Mykhailo Zubryts’kyi, Zibrani tvory i mate-rialy u triokh tomakh (Collected Works and Materials in Three Volumes), Vol. 1: Naukovi pratsi (Scholarly Works) ed. by Frank E. Sysyn (review)

Mykhailo Zubryts’kyi was a passionate eccentric who collected absolutely everything—thus making him a very good folklorist. Born in 1856 in the small village of Kindrativ, Galicia, Western Ukraine, Zubryts’kyi was one of the few villagers to receive an education. His father was embarrassed by his own illiteracy and his inability to do a task as simple as signing his own name. Consequently, he determined that his son would grow up literate. The elder Zubryts’kyi found tutors for his son and then sent him off to a school in Rozbir Okruhlyi. Mykhailo eventually ended up at the Drohobych Gymnasium, where he developed a passion for history. He desired to continue in this field, but when his father could no longer pay his tuition, he agreed to transfer to the seminary to receive a free education. Upon completion of his studies, he was assigned a position as the parish priest to the village of Mshanets’, where he worked for 30 years. Zubryts’kyi was promoted to a higher office in 1914 and moved to Berehy Dolyshni, but he was imprisoned when war broke out. He managed to escape to Slovenia, returning to Mshanets’ in 1916. Arrested again, he became ill and was unable to recover and passed away in 1919. Highly intelligent and educated, Zubryts’kyi corresponded with Ivan Franko and other leading intellectuals. He contributed to the major periodicals coming out of western Ukraine and sent his materials to better-known scholars such as Franko and Volodymyr Hnatiuk, who included them in their folklore publications. At the same time, he seems to have lacked any desire to move to a more urban and intellectually central setting, because he felt that Ukraine needed his ethnographic studies. Zubryts’kyi became a nationalist and a champion of the Ukrainian language, and he felt that his work in Mshanets’ was a model that others across the entire country should follow.

Zubryts’kyi’s work was indeed marvelous and well ahead of its time. He recorded everything. In the volume under review, we find beliefs and omens related to the construction of a house and another short piece about beliefs concerning mills and millers. There is a detailed description of the folk calendar, along with accounts of holiday celebrations, descriptions of beliefs associated with each day of the week, a listing of important saints’ days, and transcriptions of some of the folk songs associated with various saints. In other chapters, we learn about beliefs concerning the evil eye, fear sickness, and the unquiet dead. There is a description of funeral practices, including both “normal” funerals—those celebrated upon the death of an old person—and “special” funerals—those that accompany the death of someone who died young. The funeral chapter includes both a discussion of laments and transcriptions of lament texts. There is even an account of a man who became a vampire after death. Zubryts’kyi gives a unit on folk names, including the nicknames typically used in Mshanets’ and their meanings. There is a chapter on folk costume and another on footwear, including illustrations and discussions of measurements and construction methods. A chapter on vernacular architecture includes drawings, measurements, house plans, and illustrations of details such as the methods of joining the logs that form the wall of a house. There is information on folk furniture, again with illustrations.

Zubryts’kyi recorded not only those materials that were considered folklore, but he also collected and published an extraordinary wealth of information about all aspects of village life. Thus there are accounts of various folk occupations and the beliefs and practices that go with them. Zubryts’kyi tells...