Motif #2

Turning to the second motif, we find all four occurrences consisting of a series of discrete elements: d , a statement of the banica's sadness, optionally including mention of the prisoner's screaming as its cause;  , her complaint to her husband the ban; z , an ornamental clement that can take two quite disparate and phraseologically unrelated forms (z ₁ and z₂ below); and h , the banica's first alternative or request. Between elements d and   are interposed boundary lines, much as in Ibro Basic's^[*] performances examined above.

Overall, motif #2 shows more phraseological and sequential stability than motif #1, the only real variability occurring between elements   and h with the two forms of the optional element z . Nevertheless, some sections can vary considerably in length and development, although expansibility is not a characteristic of all elements. The first subunit, d , for example, has the essential

idea of presenting the sorrowful banica, whether her misery is simply stated in a terse, one-line phrase (6617 .9) or its cause is articulated over a four-line passage (1868.9-12). That very articulation, couched as it is in formulaic language, offers an interesting illustration of multiformity in expression:

The first line of this expansion on the argument is a classically defined formula, the only variation resulting from metathesis under the penultimate ictus rule (IAD) and from particles: a colon-initial interjection (A), the enclitic je that must take final position in the hemistich (B), and the proclitic I placed characteristically before the trisyllable (c). All three lines, as we have seen in chapters 3 and 5, must be considered the same formula from a prosodic and compositional point of view. After this identical start, Mujo adds a variation or terrace on text A, repeating the tetrasyllabic verb form usplašijo as the opening colon of the next line. In text B he uses the entire second line as an appositive to cedo , so that the first hemistich is filled not by the verb but by ludo cedo , a partial terrace on the preceding line and an expansion on Providura sina in the next colon. From one perspective these passages show a tightly knit structure: they all gloss the banica's misery with a single formula, explaining her grief in the same manner each time and expressing the idea of fright in virtually identical phrases. But from another point of view, each instance embroiders the central fact somewhat differently; text A adds a terrace, B a partial terrace and a two-line expatiation, C nothing at all. This kind of traditional multiformity, of variation within limits, is the most consistent feature of thematic structure.

Immediately after the d clement we find a position change line (e.g., A.33), sometimes accompanied by a verse-type I shall call a diurnal rhythm marker (e.g., A.32). Throughout the Stolac material, and throughout the songs from Novi Pazar and other published collections, these lines and others like them act as boundaries, signaling the end of one unit and the onset of the next. Compositionally, they mediate both between thematic wholes and between their parts, that is, between the elements and motifs that comprise a theme. Here they have the latter function: they separate elements d and , marking a narrative seam and allowing easy passage from one scene to another. Text B, in fact, well illustrates the bounded extremities and unitary character of element d by both beginning and ending the four-line passage with marker verses—the diurnal rhythm lines at the opening (7-8) and the position change at the close (13). It seems appropriate to note that we shall discover other such verses in our analysis of multiforms, including the extremely common

type I term the agent line , which usually takes the form A/Pa da vidiš [character X] ("But/Then you should have seen [character X]"), where the character involved is customarily the agent of the next multiform, motif, or element. All of these marker verses or boundary lines—position change, diurnal rhythm, and agent lines—perform an invaluable service in affording the guslar a traditional, generic way to effect transitions between units that, we should recall, also have individual lives of their own in the poetic tradition.

After the marker verses, Mujo turns to the banica's complaint (), for which there seems to be a phraseological core including her address of the ban and the present insufficiency of the prison to contain in silence the shouting Turk who is keeping their son from sleep. This core changes only nominally over the four versions, with minor substitutions in colon 1 of the first line^[27] —

A: E ja,  bane, zemlji komandare ,
        Eh! ban, commander of the territory,
B: h E ja,  bane, zemlje gospodare ,
C: Ustaj, bane, zemlji komandare ,
        Get up,...
D: Cuješ, bane, zemlje komandare ,
        Listen,...

—metathesis of words, and the addition in texts A and C of a fourth line to the three-line kernel.^[28] The introductory line or lines preceding her speech vary from none at all (C) to a rather elaborate and formal four-line exchange (B), but this flexibility should be expected in introductory expressions, which are highly generic in the tradition, with the essential idea "he/she spoke" existing in a considerable number of compositionally equivalent phrases. Moreover, the formal giving and receiving of greeting in text B has its own status as a floating and remarkably stable "atom" in the tradition, being available for many and diverse occasions, from the meeting of warriors about to engage in a mejdan ("single combat") to the long-sought reunion of two lovers; its presence in text B is simply another aspect of the paratactic structure of narrative multiformity.

From the banica's main and recurring statement of her complaint, three of Kukuruzovic's^[*] song-texts move to an intensification of and enlargement on

that complaint. What is more, this optional element z , missing entirely in text C, takes two very different forms. In z₁ , of which we have versions in texts A and D, the banica continues her presentation of the problem by asking a series of questions about what might be troubling the prisoner and causing him to raise such a racket. The first two questions and verses are identical, as are the fourth lines concerning the captive's mother, the only variations being the result of a substitution in line 3 of the element and two somewhat divergent terraces in the fifth lines.^[29] Neither the substitution nor the terraces constitute serious modifications of what is generally a stable structure with an ability to expand or contract under changing performance conditions, a kind of flexible set-piece that, like the offering and receiving of a greeting, can occur in different narrative situations. In addition, the list of questions itself proves to be a generic kind of passage, one that will recur when the banica enters the prison and interviews the captive at the start of the second major theme, "Bargaining." The z₂ passage, on the other hand, for which we have only the single example in text B, conveys the same notion of just how much misery the Turk has wrought, but it has no such traditional integrity as a floating piece of narrative matter suitable for numerous situations. With its exclamatory third line echoing earlier verses in motif #1 and its coda a recombination and repetition of lines 9-11 in element d , the z₂ passage seems more the closure of a ring than a true element in itself.

With the banica's closing demand (h ), we reach the stable end of motif #2. In two highly patterned set phrases she presents the ban with three alternatives: grant the prisoner what he wants, "resell" (preprodati ) him to his people for a ransom, or simply hang him. Text C substitutes releasing the captive into Turkish territory for hanging. There is nothing in the phrase Ja ga pusti na zemlju turciju^[*] to indicate metrical or phraseological malfeasance; indeed, the formula derives from a common system of diction in the Stolac tradition.^[30] In all four instances of the element, the first line is held together by a common type of sound-patterning, leonine or end-colon rhyme—"Ja ga daji , ja ga preprodaji "—so that the syntactic balance and semantic correspondence between cola is reinforced by repetition of (-)daji . Although the second line of the couplet participates as a third alternative in this syntactic series, it is founded on no such sound-patterning and, as text C illustrates, is vulnerable to substitution. In element h , then, we sense both the conservatism and the inherent flexibility of diction and narrative subunit; multiformity means compositional

tendencies in both directions, both toward stability and toward phraseological and thematic neologisms, and the twin tendencies are overseen by the particular, tradition-dependent dynamics of formulaic and thematic structure as informed by traditional rules.