Mujo Velić was among the first singers Milman Parry met when he first came to Bihać on 10 March, 1935. The first mention of Velić in the records of the expedition is dated two days later, on 12 March. He said that he was sixty years of age (an approximation) and that he came from the village of Kamenica, which was about an hour and a half of walking time from Bihać. Parry text 6424, an audio-recorded conversation among Mujo, Professor Parry, and Nikola Vujnović, contains most of the additional personal information that Parry obtained from this singer.

    Mujo claimed to have learned his songs and his ‘manner’ of singing from Bećo Islamović, who by 1935 had already been deceased for some years. The singer Bećo (Bećir) Islamović was made famous in his own lifetime through the Croat collector Luka Marjanović’s interest in him dating from the years 1888 and 1898. With the scribal assistance of Petar Starčević and Pajo Majstorović, Marjanović collected forty-eight texts amounting in sum to 33,098 verses of heroic epic from Islamović in those two years. The longest of Bećir’s dictated texts was, however, only 1,266 verses in length, which both Velić’s “Ženidba Ograšović Ale” and “Ženidba Omerbega od Varada” considerably exceed. Velić told Parry that Islamović had preferred to sing the so-called ‘ličke pjesme’ (rather than ‘unđurske pjesme,’ this being an important distinction to many singers in the northern Bosnian tradition, as explained by Luka Marjanović in the introduction to his published collection). Bećo was also incidentally a figure of legendary import to Velić, who told Parry at some length how Islamović had fought in the Turko-Russian War and been a prisoner-of-war in Siberia for twelve years.

    Besides Bećo Islamovic, Velić acknowledged four others as additional influences. They were Nezir Džaković (as Velić initially pronounced the name) or Raković (as Nikola Vujnović thereafter consistently called him with Velić’s tacit consent); Šaban Zećić (sic); Muho Hamidović; and “Kolak iz Orašca.” The last-named singer was, like Bećo Islamović, very famous due to Luka Marjanović’s collection and publication of many epics from him. He was known to Marjanović by his full name, Mehmed Kolak-Kolaković, but Velić regularly called him simply “Kolak.” Luka Marjanović valued Kolaković as a better singer than Islamović, and on the evidence of Marjanović’s extensive manuscript collection, he was not wrong in that opinion; but Velić made a point of preferring Islamović.

    Among the five singers—all his elders—who had influenced him, Velić said that he was ‘nearest’ to Bećo Islamović and Nezir Džaković (Raković). The latter was a native of the village of Turija, which Velić said lay near his own home. He said that he had learned “three or four” epics from Nezir, and indicated that Nezir was a wealthy man, being second in prosperity only to Bećo, who was the most prosperous of Velić’s acknowledged mentors. Contrastingly, Muho (Mujo) Hamidović was a poor man; Velić said that he had “two or three” of his songs from that source. He said he had heard Mehmed Kolaković sing on only three occasions, all celebrations (veselja) in Velić’s own village, to which Kolaković came as a visitor when he, Kolaković, was in middle age. Šaban Zećić was, according to Velić’s report of him, an abjectly poor man, a day-laborer, and not very knowledgeable in the epic tradition. Unlike the others who influenced him, Zećić sang only for other poor people, and never in wealthy houses, according to Velić.

    After the preceding information had emerged in conversation with Velić, Nikola Vujnović asked him to rehearse the titles of all the various epics he could sing, and to say from whom he had learned each. Mujo named the following twenty-six tales.

1. Vid Karlović i raja ispod kraja. From B. Islamović.
2. Ženidba Ograšević Ale. From B. Islamović.
3. Ženidba Pločanin Alage. From Mujo Hamidović.
4. Ženidba Janjočkoga bana iz Unđura. From B. Islamović.
5. Ženidba Ivan Kapetana iz Krajine. From Šaban Zećić.
6. Ženidba Ivan Kapetana iz Kladuše. From B. Islamović.
7. Ženidba Bosnić Mehmedage. From Mujo Hamidović.
8. Janković Stojan pobratijo Dizdarevu Fatu. From Mujo Hamidović.
9. Ženidba Jelačkovića Muje. From Kolak.
10. Ženidba Budimlije Mujage. From Nezir Raković.
11. Ženidba Lipovače Mehe. From Nezir Raković.
12. Hrnjica Halil ide u Liku (iz sužanjstva). From Šaban Zećić.
13. Udaja Jele Pavušića za Kurtagić Hasana. From Nezir Raković.
14. Đeloš kapetan i Hrnjica Halil. From Šaban Zećić.
15. Udaja Jele Pavušića za Kurtovića Hasana. From Bećo Islamović. (But cf. no. 13 above.)
16. Ženidba Ćustovića Omera. Heard it from Kolak five times.
17. Ženidba Novljanina Mate (a good song). From Bećo Islamović.
18. Ženidba Pločanina Alage. No singer mentioned. (But cf. no. 3 above.)
19. Vid bajraktar i sedam kraljeva. From Islamović.
20. Tokalija kralj prevarijo sultana. From Nezir Raković.
21. Hiritlija kralj pod Carigradom. From Islamović. Hamidović also habitually sang it.
22. Lejla Blažević i Ivan Senjanin. From Islamović.
23. Bunićanin Mujo i trideset sužanja u Zadru. From Raković.
24. Žalost Hrnjice Halila kad mu je ukr’o đogata Bauk harambaša. From Nezir Raković.
25. Ženidba maloga Radojice. From Islamović.
26. Dizdarević Meho izbavijo Mazul Alibega iz tamnice u Malti. From Islamović.

