Again you see history in the songs, particularly in the Russian folk music, which shows us in musical portraits, the tragedy of their lives under cruel czars and serfdom. They sang in ancient scales which make the music all the more mournful to our ears. The rhythms in these songs are different from those of romance languages or those derived from Latin, for the Russians have a language of Slavic birth. The Russians have some Oriental blood from the Tartars who invaded Russia and who were descended from Tartar, a Mogul or Mongol from Asia. When you hear Russian songs that sound Oriental, you will agree with Rimsky-Korsakov, the Russian composer, that the Russian, deep down below the skin is an Oriental even though he has been living in Europe for many centuries. In Russia, from the Baltic Sea on the north to the Caucasus Mountains on the south, from the sunny slopes of the Ural Mountains on the west, to the bleak desert wastes of Kirghiz on the east, these mixed races have a common tie in their love for folk story and folk music. Marvelous tales have been handed down by word of mouth about the river gods and the wood-sprites, about the animals who talked like men, and the ugly old witch, Baba-Yaga, whose name alone was enough to quiet the naughtiest child! Through these folk tales you can follow the Russians from the time they were primitive men and pagans through all their battles and the invasions of barbarous tribes, to the time when they became Christians and had to struggle against the Tartars, the Turks and the Poles. All these happenings were put into songs and are the epic, or tale-telling folk music of the Russians. But one of the most interesting things, we think, in all the growing of music into maturity, is that Russia never had anything but folk music until the 19th century! Music always belonged to the people, and there were no musical scholars making it the possession of the educated classes only. Tchaikovsky, Rimsky-Korsakov and other Russians took the folk song from its humble surroundings and used it in their compositions, for they realized its beauty and its richness. The Russians have instruments brought down from very early times, which are found today in no other country. Perhaps you may have heard a Russian _balalaika_ orchestra. The _balalaika_ is a stringed instrument, with a triangular body and long neck, having three or sometimes four strings, which are plucked and sound something like a guitar. It dates back to the end of the 13th century. They also have an instrument like a mandolin, with three strings, that dates from the 13th century also. It came from Asia at the time of the Mongolian invasion.