I' s 
 
Digitized by tine Internet Archive 
 
 in 2007 with funding from 
 
 IVIicrosoft Corporation 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/fromcarpathiantoOOstrarich 
 
FROM CARPATHIAN TO PINDUS 
 
Frontispiece. 
 
 Cld Couple. 
 
FROM CARPATHIAN 
 TO PINDUS 
 
 PICTURES OF ROUMANIAN 
 COUNTRY LIFE 
 
 BY 
 
 TEREZA STRATILESCO 
 
 Wlfll TWO MAPS AND SIXTY-THREE ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 "Jaranii, partea cea mai numeroasa si inai iiiteresant^ a 
 poporului roman." — Al. Lahovary (Discurs paiiainentar) 
 
 ("The peasants, the most numerous and most interesting 
 part of the Roumanian people ") 
 
 BOSTON : 
 
 JOHN W. LUCE & COMPANY 
 
 1907 
 
PRFS£?^VKT10N 
 COPVAODED 
 
 RETAIKEO 
 
 <R 
 
 Hmm S09M 
 
 {All rights renei'ved.) 
 
Preface 
 
 The present book I address to the British pubhc, who, 
 during my stay in the United Kingdom, ever impressed 
 me as eager to know and to learn, and who have plied me 
 with hundreds of questions about the Eoumanians, of 
 whom indeed, and quite naturally, they knew but little. 
 This volume is not intended as a book of controversy or 
 polemics, it does not pretend to fight out the cause of 
 the Roumanian nation, it simply aims at showing and 
 describing what the Roumanian nation is, or at least the 
 genuine and most interesting part of it, the peasants. 
 
 No moment seems more appropriate for putting it 
 before the public than this very year, when the 
 Roumanians are celebrating their eighteenth centenary 
 in the Carpathian region, the fortieth anniversary of 
 King Carol I. on the throne of Free Roumania, the 
 thirtieth anniversary of her independence, and the 
 twenty-fifth anniversary of the young kingdom. 
 
 A national exhibition in Bucharest, opened for the 
 occasion, will help to show the progress made by the 
 nation at large. What would not this progress be, 
 were it the result of a civilisation of eighteen cen- 
 turies standing ! But, out of the eighteen centuries, 
 ten have to be deducted, having been filled by the 
 unrelenting barbaric invasions of the Middle Ages ; of 
 the remaining eight hundred, more than seven centuries 
 ought again to be taken out, as quite unprogressive, 
 owing to Turkish suzerainty. Thus, what the Roumanian 
 
 212050 
 
vi PREFACE 
 
 exhibition will have to show will be only the progress 
 accomplished in the last half -century, with the union 
 of Free Koumania as foundation stone for all further 
 progress. In 1859 half of the Koumanian nation 
 were able to unite in the principality, afterwards the 
 kingdom, of Eoumania; in the last war, 1877-1878, 
 under the glorious leadership of King Carol I., she won 
 her independence, being thus entrusted by fate with the 
 heavy responsibility of representing the nation before 
 the world. 
 
 As to the war of independence, I do not think it can 
 ever be made too much of. From the point of view of 
 general history it may have been a small war, but for 
 us Roumanians it has been a great war, a tremendous 
 war. In order fully to realise its magnitude, let us 
 imagine for one moment what might have become of 
 us had we been beaten. Woe to us, for everything was 
 at stake — union, liberty, our very existence ! And we 
 might have been beaten, for our army though brave (as 
 it has proved to be) was small and untried on the battle- 
 field as yet. But we have been victorious, and the 
 achievement was entirely due to the wonderful ability 
 and warlike skill of the present king, as has been acknow- 
 ledged by all those competent to give an opinion on the 
 matter. That is why the grateful people eagerly seizes 
 every opportunity of feasting its king, and will always 
 couple the name of Carol I. with the greatest names 
 in history. 
 
 The connections of the Free Kingdom with foreign 
 countries are many and ever developing. The Rou- 
 manian flag has now begun to fly far away over 
 seas — this very year new lines are going to be in- 
 augurated. Of the ships in course of being built this 
 year for Roumania — ships built in foreign dockyards 
 but on plans and under supervision of Roumanian 
 engineers — two are christened with the historical names 
 of Imparatul Trajan (Emperor Trajan) and Dacia, in 
 memory of the deeds accomplished eighteen centuries 
 back on the native ground of the Roumanian nation. 
 ** Good luck " to them, and may they long live to carry 
 
PREFACE vii 
 
 far and wide the name of an ever greater Roumania, ever 
 worthier of her great ancestors ; may the national exhibi- 
 tion give a real insight into the power and ability of the 
 Roumanian nation ; may this book succeed in giving a 
 true insight into the soul of the people ! 
 
 T. S. 
 Jassy, Eoumania, 
 April, 1906. 
 
Contents 
 
 PAOB 
 
 INTEODUCTION 1 
 
 CHAPTEE I 
 
 PEASANT AND SOIL ..... 44 
 
 CHAPTER II 
 
 THE PEASANT IN THE SOCIAL SCALE . . .80 
 
 CHAPTER III 
 
 THE PEASANT AND THE STATE .... 118 
 
 CHAPTER IV 
 
 THE PEASANT AND HIS RELIGION .... 156 
 
 CHAPTER V 
 
 THE PEASANT IN HIS HOME AND AT HIS WORK . 205 
 
 CHAPTER VI 
 
 THE PEASANT IN HIS SOCIAL RELATIONS . , . 247 
 
X CONTENTS 
 
 PAGE! 
 
 CHAPTER VII 
 
 THE PEASANT IN HIS RELATION TO FOREIGNERS . 298 
 
 CHAPTER VIII 
 
 THE PEASANT IN HIS AMUSEMENTS AND PASTIMES. . 328 
 
 INDEX 373 
 
List of Illustrations 
 
 Old Cotjple 
 
 
 
 Frontispiece 
 
 A Sheep-Fold on the Heights 
 
 
 Facing page 4 
 
 A "POIANA" .... 
 
 
 
 4 
 
 Girls minding Sheep 
 
 
 
 10 
 
 Church built by Stephen the Great 
 
 
 
 23 
 
 Oldest Church of Stephen the Great 
 
 
 
 23 
 
 Up in the " POIANA " 
 
 
 
 39 
 
 Peasant Cottage 
 
 
 
 
 44 
 
 Ploughing 
 
 
 
 
 44 
 
 A Woman with her Distaff 
 
 
 
 
 50 
 
 Temporary Hut in the Fields 
 
 
 
 
 60 
 
 A Raft on the Bistritza . 
 
 
 
 
 60 
 
 Boy minding Geese . 
 
 
 
 
 70 
 
 Shepherds 
 
 
 
 
 80 
 
 North Carpathian Dress 
 
 
 
 
 114 
 
 Sawing Timber 
 
 
 
 
 118 
 
 In the "Haraba" (Closed Cart) 
 
 
 
 
 128 
 
 A Well in the Plain 
 
 
 
 
 138 
 
 A Monk .... 
 
 
 
 
 156 
 
 The Cathedral " Curtea db Arge§ 
 
 >» 
 
 
 
 161 
 
 Priests about Town . 
 
 
 
 
 168 
 
 The Monastery of Varatec 
 
 
 
 
 168 
 
 Monk at work 
 
 
 
 
 170 
 
 Travelling Monk 
 
 
 
 
 170 
 
 The Monastery of Agapia . 
 
 
 
 
 180 
 
 Peasant Homestead . 
 
 
 
 
 205 
 
 Ploughing 
 
 
 
 
 217 
 
 A Cattle Fair 
 
 
 
 
 217 
 
 xi 
 
 
 
 
 
xu 
 
 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 Carrying the Hay 
 With Hay to Town . 
 
 
 
 
 Facing 
 
 page 228 
 228 
 
 Carriers 
 
 
 
 
 
 234 
 
 Woman Biding 
 
 
 
 
 
 237 
 
 Homeward Bound 
 
 
 
 
 
 240 
 
 A Swain 
 
 
 
 
 
 240 
 
 Wool Spinning 
 
 
 
 
 
 242 
 
 Family Group . 
 
 
 
 
 
 , 247 
 
 Carriers 
 
 
 
 
 
 252 
 
 Old Decayed Dwelling 
 
 
 
 
 
 252 
 
 Bleaching the Linen 
 
 
 
 
 
 269 
 
 Washerwomen 
 
 
 
 
 
 269 
 
 Old and Weary 
 
 
 
 
 
 289 
 
 Oroup of Peasants . 
 
 
 
 
 
 289 
 
 Gipsy Camp 
 
 
 
 
 
 317 
 
 Gipsies as Tradesmen 
 
 
 
 
 
 317 
 
 Selling Eggs to the Jews on the 
 
 Way t 
 
 Tow] 
 
 
 313 
 
 Jews in the North of Moldavia 
 
 
 
 
 315 
 
 Gipsies Camping 
 
 
 
 
 319 
 
 A " ScRANCiOB " (on the Outskirts of 
 
 a Town 
 
 ) 
 
 
 329 
 
 Dancing the " Db Brau " . 
 
 
 
 
 336 
 
 Fig. 1.— Cobza 
 
 
 
 
 343 
 
 „ 2.— Telinca 
 
 
 
 
 843 
 
 „ 3.— Trisca 
 
 
 
 
 343 
 
 „ 4.— C AVAL 
 
 
 
 
 344 
 
 „ 5.— Flubr cu Dop 
 
 
 
 
 344 
 
 „ 6. — Naiu . 
 
 
 
 
 344 
 
 „ 7. — ^Bucium 
 
 
 
 
 344 
 
 „ 8. — CiMPOi 
 
 
 
 
 345 
 
 „ 9. — Dramba 
 
 
 
 
 345 
 
 To the Dance at the Inn 
 Fig. 10.— Buhai 
 
 
 
 
 Facing page 347 
 368 
 
 „ 11.— DairI 
 
 
 
 
 359 
 
 The Dancing Bear . 
 On the Way . 
 
 
 
 
 Facing 
 
 page 359 
 361 
 
 MAPS 
 
 General Map showing Surroundings of Roumania Facing p. 1 
 Where Roumanians Live ...... 2 
 
\%/ ■ ^#^M. 
 
 20 
 
 7^ 
 
 25 
 
 °Buil\ 
 
 L 
 
 Slutsh 
 
 
 
 
 
 1-^ 
 
 
 .!^.i!J4^'^ 
 
 
 
 
 ''*^'"''^^*taM!^^l /'^T'^'^^^^J^ a^?^:^aytuum^f<id^ ^..L^^^^ ■ „ 
 
 
 
 lion^. East 20 of Greenwich. 
 
 Scale of English Miles 
 
 TKiAJC JohnsUm.liMitrd .Kdiiibar^i Lcnui 
 
 50 O 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 DESCRIPTIVE AND HISTORICAL 
 
 " When God resolved to make the earth, He took a ball of warp 
 and another of woof, and after calculating the heaven's size set to 
 work, giving the ball of warp to the hedgehog to hold. But the 
 cunning little beast let the ball go loose, so that the Creator, 
 unawares, made an earth much too large to be fitted imder the sky. 
 What was to be done ? The Almighty stood there, puzzled and 
 annoyed, when the industrious bee came to the rescue. She quietly 
 flew round the hiding-place of the hedgehog, and heard him say: 
 ' H'm, if I were God, I would simply take the earth with both hands, 
 crush it together, and thus produce on its surface mountains and 
 valleys, and fit it under the sky.' The bee informed God of what she 
 had heard, and He, following the hedgehog's hint, crushed the earth 
 and gave it its present shape, with mountains, hills, and valleys, 
 instead of the even surface He had at first decided upon." — 
 Boumanian Popular Tradition. 
 
 The Carpathian chain, in the shape of an irregular bow, 
 somewhat crushed towards the south-east, leans with 
 both ends on the Danube ; one end in the region Vienna- 
 Presburg, leaving off beyond the river, the last ramifica- 
 tions of the Alps, the other end bending again towards 
 the Danube at the Iron Gates, which sever it from the 
 north-western end of the Balkan : this as a general 
 outline. As a matter of fact the Carpathians are made up 
 of a number of chains and peaks, the south-eastern 
 branch being, however, the longest and compactest of 
 these chains. South of the Danube ramifications of the 
 Carpathians and Alps, as well as simple independent 
 
 2 1 
 
2 INTRODUCTION 
 
 groups, make of the Balkan peninsula a mosaic of 
 mountains and vales, a chief backbone, however, being 
 traceable from the Balkan to the Pindus. 
 
 If in actual framework the Carpathians and Pindus 
 yield the first rank to the mighty Alps, they have been 
 better provided for with regard to their external aspect 
 and with a warmer and greater richness of colour ; they 
 have also a most luxuriant vegetation. I wonder if there 
 exists in Europe another region covered with an ampler 
 or thicker cloak of forest, so far in great part untrodden 
 by human foot. Beneath the trees a soft moss covers 
 the ground, and beyond the forest region the region of 
 the herbs begins, with a flora richer than any in Europe, 
 which has made for generations the Carpathian region a 
 dominion of the bees, a land of honey. The edelweiss 
 is to be picked up in the Carpathians at only 640 m. 
 high above sea-level; rare plants, like the Caucasian 
 Galium valantoides are to be found in the Olt valley, 
 side by side with the Siberian Veronica Bachofeni. 
 Then the white and blue crocuses, coming out early in 
 spring to trim with a gorgeous hem the white retreating 
 cloak of snow on both Carpathian and Pindus ; lower 
 down, the hyacinth, the cowslip, the violet ; and lowest of 
 all, the rich variety of innumerable field flowers which 
 make of the hay-field the most gorgeous mosaic of bright 
 colours. 
 
 On such a carpet and under such shade still walk 
 about in full enjoyment of life the heavy bear, feeding 
 leisurely on the plentiful raspberries and strawberries, 
 entirely unmindful of man picking the tasty fruit a few 
 steps beyond ; the wolf, hunting in herds, a dreadful 
 nuisance in winter to man and beast, even into the 
 villages down in the plain ; the sly red fox, much hunted 
 for its fur. The wild goat and the powerful buffalo are 
 an extinct race now, leaving only their impressive names 
 behind ; the lynx and the marten are becoming rare, 
 while the meek, timorous chamois is still to be met with 
 in quiet, remote comers of the mountains. Endless herds 
 of roes and stags are an easy quarry for the cruel wild 
 boar, an ordinary inmate of the mountain slopes. Lower 
 
s s J-'^ 
 
 ^^^^^^^c^^^ 
 
 Free Roumanians ?5^^ 
 
 Roumanians under 
 Foreign Dominion 
 
 (many ; compact population) 
 (few) 
 
 Where Roumanians Live. 
 
 face, page 2. 
 
INTRODUCTION 3 
 
 down numberless quadrupeds of all sizes and appear- 
 ances, doing more or less harm to man and as much as 
 they can to their weaker fellow animals, fill with life the 
 most solitary fields and the darkest woods, whilst high 
 above them innumerable birds fill the forests with their 
 interminable concerts. Kuling and reigning over all, 
 even in the plain and especially about the Dobrogia, 
 hover the rapacious kings of the mountains, the hawks 
 and the eagles in close flocks, and often of enormous size. 
 Insects in millions are there, some of them harmful, with 
 butterflies such as might be expected in such flowery 
 hay-fields. The clear mountain streams swarm with 
 trout ; the shad-fish in the Prut and the sturgeon in the 
 Danube mouths and in the Black Sea, with its caviar 
 and isinglass, enjoy a worldwide renown. 
 
 Beside these living products on their surface, the 
 mountains, both north and south of the Danube, contain 
 in their bosom stores of mineral wealth, to a great extent 
 unsounded as yet, little of it opened to man's use. The 
 gold mines of Hungary and Transylvania are the source 
 of nearly the whole gold output in Europe, and it is 
 notorious that they long ago produced more, and seem to 
 have abounded with gold in the Roman times. Salt 
 mines, rich springs of petroleum and of mineral w^aters, 
 are worked out with ever increasing success. 
 
 II 
 
 " Apa trage la matca 
 ^i Eomanul la teapa." 
 (" Water draws to its current 
 the Eoumanian to his race.") 
 
 Mysterious and impenetrable as the Carpathian and 
 Pindus are in many respects down to the present day, a 
 no less thick veil hangs above the earliest inhabitants of 
 the regions round about them. History has already 
 failed to find out the life and whereabouts of man in his 
 earliest primitive stage in the world ; archaeology, which 
 has done so much in Western Europe, has spent but 
 
4 INTRODUCTION 
 
 little labour in the East as yet. The few poor, groping 
 excavations have so far brought to light numerous spots 
 containing large stores of primitive stone implements, 
 spots to be found everywhere about the Carpathian, in 
 Bukowina, Transylvania, Eoumania, where these stations 
 of stone and bronze implements, along with funeral 
 tumuli, are to be counted by the hundred. Interesting 
 though these finds may be, they have proved, however, 
 quite unable to give an answer to the still unanswered 
 question as to the beginnings of man and the cradle of 
 the human race or races ; nothing yet decisive on this 
 point has been discovered in them, granting the supposi- 
 tion that the Carpathian region may have been the 
 dwelling-place of man even as far back as the Palaeolithic 
 Period. But the last word is far from having been said 
 on the subject : so much has already been discovered in 
 the world that was never dreamt of before, and surely 
 science has still in store secrets for human knowledge 
 quite sufiicient to keep alive an interest in life and lend it 
 a peculiar worth and pleasantness for millions of years 
 to come. 
 
 The stations just opened for digging are so many and 
 so filled with primitive remains, that they might freely 
 provide with valuable specimens all the public and 
 private museums in Europe and beyond the seas, if only 
 properly worked out. They contain numberless knives, 
 axes, hatchets, lance and arrow-heads, made of either 
 flint or grit-stone ; the shapes are various : most of them 
 are polished, some just only roughly cut. On account of the 
 great predominance of the polished stone implements, 
 the stations have been all attributed to the Neolithic 
 Period only. Besides the stone objects a large supply of 
 earthenware ones are found, moulded of rough clay, with 
 the traces of the maker's fingers on them ; pots and jars, 
 and nameless hooks and things supposed to have been 
 used in fishing and spinning ; and finally a great number 
 of idols and amulets, of the funniest shapes and designs. 
 To the same epoch seem to belong a number of tumuli, 
 in which skeletons have been found together with only 
 stone and clay implements. Many stations again, with 
 
A Sheep fold on the Heights. 
 
 [Photo, D. Cadere. 
 
 ^. ^y^.^^^^ 
 
 A " POIANA." 
 
 [Photo, J. Cazaban. 
 
ONtVL-HSlTY 
 
 OF ^ 
 
INTRODUCTION 5 
 
 tumuli, are undoubtedly of the Bronze Period : all sorts 
 of weapons, of house and field implements ; also many 
 ornamental objects, like pins, clasps, armbands, neck- 
 laces, beads, chains, and again a lot of idols of all sorts 
 and shapes, real or allegorical. The pottery of this epoch 
 bears witness of great advance in that art too, and as to 
 design, it is supposed to belong to no less a family than 
 the Mykene pottery. 
 
 The Carpathians seem to be gaining a new importance, 
 and consequently hold a more interesting place in history, 
 by the latest assumption of the savants, that these 
 mountains may have rocked on their powerful bosom the 
 Aryan race. 
 
 Thus, with just a suspicion as to the paternity of the 
 Aryans about them, the Carpathians have been waiting 
 in the dark a good long while, until the dawn of civilisa- 
 tion shed its first beams upon them, and it was from the 
 South that these came. As is generally known, the first 
 light of civilisation came upon Europe from the Orient, 
 brought through those Britishers of old, the Phoenicians, 
 the great merchants of antiquity ;. this civilisation 
 developed first in Greece, whence' it spread northward 
 and westward, arousing to new life the peoples as it went 
 along — the Macedonians, the Eomans afterwards, but 
 leaving still at a lower stage the Thracians, those remote 
 neighbours in the north occupying the ground, from the 
 Bosphorus and Hellespont northwards over both shores 
 of the Danube, up to the Carpathians, and meeting in 
 the west with the Illyrians, who in their turn, mixed 
 with Celtic tribes, reached as Celto-IUyrians or SMpetars 
 the shore of the Adriatic Sea. Lower down on the 
 ladder of civilisation were the Thracians' brothers, the 
 Agathyrses, dwellers of the Carpathian mountains, and 
 lower still their remoter relatives and neighbours, the 
 Scythians, nominal masters of the plains extending from 
 the Danube far into the east, to the Caspian and Aral 
 lake. By the end of the fourth century, however, these 
 latters' power having been overthrown by the Sarmates, 
 in the eastern region of the Dniester, two Thracian tribes, 
 the Dacians and the Getes, came thence to the front as 
 
6 INTRODUCTION 
 
 masters of the Danube valley, whose actual inhabitants 
 they long since had been under Scythian rule. As their 
 power stretched northwards the whole Carpatic region 
 took the name of Dacia. 
 
 In the course of time Greece, then Macedonia, had 
 played its part in the world's history. A new power 
 arose — Kome — which from Italy was to stretch out her 
 grasping hands to the four points of the compass. Her 
 conquests towards the East only are of import to us here, 
 namely, that of the Balkan peninsula, which was made 
 by very slow steps only, pressing along with it the 
 Roman influence all along the Danube valley, whilst the 
 south of the peninsula was developing under the stronger 
 Greek influence. Now across the Danube wars with the 
 Dacians easily ensued, and the final result was the 
 conquest of Dacia by the Romans, 106 a.d. 
 
 The Roman province of Dacia was formed of the 
 Banat of to-day, the Oltenia — or western part of Valachia 
 down to the Olt — and the plateau of Transylvania proper, 
 which, like a natural stronghold, became the centre and 
 the basis of the Roman domination and the focus of its 
 influence in those parts. On almost all sides the new 
 territory acquired was surrounded by barbarians. To 
 defend the new province against them, Trajan founded 
 military stations on the slopes ; around and from these 
 stations Roman influence spread out beyond the area 
 of the actual province. 
 
 After the conquest of Dacia, Roman influence and 
 civilisation covered like one single sheet both shores of 
 the Danube, less potent, of course, in proportion as it 
 reached a greater distance from the centre of the Empire, 
 but Dacia, was, nevertheless, an exception in this respect, 
 and there were strong reasons for the fact that Romani- 
 sation was more complete here than anywhere else. 
 Indeed, we know that many Romans had settled there 
 before the conquest — we must not forget that Dacia was 
 the California of those days of scarcity of gold — and 
 Trajan himself brought here colonists from every part of 
 his immense empire, but much more, of course, from the 
 eastern regions, as innumerable inscriptions found in 
 
INTRODUCTION 7 
 
 Dacia bear witness to the present day. Still more 
 colonists came of their own private initiative, attracted 
 by the riches of Dacia. Koman life, Roman usages, 
 Roman civilisation were introduced into the Carpathians, 
 and in short time the Dacians, who still remained after 
 the conquest, accepted the Roman rule, and were 
 Romanised and thoroughly mixed with the Roman 
 colonists. Fine towns arose, and Roman life unfolds 
 itself in Dacia as in Italy. Romanised Dacians were 
 admitted into the Roman armies, like the cohorta I Aelia 
 Bacorum settled in Britannia, the England of to-day, and 
 many others. The *' flying dragoon" of the old Dacian 
 flag is preserved on the Daco-Roman arms, together with 
 the bent sword, also a Dacian weapon. 
 
 For a century and a half Dacia was part and parcel of 
 the Empire, quite long enough for the Romanising of a 
 province which, like Dacia, attracted such crowds of 
 settlers, more even than the emperors were willing to 
 allow. Indeed, it is notorious that even Trajan was loth 
 to let so many colonists go away from Italy, as the 
 Roman element in that country was only too diminished 
 already; nevertheless, inscriptions are there to testify 
 that a great many of the settlers came from Italy, the 
 very heart of the Empire. 
 
 Whilst Roman civilisation was thus taking lasting root 
 in the Carpathians, aided by the richness of the soil, 
 the increasing commerce, and the natural fortifications of 
 Dacia, south of the Danube in the Pindic region, 
 Romanisation, strangled by the Greeks, was slowly but 
 surely dying out. The Pindus was far from affording 
 as suitable a soil for the thriving of Roman seed as the 
 Carpathian did. 
 
 If for a century and a half Dacia was a Roman 
 province, her life was far from being a quiet, uniform one 
 all this time, and, following Trajan, emperor after emperor 
 had to repel ever recurring invasions of the eastern and 
 northern barbarian neighbours. One Roman writer tells 
 us that the immediate successor of Trajan was so 
 disgusted with the constant struggles he had to maintain 
 for the preservation of Dacia — the more so as Adrian was 
 
8 INTRODUCTION 
 
 by no means a warrior — that he was inclined simply to 
 renounce the conquests of his predecessor. He was, 
 however, dissuaded from this by his counsellors, who 
 insisted that " it would be a great pity to leave so many 
 Eoman citizens helpless against the barbarians" — an 
 argument which clearly implied that if the Emperor 
 deserted Dacia, the citizens would not. Thus Dacia 
 continued its life still under the wing of Roman rule. 
 
 But the invasions continued relentlessly ; from the 
 time of Caracalla (211-217) the Goths began their 
 incursions, which soon became so troublesome that at 
 the time of Gallienus the province was already looked 
 upon as lost for the Empire. Its actual renunciation 
 was, however, resolved upon about the year 271 by the 
 Emperor Aurelianus (270-275), so that for about half a 
 century Dacia was the platform of continual battles 
 between the Roman legions and the barbarian invaders. 
 In this half-century of extreme hardship, what were these 
 peaceful Daco-Roman provincials to do? To wait serenely 
 to be overcome and plundered by the wild invader ? To 
 go away looking for more propitious penates ? No doubt 
 a good many of the well-to-do class gathered together 
 their capital and movable wealth, and left Dacia for safer 
 regions of the Empire. But what could the poor do? 
 Their homesteads destroyed, their tilled lands ravaged, 
 what could they do but look for safety somewhere for 
 themselves and the few heads of cattle or sheep they may 
 have been able to save from the enemy ? But where were 
 they to go ? The right bank of the Danube was just as 
 badly ravaged by the Goths as the left bank; in fact, 
 most of the bloodiest battles took place there ; so that 
 really there was no escape for the poor provincials, except 
 to the top of the mountains, where the barbarian invaders 
 never cared to go, whether in the Carpathians or elsewhere. 
 To the mountains, then, they went like the fair Dokia * 
 
 * The remembrance of Trajan's conquest the Eoumanian people 
 has preserved in the following tradition faithfully handed down from 
 father to son : "Decebalus had a sister, Dokia; she was fair and 
 pleased the Eoman Emperor. In order to escape his pressing suit, 
 the fair princess fled to the mountains, and disguised herself in the 
 
INTRODUCTION 9 
 
 of old, and, like her, became shepherds. In the moun- 
 tains they found a safe shelter for themselves, and fertile 
 poianas (glades) for their flocks, keeping in their turn 
 safe from oblivion the very name of the Carpathian, many 
 of the peaks bearing still to-day the name of Carpatin. 
 Beside this name, the older one of Caucasus mons has 
 also been preserved by the people in the mount Cocan 
 by the Kiver Olt. They named one of the mountains, 
 or perhaps rather preserved its name, as Muntele 
 Ghrestianilor ("the mountain of the Christians") preserved 
 in its popular Latin form down to the present day, 
 when the Eoumanian says no more *'chrestianus" but 
 " creshtin " ; they kept ahve the Latin names of various 
 other peaks: the Detunata, with its crown of basaltic 
 pillars, the Gama, the Marmura mountains. Wandering 
 at random over hills and over streams, they must have 
 often dreamed of the past ages, of the conditions of life 
 created for them by past generations, and have evoked 
 in fancy the great figure of Trajan. His name they have 
 actually preserved in the "Trajan's table," "Trajan's 
 prairie," " Trajan's walls," eventually handed down in 
 the common word troian, drift of snow, gathered by the 
 wind in a shape very much like the walls made by 
 Trajan ; they have also preserved it in the very name of 
 the Milky Way, called by the Eoumanian people Galea lui 
 Trajan (" Trajan's road "). They have saved from 
 oblivion the names of the Dacian Cerna, of the Bersava, 
 Motru, Olt, &c., down to the Scythian rivers. Prut, Siret, 
 Argesh, Muresh, and down further to the Dacian " cloud 
 bearer " Dunare (the Greek Ister) of which the Romans 
 have made Danuhius. 
 