    This is not to say that the notion of his indebtedness to Islamović was not a genuine part of Velić’s conception of his own origins as an epic singer. But the case of Mujo’s song “Hiritlija kralj pod Carigradom” (no. 21 in Mujo’s own list above) may be instructive. Whereas Mujo attributed it to Islamović, he commented in a casual aside that his near neighbor Hamidović also habitually sang it. We are probably not wrong if we suspect that this was no isolated instance and that, although the lustrous attention of the great Croatian collector Luka Marjanović had not fallen on them, Mujo’s more immediate neighbors Mujo Hamidović and Nezir Raković were in reality most responsible for what Velić knew of the tradition. For as it was in the case of Islamović, so again in the case of Mehmed Kolaković: neither of the two songs that Mujo Velić said he got from Kolak can be equated with any of the sixty-eight epics that Luka Marjanović obtained by dictation from that singer at the end of the nineteenth century.

    Thus the actual sinews of peasant social reality were unaffected by the gossamer intervention of the Croatian literary metropolis, and Velić learned the tales he sang from those most proximate and most accessible persons who bore that same knowledge before him in his own place, however much he might for the sake of his own prestige have wished it otherwise.

    In a manner quite opposite to Velić’s, Murat Žunić spoke openly to Parry about the books of epic poetry which Luka Marjanović had published, and was forthrightly disregardful of them and of the singers whose songs they contained.

    Murat was by birth from the village of Bužim in the district of Bosanska Krupa. The first notice of him in the records of Parry’s expedition is in Nikola Vujnović’s hand, dated at Bihać 19 March, 1935. Žunić was unsure of his exact age. He readily admitted the uncertainty, but added (in Parry text no. 1915): “I daresay I’m seventy, although there’s more to it than that.” Nikola: “More, you say?” Murat: “Yes, more; but I daresay seventy for sure.”

    His epic traditions came to him principally through agnatic kin, and he represents, if that is possible, an even more closely familial and intimately village-based custom of epic verse-making than does Mujo Velić. Initially, Žunić told Parry of five older singers from whom he had learned. They were Ahmet Žunić, a paternal uncle whom Murat had first begun to study when he was about twelve years of age; Fazlo Žunić, another paternal uncle (stric); Ale Žunić, a cousin on his father’s side; and two kith, Habib Pajić and Osman Redžić. To these five, Murat subsequently added a sixth name: Fazlija Mujagić.

    As with Mujo Velić, the list of a half-dozen elder singers whom Murat Žunić could count among the acquaintances of his youth may be somewhat misleading in its magnitude. It appears that in fact he had only two principal mentors, his older cousin Ale and his uncle, Ahmet Žunić. Ale Žunić came from the village Brezova Kosa in the district of Cazin, and was in the fifth decade of his life when Murat began to learn from him. Murat said that Ale was a wealthy man, and was frequently invited away from home to sing by the other prosperous persons of his time, such as Hadžija Pozderac and Selimanbeg.

    Contrastingly, Ahmet Žunić was a poor man, but sang epos nevertheless for the same society as did Ale. Ahmet was in his sixties when Murat first learned from him. According to Murat, neither man ever sang in a café.

    Ahmet’s younger brother, Fazlo Žunić, was also a singer, but dwelt far distant from young Murat, Ale, and Ahmet, “by the town of Peć,” as did also Fazlija Mujagić, so that Murat heard those two singers only seldom. Fazlija Mujagić was a man of about Ale Žunić’s years when Murat heard him, while Fazlo Žunić was perhaps a decade younger. Osman Redžić was the only maker of Murat’s acquaintance whom he reported to have sung in cafés. Murat mentioned to Parry in passing also one other singer, a certain Ramo Hukić, but gave no information about him, and seems to have had only a fleeting contact with him.

