look after it and can be of every assistance; only meals would have to be obtained from some cook in the city. I would be very happy if you, Izmail Ivanovich, and your companions found it convenient to stay in my apartment during the congress. I shall return to Kazan only by August 15.

With the deepest respect and complete devotion, I have the honor to remain, Izmail Ivanovich, your most obedient servant.

Ivan Yushkevich

29 May 1877

in Kazan

My address

Teacher of ancient languages at the 3rd Kazan Gymnasium

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33.

Your Excellency, Izmail Ivanovich!

At the beginning of November, I was fortunate to receive your letter, filled with your sincere goodwill toward me, for which I offer you my deepest heartfelt gratitude. Until now, I have been unable to bring myself to write to you because of an eye ailment, as a result of which I had to refrain from all reading and writing; now I am beginning to recover and will soon return to work. As for my health, in general it is now far from what it once was; I often feel a heaviness in my chest and shortness of breath.

You were kind enough to write to me, Izmail Ivanovich, that the letter m of our Lithuanian-Russian dictionary (entitled: Materials) is held in your Academy’s office. It still needs to be revised, so please allow me respectfully to ask you to send it to me in the city of Kazan.

In November, my work on the dictionary reached the 70th half-sheet of the letter g (43 remain), while my brother is copying the letter n from the cards onto sheets.

With the deepest respect and complete devotion, I have the honor to be Your Excellency’s most humble servant

Ivan Yushkevich

January 8, 1878.

Please convey my deepest respect to Her Excellency Ekaterina Fyodorovna and tell her that I will be especially pleased to carry out any commission of hers in Kazan. I send my respectful greetings to your family.

34.

Your Excellency, Izmail Ivanovich!

The Lithuanian folk songs collected by my brother, Anton Vasilievich, have been lying in manuscript for eight years now. We fear they might somehow be lost. Therefore, we have resolved to consider having them printed without postponing this undertaking to some indefinite time in the future. With this in mind, last summer we set about preparing the songs, examined them, divided them into sections, and marked the variants.

While working on the songs, we have not abandoned the work on the dictionary. It remains to copy onto sheets half of the letter ž from the cards, while its Russian translation has been completed up to the second half of the letter i. Judging by the pace of the work, we believe that the first half of the dictionary can be prepared for printing no sooner than a year from now; in the meantime, we would like to publish the songs.

As always, so also in the present case, I flatter myself with the hope of Your Excellency’s, Izmail Ivanovich, kind attention to this work, and I venture most humbly to request your intercession for its publication among the Academy’s editions. For this purpose, I am sending you: a) the first booklet of songs, containing the beginning of the wedding songs, namely, songs sung: 1) at the first meeting of the bridegroom and bride (ant pažinstuviu ir ant megtavimo), 2) during the courtship (ant piršlibu), and 3) at the betrothal (ant ziedinu); b) a Russian translation of the title and preface to the collection of songs; and c) five copies of four Lithuanian folk songs, printed

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In the supplement to volume 3 of the Scholarly Proceedings of Kazan University, for the purpose of using the following letters, which are not yet used in the Lithuanian alphabet: Ė (a mixed e = ə of Schleicher), ie (= ē of Schleicher), ı (a softening mark, replaced by Schleicher with the vowel i), š and č.

I consider it my duty to add that the proposed folk songs were recorded from the words of female singers and, with very few exceptions, are still not found in known printed collections of Lithuanian songs. A comparison of some of the proposed songs with those in Nesselmann’s collection showed that for every 25 songs in Nesselmann’s collection, there is only one variant among the proposed songs.

The number of proposed songs is no fewer than 3,500, in addition to the variants, of which there proved to be over 2,000. They are all divided into the sections indicated in the preface and are being bound in separate booklets, each containing from 100 to 300 songs. The length of the songs may be expressed by an average of 35 mostly short lines, such as those in Nesselmann’s collection of Lithuanian songs.

Musical notation has been prepared for a substantial number of the songs; I would suggest printing it at the end of the collection. It would likewise be possible to print at the end of the collection some notes on the songs and the most remarkable passages from the variants.

I understand well that including a Russian translation of the songs is an important condition for their publication at the Academy’s expense; but at present, devoting all my spare time to the Russian translation of the dictionary, I cannot even think of translating the songs. I would like to turn to the latter after completing the work on the dictionary. The Russian translation of the songs can, of course, be printed later, separately, while preserving the order of the original. Likewise, lack of time prevents me from copying out the songs so as to submit them for printing in a cleaner form.