 When Aurehanus decided upon the desertion of Dacia 
 there was practically not much left for him to desert. 
 Dacia having been really in the hands of the Goths for 
 the last ten years, Aurelianus transferred the province 
 formally to them, as federates of the Empire, however, 
 which means that the Empire .had not altogether given up 
 
 simple dress of a shepherdess. But Trajan pursued her, overtook her 
 and was on the point of seizing her, when she prayed her pagan gods 
 to save her, and they turned her and her sheep into stones." 
 
10 INTRODUCTION 
 
 any claim on that province. These federates had as chief 
 obligation to protect the frontier of the Empire against 
 other invasions. The two Koman legions settled in 
 Dacia for her defence ever since Trajan, were called back 
 by Aurelianus ; they crossed the Danube. In their rear 
 there may have marched off a fairly large crowd of 
 magistrates and officials dependent on the Koman Govern- 
 ment ; many monied people also, who could do no more 
 business in deserted, unsafe Dacia, under the depredating 
 power of the Goths, went too, very likely, followed by a 
 good many of their hangers-on. These settled down on 
 the right bank of the Danube, in the middle of Moesia — 
 a small region made up of the east of Servia and the 
 west of Bulgaria — which received henceforth the name 
 of Aurelian's Dacia, while the old Dacia remained under 
 the name of Trajan's Dacia. Thus came the first split 
 between members of the same family. In their continual 
 wanderings up-hill and down-hill the Daco-Eomans who 
 remained behind in the north may still have communi- 
 cated with their brothers across the Danube, but to what 
 extent and for how long no one can say. Between the 
 flooding waves of repeated Germanic and Mongolian 
 invasions, which were to follow for ten successive 
 centuries, which invasions came like storms and like 
 storms passed away, uprooting, of course, from the 
 foundation Koman institutions and Koman civilisation, 
 the Daco-Komans, retiring from the low places before the 
 flood of Barbarians, managed to reach the heights, the 
 mountains, where they could keep alive and evolve slowly 
 into the Koumanians of the present day. 
 
 For a thousand years the chief abode of the Rou- 
 manians has been the lofty summits of the Carpathians 
 on one side, of the Balkan, Khodope, and Pindus on the 
 other. For a thousand years thirty generations at least 
 of Koumanians have led the wandering pastoral life, 
 each handing down to the next one a fainter and fainter 
 memory of the past, each burying along with itself some- 
 thing more of the Roman civilisation. Civilisation has 
 died out. Since then there has been no more education 
 provided for the wandering Roumanian mountaineer; 
 
RSITY 
 
 ' INTRODUCTION 11 
 
 that is, no conventional education, but a great teacher 
 has been there in the shape of grand, mighty Nature, 
 presiding on the heights, under whose influence the 
 Eoumanian's character has been moulded; his habits, his 
 beliefs, his superstitions formed, in proportion as he has 
 tried in his infantine way to spell out great Nature's book. 
 On those heights did the Koumanian nation take a lasting 
 shape — the mountains are the creators as well as the 
 cradle of the Koumanian nation. 
 
 Ill 
 
 "Apa trece petrele ramS,n." 
 ("The water passes, the stones remain.") 
 
 The first invasions, as already seen, preceded by half 
 a century the desertion of the Dacian province. The 
 first to come were the Goths, who from 250 a.d. were 
 to be found everywhere, south as well as north of the 
 Danube. After the Goths, the Huns, who established 
 themselves in the plains of Tissa, and under Attila were 
 the nominal masters of Central Europe from the Ehine 
 to the Volga. Behind them, the Slav race, little known 
 yet, except through its modest offshoots sent right and 
 left from the large main trunk lying in the east of 
 Europe, began to move now, in slow but steadfast waves 
 from east towards west and south. The Asiatic 
 invasions gave an impulse towards the dismemberment 
 of this agricultural, peaceful Slav race, which henceforth, 
 up to the seventh century, will do nothing but expand, 
 and fill all mid-Europe and the Balkan peninsula, 
 covering the whole ethnographic prospect. This mighty 
 wave of Slav invasion — overwhelming the plain — severed 
 for ever the Daco-Roman brothers. Moreover, it brought 
 about a further split ; a branch of these Daco-Romans — 
 lovers of the heights — in their bewilderment at the 
 invasion, were driven back up the Danube as far as 
 the mountains of Istria. At the same time, the Daco- 
 Eomans, south of the Danube, soon had also to leave 
 
12 INTRODUCTION 
 
 Aurelian's Dacia for a refuge on the heights, where they 
 also took to pastoral life, and in face of recurrent 
 invasions, under the necessity of ever new and ever 
 larger pastures too, drifted away from Balkan to Ehodope, 
 and from Ehodope to Pindus. A congenial element they 
 may have found in the descendants of the old Koman 
 settlers in these regions, and, owing especially to the 
 early stage of the language— still pretty much the popular 
 Latin — must have mixed with these, their number must 
 have increased in the course of time, and so no wonder 
 that in the eleventh and twelfth centuries not only 
 Byzantine but also western Writers call Thessaly Great 
 Valachia, Etholy and Acarnany Small Valachia. 
 
 A new wave of Germanic race, the Ostrogoths and the 
 Gepides, passed over; after them again a Mongolia 
 wave, the Avars, who took possession of the ground 
 by destroying the former occupants. Thus were the 
 barbarians struggling with each other for the Carpathian 
 plains, while the Koumanian shepherd could look quietly 
 at their bloody struggles, and, leaning on his crook above 
 on the heights, "abide his time." The Avars' nominal 
 domination of Central Europe was overthrown only by 
 Charles the Great, who entirely defeated them. But 
 their invasion had been a fierce one. A great many 
 Slavs took to flight from the plains before them, and 
 found a shelter in the hospitable Carpathians. There 
 they met the Eoumanians, whom they probably already 
 had known slightly during the rare moments of respite 
 between the invasions when the Eoumanians could 
 venture down into the lower valleys. They got to know 
 each other better now in moments of danger, when the 
 Slavs were driven up the mountains by the Avars. Slavs 
 and Eoumanians, undergoing almost the same conditions 
 of life, met on friendly terms, lived side by side, and 
 mingled. The Eoumanians neutralised and Eomanised 
 the Slav element ; the Eoumanian language was enriched 
 with a great many Slav words, but remained none the 
 less a neo-Latin language in grammar and spirit. 
 Whilst this fusion was going on in the mountains, 
 down in the deserted valleys new waves of Slavs 
 
INTRODUCTION 13 
 
 rushed behind the Avaric invasion, making still more 
 complete the separation between Carpathian and Balkan 
 Roumanians. 
 
 At the end of the fifth century a third wave of 
 Mongols, the Bulgarians, had stepped over the Oural 
 into Europe. They repeatedly knocked at the Byzantine 
 door but without any success, and, up to the seventh 
 century, they were obliged to live on the northern shore 
 of the Black Sea, under the yoke of the powerful Avars, 
 but then they freed themselves — helped to some extent 
 by the Valachians, whose, friendship they had won in the 
 meanwhile, and became now dangerous to Byzantium. 
 In 671 part of them crossed the Danube; Aurelian's 
 Dacia, Moesia inferior, and Scythia minor (the Dobrogia) 
 fell under their power together with the population of 
 the plain, made up of Slavs, addicted to agriculture, 
 whilst the Roumanians, addicted to pastoral life, were 
 driving their herds from poiana to poiana from Balkan 
 to Rhodope, from Rhodope to Pindus, ever southward 
 bound, in proportion as Nature seemed kinder and the 
 danger of the invasion less pressing. Thus from 
 Carpathian to Pindus the general outlook was about 
 the same : in the plains, agricultural Slavs, in the 
 mountains, pastoral Roumanians ; but the conditions 
 of life in the two sets of mountains were different. 
 While the Carpathian offered a natural stronghold to 
 the frightened fugitive, and ample supply of food for 
 his flocks in its extensive glades, the Balkan-Pindic 
 region, with its narrow dispersed ridges and its small 
 glades offered opportunity for only a much harder 
 kind of life. The Carpathian Roumanians, in their 
 simple, patriarchal life, could thrive and multiply and 
 fill the mountains to such an extent that an overflow 
 beyond was possible further on. The Southern 
 Roumanian settled also his catune ("hamlets") on the 
 heights, but had to roam much farther for pastures 
 for their flocks of sheep, goats, and horses, and got, 
 after all, a scantier living. But whilst the Northern 
 Roumanians mixed with Slavs and easily assimilated 
 them, the Southern Roumanians were much more under 
 
14 INTRODUCTION 
 
 the grip of Greek influence, which was a conscious one, 
 and accordingly worked consciously, and the only thing 
 to wonder at is that they did not disappear quicker 
 and entirely. This only proves the persistent vitality 
 of the Roumanian nation. 
 
 Now by the end of the seventh century the region 
 between Danube and Balkan was conquered by the 
 Bulgarians, who, under Asparuch, founded a state 
 with great fortunes in prospect, and having the Slavs 
 for their subjects. But it came to pass, as in many 
 other similar cases, that the masters were conquered 
 by their subjects, morally, for, although not civilised 
 themselves, the Slavs were much less barbarous than 
 the Bulgarians. Asparuch's successors soon mastered 
 a large part of the Avaric possessions, after the Avars 
 had been overthrown by the Franks, who, busy after- 
 wards in their own land, paid little attention thereafter 
 to the Tissa valley. A precise dividing line between 
 Frankish and Bulgarian dominion is hard to draw, 
 but we may fairly assume that the Tissa with its 
 banks was a kind of neutral ground between both ; 
 beyond that, in the east, Transylvania and Valachia 
 were subdued, in a friendly way, it appears, by the 
 Bulgarians. A common fate seems to have been trying 
 to draw near the two branches of the Roumanian 
 nation, for the Bulgarians, masters now of the Car- 
 pathian as well as of the Balkan, in successful struggles 
 with the Byzantine Emperors, reached down to the gates 
 of Constantinople, and most of the Roumanians were 
 under Bulgarian rule. 
 
 But the Bulgarians were destined to play a much 
 more important part in Roumanian life, for in the 
 ninth century they were converted to Christianity, and 
 the form of Bulgarian worship with the Bulgarian 
 {i.e., Slav) language to be used in church was imposed 
 on all throughout the Empire, including the Roumanians. 
 This Slav language, in Church and State, was preserved 
 by the Roumanians down into the seventeenth century. 
 By this the Roumanians have been cut off from western 
 Latin civilisation, and, although the Roumanians never 
 
INTRODUCTION 15 
 
 knew or spoke the Slav language, they were none the 
 less prevented from partaking in the Western culture, 
 and were arrested for centuries in their natural develop- 
 ment towards civilisation. 
 
 In the meanwhile a fourth wave of Mongolians had 
 come in view : the Hungarians, who, after taking up a 
 transient abode in the region between the Dniester and 
 the Pruth, raged round, devastating and plundering, now 
 in the Byzantine, now in the Bulgarian Empire, until 
 the diplomatic Greek understood the advantage of using 
 the barbarians against each other, and fraternised with 
 by far the wildest of the two. At the end of the ninth 
 century the Hungarians left the Dniester and came 
 to settle down in the valley of the Tissa, whence they 
 made for a time Western Europe shudder with their 
 savage invasions. Behind their back a fifth Mongolian 
 people, the Petchenegues, took possession of the Dniester 
 valley, having close by on their heels their brothers, 
 the Cumans ; they occupied the valley of the Pruth 
 also, their farthest point west being Silistria, on the 
 Danube. The situation of the Bulgarian Empire then 
 became precarious, and still more so when the 
 Hungarians, beaten repeatedly in the west by the 
 German monarchs, cast an envious eye eastward, and 
 began their attacks upon old Dacia. 
 
 Whilst the Hungarians were pushing on in this way, 
 the Bulgarians had also to deal with the Byzantines, 
 and under rather adverse conditions, for after the great 
 Bulgarian Tzar Simeon his successors were weak, and 
 the decadence of the Bulgarian Empire had begun. 
 However, they resisted, but at last Basile II. succeeded 
 in completely defeating the Bulgarians, and the boundary 
 of the Byzantine Empire was once more pushed to the 
 Danube (1018). 
 
 The Bulgarian Empire having fallen to pieces, no 
 wonder that the Hungarians took advantage of the 
 event to lay hands on its western parts, and by the 
 middle of the eleventh century they were able to 
 inscribe among their possessions the whole of the 
 Carpathian plateau, under the name of Frovincia 
 
16 INTRODUCTION 
 
 TransylvanUy some one century and a half after their 
 arrival in the valley of the Tissa. And it was not without 
 a struggle. Small chiefs — some of them Eoumanians — 
 Voyevodes and KneazeSy remnants of the Bulgarian 
 organisation, took upon them the defence of the country ; 
 they fought bravely and long, but were overthrown. In 
 these struggles the Eoumanians took part, of course; 
 some of them were scattered as far as the mountains 
 of Moravia, where a remnant of them is to be met with 
 to-day, entirely Slavisized. In truth, by this time the 
 Eoumanians were in a good way of becoming the only 
 people indigenous to the Carpathians, the Slavo- 
 Bulgarian element having been gradually sucked up by 
 them — somewhat as the Normans were swallowed by 
 the Anglo-Saxon. 
 
 By the end of the eleventh century the Petchenegues 
 also came over the body of the prostrate Bulgarians, 
 and were face to face with the Hungarians, and again 
 the barbarians fought with each other for the Eoumanian 
 ground. The Petchenegues were easily defeated between 
 Hungarians and Cumans ; their remnants were admitted 
 as settlers in Transylvania and Hungary. The struggle 
 became now the keener between the Cumans, who 
 covered the outer slopes of the Carpathians, and the 
 Hungarians, who, in their great need of defending the 
 approaches to Transylvania, settled in the east of it 
 the Secklers, or boundary settlers, who still live in the 
 east of Transylvania to-day under the name of Secui. 
 Not much later the Hungarian kings filled the lowest 
 valleys of the plateau with German settlers, the Saxons, 
 or Sashi, as they are called by the Eoumanians, who 
 played an important part in the settling down of Western 
 civilisation in these parts. Up to the thirteenth century 
 the state of things was nearly the same in the region 
 of the Carpathians : the Eoumanians on the mountains, 
 the Hungarians fighting at their feet with the Cumans. 
 But the Cumans were a milder kind of Mongols, being 
 Christians, and on this account Eoumanians and Slavs 
 found it possible to live side by side with them. Thus, 
 during the domination of the Cumans in the plains round 
 
INTRODUCTION 17 
 
 the Carpathians, the Eoumanians began again, this time 
 with more lasting success, to filter down along the slopes 
 to the outskirts of the mountains, to the hilly region, and 
 to settle down into some form of government, as they 
 had a remembrance of in their voyevodal and kneazial 
 organisation of yore — they were modestly taking to house- 
 keeping for themselves. In the meanwhile, the Slavs 
 were ever quietly filling the plains along the rivers 
 Dniester, Prut, and Danube. So they were found by the 
 last Mongolian invaders in the thirteenth century, by 
 the Tartars. 
 
 In the meantime it was the lot of the Roumanians 
 south of the Danube to play a much more important 
 part in history. Namely, in 1185, the Byzantine 
 emperor, Isaack Angelus, celebrating his wedding with 
 a young Hungarian princess, emptied the imperial 
 treasury of its last penny. New taxations, meant to 
 bring in new revenues, were levied on the people, 
 chiefly in cattle and sheep, and these pressed rather 
 more roughly on the mountain herdsmen. These we 
 know to have been Roumanians in overwhelming 
 numbers. A deputation was sent to the Emperor with 
 two Roumanian brothers at its head, Petru and Assan. 
 They fared ill at court, and coming back discontented, 
 they provoked a rising of the Roumanians, in which the 
 equally discontented Bulgarians readily joined. The 
 Assans took the leadership. Beaten, they fled across 
 the Danube, came back again with help from the Cumans 
 and from the Roumanians, who in the Oltenia seem to 
 have preserved their independence ever since the over- 
 throw of the old Bulgarian Empire, defeated the Byzan- 
 tines, and with so brilliant a result that the Bulgarians 
 and Roumanians once more became free, and once more 
 organised a free State under the name of the ** Valacho- 
 Bulgarian" Empire, with the Assan dynasty on the throne. 
 The greatest among them was the third brother lonitzd 
 ("Little John"), who received the imperial crown from 
 the Pope, Innocent III., on the promise that he would 
 accept for himself and his Empire the Roman Catholic 
 Faith. But the Assan family died out soon, in its male 
 
 3 
 
18 INTRODUCTION 
 
 members at least, through violent death mostly; Bul- 
 garians came to the throne. The Roumanians were put 
 aside little by little ; the Empire became more and more 
 considered as Bulgarian only, and it was under that 
 name that it fell under the Turks later on in the 
 fourteenth century. This was the last sign of life given 
 in history by the Southern Valachs; henceforth their 
 voice is silenced, their name falls into oblivion ; they 
 step aside and keep to their humble pastoral life. 
 
 The last invasion over the Oural came in 1223 ; the 
 Tartars, under Batu-Chan, devastating Russia and 
 Poland, ravaged Transylvania and Hungary. The effects 
 of this dreadful invasion were overwhelming ; the popu- 
 lations were massacred, every kind of wealth was plun- 
 dered or destroyed. At first they were resisted, and by 
 Roumanians, too, amongst whom one chief of the 
 Bassarab family ruling the Oltenia was conspicuous. By 
 this time the existence of the Roumanians in the Car- 
 pathians and on their outer slopes is indeed proved by 
 several contemporary documents. Quite in the north, 
 in the mountainous Marmorosh, there was such a 
 powerful element already, that in the beginning of the 
 next century we find them emigrating towards the open 
 valleys of Moldavia. Roumanians in the Bukovina, on 
 the frontiers of Galicia, are mentioned in Byzantine 
 writers as far back as 1164. Lower down there were 
 also Roumanians, mentioned also in papal letters as 
 " would-be Christians " (Greek Orthodox), whom the 
 Cuman Catholic bishops were enjoined to try to convert 
 to the "true faith" (Roman Catholicism). Farther 
 west, on the southern slopes of the Carpathians, Rou- 
 manians are mentioned as being organised in small 
 states, under a voyevode or a kneaz, the most important 
 of these states being the voyevodate of Oltenia, on the 
 right bank of the Olt. Thus the outer slopes of the 
 Carpathian chain were girdled from the Iron Gates up 
 into the Bukovina with a continuous Roumanian popula- 
 tion on the way to get more and more into official state- 
 life. The plains were covered with mostly unorganised 
 masses of Slavs ; these Slavs have been all Romanised iu 
 
INTRODUCTION 19 
 
 time by the Roumanians, who, from their small rudi- 
 ments of states on the hills, combined in the two states 
 of Valachia and Moldavia, stretching from the Carpa- 
 thians to the Danube and Dniester respectively. The 
 period of invasion is ended ; real state life now begins for 
 the Northern Roumanians. 
 
 IV 
 
 "Sa nu dea Dmnnezeu Romantilui cit poate rabda." 
 (" May God never give the Eoumanian as much as he can bearl '*) 
 
 Night and mystery still involve the coming into 
 existence of the Valachian State. Its very name, Mun- 
 tenia, seems to point out an origin from beyond the 
 mountains, Valachia being otherwise mostly a flat 
 country. A tradition even, which, however, can by no 
 means boast of any originality, contrives to show that the 
 founders of the State came over from Transylvania. On 
 the other hand, it is also held — and on stronger motives 
 — that the foundation of the Valachian principality is due 
 to the fact that the voyevode of Oltenia, on the western 
 bank of the Olt, conquered the eastern regions also, from 
 the Tartars, extending his dominion up to the mouths of 
 the Danube. 
 
 Moldavia, no longer exposed to the Tartar invasions, 
 began, however, to be visited by Roumanians from the 
 Marmorosh, who, finding the hills suited them, settled 
 down, their first voyevode, Dragosh, respecting, however, 
 his former ties with the Hungarian kings. But in 1349 
 another voyevode, Bogdan, from Marmorosh also, came 
 with followers, overthrew Dragosh's successors, and 
 taking hold of the country shook off at the same time 
 the Hungarian yoke. That is the foundation of Mol- 
 davia. It has been stamped on the memory of the 
 Moldavian people and faithfully handed down through 
 generations in the following genuine tradition : — 
 
 A young voyevode from Maramuresh, Dragosh- voda, 
 going a-hunting in the mountains with his suite, was led 
 
20 INTRODUCTION 
 
 astray by a buffalo, a hour or zimbru, and running after 
 him, arrived in a beautiful hilly region, where he over- 
 took the buffalo at a place v^here nov^ lies a village v^^ith 
 the suggestive name of Boureni (bou = ox). In the 
 river flowing by, the voyevode's dog Molda was drowned, 
 hence the name of river and country, '' Moldova." The 
 voyevode, finding the country both fair and fertile, 
 settled down in it with his followers ; the head of 
 the buffalo remained ever after on the escutcheon of 
 Moldavia. 
 
 The two principalities of Valachia and Moldavia have 
 each its separate history, but absolutely similar on the 
 whole. The whole first period of four or five centuries is 
 full of wars, and successful ones too ; it is their heroic 
 period : wars with the Hungarians for both states ; with 
 the Poles for Moldavia ; with the Turks, for Valachia 
 first, for Moldavia afterwards. With the Bulgarian and 
 Servian states beyond the Danube, their relations were 
 of the best; marriages took place more than once 
 between the ruling families ; the whole organisation of 
 the State was borrowed from the Bulgarians by the 
 Valachs, and from these by the Moldavians; old Bul- 
 garian, or rather Slavonian, became the State language, 
 as it was already that of the Church ; the form of State 
 documents was adopted wholesale from the Bulgarians, 
 along with the pro-title " lo " for the voyevodes (from 
 Ion, lonitza, the Valacho-Bulgarian Emperor), thus 
 getting back what belonged to their own blood through 
 foreign hands. Of all the wars, those with the 
 Turks were the longest of all, and no more happy in 
 the long run. 
 
 The first struggles of the Valachians with the Turks 
 are, for the first period, summed up in the names of two 
 warlike voyevodes — Mirtchea the Great, the conspicuous 
 representative of the cause of civilisation and Christen- 
 dom in the East against the all-invading Turk ; and the 
 cruel but able ruler, Vlad the Impaler. 
 
 But the chief cause of continuous wars in the princi- 
 palities was a home trouble, namely, the succession to the 
 throne, which was not handed down in the line of the 
 
INTKODUCTION 21 
 
 first-born, but was open to all sons, even natural sons 
 and brothers, from which the country had the right to 
 choose the successor of the deceased monarch — by right, 
 the eldest of them, it seems. Hence wars between the 
 pretenders, division of the country into parties, inter- 
 ference of foreigners, called in by one or the other of the 
 pretenders. Moldavian princes admitted more than once 
 Polish supremacy ; Valachia bent its neck very early 
 under Turkish power, becoming at first tributary, and 
 then actual vassal, after Vlad the Impaler. 
 
 Notwithstanding all the wars, the people seem to have 
 .been fairly prosperous. The height of Moldavia's splen- 
 dour is reached in the second half of the fifteenth cen- 
 tury, under the reign of Stephen the Great, '* the athlete 
 of Christ," as the Pope called him, at the time when the 
 whole of Christendom was shaking with fear before the 
 all-conquering Islam. Stephen the Great, the much 
 admired monarch, has been sung in many a popular 
 ballad, of which scraps only may find room here : — 
 
 " Stephen, Stephen, the great lord, 
 Has no equal in the world 
 Except the splendid sun I 
 From Sutcheava when he rises 
 He sets his breast to the frontiers 
 Like a strong defensive wall. 
 His own arm incessantly 
 Beats the Tartarian hordes, 
 Beats the Maghiaric hosts, 
 Beats the Poles in stormy flight, 
 Beats Turks astride on dragoons * 
 
 ' Stefan, ^tefan, domn eel mare 
 Saman pe lume nu are 
 Decit numai mandrul scare 1 
 Din Suceava cind rasare 
 Pune pieptul la hotare 
 Ca un zid de aparare. 
 Bra^ul lui fara' ncetare 
 Bate ordele tatare, 
 Bate cetele maghiare, 
 Bate Le^i din fuga mare 
 Bate Turci pe zmei calare 
 
22 INTRODUCTION 
 
 And saves them the cost of burial. 
 The whole world is in amaze : 
 The land is small, the land is strong, 
 And the foe cannot progress ! " * 
 
 Stephen the Great, the beloved hero, who has more 
 than one claim to the devotion of his people, the majestic 
 warrior, is supposed to have had falcons for his sentries 
 perched on heights and warning him of the approach of 
 the enemy, to which warning he replies : — 
 
 " Let them come, oh, let them come 
 And give themselves a prey to me! 
 Death grazes them like a flock, 
 An ill fate drives them from behind. 
 Many have come to us in times, 
 Few, however, havie returned [home] ; 
 For I am a four-handed Eoumanian, 
 And have cures for all the pagans : 
 For Tartars I have an arrow, 
 For the Turks my own broad sword; 
 For Lithuans my heavy mace, 
 For Hungarians a lasso I " f 
 
 The name of Stephen the Great is a household name in 
 every Moldavian cottage. He belonged to the greatest 
 Moldavian dynasty, the Mushatini, related, it is said, to 
 the Valachian dynasty of the Bassarabs ; his father, his 
 grandfather (Alexander the Good), and his great-grand- 
 father had all reigned in Moldavia ; his father only for a 
 
 * ^i-i scute^te de' ngropare. 
 Lumea 'ntreaga e'n mirare: 
 ^ara-i mica, ^ara-i tare 
 ^i du^manul spor nu are I " 
 
 f "Las' sa vie, las' sa vie 
 Sa se deie prada miel 
 Moartea-i pa^te ca pe-o turma 
 Pacatu-i mdna din urma. 
 Mul^i au mai venit la noi 
 Pu'^ini s'au dus inapoi 
 Ca-s Eom&n cu patru mani 
 ^i am leacuri de pagani : 
 De Tatari am o sageata, 
 De Turci pala mea cea lata ; 
 De Litveni un buzdugan 
 ^i de Unguri un arcan." 
 
Church Built by Stephen the Great. [Photo, J. Cazaban. 
 
 To face page 23. 
 
 Oldest Church of Stephen the Great. \_Fhoto, J. Cazaban. 
 