    Murat had himself enjoyed a considerable reputation as a singer during his own long lifetime, and had gone by invitation as far afield as Banja Luka to sing his many epics for appreciative audiences. Nikola asked Murat to name all the epics in his repertory, and then asked if he would be able to say from whom he had learned each. Murat cooperated readily in the cataloging of the songs he knew, but said repeatedly that he “could not possibly” say from whom he had gotten each song. Nikola insisted nevertheless on assigning a specific source to each epic, and Murat, politely protesting, gave an elder singer’s name to each, but without conviction, and without the slightest evident interest in the question.

    Thus it was one thing for Murat to say from whose example he had learned to sing—that was both possible and interesting to do—but it was quite another thing, and neither possible nor interesting, to say specifically from whom he had gotten each particular epic tale. The ability to make and sing the poetry was one thing; the acquisition and formulation of a particular narrative in one’s own mind another. The fundamental nature of tradition and traditionality resides in that distinction, a distinction so simply and so plainly evoked in Parry’s conversations with Murat Žunić in 1935.

    The catalogue of his epics that Murat gave Parry, with his perfunctory and tenuous assignments of their sources, were as follows (Parry text no. 1915).

1. Alibeg Šestokrilović vraća vezirova sina. From Ale Žunić.
2. Dizdarević Meho se ženi od Knina. From Ale.
3. Osudita smrt Ličkog Mustajbega. From Ale.
4. Bosna Osmanbeg sa Glasinca (ide u carevu vojsku). From Ale.
5. Zajim Alibeg sa Glasinca u nevolji. From Ale.
6. Bojičić Delalija vraća Zlatu Mustajbegovu. From Fazlo Žunić.
7. Osuđena smrt Dizdarevića Mehe u Zadru. From Ale Žunić.
8. Đulić bajraktar i Jela Konjević. From Ale.
9. Dva Ćejvanagića, Meho i Muho, išli u Ponor moru. From Ahmet Žunić.
10. Nevjera Kozličića. From Ahmet.
11. Kunić Mehmedaga dijeli mejdan sa sedam Puškarića. From Ale.
12. Babić Mehmedaga ženi sina Osmana (Klinkinja devojka). From Ahmet.
13. Mahmutpašin Ahmedbeg od Varada. From Ahmet.
14. Hrnjica Mujo i Brinjski kapetan. From Ahmet.
15. Hrnjica Mujo i Smiljanić serdar. From Ahmet.
16. Musić bajraktar i Malata serdar sa Stuparja. From Ahmet.
17. Alija Đerdjelez ide u Toku („slaba pjesma‟). From Ramo Hukić.
18. Đerdjelez Alija dijeli mejdan sa Sinbinjanin Jankom. From Ale.
19. Ograšević Ale iš’o na Stuparja. From Ale.
20. Dva Ćejvanagića i ženidba sa Crnajskoga Laze kapetana. (Same as no. 9 above?) From Ale.
21. Zukan bajraktar od Bišća. From Osman Redžić.
22. Sila Osmanbeg ženi sina Mehmedbega. From Ahmet.
23. Pavišić Luka i Sila Osmanbeg. From Ahmet.
24. Lehovkinja Mare iz Promina grada. From Fazlo Žunić.
25. Dva vezira niže Temišvara. From Ale.
26. Šarac Mehmedaga u sužanjstvu. From Ahmet.
27. Disclaimed knowing any separate tales about Tale Ličanin (either his wedding or his death).
28. Knew of, but declined to learn: Smrt Ličkog Mustajbega. (But see no. 3 above).
29. Čustović Osman ide u Ribnik. From Ahmet.
30. Mustajbeg osuđen na smrt u Zadru. No source given.
31. Sorić kapetan i Kumalić Mujaga. From Ale.
32. Oršanska gospoja i Sila Osmanbeg. No source given.
33. Budimkinja Fata i Aga Budimlić. From Ale.
34. Varadkinja gospa i Sorguč Omerbeg. From Ahmet.
35. Tihovačka obdulja (dvije ćeri Osman alajbega iz Kaniže na obdulji u Segetu na Tihu). From Ale.
36. Hitrilija kralj i Hrnjica Halil. From Fazlija Mujagić.
37. Borčulović lbro i kapetan divojka. (Murat initially said he did not know from whom he had the song, then assigned it to Osman Redžić).
38. Mali Mehmedbeg sa ćojluka i Ana Bartulića Janka. From Fazlo Žunić.
39. Dva serdara udaraju pod Kladušu. From Ahmet.
40. Velagić Alaga i Hadžagić Mujaga („nije vrlo dobra‟). From Fazlo Žunić.
41. Ban zadarski upalijo Vrhove i udarijo na kulu Vrhovac Alagi. From Ale.
42. Ograšević Ale na galiji Banović Matije za dvan’es’ godina. From Ahmet.
43. Mustajbeg ženi Bećirbega sina. From Ale.
44. Sila Osmanbeg oblagan u Stambolu. From Ale.
45. Vidinlić Ale i Omerbeg Ljubović. From Osman Redžić.