Should the Department consider it necessary to entrust someone with a preliminary review of the proposed songs, might it be possible to assign this task to Iv. A. Baudouin de Courtenay? I could communicate with him personally if he wished to obtain any information from me concerning these songs.

If the Department of Russian Language and Literature would deign to publish the proposed songs among its editions, we shall not delay in sending the subsequent booklets in order as they are prepared for printing. For my own use, I would ask for 30 offprints. Should the reply be unfavorable, I venture most humbly to ask you, Izmail Ivanovich, to return the manuscript I am sending to me at the Third Gymnasium in Kazan.

With the deepest respect and complete devotion, I have the honor to remain Your Excellency’s most humble servant

Ivan Yushkevich

September 25, 1878, in Kazan

35.

Telegram from Kazan dated 4.IV.1879, on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of I. I. Sreznevsky’s scholarly activity:

I congratulate you on completing fifty years of scholarly activity. I wish you many more years of life. Yushkevich.

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NOTES

1) The list mentioned here was drawn up on a separate sheet:

List of books taken by me from the library of Academician Sreznevsky

1. Serbian Dictionary by Vuk Stefanović. 1818.

2. Lettisches Lexicon von G. F. Stender.

3. Die Grundzüge der finnischen Sprache v. Kellgren.

4. Beiträge zur Kunde der littauischen Sprache. Zweites Heft. Laut und Tonlehre. — v. F. Kurschat, 1849.

5. Study Notes of the 2nd Department of the Imperial Academy of Sciences, vol. II.

6. Lithuanian Bible.

7. Lithuania. Ludwika from Pokiewia (Litwa Ludwika z Pokiewia).

8. On the elements and forms of the Slavic-Russian language, by M. Katkov.

9. Dictionarium trium linguarum. — Szirwid.

10. On the relationship of the Slavic language to related languages, by A. Gilferding.

11. Anfangsgründe einer litt[auischen] Sprachlehre v. Mielcke.

12. Elemente der altböhmischen Grammatik v. P. G. Schafarik.

13. Die Sprache der alten Preussen v. Nesselmann.

I. Yushkevich.

January 5, 1857.”

2) The surname of K. Donelaitis (K. Donelaitis), author of the well-known poem “The Seasons,” widely used by J. Yushka in preparing “The Root Dictionary of the Lithuanian Language” (see also the examples in the trial entries of the “Root Dictionary” in the publication: G. K. Venediktov. Materials for the History of Lithuanian Studies from the Archive of I. I. Sreznevsky), is rendered differently in the letters: Donaleitis (cf. also Donaleitis, with an obvious slip of the pen—instead of the Russian letter л, the Lithuanian п is written), Donalaitis, Donelaitis, Donelait.

3) The mentioned “trial cards for the projected… root dictionary” are published separately (see G. K. Venediktov. Materials for the History of Lithuanian Studies from the Archive of I. I. Sreznevsky, pp. 219–221).

4) This refers to the article “On the Teaching of Geography,” which was soon published in the journal “Russian Pedagogical Herald,” 1859, No. 2, pp. 75–106; No. 3, pp. 197–212, and subsequently appeared as a separate pamphlet. In the journal, the article is attributed to N. Yushkevich. The error in the initial is explained by the fact that J. Yushka wrote the capital и like н—with a horizontal rather than slanted middle stroke.

5) The mentioned terms for degrees of kinship are published separately (see G. K. Venediktov. Materials for the History of Lithuanian Studies from the Archive of I. I. Sreznevsky, pp. 221–224).

6) J. Yushka has in mind the expected order appointing him inspector of the Novgorod Military School, which was probably located in the village of Medved.

7) The “Lithuanian dialects of mine” mentioned here probably refers to his work “Ape kalbas lētuviszko lēžuvo,” published the following year in “Materials for a Comparative and Explanatory Dictionary and Grammar,” vol. V, 1861.

8) Viktor Ivanovich is the well-known Russian Slavist V. I. Grigorovich, a professor at Kazan University. In a letter to V. I. Grigorovich dated January 16, 1862, I. I. Sreznevsky wrote: “This letter will be delivered to you by Ivan Vasilyevich Yushkevich, whose work on the Lithuanian language has surely come to your attention; he truly knows this language and has put me greatly in his debt

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in this respect. Now he will be in your area of service, and undoubtedly needs your advice and knowledge. I consider it unnecessary to ask you to receive him warmly: you could not receive such a worthy person in any other way” (V. I. Sreznevsky. Correspondence between I. I. Sreznevsky and V. I. Grigorovich. — “Proceedings of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, vol. 54. Historical-Philological and Philosophical-Social Branch, 26,” Sofia, 1937, p. 82). In his reply of 13 October 1862, Grigorovich wrote to Sreznevsky: “I have the honor of replying to your obliging letter, delivered to me by Ivan Vasilyevich. I consider myself greatly indebted for the acquaintance with a scholar who combines within himself so many qualities rarely found in Kazan. Although it was impossible for me to benefit from his knowledge of Lithuanian, I am grateful for his conversations, which reveal a true educator” (ibid., p. 83).

