February 25th, 1846

I have not received a single line since your departure. In the meantime my efforts concerning OUR Bulgarian language and the Bulgarian (folk) songs, in compliance with your recommendations are unsurpassed. I have not for one moment ceased to fulfill the pledge which I made to you, Sir, because the Bulgarians are spontaneously striving for the truth. But I hope you will excuse my delay up till now, which is due to the difficulty I had in selecting the best songs and also in my work on the grammar. I hope that, on another convenient occasion, after I have collected more songs and finished the grammar, I will be able to send them to you. Please write where and through whom it would be safe to send them to you (as you so ardently wish).

We are completely convinced, by assurances of the villagers of Glavinitsa, that the stone inscriptions for which we have been looking will also be found. I will study them next spring. It would be wonderful and desirable if, with your assistance, we could ask the Government for the holy relics of Saint Clement of Ohrid, verified by the Great Church of Christ, as you yourself witnessed with your own eye, and requested on your own initiative. And the steps taken before the authorities here concerning the holy relics in question will do much to bring you praise and to confer benefit upon our newly-opened school.

I am writing you this letter on the instructions of the notables in Ohrid. Looking forward to an immediate reply in Greek through the same bearer, I greet you with the deepest esteem and respect.

Братя Миладинови, Преписка, София (The Miladinov Brothers, Correspondence), Sofia, 1964, p. 15; the original is in Greek.

1 Dimiter Miladinov (1810-1862), born in Strouga, an eminent figure of the Bulgarian Revival and an active fighter for public education of the Bulgarians and for their spiritual and political awakening; he taught in Strouga, Ohrid, Koukoush and Prilep, where he introduced the Bulgarian language into the schools, where Greek had previously been the medium of instruction. Falsely accused by the Greek bishop of Ohrid, he was sent to prison in Constantinople where he died
2 Victor Ivanovich Grigorovich (1815-1876), Russian slavicist. In 1844-1847 traveled throughout the Bulgarian lands, including Macedonia and collected ethnographic and folklore material