Ćamil Kulenović. Literate Moslem, 25 years of age. Occupation: miller. Born in Kulen Vakuf. Sang for the records Vrhovac Alija in Captivity (The Battle at Vrhovi). Learned the song from Jakup Vukić of Orašac (a man of about 60 at the time).

    His holographs are in graphite pencil, in an awkward hand with irregular capitalizations and punctuation indicating a decided unfamiliarity with cursive writing. The script, although unorthodox, is nevertheless reasonably legible. Milman Parry's scrivener, Nikola Vujnović, redacted Ćamil’s texts mercilessly with his own pencil, ‘fixing’ them with innumerable changes, many of them gratuitous, and some just downright wrong. Too the extent possible given so much interference by Nikola, in the edition of Ćamil’s written compositions on this site the orthography and spelling are Ćamil’s, while the present editor has intervened systematically in regard to punctuation and capitalization. Ćamil practiced an idiosyncratic kind of tmesis in his writing, seen particularly in his representation of word-boundaries. These have been largely preserved in the present edition of his texts 1941 and 1945, since they are of some interest as reflections of this poet's prosodic practice.

    The style and content of the written songs betray no deflection from the tradition as found in the two epics recorded from Ćamil at Kulen Vakuf the previous September and in the numerous additional songs which Parry next proceeded to take from Ćamil by voice-recording and by dictation to Nikola on the 1st through the 4th, the 7th, the 12th, and the 13th of April.

    Kulenović believed himself, and was widely believed by others, to be the scion of a family of ancient but fallen nobility that traced its descent vaguely to as far back in time as the famous pre-Islamic prince Kulin Ban, who was supposed to have given his name both to Ćamil’s birthplace and to his agnatic lineage. Certain it was that the more recent Kulenovići, and Ćamil’s own home when he was a child, had been very prosperous. Some said they were the richest in the land in recent Muslim times (before and on the eve of the Austrian occupation of Bosnia). However that may have been, Ćamil was ever shy and somewhat evasive in Parry’s and Nikola’s conversations with him when these touched particularly upon himself, although he spoke very freely with them about his singing and his epics. If indeed he came of an undilute fallen gentry, he was otherwise indistinguishable from Parry’s other peasant singers except for his quirk of personal reticence.

    Ćamil was a young man, only twenty-five years of age in the autumn of 1934 (Parry text no. 524). it was then still scarcely a decade since he had begun to learn epic singing. He was a bachelor and was destined to remain so the rest of his life. Commenting on this, an exceptional status among the men of his age in that time and place, Ćamil said he was seeking a suitable match, one who (he said with wry humour) should bring him a dowry of an hundred thousand dinars, which of course he would never get. When Lord and Bynum saw him again in Kulen Vakuf in 1963, time had proved him right, and he was the last of his line. But some of his poetry survives him.

    Kulenović said that he had learned to sing from his father, who in turn had learned from his own cross-cousin (Ćamil’s great-aunt’s son on the father’s side), a certain Huseinbeg by name. He said that Huseinbeg was formerly the wealthiest man in the entire district, landlord of more than two hundred kmetovi, and a notable patron of epic singers. Among Huseinbeg’s epic-singing familiars Ćamil numbered Kolak (Meho Kolaković), Kahrić from Bilaj, Ibroš, Ćorda, and a certain Ljuljo from Klis. Ćamil’s description of his own father’s house as a gathering place of epic singers and their listeners is especially vivid.

    Ibrahim Nuhanović was housebound, recuperating from a sickness when Albert Lord and I found him in Cazin in 1963. Parry had not known of him, nor he of Parry, in the 1930s. We had heard of Nuhanović that same summer in Bihać from a descendant of the famous Mehmed Kolaković, himself a singer, who recommended Ibro as one of the very few capable singers surviving in northern Bosnia at that time.

    When we met Ibro in his house on the outskirts of the town of Cazin, he apologized to us for his ill health, but he was so challenged by our interest in him that he wanted to sing for our magnetic recorder despite his low reserve of strength and his confinement indoors. We had brought to him as gifts some kilos of the best grade of coffee beans available in the larger town of Bihać, a luxury that was at least not common in his modest, two-room home, and which Ibro and the others in the household greatly relished. Thus stimulated, and encouraged further by two coeval male neighbors who otherwise regularly frequented his house to hear his epics, Nuhanović was able to sing two distinctive songs for us, recording additionally only a single brief conversation of questions and answers about himself.