The Dalmatians are very fond of music and are constantly singing. They have a proverb: "He who sings thinks not of evil." Tomaseo thought their folk-songs richer than those of any other nation, ranging as they do over all manner of subjects. They are generally heroical or amorous in character, divided into short verses and sung in two parts; the bass delivers a kind of recitative, and the baritone joins in, the long final note with which each finishes dying away in a full chord. It is extraordinary how serious the men are over it, even when singing over their wine, in which they sometimes exceed. At Traù one Sunday afternoon we saw a party of eight or ten sitting round a table in a café as serious as if at a funeral, with wine before them, and enjoying their melancholy music. On this occasion the alto part was flat, and the effect was not as good as it is out of doors. Later we came across more than one group of four, standing where two streets met, and singing without looking at each other. In the narrow ancient streets the notes sounded quite in character with the surroundings and with the quaint dresses of the singers. Modrich says that they use the _svirala_, a kind of bagpipe with two canes, one with four and the other with three holes, and suggests that the long-drawn terminating notes of the songs are in imitation of its sound; but we neither saw nor heard this instrument, all the singing being unaccompanied. The principal occupations of the people are agriculture, cattle-raising, and fishing, or sea-faring. They are exceedingly religious, devoted to church and priest, and observe the great festivals with feasting and rejoicing, and with ceremonies many of which are evidently survivals of heathen observances. The greatest festival is Christmas. In preparation all clothes are washed and mended, house and yard cleaned, and better and richer food than they usually have is provided. On the Eve they work hard; before sunrise house and yard are decked with bay or olive branches or some other evergreen, which they think protects from lightning. On this day the sun, which the ancient Slavs worshipped, woke from sleep, as one may say, and the days began to lengthen perceptibly.