INTRODUCTION 23 
 
 short time, being overthrown by a protege of the Poles. 
 It was not, however, by inheritance that Stephen got his 
 throne, but through war, supported by the Valachian 
 prince, Vlad the Impaler. This involved him in long and 
 recurrent wars with the Poles and the Hungarians ; 
 he overcame them. Later on, however, owing to the 
 Turkish wars, he accepted for a short time the suzerainty 
 of Poland, the greatest European Power in those times ! 
 
 After driving out his opponent, Stephen took posses- 
 sion of the throne, ** with the will of the people," and 
 ruled the country for half a century (1457-1504), always 
 with sword in hand, a pillar of his country against its 
 neighbours, a bulwark of Christianity against the Turks, 
 as two more Roumanians had been before him, in this 
 same century — loan Corvin de Huniade, Regent of Hun- 
 gary, and Vlad the Impaler, already mentioned. The 
 innumerable battles won by Stephen are celebrated in 
 forty churches which he built all over the country, many 
 of them mere ruins to-day. After each successful battle, 
 tradition reports, Stephen was wont to raise a church 
 in commemoration of it ; one of the most important of 
 them is the church — with monastery — of Putna, in 
 Bukovina, which became the necropolis of the Moldavian 
 monarchs. 
 
 Stephen's reign was the climax of the heroic period of 
 Moldavia's history. After him downfall followed soon. 
 The situation of the country between the two ill-disposed 
 neighbours, Poland and Hungary, became so awkward 
 that Stephen's son Bogdan, in accordance with his 
 father's advice, decided to seek pagan support rather 
 than lean any longer on fickle and false Polish friendship, 
 ** for the Turk is strong and wise, and keeps his word " — 
 such seems to have been at the time the character of the 
 powerful Turk. A Moldavian deputation sent to Con- 
 stantinople accepted the Turkish suzerainty, as Valachia 
 had already done long before. The first capitulations 
 of Moldavia with the Turks were as fair as can be : 
 Moldavia had to pay a yearly peshJcesh ("a present") of 
 4,000 ducats, and give besides 40 hawks, 40 Moldavian 
 mares, and military help in case of war. The Turks, in 
 
24 INTRODUCTION 
 
 return, recognised Moldavia as a " free and non-submitted 
 country," and promised to respect her religion and laws, 
 never to settle down in the country, nor to raise Moslem 
 places of worship. Such were the conditions of Moldavia's 
 vassalage in the year 1513. But they were not to be 
 respected long. The century had not run out when the 
 Turks were already meddling with the nomination of 
 the princes ; they increased the peshJcesh which took 
 the character of a real tribute, haraci, and seized the 
 line of the Dniester, making in the strongholds of Cetatea- 
 Alba, Bender, Soroca, Hotin, their centres of operations 
 against the Poles, and afterwards against the Kussians. 
 This tendency of the Turks ever to trespass on the initial 
 capitulations turned Roumanian policy in time towards 
 Russian alliances. 
 
 Valachia had made her capitulations with the Turks 
 much earlier. After the death of Mircea the Great (1418) 
 the country fared ill under the long struggles for the 
 crown among his descendants, and the interference of 
 Hungary on one side and Turkey on the other. After 
 the first capitulations with the light peshkesh, Valachia 
 very soon fell under the obligation of paying, beside the 
 money tribute, a blood tribute of 500 children yearly, 
 who were to become dreaded lanitcheri (Turkish in- 
 fantry) . Vlad the Impaler saved the country from this 
 cruel tribute for a while, but unfortunately was overcome 
 and lost his throne ; and the Turks put his brother Radu 
 in his stead on the Valachian throne, assuming thus the 
 right of nominating the country's voyevodes. Thus, 
 whilst Moldavia was prospering under great Stephen's 
 rule, Valachia was already in a bad state. The Turkish 
 interference in her affairs became heavier and heavier ; 
 the struggle for the thrones became keener than ever; 
 the different pretenders got into the habit of buying the 
 throne with money from the Turks. But the fate of the 
 two countries was not long to be different, for, soon after 
 Bogdan, Moldavia was reduced to Valachia' s condition. 
 
 Nevertheless, Turkish authority, if willingly accepted 
 by the princes, was not undisputed throughout these 
 countries; a prince nominated by the Turks had often 
 
INTRODUCTION 25 
 
 to ascend his throne only after a hard fight; Turks, 
 Tartars from Crimea, Cossacks from beyond the Dniester, 
 over and over again overran the countries, bringing 
 misfortune and desolation on the poor population. These 
 unspeakable sufferings of the people made them deeply 
 feel what a great mistake it is to allow foreigners to 
 meddle with home troubles: — 
 
 " Who brings armies into the country, 
 May he die under the country's curse I " * 
 
 While fate was thus pressing with a heavy hand on the 
 Roumanians of the free — that is, once free — principali- 
 ties, the "Western Roumanians were not happier under 
 Hungarian rule. After the conquest of Transylvania 
 many of the nobility passed over to the conqueror, and 
 so it came to pass that the Roumanian blood gave 
 Hungary her greatest general, loan Corvin de Huniade, 
 and her greatest king, Mathias Corvin, son of the former, 
 just as the trans-Danubian Roumanians had given the 
 Bulgarians their greatest leader and monarch, lonitza, 
 two centuries before. 
 
 Many of the Roumanian chiefs, in order to preserve 
 their wealth and their privileges — or to obtain some 
 more — passed over to the conqueror, accepted his 
 language and religion, and were Magyarised ; those who 
 resisted had to emigrate over the mountains to Valachia 
 and Moldavia, as already seen. But the great bulk of 
 the population — the poor, the humble — have neither 
 emigrated nor given up their nationality ; they remained, 
 and were persecuted, and greatly suffered, but they stub- 
 bornly stuck to creed and tongue. And when suffering 
 became unbearable, they arose, and blood was not spared ! 
 A first rising is registered in 1437, in which the victorious 
 Roumanians got back several of their rights. But then 
 came in the close union of the three foreign nations, 
 Hungarians, Secklers, and Saxons, against the perilous 
 awakening of the old masters of the land. The three 
 
 * " Cine-aduce oaste 'n ^ara, 
 Sub blastamul ^erei pieara I " 
 
26 INTRODUCTION 
 
 agreed to hold fast together, in order to keep down the 
 one. A second rising took place in 1512 — a rising more 
 social than political, as, side by side with the Eoumanian, 
 there arose the Hungarian peasant also, too much op- 
 pressed by his own nobleman ; the leader of the rising, 
 Dosza, was himself a Seckler. The result was put down 
 in blood, and the yoke became heavier still. A third 
 rising was to come in connection with affairs in the free 
 principalities, to be related hereafter. 
 
 The brightest moment in Eoumanian history was in 
 the year 1600, when Michael the Brave — 
 
 "He is Michael the hero 
 Who springs on seven horses 
 That the Sultan cries: woe!""'' 
 
 voyevode of Valachia, after having succeeded in over- 
 throwing the Turkish yoke and raising the country again 
 to the situation it was in at the beginning of Mirtchea's 
 reign, conquered — by events too long to unfold here — 
 Transylvania and the Moldavia, and realised thus for one 
 moment — a few months only — the great fact which up 
 to the present moment has remained a mere dream to 
 Eoumanian fancy — the unity of the whole Eoumanian 
 nation — north of the Danube, at least. The stroke was 
 as brilliant as it was short. There followed Hungarian 
 intrigues, imperial interests (of the Habsbourg Eudolph 
 II.), and Polish interference, and the Eoumanian hero 
 fell, consumed like a bright lightning flash by its own 
 fire. He fell, and with him the Eoumanian dream of 
 unity ended. At Michael's approach the Eoumanians 
 of Transylvania had arisen, hoping much from one so 
 brave and of their own blood! But, unfortunately, 
 Michael the Brave was not a far-seeing statesman, or 
 rather he made the mistake of believing that he would 
 master Transylvania much more easily with the help of 
 Hungarian nobility than with Eoumanian peasantry; 
 but the nobility would not have him and the peasants 
 
 -!: " El e viteazul Mihai 
 Ce sare pe §apte cai 
 De striga Sultanul vai t " 
 
INTKODUCTION 27 
 
 he had helped to overcome. His great national accom- 
 plishment went to pieces, and brothers once more were 
 severed. If the hero's praises were sung by his own 
 people at home, nothing of it has been collected yet, or 
 hardly anything. The Moldavian peasant, however, 
 could not help pouring out his admiration for the hero 
 who had saved his people from the Turkish yoke : — 
 
 "Have you heard of an Oltean, 
 An Oltean, a Craiovean 
 Who does not fear the Sultan?" 
 
 And so in eight laudatory strophes he sings his praises, 
 ending with the yearning appeal : — 
 
 "Oh, oh, oh, Michael, Michael, 
 Why do you not feel with us, too, 
 And save us from trouble and woe 1 " * 
 
 Another song concerning Michael the Brave has been 
 traced in Macedonia, but as it is in Greek it may not be 
 of popular origin. The memory of the conquest of 
 Transylvania has been preserved in a song which seems 
 to have been composed in the reign of one of Michael's 
 successors, Kadu Sharban Bassarab. In a long ballad, 
 referring to a battle of this prince's, and complaining 
 of the people's sufferings, he is invited to reconquer 
 Transylvania : — 
 
 "Woe, oh woe! your greatness. 
 What a doom is on my country 1 
 The Hungarians torment us,f 
 
 'Auzit-a^i de-un Oltean, 
 De-un Oltean, de-un Craiovean 
 Ce nu-i pasa de Sultan? 
 
 Aleleil Mihai, Mihai, 
 
 Caci de noi mila nu ai 
 
 Sa ne scapi de-amar ^i vai 1 " 
 
 f "Oleo-leo, Maria-Ta 
 Ce potop in ^ara meal 
 Ungurii ne nacajesc, 
 
28 INTRODUCTION 
 
 The Turks raid our cattle, 
 The Tartars plunder us: 
 Woe on the Koumanian nation ! 
 Green leaf of gilly-flower 
 Come, Lord, your grandeur, 
 I know a hidden dell, 
 Through the rock's narrow vale, 
 Where no bird shall see us: 
 I lead you into my land 
 Come, lord, to master it 
 From the pagans to rid it."* 
 
 After the extinction of the two reigning dynasties the 
 " Bassarabi " in Valachia, the " Mushatini " in Moldavia, 
 things went on from bad to worse with the struggles for 
 the thrones. Competition became keener than ever, and 
 auction the regular system of nomination of the voyevodes 
 to the thrones. Any one now could compete for the 
 Roumanian throne, provided he could afford to spend 
 the sums of money required. Besides the tribute, a 
 great and variable price for the throne, and no end of 
 bribes to viziers and other officials of the Porte, no other 
 qualification whatever was of avail, not even the actual 
 possession of the money, for Constantinople was swarming 
 with usurers, mostly Greeks, with ever ready purse for 
 needy borrowers and high percentages. Foreigners, and 
 especially Greeks, began now to buy the Roumanian 
 thrones. These monarchs, well aware that their good 
 time could only be of short duration, as the Turks were 
 not a bit averse from changing them every other year, as 
 a rule, brought with them usurers into the countries, 
 that they might gather their own money from the 
 
 * Turcii vitele rapesc, 
 Tatarii ne jafuesc : 
 Vai de neamul romanesc I 
 Frunza verde mic^unea, 
 Hai, doamne, Maria-ta, 
 ^tiu ascunsa cararea 
 Printre stanci stramta valcea, 
 Sa nu simta paserea : 
 Te tulesc In ^ara mea 
 Hai, doamne, s'o stapane^ti 
 De pagani s'o isbave§ti." 
 
INTRODUCTION 29 
 
 Roumanian taxpayers. The taxation, on the other hand, 
 was regulated by the monarch's own will; the people, 
 always overtaxed, became poorer and poorer, bending 
 their heads lower and lower under the yoke of tyranny. 
 Besides, the monarchs, who wished to save as much 
 money as possible for the impending hard times, tried 
 to keep for themselves all the income raised by taxation, 
 and to pay off their creditors by some other means ; these 
 they found in presenting the creditors with lands and 
 of&ces, and thus the noble class began to be filled vdth 
 the foreign and Greek element. This, together with the 
 constantly recurring plunders of the countries at the hand 
 of Turkish armies, sent ever to support this or that newly 
 nominated monarch, caused naturally great discontent, 
 which was more than once utilised by the nobles, the 
 ho'iars, to raise revolts against the Greeks, who were 
 sometimes driven out of the country, to come back again 
 with a vengeance ! One of these risings brought to the 
 thrones of both principalities Roumanian rulers, Mate! 
 Bassarab, in Valachia, and Vasile Lupu, in Moldavia 
 (1633 and 1634 respectively), who reigned for a period 
 of about twenty years, a wonderful term for those times ! 
 Unfortunately their reign was marked by frequent wars 
 with each other, by which the good results of their rule 
 all went to waste. The most important of these results 
 was the suppression of the antiquated Slavonic language 
 in Church and State, and its substitution by the Rouma- 
 nian language; but of that more by and by. With all 
 that, the Greek element went on grovdng — to such an 
 extent, indeed, that, soon after the turning out of the 
 Slavonic language from Church and State, and almost 
 before the Roumanian language had put in an appear- 
 ance, it was itself again put aside and replaced by the 
 Greek language, in Church at least, and, what was 
 worse, in society also, being the language of the Court 
 and of the nobility at large ; but the people never 
 adopted it. 
 
 With the end of the seventeenth century, Greek in- 
 fluence had set in quite comfortably in both principalities. 
 Having entered through commerce first, through religion 
 
30 INTRODUCTION 
 
 afterwards, through money and politics later on, the 
 Greeks were soon swarming in the countries, in the shape 
 of noblemen and high officials, of creditors of the 
 monarchs, of speculators of all sorts, all sucking like 
 famished leeches the wealth of the countries. Even 
 before the eighteenth century — the century of the Phan- 
 ariotes — many a prince was a Greek, and surrounded by 
 Greeks. The poor Roumanian peasant knew them only 
 too well : at the time of Mat el Bassarb he was already 
 wont to sing — 
 
 "The Greek is a filthy otter 
 He is an envenomed beast,"* 
 
 and would gladly get rid of the Greek ruler : 
 
 " For many a brave with us 
 Would much rather meet his death 
 Then be ruled by a Greek prince." f 
 
 But he could not get his desire ; on the contrary, with 
 the eighteenth century Greek rule became decisively 
 established. The Porte gave the thrones chiefly to 
 Greeks from the Phanar, a suburb of Constantinople, 
 whence the name of Phanariotes. This epoch of Phan- 
 ariotic rule lasted more than one century. It is, with 
 small exception, a black page in Roumanian history ; the 
 Turk was now the absolute master who ruled from afar 
 through these princes, who, although not wearing the 
 title of pashas, were, in fact, hardly anything better. Thus 
 the Roumanians, north of the Danube, were once more 
 bound under an equal fate almost with their remote 
 brothers south of the river, these latter ruled by real 
 pashas. The condition of the people was so miserable 
 from the very beginning that the Phanariotes themselves, 
 in their pressing need of a taxpaying population that had 
 
 * "Grecul e vidra spurcata, 
 Este fieara' nveninata." 
 
 f " Ca sint mul^i voinici la noi 
 Ce doresc moartea mai bine 
 Decit Domn Grec sa le fie," 
 
INTRODUCTION 31 
 
 almost disappeared, found it necessary to make reforms 
 in favour of the peasants, which reforms, however, came 
 to nothing, on account of the ill-will of the ruhng classes. 
 This was a period of emigration : beyond the Danube, 
 where many villages of Koumanian settlers are seen to 
 the present day ; beyond the Dniester, where many a 
 brave Eoumanian could find military employment in 
 Polish and Kussian armies, and where many settlers are 
 also found to-day. Those who remained at home had a 
 hard time of it. When patience was at an end, many 
 took to the forests, and under the name of heydoicks 
 ("outlaws ") took revenge on the nation's oppressors. 
 
 In this same eighteenth century Transylvania rang 
 once more with a mighty rising of the Roumanians ; the 
 revolution of Neculai TJrsu Horia drenched Transylvania 
 in blood and fire from end to end. The leader met with a 
 tragic end on " the wheel," but the result was nevertheless 
 the suppression of serfdom in Transylvania. 
 
 In the two principalities the social and economic evils 
 of the people were doubled by political misfortunes ; this 
 phanariotic epoch saw Moldavia amputated of two of her 
 fairest and most fertile provinces, Bukovina and Bassa- 
 rabia. Austria, ill satisfied with her first share of Poland, 
 demanded and obtained from the Turks the Bukovina 
 (1775) with Sutcheava, the old capital of Moldavia, and 
 the monastery of Putna, with her rulers' tombs. And, 
 says a legend, one night the great bell of the monastery, 
 the Buga, began to, toll by itself, louder and ever louder, 
 until the monks, awakened and in great terror, perceived 
 the church lighted up with a strange, unearthly light. 
 They rushed in, but at the opening of the door the bell 
 stood still, and intense darkness set in ; the oil-lamps on 
 the tomb of great Stephen went out, although full of 
 oil, and next day the portrait of the great monarch 
 hanging in the church was found perfectly dark and 
 discoloured. The shade of the great monarch was in 
 mourning over his nation's loss! In less than half a 
 century after, Russia took the Bassarabia (1812), the 
 whole region between Prut and Dniester, the Prut be- 
 coming henceforth what the Dniester had been up to now, 
 
32 INTRODUCTION 
 
 the *' accursed river," across which all evils used to come. 
 The Koumanian thus cut off finds himself a stranger on 
 the soil where he was born ; he cannot forget his ties with 
 the rest of Moldavia ; he curses the enemy who has 
 given him over to the Russian ; on the other hand, the 
 Moldavian on the right bank of the Prut will deeply 
 deplore the loss of the province, and thus they both 
 sing :— 
 
 "Green leaf of dry apple, 
 
 May curses fall upon the kin, 
 
 And the house be ever deserted, 
 
 And the children put in prison, 
 
 Of him who made the Russian 
 
 Master beyond the Prut."* 
 
 And from the other bank a sympathetic voice joins in 
 complaint and curse : — 
 
 " Green leaf of twisted blade 
 May the Eussian be accursed, 
 For ever since he has come 
 Upon us, and has mastered us, 
 Our house seems to be no house. 
 Our table seems to be no table, 
 The weather is upside down, 
 And the earth is full of anger I 
 Green leaf of little withe 
 The Prut cries itself to death, f 
 
 'Frunza verde mar uscat 
 Fi i-ar neamul blastamat 
 Fi i-ar casa tot pustie 
 §i copii' in puscarie 
 Cine pe Rus I'a facut 
 Stapan dincolo de Prut." 
 
 ' Foaie verde fir sucit 
 Fire-ar Rusu-afurisit, 
 Ca de cind el a venit 
 Peste noi ^i ne-a robit 
 Casa par' ca nu ni-i casa 
 Masa par' ca nu ni-i masa 
 Vremea par' ca-i tot pe dos 
 §i pamantul manios 1 
 Foaie verde lozioara 
 Prutul plange se omoara 
 
INTRODUCTION 33 
 
 And we all join in a crowd, 
 
 For henceforth who of us can say 
 
 Whenever he shall be free ? " * 
 
 The great losses told heavily on the Roumanian heart ; 
 his Christian brothers abroad have spoliated him as much 
 as they could ; his Christian brothers at home oppress 
 him beyond bearing ; the Turk, the supreme ruler, is 
 accounted the original cause of all these evils, he v^ants 
 to destroy it ; and so it is that in all the Russo-Turkish 
 wars, the Russian armies were filled with Roumanian 
 volunteers, who joined in a fight against the common 
 pagan enemy. 
 
 In 1821 the Greek revolution against the Turks 
 awakened the Roumanians to a revolution against their 
 own oppressor, the Greek. With Tudor Vladimirescu 
 the Roumanian peasant leaves for a moment " the horns 
 of the plough." He began by taking a bloody revenge 
 on his oppressor at home, the boiar, Greek or Roumanian; 
 he spent his last penny on a rifle, and under Tudor's 
 leadership went to free the country from the phanariotes ; 
 he was quite ready for self-sacrifice, and his weeping wife 
 he soothed with the words : — 
 
 " Cry no more, my dearest Mary, 
 Take care of John and of the cottage 
 And of the poor little girls, 
 For hard days are upon us. 
 Do not cry over my death. 
 For evil fate is on the land. 
 Look, we are starting to plough,! 
 
 * §i cu noi to|ii gramagioara 
 Ca de-acu cine mai §tie 
 Slobod cind are sa fie 1 " 
 
 f " Nu mai plange Mariu^a 
 Vezi de Ion §i de casu^a 
 ^i de bietele copile 
 Cam ajuns in rele zile, 
 Sa nu plange^i moartea mea 
 Ca-i pe |iara piaza rea. 
 Uite mergem sa aram 
 4 
 
34 INTRODUCTION 
 
 To cut across the fallow, 
 And then we are going to sow. 
 You will then come after us 
 And harvest a hundredfold. 
 Do not weep, do not be sorry : 
 The Lord Tudor is with us. 
 May God also be with you! "* 
 
 And sow they did, their own blood and bones, for the 
 next generations to reap the benefit. The sufferings of 
 the people at the hands of Turks and Greeks, who 
 plundered and set the countries afire from end to end, 
 were beyond description. People of all classes ran away 
 to the mountains and the woods, as they were wont to do 
 of old, at the time of previous invasions. This epoch has 
 remained in people's memory like a dreadful nightmare, 
 and has been called the bejania; this was a time when 
 the ox-carts were provided with two poles, one in front, 
 the other behind ; if the fugitives in their flight met with 
 danger ahead, there was no time to waste on turning the 
 cart round, especially as the roads were narrow, so they 
 quickly unyoked the oxen and put them at the other end, 
 and back they drove in another direction as fast as they 
 could. The sacrifice of life and wealth was enormous, 
 but the prize was at hand : the sun of 1822 shed its 
 brilliant beams on Roumanian thrones with Roumanian 
 monarchs ; Greek rule was done away with, as well as the 
 Greek language vanished at once as by miracle. And 
 what of the Greeks? They all were found to have 
 turned out Roumanians ! The fact is, the Greeks had 
 for more than a century contrived to Grecise the 
 Roumanians, but now instead of that they were 
 themselves Roumanised. 
 
 During these fateful years of 1821-1822, whilst the 
 
 * ^elina s'o despicam 
 Ca avem sa samanam. 
 Voi ave^i sa ne urma^i 
 ^i 'nsutit sa secera^i 
 Nu plange^i, nu va 'ntrista^^i 
 Domnul Tudor e cu noi 
 Dumnezeu fie cu voi." 
 
INTRODUCTION 35 
 
 Northern Roumanians fought to get rid of the Greek 
 rule, the Valachians of the Pindus took arms, and fought 
 side by side with the Greeks against the Turks ; they 
 fought for Greek independence. Many of the captains, 
 even of the greatest ones, Hke Botzaris, Colocotroni, were 
 nothing but Grecised Roumanians. The Greeks won their 
 hberty, but the Valachians lost more than they won in 
 their situation between both Turks and Greeks. 
 
 The year 1848, the next era of revolutions, found a 
 ready help in the Roumanian people, in striking blows for 
 liberty, both in Transylvania and in the principalities. 
 In Transylvania they fought against the Hungarians in 
 bloody fights, where women fought side by side with the 
 men ; and advantages were secured when the Hungarians 
 were beaten, but were lost afterwards, through the 
 weakening of Austria in 1866. In the principalities the 
 Roumanians arose to shake off the yoke of the Russian 
 protectorate, even heavier than Turkish suzerainty, which 
 had already been laid on both principalities since 1774. 
 The protectorate was, however, removed only in 1856 by 
 the treaty of Paris, when also a slice only of Bassarabia 
 was restored to Moldavia — to be taken back again in 
 1878. 
 
 In 1859 the Union of Moldavia and Valachia was 
 effected by the unanimous consent of all, well aware that 
 they were absolutely the same people, and that their 
 most natural status was in unity not in a division : the 
 Milcov was " drunk out in a breath," the little boundary 
 was swept away for ever, and the brothers united, quite 
 conscious by this time that — 
 
 "Where there is one, there is no strength, 
 In trouble as well as in woe ; 
 Where there are two there grows the strength, 
 And the foes does not progress." * 
 
 ' Unde-i unul, nu-i putere 
 La nacaz ^i la durere ; 
 Unde-s doi, puterea create 
 ^i du^manul nu spore^te." 
 
86 INTRODUCTION 
 
 The Roumanians united by the simple election of the 
 same prince, the Moldavian boiar, Alexander Joan Cuza ; 
 all the rest came by itself. Cuza's successor was Charles I. 
 of Hohenzollern, who has, since the last war, won for 
 himself the title of king. In this war the Roumanians, 
 as allies of the Russians, fought bravely against the 
 Turks, and won the independence of the country. But 
 in return the Roumanians were obliged to make a sore 
 sacrifice : the Russian allies deprived them once more 
 of that last part of Bassarabia, restored in 1856, giving in 
 return the rather inferior compensation of Dobrogia — 
 also lost by the Roumanians in the fourteenth century. 
 One more lesson for the Roumanian people to learn, 
 which, indeed, had been long known and expressed in the 
 proverb : " Guard me, God, against my friends, for 
 against my foes I can guard myself." 
 
 "Komanul nu piere." 
 ("The Eoumanian never dies.") 
 
 The Roumanians, then, the descendants of Roman 
 colonists and Romanised Dacians, after a comparatively 
 short babyhood rocked under the careful eye of Mother 
 Rome on the Carpathian heights, were thrown away into 
 the stormiest childhood, in which the only problem was 
 not "how to live," but "how not to die." A solution 
 of the problem has been offered by the mountains, both 
 north and south of the Danube. From Carpathian to 
 Pindus it is on the heights that the Roumanian nation 
 has found a shelter for its long and helpless childhood ; 
 these heights, these mountains, have moulded into their 
 final shape the Roumanian body and soul. Narrow and 
 unfertile region, the Pindus has reared poorer children, 
 less fit for the struggle of life; large and generous, the 
 Carpathian has been a faithful and devoted cradle, and is 
 to the present day the stronghold of Roumanism. Of the 
 ten or eleven millions of Roumanians living at present 
 
INTRODUCTION 37 
 
 north of the Danube, in a compact mass over the 
 Carpathian region, three millions are still striving on 
 its heights, in the very plateau of Transylvania and on the 
 western slopes, half-way down to the Tissa, in the pro- 
 vinces of Maramuresh, Crishiana, Temishiana, and Banat, 
 and the northern province of Bukovina, under Austro- 
 Hungarian rule, thriving and prospering with all that, 
 for, as can be gathered from the official statistics, this 
 Eoumanian population is ever on the increase, with all 
 the violent tendency of the Hungarians to Magyarise 
 everything and everybody around. The Carpathians are 
 the abundant spring of Koumanism ; in proportion as it 
 fills, its waves run over the border and flow towards the 
 plains. As you walk along the eastern and southern 
 Carpathians, inside the Free-Koumania boundary, ever 
 and anon you come on double-villages, bearing the same 
 name, but with the prefixes of either pdminteni (that is 
 to say, ''local "), or of ungureni (which means " coming 
 from Hungary") respectively. And, when asking for 
 explanation, you are told that both kind of dwellers are 
 Eoumanians, only the former have always been there, 
 whilst the latter have come at a more recent date from 
 "beyond the mountains" and settled down, and that is 
 why they are designated by the distinctive denomination 
 of "ungureni." And all the summer, too, you come 
 across crowds of Carpathian dwellers, be it in Tran- 
 sylvania or Bukovina, swarming about the plains in quest 
 of work. And they get it, too, for Free Koumania is as 
 yet rather thinly populated with her 5,406,000 inhabitants 
 on a surface of 131,020 sq. km. 
 
