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Seven and seventy fords[1].
They reached Kolašin village
And went down to level Metohia.200
They came to Senovac village,
To Senovac and so to Orahovac;
Then they went over level Metohia,
And entered on the Prizren plain,
Under high Šar mountain.
And they were yet afar off,
When Leka Kapetan espied them.
He took his spy-glass of crystal,
That he might see who they were and whence,
For Leka Kapetan wit well 210
That they were worthy knights and horses;
And when he put the spy-glass to his eye,
Forthwith he knew the three Serbian Vojvodas,
He knew them and marvelled,
And also was he somewhat adread.
And Leka cried with a loud voice,
With a loud voice he cried and called his servants:
"Servants mine, open the gate!
Servants mine, haste ye forth into the field!
There come to me three Serbian Vojvodas.220
I know not what this portendeth,
Nor know I whether there will be peace in our land."
Quickly the servants set open the gate,
And went forth afar over the plain,
And they bowed them down even to the ground,
But the Vojvodas regarded not the servants,
But urged their horses onward to the gate.
There the servants drew nigh to them,
And took their valiant steeds,
- ↑ "Seven and seventy": probably to express an indefinitely large number. "Two and twenty" is frequently used in this sense. Cf. the words of the kolo song beginning: "Igra kolo, igra kolo na dvadeset i dva." In the Iliad a very long spear is δυοκαιεικοσίπηχυ (xv. 678), and a huge bowl is δυοκαιεικοσίμετρος (xxiii. 264). Cf. also l. 345 of this ballad and page 141 line 99.