9) These Lithuanian-language teaching aids, as well as the Lithuanian-Russian educational dictionary mentioned in letter [28] of 28.XI.1866, were not published. Their manuscripts are held in the Manuscripts Department of the Institute of the Lithuanian Language and Literature in Vilnius (see B. Tolutienė. Antanas Juška leksikografas. — „Literatūra ir kalba“, 1961, vol. V, p. 364).

10) The works referred to are: „Kalbos lėtuviško lėžuvo ir lėtuviškas statrasizimas arba ortografija“ (Peterburge, 1861) and „Note on Schleicher’s book: Handbuch der litauischen Sprache“ (St. Petersburg, 1857).

11) The “four pedagogical pamphlets” are: 1) the pamphlet mentioned above (see note 4), “On the Teaching of Geography”; 2) “And a Few More Words on the Special Translation Examinations,” St. Petersburg, 1859, 7 pp.; originally printed in the newspaper „Русский инвалид“, No. 212, 1859; 3) “Thoughts on the Organization of the Educational Branch in Our Schools,” St. Petersburg, 1860, 18 pp.; originally published in the newspaper „Русский инвалид“, No. 24 of 11.XI.1860; 4) “A Few Words on Educational and Pedagogical Self-Education,” St. Petersburg, 1860, 32 pp.; originally printed in the newspaper „Русский инвалид“, No. 271 of 14.XII.1860, with the subtitle: “Concerning the educational and pedagogical exercises of the teachers at the St. Petersburg school of the War Department in the past school year.” The article is signed: “N. Yushkevich.” On the error in the initial, see note 4.

12) These songs formed the publication: I. and A. Yushkevich. Lithuanian Folk Songs with Russian Translation. — „Collection of Papers Read in the Department of Russian Language and Literature of the Imperial Academy of Sciences“, vol. II, No. 2, St. Petersburg, 1867 (the general title page gives 1868), pp. 1—43.

13) J. Juška refers to the notice “Meetings of the Imperial Academy of Sciences in the Department of Russian Language and Literature. For December 1866,” published in „Санктпетербургских ведомостях“ in No. 11 of 11.I.1867, which states that “Academician Sreznevsky brought to the attention of his colleagues:... 2) Mr. Yushkevich’s article ‘Lithuanian Folk Songs’ with a Russian translation, which, in accordance with Mr. Sreznevsky’s opinion, was resolved to be printed in the Academy’s ‘Notes.’”

14) For an account of J. Juška’s and his brother A. Juška’s work on the Lithuanian dictionary and its fate after their deaths, see the extensive study cited above by B. Tolutienė, which also publishes, among other things, J. Juška’s letter to I. I. Sreznevsky of 6.V.1878. The letters by J. Juška published here contain interesting information concerning the preparation of this dictionary for publication. In this connection, we should also mention I. A. Baudouin de Courtenay’s letter to I. I. Sreznevsky of 16/28 October 1879 (TsGALI, fond 436, inventory 1, item 1167), which also concerns this dictionary. This letter was recently published: S. V. Smirnov. I. A. Baudouin de Courtenay and I. I. Sreznevsky. — „Scholarly Notes of Tartu State University,“ issue 310. Studies on Russian and

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славянской филологии, XXII, Тарту, 1973, с. 215—217. Й. Юшку И. А. Бодуэн Де Куртенэ упоминает и в других опубликованных С. В. Смирновым письмах (там же, с. 210, 214).

15) The songs referred to here were published by the Academy of Sciences in 1883 under the title: „Lithuanian Wedding Folk Songs, Recorded by Antanas Juška and Published by Ivan Juška“ (St. Petersburg, 1883, XXIV++893 pp.). For more on the publication history of this collection, see: A. Mockus. Broliai Juškos – lietuvių liaudies dainų rinkėjai ir leidėjai. V.,1956; B. Tolutienė. Op. cit., pp. 139 ff.