 The Carpathians have sent out shoots of the Eoumanian 
 trunk as far west as Moravia and Istria ; only here they 
 have experienced a hard time under the Slav blast. The 
 150,000 Yalachians, said to be living in Moravia, have 
 been entirely Slavisised; they have forgotten their 
 mother-tongue, excepting the few Eoumanian words 
 they have preserved in their newly-learnt language ; 
 they have forgotten their nationality, except the name 
 of the soil they are treading on, called still VlashJca 
 (Germ. Wallachei) ; and their own appellation of Vlahi, 
 
38 INTRODUCTION 
 
 but for many customs and usages identical with those 
 of the Boumanians, and which make them a distinct 
 population from those surrounding them, recognised as 
 such by even Slav and German writers, who have paid 
 them some attention. In Istria there is a still larger 
 number of Roumanians settled down, especially on the 
 eastern coast of the peninsula, on the slopes of Monte 
 Maggiore. These also have been Slavicised, leaving still 
 some 5,000 Roumanians, who can speak the language, 
 tainted with the strong peculiarity of rotacism ; they also 
 call themselves Bumeri, whilst the strangers call them 
 Vlachi. Even those who speak no longer Roumanian 
 have preserved many of the Roumanian habits and 
 national customs. But Roumanism is dying out fast 
 there, too, under strong pressure of Slav influence ; and 
 they are fatally marked for death, being, like the Vlachi 
 of Moravia, so far away from the main trunk, and kept 
 apart by such a wide sea of diverse populations : all the 
 omnium gatherum of peoples and races known under 
 the name of the Austrian Empire. 
 
 In Transylvania proper the Roumanians are not alone 
 masters, but the other nations are in inferior numbers, 
 whilst the Roumanians make up 60 per cent, of the 
 whole population, the Magyars (Hungarians and Secklers 
 together) make up only 27 per cent., and the Saxons 
 10 per cent., other minor races making up the remaining 
 3 per cent. In this respect Bukovina stands at a dis- 
 advantage, for, whilst she at the time of the conquest 
 was populated with a large Roumanian population, with 
 an unquestionable and absolute majority, this Roumanian 
 population enjoys to-day but a relative majority ; of the 
 650,297 inhabitants only 35 per cent, are Roumanians, 
 30 per cent, are Ruthenians (Slavs), all the rest being 
 Germans, Jews, Hungarians, &c. Since 1849 Bukovina 
 forms an autonomous province with a ducal title ; before 
 that date it was united to Galicia, and this brought in 
 the powerful Slav element, which puts under danger of 
 Slavicisation the Roumanians and all the rest. 
 
 Beyond the Prut, in Bassarabia, the country between 
 the Prut and the Dniester, out of a population of 
 
INTRODUCTION 39 
 
 1,641,559 inhabitants, 66 per cent. — that is 1,089,999, 
 according to Russian statistics — are Roumanians. Of 
 pure Russians there are only 34,437, but there are other 
 Slavs, chiefly Ruthenians, to the number of over 330,000, 
 all the rest being composed of various foreign settlers — 
 Bulgarians, Germans, Armenians, Greeks, Jews, &c. 
 And there are also Roumanians beyond the Dniester, in 
 the province of Kerson, leading their own life in their 
 own villages, and still speaking their mother-tongue; there 
 are also Roumanian colonies as far afield as the Caucasus, 
 still speaking their own language and keeping to the 
 national usages and customs ; all these Roumanians offer 
 a stubborn resistance to the pressing current of Russian 
 influence. 
 
 It cannot be denied that the Carpathians from top to 
 bottom are Roumanian mountains ; from the crown of 
 the highest peaks down to the wide-stretched lap by 
 the side of the Dniester, Danube, Tissa, a solid com- 
 pact population of over ten millions of Roumanians is 
 striving to hold its own among ever-encroaching neigh- 
 bours, and smaller populations run between. Of these, 
 the Hungarians are the most numerous by far, being 
 some six and a half millions, but their own abode 
 is in the vast Hungarian Pusta on both banks of the 
 Tissa. 
 
 Beyond the Danube, what remains of the Roumanian 
 nation can be called nothing more than splinters strewn 
 about the variegated mosaic of nationalities making up 
 the map of the Balkan peninsula. First of all, there are 
 the Roumanian colonists settled down on the right bank 
 of the Danube ; in Bulgaria some 47,000, half of which 
 are settled together in thirty-six villages by the mouths 
 of the Timok, the rest scattered about in four groups 
 along the Danube ; in Servia a much larger number of 
 Roumanian settlers have been counted, over 150,000, of 
 whom, however, a small percentage only are settled ; the 
 others lead a nomadic pastoral life in the mountains. 
 All these Roumanians of both Bulgaria and Servia are 
 settlers of comparatively recent date, not older than the 
 eighteenth century ; they belong to the northern section 
 
40 INTRODUCTION 
 
 of the Roumanian nation, and speak the very same 
 Roumanian dialect. 
 
 Besides, there is a much larger number of Roumanians, 
 spread lower down, in the Pindic region, those cut off 
 from the common body in the third century at the 
 time of the Emperor Aurelianus ; these call themselves 
 Aromd7ii or Armdni, and are called by their foreign 
 neighbours Zinzari and Cutzovlachiy and various other 
 local appellations. These Armdni y or Pindic Vlachi, speak 
 a Roumanian dialect at great variance with the North 
 Roumanian. Of these Pindic Valachs, a smaller number, 
 comparatively, are attached to the land, and are con- 
 sequently easier to get at ; but by far the greatest number 
 are nomads, roaming about like foam on the billows of 
 foreign nations, and consequently are difficult to number. 
 It is impossible to give at present an exact return of the 
 Roumanians of the Pindus ; some admit the number of 
 500,000, others a smaller number ; others, again, go so far 
 as to admit 1,000,000 of Valachians in the Pindus, and 
 others even more. The exact truth seems to be beyond 
 reach as yet. At all events, it is certain that they were 
 once much more numerous, but that they have been 
 Grecised all through the centuries with great assiduity and 
 often with violence. Church and school being active agents. 
 The identity of creed has brought about the Grecisation of 
 the adults ; as for the children, the Greeks have founded 
 more schools for the education of the Armani than they 
 have for their own children at home. In the last twenty 
 years Roumanian schools have been founded, but their 
 progress has been gravely checked by Greek interference, 
 often violent. On the other hand, there is a Slav 
 influence as well, working on the Roumanian develop- 
 ment, very violent just now, when its representatives, the 
 Bulgarians, have taken to their knives to support their 
 national ardour. Between these two pressing influences, 
 what can Roumanism do? If those mountains presented 
 wider pastures for their flocks; if a unity of a fair, 
 impartial Government secured them a fair chance of 
 doing their best, we may well assume that the Armani 
 would still live and multiply and prosper. But cut into 
 
INTRODUCTION 41 
 
 pieces as the peninsula is now, the Armin shepherd sees 
 with despair the frontiers growing under his feet, and the 
 taxes multiplying in front of his herds, and it no longer 
 pays to rear sheep with all the taxes he has to pay in 
 order to get them from one pasture to another ; and thus 
 he sees himself obliged to give up pastoral life which he 
 loves, to settle down in the plain and till the land which 
 is not his, and which he does not like. The Arman, 
 therefore, rather keeps still to nomadic life, as an ambulant 
 trader or worker, wandering all over the country place 
 for a scanty living, but, when he can, returning back to 
 his family left at home in the mountain villages. If only 
 they were crowded all together, these much-tried off- 
 springs of old Eome ! But they are scattered about in 
 Macedonia, Albania, Epirus, Thessaly, Acarnany, and 
 Etholy, divided under Turkish and Greek dominion. In 
 Macedonia the Armani are more united in the western 
 mountains region ; a compact mass also is to be met with 
 in middle Albania, but most of the Armglni are found in 
 the region between Epirus and Thessaly, on the highest 
 summits of the Pindus and on the southern slopes half- 
 way down the river Aspropotamos ; at the feet of the 
 Olympus and Ossa there are also Armin villages, and 
 sporadically they are scattered all over Beotia, with a 
 rather more compact group in Acarnania and Etholy, not 
 far from the famous Missolonghi. And all around them, 
 these Armini come into contact with Greek and Slav pro- 
 paganda. And a great many have become Greeks already ; 
 the greatest part of the population of Epirus and Thessaly 
 are hardly anything else than Grecised Armini. The 
 well-to-do classes, almost entirely Grecised, are the most 
 ardent supporters of Greek propaganda, spending their 
 money on Greek institutions of culture, &c., wrapping 
 themselves in the pride of borrowed ancestors, and for- 
 getting all the time that they too have ancestors of 
 whom they may be proud. 
 
 If Eoumanism in the Carpathian has been saved in 
 the darkest hours of hardship, it has been saved by the 
 poor, by the humble ; will the poor and the humble of 
 the Pindus be able to do as much for Eoumanism in their 
 
42 INTRODUCTION 
 
 much harder conditions? With ill-will and cowardly 
 desertion they can certainly not be charged; some of 
 them have carried Eoumanian usages and Roumanian 
 habits and shreds of Roumanian language as far as Asia 
 Minor; in Bythinia there are villages of emigrated 
 Armini, still aware of their origin, but dead to the 
 nation. 
 
 From this rapid sketch of the history of the Roumanian 
 nation, it seems obvious that it has always been a viable 
 one, is still in full vitality, and has now arrived in full 
 force of manhood. The Roumanian nation has struggled 
 to live, and is still struggling with staunch stubbornness ; 
 in that long, protracted struggle she has acquired a force 
 of resistance, a toughness that has made her almost 
 proof against new blows. Through the centuries the 
 Roumanians have fought for life and liberty, for the 
 preservation of their nationality and faith ; they have 
 always been on the defensive, protecting themselves, but 
 never attacking others or taking what was not their 
 own; never have they fought to acquire by violence, 
 domination, or command over other nations ; the 
 Roumanian has always been found freeminded, liberal, 
 tolerant in the full meaning of the word ; he will never 
 attack, never become a prey to greedy desires, but will 
 strike hard before giving up his own, and will ever lend a 
 docile ear to that fateful warning resounding from the 
 Carpathian far down into the plain : — 
 
 ' Arise, arise, Eoumanian, 
 From thy deathlike sleep, 
 In which thou hast been plunged 
 By the barbarous tyrants I * 
 
 De§teapta-te Eomdne, 
 Din somnul eel de moarte, 
 In care te-adancira 
 Barbarii de tirani! 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 43 
 
 Now, oh now, or never. 
 Shape thee another fate 
 To which thy cruel enemies 
 May also bow their heads." * 
 
 i 
 
 y 
 
 Marciale. M.M. J =120. 
 
 ^n- 
 
 mf 
 
 t=t 
 
 ^EE 
 
 -M : 
 
 3t=f: 
 
 De§ - teap - ta - te Eo - m& - ne, Din som - nul eel de 
 
 I 
 
 i 
 
 qzq: 
 
 JUT ' 
 
 itf: 
 
 a^ 
 
 r 
 
 moar - te, 
 
 ca 
 
 re te - a - d4n 
 
 ci 
 
 ra Bar - 
 
 =F^ 
 
 ^ 
 
 WJO^- 
 
 ba - rii de ti - ra - ni. Bar 
 
 ba - rii de ti - ra - ni 
 
 ^f-^ 
 
 3dpt 
 
 ^■=i^=X 
 
 *--#- 
 
 E 
 
 -^^^ 
 
 i^ 
 
 A - cum, orinici-o - da - ta, Croi - e - §te^i al - ta 
 
 rq: 
 
 r=^ 
 
 x^ 
 
 r^^^ 
 
 La ca - re sa se'n - chi - ne 
 VP , 
 
 IfcT 
 
 ^^ 
 
 -o — -m- 
 
 cru - ziitaidu^-man - i,.... ^i - cru - zii tai du^-man-il 
 
 ■'' "Acum, ori nici-o-data, 
 Croie§te-"|ii alta soarta 
 La care sa se' nchine 
 ^i cruzii tai du^mani." . . 
 
CHAPTEE I 
 
 PEASANT AND SOIL 
 
 LANDED PROPERTY 
 
 As those who have read the preceding brief historical 
 sketch will gather, the great barbaric invasions, pro- 
 tracted over ten long centuries, have thrown a thick 
 veil over the formation of the Eoumanian nation, and 
 at the same time have checked the growth of its 
 natural development, keeping it still in infancy up to 
 the thirteenth century. During the short intervals 
 which followed the great storms of the invasions, we 
 had a glimpse of the Roumanians as they dwelt in 
 the Carpathians, leaning on the Carpathians, girding 
 them all along, from Western Valachia to Northern 
 Moldavia, with the Slavs, lower down, filling the 
 plains. In those times of much land and few people — 
 at least few labouring people — and of no centralised 
 government, people very likely took possession of the 
 ground in proportion as they tilled it, according to the 
 Slav formula. "Where my plough, and my hoe, and 
 my scythe have passed, that land is mine ; " and it is 
 no wonder that the Roumanians, who finally'^ mixed 
 with the Slavs in the plain, entirely Roumanised them 
 as they had already done the Slavs who had ventured 
 up the mountains. If the Roumanian introduced the 
 Slav into the secrets of ewes and lambs, of cheese 
 and butter making, it is no less true that they also 
 borrowed from them many a new and useful imple- 
 
Peasant Cottage. 
 
 \_Fhoto, J. Cazaban. 
 
 Ploughing. 
 
 e page 44. 
 
 {Photo, J. Cazaban. 
 
UNIVERSITY " 
 
 OF 
 
 PEASANT AND SOHT'^^^^iSS--'' 
 
 ment, or, at least, new Slav names for old things. As 
 under these circumstances property is to develop in 
 the whole region of the outer Carpathian slopes, down 
 to the Danube and the Dniester, it is no wonder that 
 Eoumanian property should have been moulded, partly 
 at least, on Slav models. 
 
 Strictly speaking, property in Dacia must have existed 
 ever since the colonisation, but the turmoil of the in- 
 vasions turned all things upside down, and it is not hard 
 to understand that the Koumanians in their continual 
 flights up and down hill, should have lost their ** papers " 
 had they had such. But human memory was stronger in 
 those paperless times, and witnesses in flesh and blood 
 did as much for recognition of property as papers could 
 have done. In a Latin document of the Hungarian 
 administration of Transylvania, dating from the year 
 1231, one finds that a certain German from the 
 lowlands, Vydh de Bord, bought an estate from a 
 Eoumanian, Bujul filio Stoje^ in the Valachian district 
 (Terra Blacorum), but the purchaser declared before 
 the Chapter of the Church, that he would give back 
 that land to its old owner, another Eoumanian, Truth 
 filio Ghoru, from whom he had got the money given for 
 it, and he would do this because Trulh had proved "with 
 many witnesses " that this land had belonged from time 
 immemorial to his "fathers and forefathers." Now this 
 is one fact, and there are others which may still be 
 brought to light from dusty documents, to the effect 
 that landed property was a known fact with Eoumanian 
 people, " from times beyond recollection." 
 
 They possessed land, and, above all, they possessed 
 undoubtedly the mountains and the poianas on the 
 heights, which they enlarged at will by burning the too 
 cumbersome forests. Little they thought during their 
 harassed wanderings from glade to glade that new 
 guests would come in later, to deny not only their 
 private, but even their national, property in those 
 regions, trodden by them in all directions. 
 
 When the Hungarian invasion came, Transylvania was 
 conquered, both the land and its owners. Among these 
 
46 FROM CARPATHIAN TO PINDUS 
 
 owners there must have been a number of great ones, of 
 ** nobles," as they are mentioned in repeated documents, 
 emanating from Hungarian kings in the succeeding cen- 
 turies, as having their privileges repeatedly sanctioned 
 for ** loyalty" and various services, especially fighting 
 against the Turks. Loyalty is a fine word, but oh, 
 how elastic its application ! Loyal they were, these 
 nobles, to the strange king, but were they loyal to 
 their own blood, to their nation, to their humbler 
 brethren? It is well known that a great part of the 
 Transylvanian nobility passed to the conqueror, adopting 
 his language and creed, in order not to lose their land 
 and privileges. Those who declined to do that — to ** bend 
 their heads " under the foreign yoke — were simply dis- 
 possessed, despoiled eventually of their land, reduced to 
 utter poverty and even to servitude ; and the eighteenth 
 century finds the Roumanian people in Transylvania 
 without land, without rights, and without liberty. They 
 were serfs, bondsmen on the land of the nobles, and 
 even the priests were treated as such. We have seen 
 in the preceding chapter that the Roumanians of 
 Transylvania rose several times against their oppressors : 
 spoliation of their lands was always one of the chief 
 causes for this. After bloody suppression of risings 
 punishment came : new spoliations, new sufferings ; a 
 kind of vicious circle, spoliation engendering rebellion, 
 rebellion bringing about spoliation. Suppression of serf- 
 dom was itself only the outcome of the bloody rising of 
 1785. But the Roumanians were not serfs alone, the 
 Hungarian peasant shared the same fate. So much for 
 the Carpathian plateau. 
 
 As to the outer slopes of the Carpathians, we know 
 that they were taken possession of by the Roumanians 
 descending from the heights, long before the foundation 
 of the two principalities of Valachia and Moldavia, and 
 this often by the burning of forests and by the cutting 
 down and uprooting of trees and roots. In what manner 
 this taking possession was settled at the time, it would 
 be hard to say exactly ; one thing, however, seems 
 certain, namely, that in the oldest times, property was 
 
PEASANT AND SOIL 47 
 
 inherited undivided, the heirs dividing only the income 
 from it. Later, these undivided properties began to be 
 divided into "bodies," worked still in common by 
 groups of individuals descending from the same 
 ancestor. To the present day, an estate recognised 
 as having been the original property of a family, before 
 the division was made, is still called a bdtrdn — from 
 veteranus. "We know that the Koman veterani (sol- 
 diers whose service was ended) were given land in 
 the regions they had been guarding; what if property 
 on these slopes of the Carpathians had its origin rooted 
 in the Eoman colonisation ? However that may be, 
 * these primitive landowners, whether individual or col- 
 lective proprietors, small or large ones, being bound by 
 similar interests, have naturally united, little by little, 
 and either submitted to one or another chief or voye- 
 vode, like Lithuon and Seneslau and others mentioned 
 in history ; or else came to some kind of republican 
 organisation of their own, such, for instance, as the 
 simple organisations of the Eoumanian Vrancea and 
 Cimpulung or the Slav republic of Berlad seem to have 
 been, forming thus first rudiments of State life. When 
 the founders of the principalities came from beyond the 
 mountains they found these rudiments of states, and 
 mastered them. History is not quite clear on this 
 point, but very likely the foundation of unity was not 
 completed without a struggle. With respect to Mol- 
 davia, history actually tells us how Bogdan had to 
 fight against Balk, son of Sas the Moldavian, son him- 
 self of the legendary Dragosh. If fights there were, it 
 is pretty certain that the fate of those beaten was not 
 the same as the fate of the victors, nor even indeed 
 the same as the fate of those who willingly accepted 
 the new rule. The landowners, large and small, who 
 willingly recognised the new ruler, of the same blood 
 and creed as themselves, were left free possessors of 
 their lands and rights, on condition that they paid 
 certain taxes and gave military service. Those sub- 
 jected by force were obliged to provide a number of 
 days of various services for the prince, as well as to 
 
48 FROM CARPATHIAN TO PINDUS 
 
 pay taxes and to fulfil military service, differing thus 
 little on the whole from the free landowners. Besides, 
 the founders of the principalities took at the same time 
 possession, nominally at least, of the waste land, 
 belonging to nobody in particular, and of which there 
 seem to have been very large regions, together with 
 endless woods. 
 
 Thus the property respected by the prince at the 
 moment of the foundation was made up of large land 
 holdings — the property of nobility — and the holdings 
 of small landowners, the rdzdshi, as they are called in 
 Moldavia, or moshneni, as they are called in Valachia. 
 Of these rdzdshi and moshneni (yeomen) there exists 
 a certain number to the present day, being the 
 landowners who can show the oldest documents of 
 landed property in all Eoumania. They seem to have 
 been very numerous ; besides, later division of property 
 brought in the long run most of the great landowners 
 to the rank of mere rdzdshi. A third kind of property 
 existed also, namely, the common property, by which a 
 whole village owned in common a whole estate ; that 
 this common property must have had deep roots is 
 proved by an enactment which, even later, never 
 allowed the selling off of a property to a stranger 
 without the consent of all the members of the family 
 or neighbours. On the other hand, the prince came 
 with a troop of followers, who helped him to become 
 lord of the country; these he had to reward for the 
 service done, and the reward always consisted of land. 
 Some of them were presented with stretches of the 
 waste land of which the prince had just taken posses- 
 sion, but what is land without implements to till it ? 
 The new proprietors had to coax inhabitants to these 
 empty estates, and this they did by just giving them 
 some land under certain conditions. Others of the 
 monarch's followers were presented by him with some 
 of his subjected villages, that is to say, with the claims 
 he had himself on the inhabitants of those villages, as 
 already alluded to. 
 
 As villages had their landed property, so had the towns, 
 
PEASANT AND SOIL 49 
 
 which, by the way, cannot have been for some time 
 (most of them at least) much more than villages. Down 
 to the present day there are towns with land of their own, 
 the mo§ia tdrgului (the town estate), possessed once by 
 the bulk of the town's population in common, and passed 
 later on into the hands of the communal authorities. 
 
 Koughly speaking, this was the state of the rural 
 property between the thirteenth and the sixteenth 
 century. No doubt it has not remained crystallised in 
 that way all through the three centuries ; property has 
 certainly shifted a good deal from hand to hand, but 
 on the whole the framework has been the same all 
 along. In this period of time there have been many 
 wars : small and large landowners must have been 
 doing their duty, and consequently must have won 
 new rewards, new stretches of land from the immense 
 property of the monarch. Others, again, may not 
 have done their duty, not provided the due number 
 of soldiers, or not paid the required taxation : punish- 
 ment must have befallen them; namely, their land 
 must have been taken by the prince to increase his 
 own domain, or else to be presented to others, to 
 warriors or to monasteries, when the monarch was of a 
 particularly religious turn of mind. In this way large 
 properties may have gone on increasing ; but, on the other 
 hand, small properties held their own too, by the 
 successive division of large properties among the several 
 inheritors. 
 
 Of those remote, quasi-patriarchal times, the Rou- 
 manian peasant has preserved the remembrance in 
 more than one ballad, faithful mirrors bringing back 
 to us the life of those times with its lights and shade. 
 As already shown, in those old golden times there 
 seems to have been land for all, more indeed than 
 was wanted, vast regions belonging to nobody, beside 
 immense expanses of woods belonging to all at large 
 and to nobody in particular. Those lands and those 
 woods belonged nominally to the voyevode, but practi- 
 cally, and probably from an older date than his, they 
 belonged to any vagrant adventurer who dared to take 
 
 5 
 
50 FKOM CARPATHIAN TO PINDUS 
 
 them. The popular ballads bring before our eyes the 
 picture of those times, when the bold adventurers won 
 fields and forests, and in their attitude as transient 
 masters, stood up to fight any transgressor of their 
 boundaries and plundered him. Handsome and brave 
 as a rule, our adventurer was oftentimes more conceited 
 and vain than really strong — Pduna§ul Codrilor (''little 
 peacock of the woods") he was called — so that often 
 enough he was overcome and driven away by the 
 coarser rival. 
 
 In those policeless, fearless days, lived Sto'ian-Popa 
 (Stoian the ex-priest), a renowned robber. He drives 
 along in his ox-cart with his handsome wife Vidra ; 
 they are on a visiting journey to the wife's parents. 
 Slowly, carelessly, they drive on, over woods, over 
 mountains, over villages, without any one disturbing 
 them in the least. But Stoian is weary of the long 
 journey, he wants a song from his wife. She would 
 much rather not sing, for she knows the power of 
 her voice, which would arouse woods and mountains, 
 and valleys and waters, and surely bring on them the 
 Pduna§ul Codrilor. Oh ! but strong Stoian does not 
 mind him, he is ready to fight and overcome him; 
 he insists on the song and gets it. The Pdu7ia§ul 
 Codrilor appears, and requests Stoian to pay a pass 
 fee, namely, his oxen, his cart, his hatchet, or his fair 
 wife. Stoian declines — 
 
 " For the soil is not thine ; 
 Neither thine, nor is it mine, 
 But it all belongs to God." ^^^ 
 
 They fight, the Pduna§ is overcome, and Stoian 
 goes off. In other versions, the outcome of the fight 
 is the reverse of this, and people's sympathies are 
 divided between the equally brilliant adventurer and 
 the bandit, but indifferent, after all, to both ; or rather, 
 
 **'Caci pam^ntul nu-i al tau ; 
 Nici al tau nu-i, nici al meu, 
 Ci-i tot a lui Dumnezeu." 
 
Walking with her Distaff. 
 
 IPhoio, J. Cazaban. 
 
PEASANT AND SOIL 51 
 
 they are sure to hold with the bravest in the fight. 
 The trdnta dreapta (the fair fight), where the bravest 
 overcomes the weakest, is a fight dear to the Eoumanian 
 heart, even at the present day. 
 
 With much more deHght does the popular poet indulge 
 in circumstantial pictures of the deeds of the national 
 hero overcoming the foreign bandit, the national enemy. 
 Mihu Copilul is a young hero of this type, and a great 
 favourite with the people, who have sung his praises 
 in numberless ballads all over the regions occupied by 
 Eoumanians. This is the tale : — 
 
 Mihu Copilul, Pduna§ de frunte, copila§ de munte 
 (** best of peacocks, child of the mountain ") rides away, 
 *' caressing" the woods with the tunes of his cobuz 
 (a sort of flute). He rides at midnight, through dark, 
 thick woods on a stony path, lighted only now and then 
 by the sparks brought forth from the stones by the hoof 
 of his " bay." They go along through the sleepy forest ; 
 the horse seems weary, the master tenderly asks him the 
 reason, the horse warns him against unseen danger, 
 against the approaching foe, hidden in the thicket : — 
 
 *' Janosh, the Hungarian 
 The hardened robber."* 
 
 who is near at hand with his " fifty-but-five " followers. 
 But the master encourages the faithful horse; he is 
 strong and knows also that — 
 
 " The Hungarian is a braggart, 
 He is not dangerous; 
 His mouth is large 
 But does not bite hard." f 
 
 * "Janu§, Ungurean 
 Vechiul ho^oman." 
 
 f *' Unguru-i falos 
 Nu-i primejdios. 
 Gura lui e mare 
 Dar nu mu^ca tare. 
 
