*KAIIAJICII, or KARADJICH, or 1CARADSCH1TSCII, VUK. STEPHANOVICH, the collector of the national ballads of Servia, and author of a Servian Dictionary, was born on the 2Cth of October (old style) 1787, at Trshich, an obscure village In Turkish Servia, near the town of Losnitza, not far from the Austrian and Hungeriau fron tier. The Servians of Servia and Bosnia have not as yet in general any family names, and most of his countrymen would have contented themselves with the appellation of Vuk Stephanovich, or Wolf, the son of Stephen; but the surname Karajich has been added in this instance apparently from the name of a district with which the family was connected. Vuk received his education at the school for the dis sidents from the Greek Church at Karlovitz, within the Austrian frontier ; and having afterwards visited Vienna, his attention began to be directed to literary pursuits, the rather that a feeble and crippled frame unfitted him for bodily labour. Daring the sanguinary and struggle of the insurgents of his native country against the Turkish authorities, which commenced iu 1804, he acted as secre tary to different Servian chiefs, some of whom were ignorant of the art of writing; and he was afterwards employed in the same capacity by the senate of Belgrade and by the self-made prince of Servia, Kara George, or Black George, during the time of his power, which termi nated with the abandonment of the Sorviaue by Russia in 1812, and the cruel triumph of the Turks in 1813. Karajich was then com pelled to take refuge in Austria, where he fortunately adopted the advice of Kopitar, the Slavonic scholar, who then held a post in the Imperial library, to employ himself in forming a collection of the Servian ballads. The language, which is sometimes called Servian, sometimes Illyrian, Bosnian, Croatian, Rascian, and different othoc names, is spoken altogether by about five millions of people, who are peculiarly rich in national song. Translations of a few of their ballads had been printed by Fortis, the Dalmatian traveller, and others, and had attracted the attention of some of the leading German writers, in particular Herder and Gothe, who had spoken loudly in their praise. No one however suspected that a treasure of this kind was in exist ence, of the extent and value of that which was developed by the unwearying researches of Karajich. Since the publication of his Narodne Srpake Pjesme,' or Servian National Songs,' it has been questioned if any of the other ballads of Europe, even the Scottish and Spanish, can sustain a comparison; and some enthusiastic critics have even pontended that nothing approaching them has appeared since the days of Homer. It is one of the most interesting features of the phenomenon that several of the ballads are of entirely receut origin, somo of them celebrating the exploits of Kara-George against the Turks in the first ten years of the present century; and several of these are known to bo the productions of a blind bard named Philip, who, on ono occasion, was presented with a white horse by a Servian chief, In reward for a poem in which he had sung one of his battles. Kara jich, who had learned many of the poems by heart when a boy, and committed others to writing when hearing them recited by wandering minstrels at the court of Kara-George, travelled to Monteuegro and Bosnia in his quest, and found that even the Bosnian renegades, who aro noted as the most ferocious Mohammedans of Western Turkey, could supply him with snatches of Serviau song. He had greater difficulty in collectiug the numerous lovotsougs of the Servian women, which they generally refused to recite, if they knew be intended to write them down, and which he therefore persuaded them to go over two or three times, till he had committed them to memory sufficiently well to pen them during their absence. His collection of Servian popular poetry
was first issued at Vienna in 1814-15, in two volumes; a second edition in four volumes appeared at Leipzig and Vienna between 1823 and 1833; and a third, more extended than either of the preceding, at Vienna in 1841-40. The work hies never been entirely rendered iu any foreign language, but large selections were translated into German, and published under the assumed name of Talvj, by Therese von Jacubs (now Mrs. Robinson, wife of Professor Robinson of Andover, in the United States) ; by Gerhard, by Kapper, and others; and Bowring issued in 1827 his small but valuable volume, entitled 'Servian Popular Poetry,' containing translations of about a fifteenth part of the collee tion. At nearly the same time with the ballads, Karajich published a Servian grammar, which received the high honour of being rendered into German by Jacob Grimm, and displayed a singular talent for simplifying tho rules of the language. In 1818 he issued a Servian and German dictionary, of which, in 1852, he published a second edition. By these works be endeavoured to aid in putting an end to the pedantic custom which prevailed in Servia of using for tho language of literary composition the dialect called the Church Servian,' and of bringing into use the ordinary language of the people —au object which had been aimed at before him by Dositheus Obis dovicb, but which Karajich is regarded as having done by far the most towards promoting. In these works he adopted a system of ortho graphy proposed by himself, and founded on the Russian alphabet, with some modifications, while Gaj [Gail, who has since been attempt ing to induce the scattered Servian races to sacrifice peculiar dialects to the advantage of possessing a central language, has proposed another system of orthography, based on the Latin alphabet. In addition to these important Jabonrs, Karajich is also the author of a Servian translation of the New Testament, which was published at Vienna in 1847 by the British and Foreign Bible Society. It was taken from the old Slavonic version, which is in use by the Russians, who still retain the Slavonic as their ecclesiastical language.
By the publication of a Servian literary almanac, or annual, entitled 'Danitza' ('The Dawn'), 5 vols., Vienna and Buda, 1526-34, and the Kovehejich; or 'Casket for the Servian Language and History' (one number only, Vienna, 1849) ; by his ' Life of Prince Micah,' the suc cessor and slayer of Kara-George, and by a work in German, Mon tenegro and die Montenegriner,' he has supplied valuable materials for the study of the interesting race to which he belongs. He has also given forth a collection of Servian Proverbs, which has reached two editions (the last in 1849, at Vienna), and Servian National Tales' (Vienna, 1S53), which has been translated into German by his daughter Wilhelmina Karadschisch (Berlin, 1854). Since the restoration of the freedom of Servia, he appears to have divided his time between his native and Germany his adopted country, where he has been elected a member of the academies of Gottingen, Berlin, and Vienna, and has received the degree of Doctor of Philosophy from the University of Jena. He is also member of the St. Petersburg, and almost all the other Slavonic academies; and shortly after the publication of his Servian ballads, was assigned a pension by the emperor Nicholas of Russia.