But while the singing of the epic songs is not a profession, the singing of the religious ballads is of a professional character, and is used as a means of livelihood by the _kalyeki perekhozhie_, literally, wandering cripples, otherwise known as wandering psalm-singers.

These _stikhi_, or religious ballads, are even more remarkable than the epic songs in some respects, and practically nothing concerning them is accessible in English.
In all countries where the Roman Church reigned supreme in early times, it did its best to consign all popular religious poetry to oblivion.

But about the seventeenth century it determined to turn such fragments as had survived this procedure to its own profit.

Accordingly they were written over in conformity with its particular tenets, for the purpose of inculcating its doctrines.

Both courses were equally fatal to the preservation of anything truly national.