52 FROM CARPATHIAN TO PINDUS 
 
 On the other hand, the Hungarian thief Janosh sits 
 down banqueting with his attendants; of a sudden he 
 warns them with a start that he has heard — 
 
 "A sound of a whistle 
 Sounding through the leaves 
 Caressing the woods."-'' 
 
 and sends them in search of the stranger with the 
 boastful injunction — 
 
 "If he is some brave 
 With blooming cheeks, 
 Do not injure him 
 But bring him fast bound. 
 If he is some fool 
 Spoiled by the women, 
 Give him a cuff 
 And let him go."f 
 
 But our hero makes them take to their heels, and 
 following them to their chief, makes them all meek 
 as lambs with a tune on his cobuz : — 
 
 "A wailing tune 
 So beautiful 
 
 That mountains resound, 
 And falcons gather, J 
 
 * **Un glas de cobuz 
 Printre frunzi sunand 
 Codrii desmierdand." 
 
 f "De-a fi vre-un viteaz 
 Cu flori pe obraz 
 Sa nu mi-1 strica^i 
 Ci sa mi-1 lega^ii. 
 Ear vre-un fermecat 
 De femei stricat 
 O palma sa-i da^i 
 Drumul sa-i lasa^i." 
 
 I "Un cintec duios 
 Atit de frumos 
 Mun^ii ca rasuna 
 ^oimii se aduna 
 
PEASANT AND SOIL 53 
 
 The woods awaken, 
 
 The leaves whisper, 
 
 The stars twinkle 
 
 And stop in their course." * 
 
 Janosh invites Mihu to partake of his meal, after 
 which single combat is to decide between them. The 
 result is Janosh's death. The followers of the Hungarian 
 chief now beg the victorious Mihu to take them into his 
 service ; he promises to do so, if they are able to lift his 
 weapons from the ground, but these proving too heavy 
 for them, he dismisses them with scorn — 
 
 "You cowards! 
 Beast-like men I 
 Leave the woods 
 And take to the yoke, 
 For you, you are not. 
 You are not like us 
 Men of true pride 
 Fit for bravery, 
 But men of the rabble 
 Fit for the broad hoe I " f 
 
 With this last stroke the poet has drawn the line 
 between the daring adventurer and the common herd of 
 the men whose lot it is to till the ground. 
 
 Even more is admired the well-to-do landowner of 
 those times, who, weary of husbandry, and moved by the 
 
 * Codrii se trezesc 
 Frunzele ^optesc 
 Stelele clipesc 
 
 §i 'n cale s' opresc." 
 
 • "Voi miseilorl 
 
 Haraminilor 1 
 Codrii mi-i lasa|ii 
 Giugul apuca^i, 
 Ca nu sinte^i voi 
 Nu sinte^i ca noi 
 Oameni de mandrie 
 Buni de vitejie 
 Ci oameni de gloata 
 Buni de sapa latal" 
 
54 FROM CARPATHIAN TO PINDUS 
 
 spirit of adventure, and the desire of revenge for the 
 ever-recurring plunders of his country, starts against the 
 Tartars (settled down for centuries in South Russia and 
 the Crimea) and, deserting home and plough, rushes across 
 the Dniester for bloody revenge ; Bomdn Grue Grozovan is 
 the favourite hero of this type. 
 
 "High up the Dniester, under Heaven's skirts" there 
 is a Tartar camp ; in the middle, a carpeted tent, tall and 
 gorgeous, in which the old Khan sits, surrounded by his 
 guard of Tartars, with " bolting eyes," all on their knees. 
 At the door, a *' poor, bound Roumanian," the " Rouma- 
 nian Grue Grozovan " is being tortured by two Tartars, 
 but does not seem to mind it in the least. Women come 
 waiHng to complain about wrongs done to them by Grue, 
 at which the incensed Khan draws his dagger, and 
 threatens the captive hero ; but he only answers coolly — 
 
 "Eheu! Lordl You old Khan 
 Leave that dagger in your belt, 
 For I am son of a Eoumanian, 
 And have no fear of a pagan."* 
 
 Whilst being tortured he revolves in his head a bold 
 plan "to cheat them yet"; he willingly acknowledges 
 all the misdoings imputed to him, but asks for time for 
 repentance, and for a Christian death — " a Roumanian 
 death," says he. 
 
 Accordingly he is sent under strong escort to a neigh- 
 bouring monastery upon the hill to make his amends. 
 Once there, he asks for the release of his right arm that 
 he may cross himself; he crosses himself indeed twice, 
 and upon the third move catches an axe and rushes on 
 the Tartars, who take to flight — then away he runs to 
 the Khan's stables, springs on his best black courser, and 
 showing himself before the Khan's own tent, is off and 
 away ! The Tartars rush after him, but — 
 
 ' Alei I Doamne ! chan batran 
 Lasa eel hamger la san 
 Ca en sint pui de Eom^n 
 §i nu-mi pasa de pagan." 
 
PEASANT AND SOIL 55 
 
 "Woe to you, O pagan Tartars, 
 Your 'to-morrow' is gone byl 
 Look, Grue is coming back, 
 And throws himself among you, 
 Like a blasting whirlwind 
 In a field of dried corn ; 
 And with foolish little black 
 He takes you all one by one. 
 In a dash he mows you down. 
 And cuts you down like sheaves 
 And deprives you of your wealth. 
 And spares you all future illness 
 And leaves you behind him 
 Like mole-hills in a field ! " * 
 
 And the victorious Grue goes back to his home, to his 
 old pursuits, and does many new feats among his fellow- 
 countrymen : — 
 
 "Like a warming sun. 
 Warming and fertilising; 
 For much good he does on earth 
 To bring peace into his soul." f 
 
 Those old times of heroism are not without their wit- 
 ness to female bravery also. Shalga, the clever widow, 
 has her sheepfolds set high up the Danube. One night 
 
 ^' "Alelei, Tartar! pag&ni 
 
 Vi s'a stans ziua de mani 1 
 lata Grue da 'napoi 
 ^i s'arunca printre voi 
 Ca un vant inviforat 
 Intr 'un Ian de grau uscat. 
 §i cu negru^or nebunul 
 Va iea unul cate unul 
 §i din fuga va cose^te 
 Si va taie chip snope^te 
 ^i de averi va curate^te 
 §i de boala va scute^te 
 ^i va lasa 'n urma lui 
 Ca momii de-a campului." 
 
 f " Ca un soare ce 'ncalze^te 
 Incalze^te si rode^te 
 Ca mult bine 'n lume face 
 Sufletul sa §i-l impace." 
 
56 FROM CARPATHIAN TO PINDUS 
 
 she wakes at her home at the sound of her baciu's 
 (head of shepherds) bucium ( " cane pipe," from buccina). 
 She springs on her horse with her buzdugan (" club ") in 
 her hand, she gallops after the robbers, whose chief even 
 has taken to flight now : — 
 
 "He flew on, and on, and on. 
 Did not even turn his head, 
 Shalga is here, Shalga is there, 
 In flight she cuts off his head I 
 The head remained behind 
 The body fleeing still on 
 The blood ran down in streams, 
 The road turning red 1 " "i" 
 
 From this it appears clear that in those remote 
 times, beside the admired person of the fair knightly- 
 adventurer, beside the noble figure of the national bravo, 
 always victorious and always fighting for a right cause, 
 there existed also robbers of the common type, for whom, 
 however, the people had nothing but contempt and scorn. 
 They were only — 
 
 " The eaters of the sheep, 
 The fear of the merchants, 
 The whip of the poor." f 
 
 II 
 
 Adventure and adventurers disappear little by little in 
 proportion as the large domain of the voyevode goes on 
 
 * " Se ducea, ducea, ducea, 
 Nici capul nu-^i intorcea 
 §alga-i ici, Salga-i colea 
 Capul din fuga-i taial 
 Gapu 'n urma ramanea 
 Trupu 'nainte fugea 
 Sangele parau curgea 
 Drumul ro§ ca se facea I " 
 
 f " Mancatorii oilor 
 Frica negustorilor 
 §1 biciul saracilor." 
 
PEASANT AND SOIL 57 
 
 diminishing, portions of it being over and over again 
 given as reward for service in war. The recipient had 
 every reason to desire a profit from the land received, so 
 he did his best to attract settlers ; but to that end peace 
 and safety had to be secured in those lands. Many an 
 adventurer probably settled down quietly, handing over 
 to his children and grandchildren the reminiscences of 
 his youth's adventures, which, magnified by youthful 
 fancy, became the ballads of which we have seen some 
 fragments. 
 
 The voyevode was wont to give land to his warriors ; 
 oftener, probably, to those nearer to him, to those higher 
 on the social ladder ; but oftentimes also brave but poorer 
 people were distinguished in the crowd, and their reward 
 was land also. Small as well as large landowners were 
 equally obliged to give military service, and at their own 
 expense ; but wars were frequent and expenses heavy, so 
 that many a small landowner was in the long run obliged 
 to sell his land in order to pay the debts contracted 
 through his military duties. Thus the giving of land to 
 him was, after all, nothing more than a fair return for 
 the loss incurred. The popular mind has kept a record 
 of such facts in a fine Moldavian ballad of the fifteenth 
 century, which belongs to the heroic times of Stephen 
 the Great. 
 
 On a Saint's day — a fine day, in which " the sun was 
 wrapping the world in gold" — Prince Stephen, ''like 
 another sun," rose to go to church. Biding with his 
 suite, with cheering crowds all along the road, he hears 
 the sound of a distant voice, a voice of a man in trouble, 
 shouting as hard as he can : — 
 
 Ha, ho, on Bourean 
 
 Draw the furrow on the ridge 1" * 
 
 And the good monarch says to his followers- 
 
 "Hai, ho, ^a, Bourean 
 Trage brazda pe tap^an 1 " 
 
68 FROM CARPATHIAN TO PINDUS 
 
 " Have you heard, have you heard, 
 A voice of Roumanian in woe? 
 Go and find him in a twinkMng 
 And be back with him at once 1 " * 
 
 The order is executed, the peasant is taken from his 
 plough on the hill and brought before the monarch, who 
 kindly talks to him thus : — 
 
 "Well, my man, be not afraid, 
 And tell me what is your name? 
 — Afraid I am not, being a Roumanian, 
 Afraid I am not, you being my lord I 
 You are Stephen, the great prince, 
 Who has no peer in the world, 
 And I am Shoiman Burtchel, 
 The son of a dear little brave I" f 
 
 Then the voyevode goes on to ask how it is that he is 
 working on a Saint's day. The peasant relates how he 
 has been once a soldier, and has killed many a foe — Tartar, 
 Lithuanian, Hungarian — with his trusty weapon, "an 
 unpeeled club set with nails " ; but one day his club, his 
 ghioaga, fell, cut down by a hostile sword, and along with 
 it his own right hand fell by the side of the pagan. Ever 
 since he was left a poor man, having " neither house, nor 
 plough, nor bullock to yoke." All the summer he has 
 begged the rich for the loan of a plough, but in vain; 
 then he went to the Tartars, seized a big plough, put one 
 single ox to it, and went to plough on that mound. 
 
 * "Auzit-a^i auzit 
 
 Glas de Rom&n nacajit? 
 Intr 'o chpa sa-1 gasi^i 
 §i cu el aici sa fi^i ! " 
 
 f " Mai Romgine sa n'ai teama 
 Spune-mi mie cum te chiama ? 
 — Teama n' am ca sant Rom&n 
 Teama n' am ca-mi e^ti stapdn 1 
 Tu e^ti §tefan domn eel mare 
 Care'n lume saman n' are 
 ^i eu sant Soiman Burcel 
 Pui§or de voinicel I " 
 
PEASANT AND SOIL 59 
 
 •' For the poor has neither sun 
 Nor any holy day, 
 But all working days only I " * 
 
 At last speaks the voyevode 
 
 " Now, Burchele, my dear man, 
 Listen to what I am deciding: 
 Take a plough with six bullocks 
 And go rich away from us ; 
 Take that mound as r&zashie 
 To have it for tillage ground. 
 But on the top of it you'll settle, 
 Like a sentry you will watch 
 And if ever you see 
 Tartars entering my country, 
 Cry as hard you ever can: 
 ' Spring, Stephen, to the border 
 Sword has entered the land ! ' 
 Then it is I shall hear you, 
 Like a dragon will I leap forth. 
 And no trace shall be left behind 
 Of Tartars in my land I " f 
 
 "!' " Ca saracul n' are soare 
 Nici zile de sarbatoare 
 Ci tot zile lucratoare 1 " 
 
 \ " Mai Burcele fatul meu 
 lata ce hotarasc eu 
 Iea--^i un plug cu ^ase boi 
 Sa mergi bogat de la noi; 
 lea-^i movila raza^ie 
 Ca s'o ai de plugarie 
 Dar in virfu-i sa te-a^ezi 
 Ca strajer sa privighezi 
 ^i Tatarii de-i vedea 
 C au intrat in ^ara mea, 
 Tu sa strigi cit ii putea: 
 * Sai, ^tefane, la hotare 
 Ca intrat sabia'n |iara I ' 
 Atunci eu te-oiu auzi 
 Ca un zmeu m'oiii repezi 
 Si nici urma a ramdnea 
 'Pe Tatari in ^ara meal" 
 
60 FROM CARPATHIAN TO PINDUS 
 
 The "mound of Burtchel" is in the neighbourhood of 
 the town of Vaslui ; the legend of Burtchel is not for- 
 gotten, and tradition tells us that in Stephen's time 
 a sentry was posted on that mound whose voice was 
 supposed to be so strong that it could be heard in the 
 prince's capital, Succava. 
 
 Things went on in this way as long as the domain of 
 the voyevode — renewed from time to time by confisca- 
 tions of various provinces — lasted. Lost property, renewed 
 property, went on changing from hand to hand. But it 
 was natural that a time should come when the domains 
 of the prince would cease to be his ; and it came. In the 
 meanwhile the wars went on, and the small landowners — 
 soldiers at their own expense — one after the other lost 
 their properties, which were pawned and then sold for a 
 trifle to the great landowner. The number of large land- 
 owners went on increasing. These also used to receive 
 land from the prince, for their services in war or other- 
 wise, but when the prince had no more land to give, 
 rivalry and intrigue became rampant among the boiars, 
 in the effort to see who would be able to rise higher 
 in the voyevode's favour, and have his fellow boiar 
 despoiled and disgraced, and succeed to the spoils. 
 
 On the other hand, the principaHties became tributaries 
 to the Turks, and the tribute increased with amazing 
 rapidity, and with it the taxation on the people, taxation 
 still weighing proportionately — in principle at least — on 
 all, according to wealth. But that is not all. The Turks 
 acquired the habit, transformed gradually into a right, of 
 nominating the voyevodes of the principalities, and this 
 nomination is made for money ; quite apart from the 
 regular tribute the thrones were bought, and the price of 
 a throne became larger and larger with almost every new 
 prince, and yet the competition for the Roumanian 
 thrones grew faster and faster. The candidates for the 
 thrones hardly ever had money of their own to buy them, 
 but Constantinople was swarming with usurers of all 
 kinds, mostly Greeks, with ever ready money to lend the 
 candidates at excessive interest. The successful candi- 
 date, once in possession of the throne, had nothing more 
 
Temporary Hut in the Field. 
 
 [Photo, J. Cazaban. 
 
 \ce page 60. 
 
 A Raft on the Bistritza. 
 
PEASANT AND SOIL 61 
 
 pressing to think of than the collecting of money, for the 
 tribute, for paying off the borrowed money, for his own 
 wants, and in provision for the dark future and a 
 probable need of a new struggle for the throne. All the 
 weight of these expenses could not but fall upon the 
 people. The poor got poorer and poorer, till they fell 
 into the most abject serfdom. At first their various 
 labour duties towards the big landowner were increased ; 
 next, they resigned their own lands into his hands, on 
 condition, however, that they could live on them and have 
 a right to till them ; one step further and they were 
 prevented from ever leaving the land which was theirs no 
 more, but must abide there, at the good will of the land- 
 owner, and work for him as much as he wished. The 
 still free rdzdshi, or small landowners, went quickly down 
 the same way, being for the slightest reason treated by 
 the voyevode as he treated the subjected villages, and 
 given away to boiars, the more so that the boiars, besides 
 intriguing at Court, soon began to intrigue at Constanti- 
 nople too, in many ways influencing the nomination of 
 the new voyevode, or the overthrow of the existing one. 
 The voyevode quite naturally heaped favours on the 
 heads of his adherents, persecuting his opponents as 
 much as he could, but the happy boiars could hardly get 
 land always from the prince, as there was less and less to 
 be got ; instead of that, the functions of the Court and 
 State, not much appreciated till then, came into fashion ; 
 the favourite boiars received henceforth their rewards in 
 offices, and titles appended to them, which functions and 
 honours entitled the bearer to a series of rights and 
 revenues from the country. Privileges thus set in, 
 formally, officially. 
 
 But something worse was to come yet. The money- 
 lenders in Constantinople, seeing that the voyevodes were 
 changed so often — and this change became more fre- 
 quent in proportion as the Turks felt greater need of 
 money — that they seldom had time to get enough money 
 from the principalities to pay their loans, would lend no 
 more, except to candidates who undertook to pay the 
 loans of their predecessors as well as their own. In this 
 
62 FROM CARPATHIAN TO PINDUS 
 
 way the sums due to usurers in Constantinople became 
 so large that the princes could no longer pay them. But 
 the crafty usurers discovered new means of getting their 
 money back and even with greater profit ; they came into 
 the Roumanian countries in the rear of the voyevodes. 
 Thus the principalities were filled with Greeks and with 
 Turks, carrying on trade at their own will and pleasure, 
 and at their own prices, and all under the high shield of 
 the Sultan, for no Roumanian produce could be sold 
 except at Constantinople, and at prices, ridiculously low, 
 fixed there. Most of the Greeks became tax-gatherers, 
 also in the interests of the voyevodes and their own. 
 
 And so it came about that with the seventeenth 
 century a great change set in. We find the greatest 
 part of the population fallen low under the yoke of 
 serfdom ; we find that many of the great landowners of 
 old have sunk to the rank of small landowners, or rdzdshi 
 — mostly through division of property — and not seldom 
 also into serfdom itself. Serfs began to be treated more 
 severely than ever ; they could no longer stand it : 
 eventually by the end of the seventeenth century 
 emigration was in full swing. Higher up we find the 
 nobility with their titles, their lands, and their serfs, but 
 few of them are Roumanians. Among the Greek usurers 
 many have crept into places of honour beside the 
 monarch, and, instead of being paid their loan in money, 
 were paid in functions and titles, in lands also, oftener by 
 marriage with the boiars' daughters, just as the monarchs 
 willed. From the seventeenth century onward the 
 national nobility began to be invaded by foreign elements 
 — Greek adventurers, sly, creeping hand-lickers of a 
 parvenu-prince, a mere puppet himself in the hands of 
 the Turks. But with all that, there was none the less an 
 all-powerful, absolute monarch on his throne, and no one 
 would have been able to stand his wrath. All honest 
 and really noble Roumanian nobles had to retire to the 
 background, and efface themselves, if they wanted to 
 live. There were risings, but they led to nothing so far 
 as the people and their conditions in life were con- 
 cerned ; they were at the lowest depth of their misery. 
 
PEASANT AND SOIL 63 
 
 Serfdom has overshadowed with its dark wings all the 
 Carpathians. 
 
 Some bright intervals in this gloomy prospect broke 
 now and then its all too sad monotony: there are 
 instances of honourable rich landowners, who, feeling the 
 injustice of serfdom, gave back to their serfs their soil 
 and liberty. Of these generous deeds there is documen- 
 tary evidence in the seventeenth century, two notable 
 examples being due to women. The first was by a 
 certain lady Bolosina, widow of the boiar pitar (the 
 Baker) Dima, who on her deathbed presented her serfs 
 with their lands and freedom, on condition that they 
 would remember her in their prayers. The second was 
 by Ileana Cantacuzino, widow of an eminent statesman, 
 who presented land and freedom to some of her serfs, on 
 condition that if they were ever to sell their hberty 
 again, then her heirs should have the right to take back 
 the lands without payment. As it appears, freedom was 
 not easily preserved. 
 
 These were times of hardship and suffering — no longer 
 times of romantic adventure and heroism. A chasm had 
 opened between rich and poor, ever widening, through 
 the ferocious greed of the former and the ever-increasing 
 poverty of the latter. The upper classes learned the 
 lesson in the school of the oppressor, that wealth and 
 rank can be won by other means than bravery : crawling 
 and intriguing near the voyevode were equally effective ; 
 they continued to behave the more rapaciously and 
 cruelly towards their inferiors. Hatred thus sprang up 
 between the two classes. This hatred is embodied in 
 the figure of the famous haidook ("outlaw"), national 
 robber, killing and plundering the foreign oppressor, the 
 greedy boiar, the Greek ** leech," stealing the treasure of 
 the prince whenever he can : who avenge the sufferings 
 of their fellow-peasants, always sharing their booty with 
 the needy. The haidook's life was a hard one ; tracked 
 like a mad wolf from wood to wood, his life lay at his 
 rifle's end ; often alone or with a small band, there was 
 no rest for him. But the peasant loved him, helped him 
 on, and sang his praises. The haidook is no more the 
 
64 FROM CARPATHIAN TO PINDUS 
 
 noble adventurer of past ages who slaughtered too, but 
 only in honourable fight ; the haidook killed like a thief, 
 from behind an ambush, or however he could ; his idea 
 was that fair means were only to be used with honour- 
 able foes ; not for the cowardly Greek " leech " that 
 sucked the blood of the people. His ideal was only an 
 ideal of revenge for his fellow creatures ; it was the last 
 shadow of the spirit of freedom of past ages. 
 
 Codreanu was a haidook, roaming in the neighbour- 
 hood of Jassy, in the great old forest of Bordea. The 
 ghastly caverns dug up above the highway — hiding-places 
 of the robbers — together with the picturesquely situated 
 inn of Shanta, could tell many a tale of him. A legend 
 introduces to us the haidook in shepherd's disguise 
 looking round for a good horse. He meets a Mocan, or 
 nomad shepherd from the mountains, carrying salt, 
 mounted on a good horse. He proposes to buy the horse 
 from him, but the mocan declines to sell, whereupon he 
 simply takes the horse, and instead of paying — 
 
 " Eather cross yourself, mocan, 
 Say you make a present to Codrean. 
 
 And on he went, he went, he went, 
 Until the sun had set." * 
 
 Not very chivalrous, but convenient; the times of 
 chivalry are gone by. Besides, the mocan was not a 
 poor man, he could bear the loss. Codreanu rode up to 
 the fold on the hill ; the shepherds ran away in fright, 
 but Codreanu only took up a Iamb, and — 
 
 "With his sorrel-horse he starts 
 Down the valley to Shanta, f 
 
 * " Ba-^^i fa cruce mai mocane, 
 Zi ca-ai cinstit pe Codrean. 
 
 §i s'a dus, s'a dus, s'a dus 
 Pan'ce soarele-a apus." 
 
 f "^i cu roibul iar pleca 
 Colo'n vale la §anta. 
 
PEASANT AND SOIL 65 
 
 To Shanta, the inn-keeper, 
 The fair one with large eyes." * 
 
 The haidook and his mistress feast together ; he takes 
 wine without paying for it, and then rides on to Cop6u,\ 
 and takes his meal by himself. But he is surrounded by 
 the Arndutzi.l A fight ensues, and he boastfully cries : — 
 
 "Woe to you, pagan robbers — 
 I will give you to the dogs, 
 For that is all you are worth." § 
 
 But the boastful threatening is in vain : — 
 
 " But Leonti, th' Amaut, 
 May the earth swallow him ! 
 Silver buttons he takes out 
 And loads his rifle with them ; , 
 
 He aims it at Codreanu, 
 Darling Codreanu is wounded I " || 
 
 The fight goes on ; the popular singer follows with 
 tears in his eyes the various turns of the contest — 
 
 "But Codrean was losing strength — 
 On his knees he fell, poor man,ir 
 
 * La §anta, la cra^mareasa- 
 Cu ochi mari de puica-aleasa." 
 
 f Copou, " wooded hill," at the northern end of Jassy, now the 
 promenade of the townspeople. 
 
 I Arndutzi (sing. Amaut), Albaneze, the prince's guard, the only 
 airmy of the principaUties at that time. 
 
 § " Alelei, talhari pagani 
 Cum o sa va dau la cani 
 Ca de-atita sinte|(i buni I " 
 
 II " lar Leonti, Arnautul, 
 tnghi^i-l'ar pamantul ! 
 Nasturi de argint scotea 
 De 'ncarca o ^u^anea 
 ^i 'n Codrean o slobozea 
 'Pe Codrena^ mi-1 ranea I " 
 
 IT " Dar Codreanu tot slabea 
 Pe genunchi bietul cadea 
 6 
 
66 FROM CARPATHIAN TO PINDUS 
 
 On his palms he went leaning, 
 But the police, alas, caught him, 
 May death only befall it I " "^^ 
 
 Codreanu is taken to Jassy, before the prince. At the 
 prince's question as to how many Christians he has 
 killed, he thus gives an account of his career and 
 pursuits : — 
 
 "... Lord, your Highness 1 
 I vow by the Holy Virgin 
 Not a Christian have I killed 
 As long as I have roved. 
 When I came across a Christian 
 His belongings I did share : 
 If I met him with two horses 
 One I took, one I left him. 
 If I laid hand on his purse. 
 Half the contents I took out, 
 But where I saw the poor man, 
 My hatchet I hid away. 
 And gave him pocket money, 
 And a change of attire. 
 But where I perceived the Greek 
 My soul was burning hot,t 
 
 * In palme se sprijinea 
 ^i potera mi-1 prindea 
 Lega s' ar moartea de ea I " 
 
 f ". . . Domnule, Maria-Ta ! 
 Jur pe Maica-Precista 
 Eu cre^tin n'am omorit 
 Cat in ^ara am voinicit. 
 Vre-un cre^tin de intalneam 
 Averile-i impar^ieam : 
 Cu doi cai de-1 apucam 
 Unu-i dam unu-i luam. 
 Mana'n punga de-i bagam 
 Jumatate-o de^artam. 
 Unde vedeam saracul 
 Imi ascundeam baltagul 
 §i-i dam bani de cheltuiala 
 ^i haine de primineala. 
 Ear unde zaream Grecul 
 Mult imi ardea sufletol 
 
PEASANT AND SOIL 67 
 
 Till I had his head cut off; 
 
 "When I laid hold of his hair, 
 
 I brought him down to the ground, 
 
 And his head I then took off 
 
 A promised gift to the crows I " ''' 
 
 And then he goes on, giving the prince unasked-for 
 advice, about not listening to the counsels of the 
 treacherous Greeks round him, for — 
 
 "The Greek is a hostile beast, 
 The Greek's is a venomous tongue, 
 The Greek is a catching disease 
 Which penetrates to the bones I " f 
 
 These were the feelings the Greek had managed to 
 develop in the Eoumanian people's soul, even before 
 the actual Greek rule, the Phanariotic Period ! Codreanu 
 is sentenced to death, but somehow he manages to escape 
 — "with God's help," says the popular poet, and on his 
 trusty '' sorrel " takes again to the woods. 
 
 " The wood thickens its foliage. 
 And thus conceals the brave." I 
 
 Like Codreanu, there have been many other haidooks 
 whose names still live in people's memory ; but in spite 
 of the haidooks, the fate of the people grew darker and 
 darker. During the eighteenth century, most of the 
 large properties had fallen into Greek hands — with most 
 of the boiars accepting Grecisation as part of the 
 bargain, too — the small properties, with but few 
 
 * Pan ce-i ratezam capul ; 
 In cap mana de-i puneam 
 La pamant il aduceam 
 Capa^ina i-o taiam 
 §i la corbi o juruiam I " 
 
 f "Grecu-i fieara du^manoasa 
 Grecu-i limba veninoasa 
 Grecu-i boala lipicioasa 
 Ce patrunde pan' la oase." 
 
