AN HISTORICAL SKETCH OF GREEK. 1 7 of Greek philologists, by Maurophrydes, Deffner, S. Meyer, Foy, Dossios, Hatzidakis, Psichari, Oekonomides, Thumb, and others. No contemporaneous language had any litera- ture except in the songs of the Klephts. In the ravines of the Pindus, of the Olympus, of the Aroanias, and of the Peloponnesus the fearless men who raised the name Klepht to a pinnacle of honor, with a certain pride developed by their bravery, sang their Klepht songs while constant- ly under arms, and fighting incessantly to guard their independence. These songs are simple and artless, but often sublime, as the summits of the mountains that they came from, and of the same natural beauty as the wild flowers which likewise rooted there. The Klephts were a robust people, but all their poetry is characterized by a spirit of chas- tity, though sad and melancholy as was their history. The poets are anonymous, like the heroes of those times. Here are some examples of Klepht songs : " I will join the Klephts to become the pride of the desert and the dweller of the forest. I will live in the mountains and on their sum- mits, live where the wild beasts have their lair. I may have the rocks for my couch and