 I " Codrul frunza indese^te 
 Pe voinic il mistue^te." 
 
68 FROM CARPATHIAN TO PINDUS 
 
 exceptions, disappeared; the bulk of the population 
 had fallen into servility, very much akin to genuine 
 slavery. 
 
 The large properties being, as well as the small ones, 
 at the mercy of the monarch, documents show repeatedly 
 that with every change of prince, the boiars rush forward 
 to have their deeds of property again secured to them. 
 That the donors themselves did not much trust their 
 successors as far as the respect to their gifts went, is 
 proved by the formulas of security, over and over again 
 repeated in the documents, showering blasphemies on 
 the heads of those who would annul the gift, and calling 
 blessings upon those who observed the conditions. For 
 the one who would respect the deed : " . . . him may 
 God strengthen, and save him from all evil throughout 
 his reign, and may the holy Virgin be gracious to him 
 at the moment of the dreaded and unavoidable last 
 judgment. But if he does not respect the gift, may 
 God repay him in strict justice : here below, may He 
 bodily kill him and bring him to perdition, and in the 
 future judgment of his soul, may the holy Virgin be 
 against him at the dreaded judgment ! " 
 
 The voyevode often deprived boiars of their lands to 
 give them to favourites of his ; the boiars, in their turn, 
 did all they could to despoil others, weaker than they, 
 by false documents, sometimes often by violence, and 
 with the support of the monarch. Sometimes, by some 
 means or other, and by a good share of luck, the despoiled 
 got back their land, but this was reckoned as a marvel, 
 due to some superhuman interference, so rarely did it 
 happen. Thus it is known that a Phanariot ruler, 
 Alex. Sutzo, wishing to take the land of the town of 
 Targovistea, sent his Arndutzi to take it. At this 
 unexpected intrusion the startled townsmen did not 
 know what to do. They resisted as well as they could, 
 but were driven back, and the Arndutzi occupied the 
 land. The despoiled townsmen decided that they would 
 die rather than suffer such unheard-of injustice. Accord- 
 ingly, they all went to church, rang the bells, and with 
 the priests in their robes, they offered up prayers and 
 
PEASANT AND SOIL 69 
 
 took the oath to hold together, and not to let the in- 
 justice be perpetrated. After that, men and women to the 
 number of some four hundred went to Bucharest, appear- 
 ing at the prince's palace, with the traditional " burning 
 mat," rolled up and worn on the head by one of the crowd, 
 and with a *' supplication " affixed on top of a long stick, 
 complaining of the burning wrong done them. At court 
 they were misled by sweet, conciliatory words and induced 
 to return quietly home, leaving behind just a few repre- 
 sentatives to settle the matter. But these were subse- 
 quently shut up in prison, and the land taken by force, and 
 presented to one of the boiars, the Vornic (Justiciary) X. 
 The townsmen, seeing what their supplication to the 
 monarch had led to, decided to make a supplication to 
 God. All day long the bells were tolling, as in times 
 of great disaster ; all went to church and bitterly cursed 
 the prince and his counsellors, while after mass, with 
 white tapers in their hands, they came out of church 
 and put them out by dipping them into tanks full of 
 pitch put there for the purpose, with the curse : " Cursed 
 may be Vornic X., and may his house melt away like 
 this." And tradition tells that, indeed, the members of 
 that family died soon, one after the other. But the fact 
 is that later on, after that prince's death, his wife broke 
 the contract and restored the land to the townsmen. 
 
 It is true also that some princes tried to defend the 
 people against the insatiable rapacity of the boiars. At 
 the very beginning of the Phanariotic Period, the Greek 
 voyevode. Const. Mavrocordat, made a series of reforms, 
 by which he hoped to better the state of the peasants 
 in order to prevent their total emigration. He suppressed 
 serfdom : the peasants were free to move from one estate 
 to another, and were obliged to work for the landowner only 
 twenty-four days in the year. On the other hand, he sup- 
 pressed the old indirect taxation, in kind, leaving instead 
 the direct taxation only, to be paid by all except the 
 boiars, in instalments of 2| piastres every quarter. 
 Besides, the boiars had each, according to his title, a 
 number of peasants allotted to pay him the taxation 
 instead of paying it to the treasury. And yet the boiars 
 
70 FROM CARPATHIAN TO PINDUS 
 
 were not content, and incited the Porte to overthrow the 
 monarch ; but the latter kept steady, too, and bought 
 alternatively the thrones of both countries not less than 
 ten times over. In theory, however, serfdom was 
 abolished in the first half of the eighteenth century, 
 but not in practice. Towards the end of the same 
 century, serfdom was suppressed in Transylvania also, 
 after the revolution of Horia, in 1785, but also only on 
 paper. In 1846 a Land Act was voted by the Diet, 
 worse, if possible, than serfdom ; the revolution of 1848 
 in Transylvania was partly owing to it. 
 
 The reforms of Mavrocordat in the principahties were 
 afterwards disposed of in such a way that no shadow of 
 them remained. With regard to the twenty-four days' 
 labour, the boiars took them all in summer, and, moreover, 
 fixed the amount of work to be done in that time, and in 
 such a way that the peasant was brought to work for the 
 landowner forty and even eighty days in the year ; in fact 
 all the summer. As for the taxation, the rulers themselves 
 invented the very ingenious method of multiplying the 
 quarters to twenty, and sometimes to as many as forty 
 in a year ! 
 
 But if the peasants — at least by far the greatest part 
 of them — have seen their properties go into the hands 
 of the large landowners, they have always had the 
 implicit right of renting land from the landlord, as much 
 as they wanted to, or could till, for which they paid 
 tithes, but which they tilled entirely for themselves. Only 
 this private tillage, this farming of land by the peasants, 
 came into conflict with the large landowners' interests, 
 and hence a tendency in the latter to deny the peasant 
 the renting of land, and their exacting more and more 
 labour for their own needs. With every change of reign, 
 the boiars claimed from the new voyevode more rights 
 upon peasant labour ; the peasants in their turn claiming 
 more land and less labour. The boiars usually found 
 most response to their claims ; but sometimes it happened 
 that some rare prince bent a ready ear to the complaints 
 of the poor. One of these was the voyevode, Gregory 
 Ghika — whose name is connected with the loss of 
 

 OP 
 
PEASANT AND SOIL 
 
 Buckovina — who in the middle of the eighteenth century- 
 ruled in turn in both countries. This prince reduced the 
 days of peasant labour due to the boiar from thirty-six, 
 as they were at that time, to twelve — to which, how- 
 ever, he was obliged by the boiars to add two more ; he 
 decided also that all the boiars' properties should be divided 
 into three parts, two of which were, as a right, to be rented 
 to the peasants. But the boiars worked on the Sultan, 
 and the voyevode paid with his head for his endeavour 
 to right old wrongs. But not many monarchs have been 
 high-minded enough to resist the rapacity of the boiars, 
 and not many have been inclined to do it either. With 
 the nineteenth century a new principle was established : 
 " The land belongs to the boiars ; the labourers, the 
 * clacasi,' are only hirers of the land; their labour and 
 tithes are the rent of it. The boiar gives only as much 
 land as he wishes; and, after every five years, the boiar 
 may turn out of his village as many labourers as he 
 likes." Eviction in all its crudity ! 
 
 No wonder, then, that with the nineteenth century the 
 feelings of the peasants towards the boiars are of the 
 fiercest complexion. The modern haidook has nothing 
 more to do with the Greek in revenge of national 
 wrongs ; the aim of his hatred, and of his rifle, is now 
 simply the cioco'i, the parvenu, as he now calls the 
 boiar, the well-to-do, whatever his origin. Bujor is the 
 last type of the popular haidook : — 
 
 "Green leaf of feathergrass, 
 Bujor has come out afield, 
 The parvenu he puts in irons 
 To give him pocket money." -^ 
 
 He is caught, imprisoned, and the people weep over 
 him as he lies in prison : — 
 
 Frimza verde de nagara, 
 A ie^it Bujor in ^ara, 
 Pe ciocoi li baga 'n fiara 
 Sa-i dea bani de cheltuiala." 
 
72 FROM CARPATHIAN TO PINDUS 
 
 "Without weapons, without sun I 
 Woe to you, beautiful wood, 
 Fine as you are in the summer 
 In winter you rot on the ground 1 
 Like you Bujor in the prison 
 Lies down on his face." * 
 
 He is tried, he confesses his sins : — 
 
 "Death to man I have not brought 
 But, ciocois' I've beaten many."f 
 
 Asked about the hiding-place of his thefts : — 
 
 "I hid them at the trees' feet, 
 To be a help to the poor. 
 To buy themselves cows and oxen." J 
 
 He is hanged amid the lamentations of the people : — 
 
 "The poor weep with bitter woe 1 " § 
 
 The race of the haidook, now entirely extinct in the 
 Carpathians, seems still to have active offshoots in the 
 Pindus. Many of the robbers roving in the Turkish 
 Empire are said to be Armani — many of the chiefs, at 
 least. In a badly-ruled country such as Turkey, such 
 " bravos " are not at all an anachronism, and, after all, 
 a thief, who, in threatening your life for the sake of your 
 purse, exposes his own as well, seems a much worthier 
 character than the fraudulent merchant and usurer who 
 
 * " Far a arme, fara soare I 
 Oliolio codru frumos 
 Cit e^ti vara de frumos 
 larna putreze^ti tu josi 
 Ca tine Bujor in gros 
 Sta culcat cu fa|ia' njos." 
 
 f "Mort de om eu n'am facut 
 Dar ciocoi mul^i am batut." 
 
 I "Le-am ascuns pe la copaci 
 De ajutor la cei saraci 
 Sa-fi cumpere boi §i vaci." 
 
 § "Plang saraci cu jale-amara." 
 
PEASANT AND SOIL 73 
 
 robs you on the sly, without the sHghtest expenditure of 
 courage or strength. It is, of course, a great pity that 
 travelling in the Pindus should be made so difficult 
 by these robbers, but the traveller knows what awaits 
 him, and takes his measures accordingly. As you cannot 
 travel through Eussia and talk of liberty, so you cannot 
 travel through Turkey without an escort. In Free 
 Koumania and all the Carpathian region, the haidook 
 type has degenerated into the common robber, who 
 plunders — for his own profit — rich and poor, wicked and 
 good — a type also disappearing nowadays almost entirely, 
 leaving behind just the common vagabond, plundering 
 the poor rather than the well-guarded rich. 
 
 Ill 
 
 As to the fate of the poor, apparently because it could 
 not become worse, it began in time slowly to turn 
 towards improvement. After 1821 the national rulers 
 were anxious to do better than their predecessors. Now 
 and then better feelings make themselves felt among the 
 ruling classes, especially with the younger generation of 
 men, who at that time received their education in Paris, 
 the centre of liberalism and freedom in those times. 
 
 The peasants' question began to be handled with more 
 and more interest in some quarters. The revolution of 
 1848 was not only political, it was a social revolution 
 as well. The proclamation of the ** Provisional Govern- 
 ment " declared the peasant master of the land he 
 occupied — as hirer till now — and free from labour. A 
 commission was accordingly instituted, composed of boiars 
 and peasants to settle their differences. The peasants 
 claimed the land in return for pecuniary compensation ; 
 the boiars objected strongly, on the ground that the 
 peasants had no means wherewith to pay. As an 
 answer, one of the peasants is said to have thrust 
 forward his sinewy, sunburnt arm and replied : *' These 
 arms, which for centuries have been feeding you, these 
 arms will work with increased industry, when that will 
 
74 FROM CARPATHIAN TO PINDUS 
 
 mean the paying for our liberation, when we shall be 
 masters of our soil and of our arms." The Eusso- 
 Turkish intervention prevented any further discussion. 
 The immediate results of 1848 were more favourable in 
 Transylvania. Imperial ordinances regulated the giving 
 of land to the peasants and the paying of an indemnity 
 to the noble landlords, but the weakening of Austria in 
 1866 brought it all to nought. 
 
 Thenceforth things were in a period of awakening; 
 the peasants' question was stirred deeper and deeper; 
 their claims to the land took an ever more definite 
 shape ; some change was in the air ; that the peasants 
 must get the soil, some way or other, was certain. And 
 need of land was the more stringent, since the treaty 
 of Adrianople (1829) had opened the commerce of the 
 principalities to Western Europe. Agricultural products 
 were more required and better paid for; agriculture drove 
 sheep and cattle breeding into the background altogether, 
 to become the staple bread winning of the peasant. But 
 the very same reason made the boiars so much the more 
 loath to part with the land, and so much the more rapa- 
 cious about peasant labour, without which the commercial 
 advantages, won by treaty of 1829, were of no avail to 
 them. The giving of land to peasants had been proposed 
 ever since 1848, on the understanding that the clacasi 
 (the labouring peasants), should get all the land they used 
 to rent from the bo'iar. Some provident boiars took 
 measures in consequence. Some of them presented their 
 clacashi with their liberty, they gave up any claim on 
 their labour. This was very fine, and the peasants were 
 full of gratitude, but when the Land Act came, it found 
 them free men, not clacashi, and, consequently, with no 
 claim on the land. Other boiars, again, turned out their 
 peasants by cruel treatment; these ran away into the 
 outskirts of towns mostly ; the new law found them free 
 of labour, and they got no land. 
 
 At last the bright day of 1864 came. The first prince 
 of United Roumania, Cuza, tried, in accordance with his 
 ministers and Parliament, to bring about the reforms so 
 sorely needed by the country. But the great majority of 
 
PEASANT AND SOIL 75 
 
 the boiars were still against the giving of land to peasants, 
 which the monarch seeing, he decided to accomplish his 
 reforms by a coup d'etat. In August, 1864, Prince Cuza 
 declared by a decree that the peasants were henceforth 
 proprietors. In his Proclamation, he recognised the 
 peasants as free proprietors of the land of which they 
 only had been the occupiers till then. The land was 
 theirs, the peasants had to pay nothing for it. What 
 they had to pay for was their labour, which was implicitly 
 recognised as a right of the boiars, and in order to be 
 freed of this labour the peasants had to pay an indemnity 
 to the landowners. The peasants became masters of the 
 stretches of land they formerly used only to hire, and of 
 which three categories were made, according to the state 
 of wealth of the peasants at that moment. They 
 remained free of any labour obligation towards the 
 proprietor, paying it off in money, also in three varied 
 categories. On the other hand, the large landowners 
 remained also untroubled masters of their land, the 
 peasants having no claim whatever upon it. Thus in 1864 
 some 1,500,000 hectares of land were allocated to some 
 407,000 new landowners, small landowners, besides the 
 remnant of old peasant landowners, the rdzdshi, or 
 moshneni, who were found to be still in existence, to 
 the number of some 117,000, owning still among them- 
 selves an amount of land equal to that newly divided 
 among the clacashi. 
 
 At the time of the Land Act of 1864, the south of 
 Bassarabia belonged again to Roumania — restored by the 
 Treaty of Paris, 1856 — so that the new Act was put in 
 force there too. When Eussia took it back again, she 
 somehow accepted the new state of things, the more so 
 as the situation of the Russian peasants themselves had 
 been improved by the suppression of serfdom in Russia, 
 1861-69. Thus the economic fate of the Roumanian 
 peasants in Bassarabia was nearly similar to that of 
 Free Roumania. 
 
 With all its drawbacks, with all the vices of its appli- 
 cation, the Land Act of 1864 was of great importance in 
 the peasants' life, and the name of Cuza is a legendary 
 
76 FROM CARPATHIAN TO PINDUS 
 
 one to the present day. There are peasants who won't 
 believe that he is dead, but strongly hope that some day 
 he will come to give full effect to his law, and give land 
 to all peasants who need it. Why, the name of Cuza has 
 even been used as an electioneering resource by too able 
 candidates hunting after a seat in Parliament ! But not 
 long after, one had to come to the conclusion that, if 
 something had indeed been done by the Act of 1864, 
 much more remained to be done. There were very 
 many landless peasants still ; and there were, moreover, 
 peasants having too little land for their needs. At the 
 time of the war of independence, before the troops 
 crossed the Danube, they were addressed in terms fit to 
 arouse their courage, and land was promised them, as 
 in the happy times of Stephen the Great. And they 
 fought bravely, these young sons of Roumania, and 
 independence was won. But promises had to be kept 
 also, and in 1879 a new Act was voted by the Roumanian 
 Parliament, giving land to newly-married peasants. Some 
 48,000 men got property by this law, two-thirds of which 
 went to constitute new communes with new villages. 
 
 But more land w^as required still, there being some 
 79,000 peasant families without land ; peasants from all 
 parts of the country petitioned for land, the governments 
 in their turn promised it, but all to no effect. In 1880, 
 as there was a talk of new distributions of land, peasants 
 came to Bucharest from the very northernmost districts 
 of Moldavia to ask for land, having been told that they 
 could get it — and they had come on foot all the way down, 
 and their journey had lasted one whole month ! For a 
 while, however, nothing more was done ; on the contrary, 
 the situation of the peasants went from bad to worse. 
 Proprietors and farmers did all they could to oppress 
 the peasants ; statesmen of the highest rank have had to 
 recognise in Parliament that the " communal authorities, 
 mayor, notary, and the rest, instead of being friends and 
 guardians of peasants, had only been their oppressors and 
 despoilers.'* It has ever been difficult for the peasant to 
 get justice, and even when they could obtain it, only an 
 indifferent ear was lent to their complaints : ** Why, that 
 
PEASANT AND SOIL 77 
 
 is the way with peasants, they always complain ! '* Many 
 large proprietors found the way to lay hands on the little 
 land of the peasants ; and great abuses were committed 
 with regard to labour. In 1866 an Act for ** agricultural 
 conventions " was voted, entitling the peasant to sell his 
 labour for five years in advance at the landowner's price, 
 giving, moreover, to the latter the right to enforce manu 
 militari, the execution of that labour, with the exception, 
 however, of two days in the week, Friday and Saturday, 
 which had to be respected for the peasant's own labour in 
 his own field. Instead of that, the peasant was compelled 
 by the landowner, supported by the authorities, to work 
 for him all the week round, being shut up on Sundays, 
 into the bargain, in order that he might not run away. 
 The Eoumanian peasant is extremely patient, and has 
 a wonderful power of bearing up, but everything has 
 an end, and, *' when the knife has reached to the bone," 
 he won't stand it any longer. In 1888 a peasant rising 
 took place. It was considered very dangerous, and put 
 down with great display of violence and cruelty, although 
 single cases have clearly shown that it might have been 
 just as easily quieted down by peaceful means. But in 
 such matters excess of zeal is more or less unavoidable. 
 It is none the less true that rulers of both political 
 parties — Conservatives as well as Liberals — have agreed 
 that the peasants were in the right, that they had, 
 indeed, only too long been wronged and oppressed on 
 all sides, and that something ought to be done for them. 
 In 1889 a new Act was voted, allowing the sale of the 
 State-land in small lots to the peasants — the smaller of 
 them at least. In this way, some 1,850,000 hectares 
 have been disposed of in favour of the peasants. 
 
 To-day, of the 13,135,000 hectares constituting the 
 whole property of the Eoumanian soil, some 4,400,000 
 constitute the small and middle property, of some 
 889,287 peasants; the large property, of some 4,061 
 large landowners, is made up of more than 5 J millions, 
 whilst the State owns still over 2J millions, and the 
 domain of the Crown amounts to over 130,000 hectares. 
 
 But there are still landless peasants ; and there are 
 
78 FROM CARPATHIAN TO PINDUS 
 
 peasants who have only very little land — through division 
 among inheritors — too little land, indeed, to live upon. 
 In this case are very many of the old rdzdshi, the old 
 nobility of this country, the rdzdshi whose wealth 
 consists of "a span of land, with a bagful of papers," 
 and who only too often have reason to sing : — 
 
 " May fire burn the ' razashie ' I 
 I thought it was nobility 
 But it is pure poverty I " * . . . 
 
 The peasant land question is by no means concluded ; 
 the process of giving them land has not reached its end, 
 and, moreover, it is to be expected that with the progress 
 of agricultural methods, there will be plenty of land for 
 all, and for a much larger population than nowadays. 
 
 Roumania has also extensive forests, common property 
 of all in old times, but the law of 1864 suppressed any 
 claim of the peasants on them. Except some 321,000 
 hectares of woods owned by the rdzashi, no peasant 
 possesses such. Of a total of nearly 3,000,000 hectares 
 of woods, the State owns about half, two-thirds of which 
 are more or less under exploitation, the remnant being 
 as yet untouched; the rest is private property. The 
 Roumanian peasant is very fond of the woods : he has 
 songs for almost every kind of tree, but all connected 
 with the time when the woods were his hiding-place 
 and his beloved abode. The oak is *' his brother," the 
 elm " his first cousin " ; he scorns the conceited lofty 
 poplar, and calls down blessings on the "broad-leaved 
 lime," sheltering him in time of flight, and giving him 
 a pleasant shade in the sultry days of summer. His 
 desertion of the wood-roaming life he deplores in music 
 and song : — 
 
 " I go off, the wood remains, 
 The leaf is weeping after me ; f 
 
 * " Ard' o focul raza^ie I 
 
 Eu chiteam ca-i boierie 
 
 ^i-i numai o saracie I " . . . 
 f *' Eu ma due codrul ramine. 
 
 Flange frunza dupa mine; 
 
PEASANT AND SOIL 
 
 79 
 
 No one else is there to weep 
 For I have done no good deed, 
 And if I have done some wrong 
 I alone shall bear for it."* 
 
 Lento. 
 
 =t: 
 
 Eu 
 
 ma due 
 
 $ 
 
 nzt: 
 
 22: 
 
 CO - drul 
 
 1=F 
 
 ra - ml - ne 
 
 S3 
 
 'm:l0 S- 
 
 PUn-ge frun-za du-pa mi - ne Tra-la-la la-la-la-la-la-la - la, 
 
 P 
 
 T^- 
 
 ■# r r 
 
 i 
 
 :#„ # tf-jj: 
 
 Al-tulnumaiplan-ge ni-me, Tra-la-la la la - la. 
 
 * Altul nu mai pldnge nime 
 Ca n' am facut nici un bine, 
 ^i dac' am facut vr 'un ran 
 Singur mi-l' oiu trage eu 1 " 
 
CHAPTEE II 
 
 THE PEASANT IN THE SOCIAL SCALE 
 
 TYPES AND COSTUMES 
 
 From the very birth of the Koumanian nation there 
 probably have existed class differences in Dacia, just 
 those that existed in the Koman Empire at large. 
 During the thousand years of invasions that ensued, 
 when the population which remained in Dacia was 
 driven into the highest recesses of the mountains, and 
 was obliged to rely upon pastoral life, those differences 
 may be fairly believed to have been obliterated, if they 
 still existed, and little by little patriarchal habits set in 
 with the new ways of life. Social equality may well be 
 assumed to have reigned in those remote, simple times. 
 But as time went on some of the herdsmen would begin 
 to rise above their fellow labourers. Whilst some of 
 them went on still pasturing their own sheep, cows, or 
 pigs, others managed to have the work done by other 
 herdsmen. Whilst these remained with their coarse 
 sheepskins and neglected appearance, the others contrived 
 to improve themselves and to pay more and more atten- 
 tion to cleanliness and dress. This difference went on 
 growing. When the shepherds began to settle down and 
 to till the ground, it is quite possible that the richer ones 
 managed to lay hands on larger portions of land ; others 
 in poorer conditions associated to take common posses- 
 sion of some other land, on absolutely equal terms; 
 
 80 
 
c page 80. 
 
 Shepherds. 
 
 {Photo, D. Cadere. 
 
THE PEASANT IN THE SOCIAL SCALE 81 
 
 others, again, remained behind to mind the pigs. Thus, 
 when later on the Roumanian nation came to the 
 first dim understanding of the notion of a state, a social 
 distinction practically existed already among the Rou- 
 manians, and that distinction was based — like any social 
 distinction at its beginning — on difference of wealth. It 
 is notorious that the Hungarians found a nobility in 
 Transylvania, which nobility merged into the Hungarian 
 nobility ; those who did not care to merge went away and 
 founded Valachia and Moldavia. There they found a 
 nobility too, whom they took to their bosom — except 
 those who may have resisted, and had either to go away 
 or to submit. The oldest recollections of this nobility 
 may have had their roots as far back as the time of the 
 first Bulgarian Empire ; at any rate, it was reconstructed 
 according to the model of the Bulgarian organisation 
 beyond the Danube, whence the whole political and 
 social scheme was taken, modelling itself on the Byzan- 
 tine institutions. The Roumanian nobles adopted the 
 title of Bo'iars (from the Slav Boljar) , and were addressed 
 with the appellation of jupdn, which was as much as 
 *' sir," or perhaps " my lord " ; the women were jupdnese 
 (" ladies "), and the young women jupdnitze. Those 
 nobles were proprietors of land, large or small, and they 
 all lived on their lands. Below them were the peasants, 
 of whom a large number were also landowners, the 
 rdzdshi or moshneni, of whom the prince author, 
 Demetrius Cantimir (Prince of Moldavia at the beginning 
 of the eighteenth century), says, that he does not know 
 where to place them, at the head of the peasants or at 
 the tail of the boiars. The poorest peasants seem still to 
 have had their land property in common, and it is not in 
 the least to be wondered at if every peasant had land 
 when we know that there was so much of it, and that the 
 founders of the principalities, the first voyevodes, found 
 such a large amount of waste land. 
 
 In what consisted the difference between these boiars 
 and peasants ? As far as documents and human memory 
 can account for it, the difference was only a material one; 
 the difference of all times between the more or less 
 
 7 
 
82 FROM CARPATHIAN TO PINDUS 
 
 refined rich man and the more or less rough poor man. 
 There was no written law, and custom equalised all. 
 There was no right of firstborn and no indivision of pro- 
 perty for the boiars — boiars or peasant's children had 
 equal rights in their parent's inheritance. There was no 
 dispensation from taxation for the boiar, who, like the 
 peasant, paid the tithe and all the indirect taxes, the 
 latter being, however, alone subject to the direct tax, 
 the hir. There was no difference in the military service, 
 which everybody was obliged to perform. 
 
 In those times there seems to have been plenty of free 
 intercourse and amicable feeling between rich and poor ; 
 the rich had not yet become egoistic and greedy ; the 
 poor had not found room for envy and hatred in their 
 hearts. Moreover, there seems to have existed a good 
 deal of esteem among the poor for the rich. The latter, 
 being in a better material position, could afford to culti- 
 vate much more freely those moral qualities which, more 
 or less dimly, have always formed the groundwork of the 
 Roumanian soul — probably of the human soul at large ; 
 he could afford to be more generous, more high-minded, 
 wiser even, as he had more time to give to thinking than 
 the toiling poor ; he had to bow his head to nobody, and 
 got into the habit of not bending it at all. Those superior 
 qualities, expected to spring up in well-to-do beings, were 
 readily acknowledged by popular fancy, and duly admired 
 in the outpourings of the poetical imagination. In one 
 of the finest ballads collected in old Moldavia, the popular 
 poet draws a picture of a boiar of those times, ** Toma 
 Alimosh" : — 
 
 "There, on the ridge of those hills, 
 By the ditch with the five hazels 
 Shooting out from a single trunk, 
 Like five brothers from one mother,* 
 
 * " Colo'n zarea celor culmi 
 La groapa cu cinci aluni 
 Ce rasar dintr'o tulpina 
 Ca cinci fra^i de La o muma 
 
THE PEASANT IN THE SOCIAL SCALE 83 
 
 Sits down Toma Alimosh 
 A boiar from the lowland." * 
 
 Not far from him his horse, tied to a silver tether, 
 feeds on the grass, while the boiar partakes also of a light 
 meal ; he eats and drinks, but complains of being alone, 
 and having nobody to drink with : the hospitable boiar is 
 used to cheerful companions at his table. Hopeless of a 
 human partner, he will drink to the trees on the 
 height : — 
 
 "I will drink to the elms, 
 The giants of the heights, 
 For they are ready to answer 
 With gay whisper of the leaves, 
 And in the air they will swing 
 And to me they will bow." f 
 
 But as he says this he hears the neighing of a horse ; 
 he rises slowly, as becomes a dignified boiar and a fearless 
 man, and catches sight of a man approaching on horse- 
 back ; it is Mane, the ho^oman, the rough thief in rough 
 attire : — 
 
 "The thief, tall, with heavy mane, 
 Like a heavy, leafy oak. 
 It was Mane, the broad-shouldered, 
 With a big and woolly sheepskin — 
 The sheepskin turned inside out, | 
 
 * ^ade Toma — AHmos 
 Boier din ^ara de jos." 
 
 f " Inchina-voiii ulmilor 
 Urie^ii culmilor, 
 Ca sint gata sa-mi raspunda 
 Cu freamat voios de frunza 
 ^i 'n vazduh s' or clatina 
 $i mie s' or inchina." 
 
 I "Ho^omanul nalt, pletos 
 Cum e un stejar stufos: 
 Era Mane eel spatos 
 Cu cojoc mare mi|ios 
 Cu cojoc intors pe dos 
 
84 FROM CARPATHIAN TO PINDUS 
 
 And with his unpeeled club, 
 Roughly hewn with the hatchet."* 
 
 He advances upon the boiar and addresses him rudely, 
 seeking a quarrel : — 
 
 "... Well, then, Toma Alimosh, 
 You boiar from the lowland, 
 Why do you tread on our lands 
 And crush down our hayfields ? " f 
 
 But the good-natured boi'ar does not lose temper ; he 
 bears no ill-will, and asks his rough fellow-man to drink 
 with him : — 
 
 "But the boiar Alimosh 
 Gives him the gourd with red wine: 
 — Your health, O brother Mane 1 
 Throw your anger behind you. 
 Let us drink an equal share." | 
 
 The thief takes the drink with his left hand, while with 
 his right he draws his dagger and treacherously strikes 
 the unsuspicious boiar in the stomach, and then, like a 
 coward, takes to flight. But the boiar, with an impreca- 
 tion on the traitor who has " robbed him of his days," 
 rises as well as he can, presses in his stomach, girds him- 
 self tight with his broad girdle, and mounts, addressing 
 his horse : — 
 
 * ^i cu ghioaga nestrujita 
 Numai din topor cioplita." 
 
 f ". . . Aleil Toma Alimo^ 
 Boier din ^ara de jos 
 Ce ne calci mo^iile 
 ^i ne strici fine^ele ? " 
 
 I "Boier Toma Alimo^, 
 li da plosca cu vin ro§ 
 — Sa traie^ti Mane fartate 1 
 Da-^i maniea dupa spate 
 Ga sa bem in jumatate." 
 
THE PEASANT IN THE SOCIAL SCALE 85 
 
 "'Woe to us, dear little bay, 
 Woe, oh my own brave bay 1 
 If you could in your old age 
 Go as you could in your youth I ' 
 The bay's bright eye lit up, 
 He neighed, and thus gave reply : 
 — * Take my mane and leap on me, 
 And do hold fast to the end. 
 That I may show in old age 
 What I was worth in my youth ! ' " * 
 
 And on and on they storm away, the old boiar still 
 urging his horse : — 
 
 "Halloo, dear little bay, 
 Halloo, my brave bay, 
 Lay yourself on the road 
 Like the grass on the field 
 To the blast of the wind I " f 
 
 The thief is overtaken, and the brave boiar, in the very 
 rush of the flight, cuts him in two pieces, punishing him 
 thus for the treacherous deed, for which the popular 
 singer finds no words strong enough : — 
 
 "You have struck me villainously 
 And run away like a coward I " | 
 
 * "'Alelei murgule^ mic 
 Alei murgul men voinicl 
 De-ai putea la batrane^e 
 Cum puteai la tinere^e ! ' 
 Murgul ochi '§i aprindea 
 Necheza ^i raspundea: 
 — 'Eata coama, sai pe mine 
 §i de-acum te ^ine bine 
 Sa-^i arat la batrane^e 
 Ce puteam la tinere^e I ' " 
 
 f " Alelei murgule^ mic 1 
 Alei murgul men voinic 1 
 Asterne-te drumului 
 Ca ^i iarba cimpului 
 La suflarea vantului I " 
 
 I "Taiatu-m'ai talhare^te 
 Fugitu-mi-ai mi§ele§te 1 " 
 
86 FROM CARPATHIAN TO PINDUS 
 
 says the boiiar. But his strength is at an end ; he is 
 dying. He asks his horse to carry him back under the 
 high elms, there to dig him a grave with his hoofs, and 
 lay him down with his teeth : — 
 
 "The elms will swing, 
 The leaves will fall 
 And cover my body." * 
 
 In the oldest times the boiars used to live on their 
 properties ; the voyevode had at his court a number of 
 officials for his private service and that of the State, but 
 these occupied only a lower rank in the hierarchy of 
 boiardom, as is obvious from the documents signed by 
 the boiars, in which the untitled boiars — those living in 
 the country — occupied the place of honour, immediately 
 after the sovereign, whilst the boiars fulfilling any func- 
 tion, and provided with a title, came only second, each in 
 the order allowed by the importance of his office. For, 
 although the monarch was absolute in the gravest 
 State matters, giving of judgments, &c., he used, never- 
 theless, to call a council of the boiars, the Divan, to take 
 advice from them, though he was under no obligation to 
 follow it. But there were boiars who never went to 
 Court, and that for many a reason ; a comparative 
 poverty, perhaps, preventing them from competing with 
 other wealthier boiars in that state of life ; perhaps 
 through shyness ; or perhaps independence of character, 
 unwillingness to make the curtsey and to kiss hands — all 
 this may well have kept them away, vegetative as they 
 were, so to speak, in their country seats. There, of 
 course, not keeping in touch with capital and Court, they 
 must have remained rather behind the time in fashion 
 and refined courtly usages ; on the other hand, the right 
 of the firstborn, preserving property undivided, has never 
 existed with the Roumanians, hence the children became, 
 as a rule, even poorer than the parents, so that rank was 
 
 * "Ulmii ca s' or clatina 
 Frunza ca s'a scutura 
 Trupul ca mi-a astupa." 
 
THE PEASANT IN THE SOCIAL SCALE 87 
 
 still harder to keep up. The succeeding generations of 
 these boiars became sometimes very poor, the more so 
 that their retirement made the rehabilitation of their 
 properties, through donations from the voyevode, impos- 
 sible, but they were still recognised as boiars, under the 
 title of hoieri de tara (** country boiars," or "rustic 
 boiars"). In the long run these rustic boiars, with pro- 
 perties that grew smaller and smaller, fell to the rank of 
 mere rdzdshi, to share afterwards their varying fate, and 
 fall lower still in the succeeding generations, into the 
 dark state of serfdom. 
 
 We have seen that means have existed even for the 
 rdzdshi of reconstructing their lost properties, but these 
 facts were rather accidents in the regular stream of down- 
 fall, which accidents became scarcer and scarcer for boiar 
 as well as for peasant, in proportion as the domains of the 
 monarch decreased, to disappear at last altogether. But 
 the voyevode had it in his power to give not only pro- 
 perty, but nobility as well. The legend of the Aprodul 
 Purice goes back to the time of Stephen the Great. In 
 one of the battles of this warlike prince he had his horse 
 killed ; one of his soldiers, the Aprod (a Court servant), 
 Purice, gave him his horse. But the great monarch 
 seems to have been only a small man, so that he was 
 unable to mount off the ground, on which Purice said : 
 " My lord, allow me to stoop and make of my back a little 
 mound, stepping on which, you may easily mount ; " and 
 on mounting the prince said, " My poor Purice, if I and 
 you come both safe out of this war, I will change your 
 name of Purice (flea) to that of Movild " (mound). And so 
 it came about. After the victorious war the aprod was 
 made a boiar with the name of Movila, and became the 
 root of a family which one century later even ascended 
 the throne. In this way many a common person may 
 have risen to the noble rank of boiar, but as to the 
 worthiness of the selected we may be allowed to have our 
 doubts, as this promotion was entirely at the monarch's 
 caprice. That is also the reason that the rewarding of a 
 really meritorious man with a title of nobility appears 
 such a doubtful distinction ; if the title had always been 
 
88 FROM CARPATHIAN TO PINDUS 
 
 the outcome of merit there would be nothing to say 
 against it. 
 
 Thus peasants could sometimes become bo'iars, and 
 boiars could still more easily become peasants by the 
 division of property. But the descent was not reserved 
 to "rustic boiars" only; it could just as easily befall 
 boiars of the highest position and wealth. Thus, as 
 already seen, the boiars began very early to divide into 
 parties, supporting this or that pretender to the throne. 
 The successful monarch always had rewards for his sup- 
 porters and punishments for his opponents, consisting 
 chiefly in gifts and confiscations of land respectively. In 
 proportion as the voyevode's domain (the source of rewards) 
 diminished, the strife and struggle between the boiars 
 became keener ; when the prince had no more land to 
 give away he began to reward his supporters with courtly 
 functions. Then it was that the official places increased 
 so much in value that they were more sought after, 
 because they conferred a title which brought to the 
 bearer various revenues and privileges ; these posts were 
 called hoierii, increased with the demand, and, although 
 the voyevode needlessly multiplied those functions, they 
 were still never sufficient to quench the thirst of the 
 boiars for more or less lucrative distinctions. The 
 rivalries and intriguing went on increasing, but in the 
 long run the voyevode took from the Turks the habit of 
 using his boiars as he himself was used by the Turks ; as 
 the Turks could at will expel the voyevode by a simple 
 decree of ma'zul, so the voyevode dismissed the boiars 
 from their functions, sending them from Court away into 
 rustic obscurity, where they were designated under the 
 name of boiars mazili. These ex-boiars fell to the condi- 
 tion of the rustic boiars, to sink with them as low as fate 
 would bring them. Sometimes, no doubt, the disgrace of 
 the mazil boiars was transitory, but often, also, they were 
 never able to rise again. 
 
 The natural outcome of all this was that the social 
 ladder of the Roumanian people has been a very much 
 trodden one, up and down, and that it would be hard 
 work to find out where peasantry stopped and where 
 
THE PEASANT IN THE SOCIAL SCALE 89 
 
 nobility began, as they went for ever turning on the 
 wheel of fortune. 
 
 II 
 
 The pohtical events in both countries, the falHng into 
 Turkish vassaldom, the traffic made by the Turks with 
 the Koumanian thrones, the need of the prince ever to 
 befriend the boiars, the heavy taxation to make up the 
 large sums to be paid at Constantinople, all this told 
 heavily on the wealth of the people, and on their social 
 relations. At the end of the sixteenth century, serfdom 
 is already officially sanctioned by a decree of the Valachian 
 prince, Michael the Brave. In Moldavia, no act whatever 
 came to sanction serfdom ; nevertheless the thing exiisted, 
 just as it did in Valachia. During the seventeenth 
 century we have also seen that a great influx of Greeks 
 set in, and that several of the sovereigns of this period 
 are Greek adventurers. The Greeks who had entered 
 the countries as creditors and friends of the prince, were 
 presented with offices, became boiars, intermarried — under 
 the voyevode's compulsion mostly — with boiar families, 
 got hold of their properties by fair means or by foul, 
 supplanting thus little by little the national nobility. 
 In the eighteenth century the bulk of the Eoumanian 
 nobility seemed entirely Greek, made up of Greek 
 adventurers, and altogether Greek-speaking boiars ; for 
 the Greek, with the ostentatious pride of an old civilised 
 nation, and with his talent for intruding and intriguing, 
 pressed so heavily on the guileless Koumanian boiar, that 
 the latter did all he could to learn Greek, and to adopt 
 Greek fashions, in order not to be ignored in high society 
 or at court, where the Greek monarch was the sun by 
 which all nobility regulated its pace. But the people 
 knew best what to think of it all. ** Cake-maker in 
 Greece or prince in Eoumania," is a proverb that arose 
 in that epoch, implying the humble origin of most of the 
 Greek rulers, and the poverty of the situations to be got 
 in their own fatherland. "When a boy was born, the 
 Greek midwife — they said — pinched his nose with the 
 
90 FROM CARPATHIAN TO PINDUS 
 
 above-mentioned prophetic wish for his welfare — the best 
 situation in the world, to Greek minds, being either to 
 sell cakes at home or else to occupy a Roumanian throne. 
 
 Now, if the old national nobility had not always 
 fostered the Roumanian peasant, one can easily imagine 
 what the Greek must have been. The Greek tax- 
 gatherer was much abler at his business than the 
 Roumanian had been ; the peasants were reduced to 
 utter misery, and were submitted to the cruellest tor- 
 tures to extort money from them. And the Roumanian 
 boiars joined in the game, for those who did not had 
 to retire to the shade as good for nothing; the old 
 "defender" of the country has become its decided 
 oppressor ; the name boiar is the same, but the thing 
 is altogether different. 
 
 In these conditions, no wonder that the split between 
 peasant and boiar became so deep that they looked upon 
 each other as beings of quite different origin, which, 
 indeed, was true in most cases. Their reciprocal feel- 
 ings were greatly affected by the change. What was 
 once generosity, good will, condescension on one side, 
 respect and ready admiration on the other, now became 
 greed, contempt, cruelty in the former, hatred and spirit 
 of revenge in the latter. The peasant knew very well 
 that the boiar held his own only by cowardice and 
 humiliation before the prince ; for him the boiar is now 
 a characterless being who 
 
 " To alms (receiving) 
 Rushes forward, 
 In war 
 Draws backward."* 
 
 The Greek never earned anything but hatred and 
 contempt from the Roumanian folk. Whenever there 
 is a traitor in a ballad it is sure to be a Greek, for 
 
 * " La pomana 
 Da navala, 
 La rasboi 
 Da inapoi." 
 
THE PEASANT IN THE SOCIAL SCALE 91 
 
 " The Greek is an accursed soul, 
 Overloaded with sins." * 
 
 A scoundrel cannot but be a Greek ; a 
 
 "... man cowardly as all Greeks, 
 Who well knows how to tear off 
 The very shirt from one's body; 
 They take cattle, oxen, horses, 
 They take everything you possess." f 
 
 When the upper class was filled with the Greek 
 element, when the Eoumanian nobility was merged in 
 that Greek element, what wonder that the feeling of 
 the peasant for the Greek extended to the whole upper 
 class? And these feelings, were they of a nature to 
 inspire poetry and song? They did inspire songs of a 
 kind. The boiar was thenceforth nothing but a par- 
 venu, a cioco'i (tchiocoy = i^a^rYenu) , ciocoz guler at (collared 
 parvenu), a being who had hardly the value of a man in 
 the peasant's eye. The haidook Bujor says — 
 
 " Death of man I have not caused 
 But ciocoi I have thrashed many." | 
 
 An injury done to a ciocoi is not considered a wrong ; 
 submission, obedience to rulers of the ciocoi make, is 
 considered a shame. Jianu, a boiar's son, turned 
 haidook, is reported to have said — 
 
 " Kather than to humble myself, 
 I prefer to be a haidook." § 
 
 * " Grecu-i suflet blastamat 
 De pacate incarcat." 
 
 f " . . . Om mi^el ca §i to^i Grecii 
 Ce stiu ca sa-^i iea prea bine 
 Chiar camera de pe tine ; 
 l|ii ieau vite, boi ^i cai 
 l^i ieau tot §i tot ce ai." 
 
 I " Mort de om eu n'am facut 
 Dar ciocoi mul^i am batut." 
 
 § " Decat sa ma caciulesc 
 Mai bine sa haiducesc I " 
 
92 FROM CARPATHIAN TO PINDUS 
 
 Under such circumstances the Roumanian lute was 
 inchned to be dumb. What the popular poet sees 
 round him is not worth singing, and the only feelings 
 for which he finds utterance are not at all ideal. 
 However, the world is not quite as empty and dull as 
 it looks. The Roumanian popular poet is high-minded, 
 large-hearted. Now and then he will forget his own 
 sorrows, and shed a sympathetic tear on the cruel death 
 of the Valachian voyevode, Constantin Brancoveanu, 
 executed at Constantinople for intriguing with the 
 Russians. The people's sympathy is with — 
 
 '* Brancoveanu Constantin, 
 Ancient boiar, and Christian prince " * — 
 
 the boiar of old family, who prefers death for his sons 
 and himself rather than forsake Christianity. Yet 
 Brancoveanu was one of the greatest extortionists of 
 taxation; but the generous peasant passes over that for 
 the sake of his higher virtues. In the same way he will 
 follow with undivided interest the vicissitudes and mis- 
 fortunes of a Moldavian boiar, lordacki a Lupului, and 
 lament over his untimely death. This boiar, one of the 
 old stamp, living in the eighteenth century under the 
 Phanariotes, aware of the hatred his voyevode nourishes 
 against him, emigrates to the Tartars in the Crimea, 
 where he is welcomed in a friendly manner by the Khan, 
 who promises to support him with the Sultan and get him 
 a ferman (decree) of nomination to the throne, to which 
 he also means to help him with a Tartar army. But the 
 good patriot, the honest Moldavian, declines : — 
 
 No, I shall take no army, 
 
 For the country will curse me ; f 
 
 * " Brancoveanu Constantin 
 
 Boier vechiii §i domn cre^tin." 
 
 f " Ba eu oaste n'oiu lua 
 Ca ^ara m'a blastama. 
 
THE PEASANT IN THE SOCIAL SCALE 93 
 
 Who brings hosts into the land, 
 
 May he die under the land's curse I " * 
 
 But the voyevode succeeds in coaxing back the exiled 
 boiar by treacherous promises, to which the artless boiar 
 decides to respond favourably, against all the warnings 
 of the more experienced Khan. Attended by a few 
 followers, he returns back to his " fair Maria," to his 
 country place, and hence, with a large suite sent by 
 the prince, they start for Jassy, although the omens 
 are bad. 
 
 •* For the window slammed, 
 
 And fell to the groimd, 
 
 Without breath of wind, 
 
 And a gilded holy-image 
 
 SpHt without a stroke." | 
 
 As soon as the boiar lordacki has presented himself 
 before the prince, the latter, without any further delay, 
 orders the executioner to cut off the boiar's head at once, 
 but the boiar receives the man with such a blow that he 
 fells him to the ground. The proud boiar does not fear 
 death, but he will not have it at the executioner's hand. 
 He tenders his sword to his trusty follower, Lissandre, 
 with the words — 
 
 " Take thou my sword 
 And cut off my head with it 
 And it won't hurt." | 
 
 But Lissandre, § " sighing deeply," declines the dreadful 
 service — 
 
 * Cine-aduce oasten 'n tara 
 Sub blastamul ^erei piara ! " 
 
 f " Ca fereastra se isbea 
 §i cadea jos la pamint, 
 Fara suflare de vant, 
 ^i-o icoana poleita 
 Trosnea far 'a fi lovita." 
 
 I "^ine tu sabiea mea 
 De-mi taie capul cu ea 
 Ca nici cum nu m'a durea." 
 
 § Lissandre — Lissandru, diminutive from Alexandru, 
 
94 FROM CARPATHIAN TO PINDUS 
 
 "... My master 1 
 Your bread and salt I have eaten 
 Do not drive me into sin ! " * f 
 
 The Amautzi rush on the unhappy boiar, and he is 
 killed, but his unfortunate wife Maria takes up the head 
 and, embracing it, curses the prince dreadfully. The 
 curse is fulfilled, as the ballad tells us : — 
 
 " Green leaf of sand- weed 
 Great fire is ablaze in Jassy 
 The flame reaches to Mileshti, 
 The brands spring up to Goleshti, 
 The sparks fly to Barlaneshti, 
 And as far as Ciocaneshti 
 And carry the dreadful news 
 That lordaki has perished, 
 And that fire has sprung up 
 From the tremendous curse." | 
 
 III 
 
 But the age of the ballad was gone by. The impres- 
 sions from outside were of such a colour now as to arouse 
 only feelings of deeper and deeper sorrow and suffering 
 from inside, and when the heart was too full of sadness, 
 the admiring epopee was silenced, and lyrical utterances 
 only were heard. The economic and social troubles were 
 
 "!' "... Stapanul meu I 
 Panea, sarea, ^i-am mancat 
 Nu ma vara la pacat I " 
 
 f The Eoumanian peasant considers it a greater sin to betray or 
 kill a former master than any one else. 
 
 I " Frunza verde siminoc 
 La le^ arde mare foe 
 Bate para prin Mile^ti 
 Sar taciunil in Gole^ti 
 Scanteile 'n Barlane^ti 
 Pana pe la Ciocane^ti 
 Si due vestea de' ngrozit 
 Ca lordaki a perit 
 ^i ca focul a sbucnit 
 Din blastamul eel cumplit." 
 
THE PEASANT IN THE SOCIAL SCALE 95 
 
 ample material for popular complaint ; it filled the poet's 
 life, it regulated his movements. There were still rdzdshi 
 left, but they were obhged to keep in continual strife with 
 the boiar, and endless lawsuits made them weary of the 
 way to town, where they were dragged over and over 
 again, with a ** bag of papers for a patch of land " — to 
 come at last home again, oftener without than with that 
 patch of land. In the popular mind boiardom has 
 become one more national evil beside the invasions of 
 pagans and the plunder of foreigners ; the composer of 
 the doinas (popular songs) puts them on the same level as 
 those evils. The crow is supposed to say — 
 
 "I would eat hearts out of bosoms 
 And I would drink pagan blood; 
 I would eat kidneys of horse, 
 And I would drink blood of Russians ; 
 I should like to eat oak leaves 
 And I would drink blood of Tartar; 
 I would eat honeycombs in hives, 
 And would drink blood of ciocoi ! " * 
 
 The ciocoi was considered the extremity of evil as 
 appears from this epicurean crescendo of the Crow's 
 ghastly bill of fare. 
 
 The difficulties of Hfe made the peasant often weary of 
 household and family ; he would desert his falling cottage, 
 in which all the winter long he has been struggling against 
 the bitter cold. 
 
 "The drop has fallen on me, 
 The north wind has frozen me,f 
 
 "^ " A§ m^nca inimi din san 
 §i-a§ bea sange de pagan ; 
 A§ manca rarunchi de cal 
 ^i-a§ bea sange de Moscal; 
 A^ manca foi de stejar 
 ^i-a§ bea sange de Tatar 
 A.^ manca faguri de roi 
 ^i-B,^ bea sange de ciocoi 1" 
 
 f " Picatura m'a picat, 
 Criva^ul m'a inghe^at, 
 
96 FROM CARPATHIAN TO PINDUS 
 
 The smoke has besmoked me, 
 
 And my sorrel-horse has collapsed." * 
 
 With the coming of May he takes to the thickening 
 woods, driven out by despair, with his revengeful ghioaga 
 (club) on his shoulder : — 
 
 *' Tax is heavy, labour hard. 
 Woe is me, dear mother mine I 
 Where'er I go and whate'er I do, 
 Of troubles I can't get rid, 
 And nowhere do I find rest. 
 For very fear of the sherifif, 
 And for dread of the taxation 
 I forgot the way to the village, 
 And the horns of the plough: 
 I took the way of the grove, 
 And the footpath to the wood, 
 And the rifle of the haidook. 
 For, rather than beggary, 
 Far better is robbery. 
 Whatever God's will may be 1 " f 
 
 His sufferings are unbearable ; he takes upon himself 
 the sole responsibility of righting his wrongs, and then 
 he will regulate his accounts with God, for whom, says 
 he, " peasant and boiar is all one." He trusts that, 
 
 * Fumul ca m'a afumat, 
 Roibul ca mi-a le^inat." 
 
 f " Biru-i greu, podveada grea 
 Saracu^ de maica mea ! 
 Unde merg §i ori-ce fac 
 De belele nu mai scap 
 Nicairi nu mai incap. 
 De frica zapciului 
 ^i de groaza birului 
 Uitai drumul satului 
 §i coarnele plugului: 
 Luai drumul cringului 
 ^i poteca codrului 
 ^i flinta haiducului. 
 Ca, decit in calicie 
 Mai bine in haiducie 
 Ce-a vrea Dumnezeu sa fie 1 " 
 
THE PEASANT IN THE SOCIAL SCALE 97 
 
 wicked though his behaviour may be, the many wrongs 
 done to him will make the balance even before the 
 Almighty Judge. He has no more patience left ; he 
 dares to threaten the boiar openly : — 
 
 • Green leaf of chervil, 
 I met once with a cioci : 
 ' Good way to thee, thou Koumanian I 
 ' Thanli: you, dog of a cioci ! ' 
 ' Thou ruffian, thou art drunk.' 
 ' Bark on, collared ciocoi. 
 For to-day I took no food.' 
 ' Thou ruffian, evil villain, 
 I shall settle this with thee 
 When heavy taxation comes I ' 
 ' Woe to thee I Son of ciocoi 
 May I catch thee in the field 
 To soften thee with my club, 
 That I may take off thy skin 
 And wrap in that skin of thine 
 My pistols and my rifle; 
 That the wind may not touch them, 
 That the rain may not rust them 
 Nor the eye catch sight of them 1 ' " * 
 
 "^ " Frunza verde baraboi 
 Ma 'ntilnii cu un ciocoi: 
 ' Buna cale mai Eomane 
 ' Mul^umesc ciocoi de cane I 
 ' Mai mojice, tu e^ti bat. 
 * Latra ciocoi gulerat 
 Ca eu asta-zi n'am mancat ! ' 
 ' Mai mojice, mojic rau 
 Las'ca mi te-oi drege eu 
 Cand a veni birul greul" 
 " Alelei I Pui de ciocoi 
 De te-a§ prinde la zavoi 
 Sa-^i dau maciuci sa te moi 
 De piele sa te despoi 
 Ga sa 'mbrac cu pielea ta 
 Pistoalele ^i flinta. 
 Vintul sa nu le paleasca 
 Ploi sa nu le rugineasca 
 Ochiul sa nu le zareasea 1 " 
 8 
 
98 FROM CARPATHIAN TO PINDUS 
 
 This is the pass to which the relations between boiars 
 and peasants had come, whom we saw to be friends in the 
 old times, whom we have witnessed changing places over 
 and over again. The old nobility had for the most part 
 disappeared among the much-tried peasantry ; the upper 
 ranks had been filled with a nobility which, if not entirely 
 strange, was at any rate entirely estranged from the 
 nation. The aim of the Phanariotes in their more than 
 centm-y-long reign, had been to Grecise the Roumanians, 
 and it really looked very much like success for them, with 
 all those boiars speaking a more or less grammatical Greek, 
 and the poor Roumanian tongue banished from good 
 society. But the peasants never learned Greek, no, not 
 they: they kept alive the sacred spirit of nationality 
 embodied in its language, fallen all within their care ! 
 And yet, when the Phanariotic rule was at an end, lo ! all 
 the Greeks had disappeared, as if swept away by magic 
 power. The fact is, that with all their striving to Grecise 
 the Roumanians, the Greeks themselves were becoming 
 insensibly Roumanised ! The curtain had hardly fallen 
 on the Phanariotic comedy, when Roumanian courts with 
 national princes revealed a majority of Roumanian nobles, 
 speaking Roumanian, forgetting their Greek in no time, 
 offended if called Greeks, never desiring or dreaming to 
 be Greeks again. Time had done its work ; their 
 descendants were indeed Roumanians — some of them 
 quite good Roumanians indeed, in the long run. But the 
 reciprocal feeling was not much improved all the same ; 
 the economic and social state of the peasants remaining 
 the same, there was, of course, no place for improvement 
 in feelings. Moreover, the national, or nationalised, 
 boiars of the beginning of the nineteenth century displayed 
 such egoism as to startle even the Russian Kisseleff. By 
 the *' Organic Regulations," a constitution imposed by 
 the Russians — during the occupation of the principalities 
 in 1828-34 — the boiars succeeded in getting privileges 
 second to none in Europe ; their military service was 
 even dispensed with, a service considered as a duty and 
 an honour even by the worst of nobles in the worst of 
 times ! The oppression of the peasants reached its climax. 
 
THE PEASANT IN THE SOCIAL SCALE 99 
 
 But 1848 was near at hand. Eisings were prepared in 
 both countries, by young men, nobles and non-nobles, 
 awakened to liberal ideas by what was going on in 
 Western Europe. The rising in Moldavia was paralysed 
 from the very start. One anecdote tells us that the 
 young boiars, caught in the act of conspiring against 
 their monarch, were arrested, taken to the barracks, 
 stretched down and lashed with twenty-five rods a-piece 
 — a great breach of the boiar privileges, for thrashing was 
 still an official punishment, but the boiars were exempted 
 from it. The thrashed boiars escaped, however, and fled 
 to the mountains, trying to start a rising among the 
 peasants. In their eagerness to bring home to the slow 
 peasant mind the need of a rising against the oppressive 
 monarch, they took as example the very wrongs done to 
 them : *' Good men, just consider the lawlessness of this 
 prince; he has actually thrashed ws / " "Well," an- 
 swered the peasant quietly, ** you see, things stand 
 thus : the boiars thrash us, and voda (voyevode) thrashes 
 the boiars ! " 
 
 The strained feelings between peasant and boiar could 
 not give way but with the gradual improvement of the 
 former's condition, and hardly anything was done in that 
 way before the union of the two countries. But, inde- 
 pendently of their material troubles, the peasants were 
 quite alive to the idea of unity ; it seems to have been 
 brooding in their bosoms all through the ages, so readily 
 did they take to it. In truth, the union was made by the 
 people at large rather than by the boiars. With all that 
 the peasants were not so silly as not to understand that if 
 they were wanted to make the union, the boiars would 
 still have the best of it, with the least trouble possible, 
 and that the peasants in their turn were not very back- 
 ward in bringing their feelings home to the boiars, may 
 be illustrated by the following anecdote reported by the 
 most popular of Eoumanian writers. Ion Creanga, an 
 anecdote which, I dare say, will fit more than one 
 country. 
 
 In 1857, when men's minds were excited with the idea 
 of unity, the national party of Jassy called to town a 
 
100 FROM CARPATHIAN TO PINDUS 
 
 number of peasants of each department, who were to 
 attend their assembhes and take an active part in the 
 union business. One of the most democratically-minded 
 boiars took charge of them, and was entrusted with the 
 duty of explaining matters to them as clearly as was 
 required by their slow, uneducated brains. In a smart 
 speech he explained to them the righteousness of the 
 union of the sister countries, and the need of it, and 
 the good that would follow for all. At last he encouraged 
 them to say whether they had understood and to ask 
 again what was not clear to them. The more timid of 
 them replied that no doubt the boiars knew best, as they 
 were learned and in touch with what was going on in the 
 world ; as for themselves, what could they know, from 
 the horns of their plough ? but one of them, the cunning 
 old Ion Roata, made bold to say that he had not under- 
 stood. Of course, he went on, it was all right that the 
 boiars should do what they liked without asking them, 
 for they — the peasants — were able enough at handling the 
 hoe, and the scythe, and the sickle, and all that, but the 
 boiars could handle the pen, and make the white black, 
 and the black white at will, for God had given them 
 wisdom to guide the ignorant, and so on. No, 
 asserted the boiar, the times were gone by when the 
 boiars thought more of themselves than of the rest of 
 mankind ; now equality prevailed, and they ought all to 
 have an equal share in the conduct as well as in the 
 burdens of the land — and, again he went on in long 
 explanations, after which he said he hoped the peasants 
 understood what was expected from them. Old Ion 
 Roata' s mind has again been too slow for him. The 
 boiar, however, does not get angry; he wants to show 
 patience ; he wishes to be clear and instructive. 
 
 "Well," says he, "Uncle John, do you see that big 
 stone at the end of my garden ? Will you please bring it 
 to me here ? " 
 
 The peasant goes but cannot lift the stone. A second 
 peasant is sent along to help, then a third, a fourth — till 
 they were able to lift the block on their shoulders and 
 bring it before the boiar. There was the object lesson ! 
 
THE PEASANT IN THE SOCIAL SCALE 101 
 
 "Now, you see," said the boiar, brightening up, ''none 
 of you alone could lift that stone, but altogether you have 
 overcome the difficulty. Union makes strength, and there 
 exactly lies the point of our union with the other Kou- 
 manian country." 
 
 But again the queer old man has not understood ! The 
 boiar is at his wits' end, but does not lose his temper. 
 
 " Now, then," says he, " I really wonder how you have 
 not understood, Uncle John, it is so very plain ! How- 
 ever, will you just tell me, in your own way, what you 
 have understood and what not ? Let us hear." 
 
 "Well, sir, don't be displeased, but it seems to me 
 that from speech to action there is a good long way. 
 You, like any boiar, have commanded us to bring the 
 stone, but you have not put your own shoulder along 
 with us, as you were saying a moment since, that we 
 should all have equal share in burdens and rights. 
 From your stone I have understood that up to now 
 we peasants have had each a separate stone to bear 
 on our shoulders, but that henceforth we peasants all 
 together, still only the peasants, will be called upon to 
 bear on our shoulders a bigger stone; that is what 
 I have understood ! " 
 
 The John Eoata type is a characteristic one among 
 Eoumanian peasantry. 
 
 But they brought about, none the less, the unity of the 
 country; and the Eoumanian peasants behaved most 
 patriotically on that occasion, as has been duly acknow- 
 ledged by the Congress of Paris itself ; in the Divanuri- 
 ad-hoc — assemblies elected to express the wish of the 
 people as to unity — they put aside their own interests, 
 which they had so much at heart, till other times, in 
 order to get the momentous, the all-prevailing thing, 
 unity. 
 
 In 1866 the Constitution of United Eoumania was 
 written ; this Constitution clearly states in its 
 10th Article : " There exists no difference of classes 
 whatever in Eoumania." The principle of equality is 
 there again, as it was in the old time ; not written down 
 then, but sanctified by custom ; the principle of equality 
 
102 FROM CARPATHIAN TO PINDUS 
 
 prevailed again, and, although facts may still often clash 
 with the principle, it stands there, nevertheless, like a 
 pillar of light in the night of injustice, and a Roumanian 
 may still reach and depend upon it, whatever obstacles 
 may obstruct the way. By this Constitution there are 
 no more boiars in the old sense, the very shadow of 
 privilege has disappeared, and boiars and peasants are 
 all equal citizens ; they are the Boumanian people. But 
 with all the equality there is none the less ample room for 
 practical differences ; there are the rich and the poor, the 
 cultured and the ignorant, who in truth make a good 
 deal of difference among men, so that the framework 
 of society is, and probably ever will be, still a ladder, but 
 again a well-trodden one. There will be always a leading 
 class and a led one, an upper and a lower, and a rise 
 from the latter to the former is always possible under 
 conditions of capacity, education, and merit— all very 
 fine, no doubt, if that were all, but there are other means 
 of arriving, and the peasant tells you that too often — 
 
 "The pearl lies at the bottom of the sea, 
 Whilst the corpse floats on the surface,"* 
 
 so that the fact of being higher or lower on the ladder 
 does not mean much. But he is tolerant, when even the 
 injustice is most obvious, for he says again — 
 
 "A forest without dry twigs is impossible." f 
 
 A practical difference of classes exists, then, and the 
 man of the upper class is still called a boiar — the lady, 
 the cucoana. The old jupin and jupaneasa have long 
 disappeared, and are only to be heard now and then in 
 far-away places, where peasants will address each other 
 by these appellations — such peasants being possibly 
 descendants of some old rusticated boiars. For a long 
 time these appellations have been confined to Jews, 
 
 * " Margaritarul sta In fundul marii 
 
 lar mortaciunea plute^te pe de-asupra." 
 
 f " Padure fara uscaturi nu se poate." 
 
THE PEASANT IN THE SOCIAL SCALE 103 
 
 and probably through them have come to bear quite 
 a scornful meaning, so that to-day even the poorest Jew 
 feels offended if thus addressed, desiring to be called 
 domnule (gentleman). 
 
 With the proclamation of equality the barbarous 
 punishment of the rod was struck out of penal pro- 
 cedure, at the very zealous insistence of the boiars 
 themselves, who, exactly on the principle of equality, 
 felt that they might sometimes be liable to feel at the 
 hands of some very unheeding official the rod's strokes 
 on their own noble backs. The principle was again won, 
 but bad habits are not so easily given up ; the boiar was 
 too much used to have his own way, and the recalcitrant 
 peasant was often quickly brought by force to the boiar's 
 residence curte (court), stretched in front of the staircase, 
 and flogged till the blood came. Such things cannot 
 easily be forgotten, and many a grandfather still lives 
 to tell his staring grandchildren, sitting round the hearth 
 on a winter night, all the sufferings he has seen or him- 
 self endured from the merciless boiar. Will not these 
 children readily draw a simile between past and present ? 
 And often, if the present boiar does not behave quite as 
 cruelly as of old, he is, nevertheless, the " hereditary 
 foe," much inclined to treat him, the growing youth, as 
 the wolf did the lamb of the fable. 
 
 That is why the peasant would rather have nothing 
 to do with the boiar ; he will never take domestic service 
 if he can help it — anything is better than that : 
 
 "Green leaf of garlic 
 Than servant to the ciocoi 
 Rather shepherd to the ewes 
 With one's head on the mole-hill."* 
 
 That a gentleman should be loved by the peasants 
 is a great exception; he must have won it by life- 
 
 * "Frunza verde usturoi 
 Decit sluga la ciocoi 
 Mai bine cioban la oi 
 Cu capul pe mu^inoi 1 " 
 
104 FROM CARPATHIAN TO PINDUS 
 
 long righteousness and goodness to them to have 
 obHterated their hereditary distrust, an extremely dif- 
 ficult thing, as even the best proposal might take in 
 their eyes the shape of a trap placed under their feet 
 by the boiars. They expect to be always taken in, as 
 their hereditary experience has taught them that they 
 have always been *'the eternally cheated." 
 
 If the feelings of the peasant for the country gentry 
 are not very cordial those for the townspeople are not 
 more so. In town lives the great bulk of the ruling 
 class ; the idea of the peasant is that the town people, 
 at least as far as the gentry go, live at his expense. The 
 difference in dress is for him the symbol of the inner 
 difference ; whilst the peasant has stuck to his national 
 costume, the townsman has adopted the European cut — 
 " German dress," as the people call it. The surtucar 
 (from surtuc = redingote) is for the peasant something like 
 the ciocoi, not so powerful, but just as hateful and con- 
 temptible, living at the peasant's expense. This belief 
 has been enforced on his mind by the tremendous 
 demand there is in towns for State offices, both among 
 the rich and poor, and the struggle for them, which 
 really forms the groundwork of political disputes and 
 party politics — just as the struggles went on in the old 
 times for titled functions ! Moreover, the peasant, com- 
 paring his labour with the work of a town gentleman, is 
 inclined to think that the gentleman is paid for doing 
 nothing. In town also very often resides the master of 
 the land (mo§ie) the peasants are living on ; a proprietor 
 who does not care a pin for land or peasants, who cares 
 only for the income, brought in either by the working of 
 the estate through a subordinate official, a veJcilj or by 
 letting the land to a stranger, a farmer who is very often 
 a foreigner, mostly a Jew (in Moldavia, at least), and 
 cares still less for land or people than the actual master 
 does. To regulate the reciprocal relations of peasants 
 and landowners or farmers, law has had to intervene 
 more than once. As we have seen in the preceding 
 chapter, the successive Acts endeavouring to settle land 
 as well as labour questions, had no other effect than to 
 
THE PEASANT IN THE SOCIAL SCALE 105 
 
 lead to the rising of 1888, so that the next Parliament 
 met with the set purpose of regulating the relations 
 between peasant and large landowner, which even in 
 the message from the throne were recognised as having 
 been "iniquitous" and "unjust." 
 
 It was not, however, before 1893 that a new law was 
 voted, a decided improvement on the preceding ones in 
 its endeavour to put a stop, as far as possible, to the 
 exploitation of the peasant by the large proprietor or 
 farmer; the peasant was put more than ever before 
 under the shield of the law as represented by magis- 
 trates, but how far these are accessible to the peasants 
 is another question. Possibly this last law has done 
 as much as law can do ; but after all, laws are mere 
 formulas, and the important point is their application, 
 much more than their publication. As a matter of fact, 
 the situation of the peasants is as yet far from being that 
 of the Golden Age, and the peasant who has not suf- 
 ficient land of his own to live on its produce, and is 
 obhged to depend on paid labour, is still at the mercy 
 of the landowner, or, what is worse, of an exploiting 
 farmer, as the land proprietors more and more leave 
 their lands in the hands of farmers who are strangers, 
 to live more according to their taste in towns or even 
 abroad. 
 
 As it is peasant and " gentleman " are not on the best 
 of terms, save quite exceptionally ; the peasant is full 
 of distrust towards the gentleman — 
 
 "With a gentleman's lie 
 You can make the tour of Hungary." * 
 
 He expects to be always cheated and brought to ruin 
 if the rich wishes it, for — 
 
 " The wealth of the rich swallows the morsel of the poor." f 
 
 * "Cu minciuna boiereasca 
 Incunjuri ifSxa, ungureasca." 
 
 Averea bogatului inghite buca^ica saracului." 
 
106 FROM CARPATHIAN TO PINDUS 
 
 He expects no mercy, no help from the rich, but — 
 
 "Before inclination (to give) has come to the rich, 
 The poor will have breathed his last." * 
 
 When his forbearance is at an end he will rise, as he 
 has often done — to be put down just as easily ; he will 
 threaten — 
 
 "The bad felly (of the wheel) also comes uppermost."! 
 
 On the whole it would seem that the peasant is 
 turning a diplomatist after all, and, being so often 
 taken advantage of, he will pay in similar coin when 
 his opportunity comes. Here is an anecdote to illustrate 
 the diplomatic relation between peasant and master. A 
 gentleman wanted to try a peasant he had in his service 
 to see if he meant to stay over the winter : 
 
 '* ' Look there, John, what is that ? ' 
 
 '* * A cat, sir.' 
 
 '* * No, look well, it is a bear.' 
 
 '* * Oh, but it is a cat as much a cat can be, sir ! ' 
 
 '* * It is no cat, John, it is a bear.' 
 
 '* * But I am not blind, sir ; I am quite sure it is a cat.' 
 
 '* ' Well, John, I perceive you are not an obedient 
 servant, and I mean to dismiss you this autumn.' 
 
 " ' Now, sir, you may be right after all, it is a bear ! '" 
 
 In winter labour is low ; John could not afford to lose 
 his place. 
 
 In spring, when labour is dear, John has the best of it, 
 and he wants to test his master. On seeing the very 
 same cat on a house — 
 
 " ' Oh, look sir, what a bear ! ' 
 
 " * Are you drunk, John ? it is no bear, but a cat.' 
 
 ** * It is a bear, sir ; just look well.' 
 
 " * It is no bear at all.' 
 
 * "Pana-i vine gustnl bogatului, 
 less sufletul saracului." 
 
 I "Vine §i obada cea ra deasupra." 
 
THE PEASANT IN THE SOCIAL SCALE 107 
 
 " ' Well, sir, if you go on pronouncing me a fool I shall 
 have to go away.' 
 
 " ' Well I see it is a bear after all, but a small one ! ' " 
 
 IV 
 
 Among themselves the peasants have their own social 
 distinctions, their foundation, too, being wealth. A 
 rdzdsh is looked up to if he has much land and is alto- 
 gether well off ; but if he has just a bit of land, as is often 
 the case, he is looked down upon by the better sort of 
 clacash (as the other peasants used to be called before 
 getting land). A well-to-do peasant is addressed with 
 bade — the woman with lele, and the endearing term 
 lelitza for younger ones — which is nothing but a cour- 
 teous appellation (as the Mr. for the upper classes), given 
 even by the gentry to any peasant one wishes to be polite 
 to. In truth, you cannot well address otherwise a peasant 
 who is not your servant or subordinate, or whom you do 
 not know very well — in which case you call him by his 
 Christian name. 
 
 For the old the appellation of module (uncle) and 
 mdtusd (aunt) are commonly used by peasant and gentry. 
 They have also the mdi for a man and fa for a female — 
 rude appellations, but frequently used among equals, 
 especially the young on intimate terms ; also to inferiors ; 
 but, coming from a superior, a gentleman, they are 
 resented as grave offences. 
 
 The social distinctions among peasants come especially 
 to the front on the occasion of weddings, christenings, 
 social gatherings in general, where the rich are expected 
 to be open-handed but keep the head of the table. The 
 poor peasant feels rather at a disadvantage opposite his 
 rich neighbour; he thinks him endowed with peculiar 
 luck. 
 
 "Even the oxen of the poor don't draw."* 
 
 * " Saracului nici boii nu-i trag." 
 
108 FROM CARPATHIAN TO PINDUS 
 
 and, 
 
 "With the poor, even his pipe does not burn;"* 
 
 whilst on the contrary, 
 
 "For the rich, even the devil rocks his children."! 
 
 That is why he thinks it very wise not to have quarrels 
 with the rich : — 
 
 " With the rich, neither try your horse nor measure your purse." | 
 
 Not that he thinks very much of wealth, for — 
 
 "The highest riches 
 Are like the mountain stream: 
 To-day it flows and floods, 
 To-morrow it diminishes and dries." § 
 
 And wealth dishonestly won is sure ruin of the soul, 
 for — 
 
 "Of rightly-earned money, the devil still takes half; as for 
 the wrongly-earned, he will take it and its master withal." || 
 
 Neither does it seem very easy to overcome poverty, 
 as — 
 
 " Wealth is only a hurdle, poverty is a stone wall." IT 
 
 The Roumanian peasant does not look down upon those 
 poorer than himself, but will become satirical with a poor 
 
 * "Omului sarac nici luleaua nu-i arde." 
 f "Omului bogat, fi dracu-i leagana copiii." 
 
 I " Cu bogatul, nici calul sa-^i Incerci nici punga sa-^i masori." 
 
 § "Averile de frunte 
 
 Sint ca un isvor de munte: 
 Asta-zi curge ^i ineaca 
 Mine scade §'apoi saca." 
 
 II "Din banii drep^i iea dracu pe jumatate, iar pe cei str^lmbi ii 
 tea cu stapS-n cu tot." 
 
 IT "Averea-i gard de nuele, saraciea-i zid de piatra." 
 
THE PEASANT IN THE SOCIAL SCALE 109 
 
 but proud person, especially if the latter would pass for a 
 gentleman : — 
 
 ^^ Mister ^ holding an ox by a rope; if you had two, 
 I would call you master I " * 
 
 will he address him. Often he will humour his own 
 poverty : — 
 
 " Of poverty I think little 
 She sits at home under the bed, 
 She has laid and now is brooding, 
 God helping, she will increase." f 
 
 V 
 
 Types, 
 
 With regard to their physical appearance, the Eou- 
 manians, although very varied, like any other people, 
 have still in their looks and bearing something quite 
 their own. From the historical point of view, three 
 types seem to be conspicuous, observable in the Car- 
 pathian region : A Boman type, in the south-western 
 parts, namely, in the Oltenia, the Banat, and the south- 
 west of Transylvania — the very ground of the old Koman 
 colonisation — a type very much like the Italian type. In 
 the north and north-east of Transylvania, in the Buko- 
 vina and the western mountains of Moldavia, a Dacian 
 type predominates. Down in the plains, east and south- 
 ward, the Slav type is apparent, mixed to a large extent 
 with both the former types. 
 
 In general, as groundlines whereby the Eoumanian type 
 may be recognised, we may put down : Slender figure, 
 rather long trunk as compared to the length of the legs ; 
 
 * " Domnule, cu un bou de funic ; 
 sa fii cu doi ^i-as zice badeT* 
 
 f "De saracie nu-mi pasa 
 Ca ^ade sub-pat acasa 
 A ouat §'acum cloce^te 
 De-o vrea Dumnezeu spore^te." 
 
110 FROM CARPATHIAN TO PINDUS 
 
 well-cut profile — whatever the complexion ; rather small, 
 deep-set eyes, of all colours ; all shades of hair, always 
 lighter in beard and moustache than on the head. Besides, 
 a Roumanian peasant seldom wears a beard ; this is the 
 case with old men only, who are very anxious indeed to 
 preserve, as they say, this symbol of their respectability 
 and honour. The young men all shave, but all wear 
 moustachios, and never would dream of cutting them. 
 A man with an entirely clean-shaven face is very distaste- 
 ful to them ; a spin (a beardless, moustacheless man) is 
 looked upon as of very doubtful character; and so is a 
 red-haired man. In popular tales both are set down as 
 peculiar beings, sure to work mischief wherever they 
 come. 
 
 As to women, their appearance is not quite that of the 
 men in the various regions. As a rule they have rather 
 round than long faces ; well-defined profiles, but not as 
 sharply cut as men's; small bones and delicate frames. 
 Slender, too : a fat peasant woman is quite a rare sight ; 
 they are generally thin and delicate, with small hands 
 and small feet, even in the regions where labour is 
 hard; they have thin lips, full shoulders, but bosoms 
 only slightly developed. 
 
 Now I imagine one is not expected to speak of women 
 without hinting at beauty. As far as their looks go, 
 Roumanian peasant women are recognised as the fairest 
 among their neighbours by all the nations living round 
 them, and by all foreign travellers who have seen them. 
 German writers seem not to find appreciative epithets 
 enough to describe the Roumanian (popular) fair sex : 
 ''interesting apparitions," "charming beings," "ensnar- 
 ing, seductive women and girls " ; attractive is the least 
 they appear to be able to say of them. One of them 
 says : " Among few peoples can one observe so strikingly 
 many, if not handsome, at least pleasant and pretty 
 women as among the Roumanians." And a Russian 
 writer, speaking about Bassarabia, says of the peasant 
 women : " The brilliant dark eyes of the Moldavian 
 woman, her graceful movements, now slow and indolent, 
 now passionate, make of her a very charming being." 
 
THE PEASANT IN THE SOCIAL SCALE 111 
 
 Now, apart from foreign enthusiasm and kindliness, we 
 may fairly agree that the Roumanian peasant woman is 
 freely gifted with natural beauty, most apparent where 
 she is in the condition to preserve it, and this is true of 
 men also. Where nature has been more generous, and 
 men and women can live more in the shade, and work 
 less hard, their physical appearance will be at its best — 
 this is usually the case in mountainous districts. But 
 the scorching sun and blasting winds of the plain, the 
 hard, endless labour and bad food, and much toil, and 
 little joy ? . . . these are surely not conditions to make 
 one beautiful. 
 
 But what is really important about the Eoumanian's 
 appearance, and striking, according to foreign travellers* 
 reports, is that he has an expression; there is always 
 something characteristic in his face. Bad or good as his 
 character may be, you see it there in his looks ; there is a 
 soul alive under that mask of flesh. And, if there are 
 extremes of character, as it is, for instance, said of the 
 Motz (dweller of the south-western Transylvania) that 
 he is stern, severe, inspiring fear, and of the Oltean (in 
 the west of Valachia) that he is bright, lively, and talka- 
 tive, it is none the less true that the groundwork of the 
 Roumanian character is quietness, seriousness, assurance 
 and steadiness, and these are manifest in his looks. 
 Tenacious, steadfast, stubborn, and above all, long- 
 enduring, the Roumanian peasant goes on patiently, 
 through his many troubles and scanty joys ; he knows 
 that life is not play ; he knows that it is hard to get on, 
 but that perseverance will carry one through. But the 
 virtues have their own vices : too much endurance may 
 be wrong after all ; fortitude becomes inertness, patience 
 becomes apathy. The Roumanian, at least the Mol- 
 davian, peasant himself acknowledges this defect in his 
 character, of thinking too much before acting, in the 
 modest proverb : — 
 
 "Give me, God, the Moldavian's wisdom last."* 
 
 * " Da-mi, Doamne, mintea Moldovanului cea de pe urma." 
 
112 FROM CARPATHIAN TO PINDUS 
 
 South of the Danube, according to Dr. Weigand's 
 descriptions, there seem to be two fundamental types of 
 Roumanians or Armtni. One type, in the north, of fair 
 complexion ; the other in the south, dark, fairly representa- 
 tive, he says, of the old Roman legionary. These two 
 types present a good many variations. As compared with 
 their neighbours, they are not as tall as the Albanians, but 
 taller than the Bulgarians ; in opposition to the Bulgarian's 
 round face, the Armin strikes one by his long-shaped face, 
 still more striking in women. Blue-eyed Armini are rare, 
 still rarer red-haired ones ; their eyes are always deep-set. 
 The Armin has not the dull, stupid expression of the 
 Slav peasant; he is judicious, decided, bold, and con- 
 siderate at the same time, but also sly and crafty. The 
 women are small and delicate, with small bosoms, long, 
 oval face, and mild expression. 
 
 This general type of the Roumanian peasant, at large, 
 seems, not unnaturally, to be to his taste ; what he 
 likes in a figure, is its being tall and slender : " Tall and 
 slender, as if drawn through a finger ring," what makes 
 the beauty in a face, are eyes and eyebrows : — 
 
 "For eyes like the blackberries 
 I ramble round the woods, 
 For meeting eye -brows 
 I walk over half the country 
 And through a third of Moldavia; 
 For eyes like the holy sun 
 I roam aimlessly at night." * 
 
 Costumes. 
 
 The Roumanian nation has her costume handed down 
 from generation to generation, well preserved in the 
 mountains, but not quite so well in the plains, especially 
 
 ' Pentru ochi ca murele 
 Ocolesc padurile 
 Pentru sprincene 'nchinate 
 Umblu ^ara jumatate 
 ^i Moldov'a treia parte; 
 Pentru ochi ca sfintul soare 
 Umblu noaptea pe razoare." 
 
THE PEASANT IN THE SOCIAL SCALE 113 
 
 in the immediate neighbourhood of towns. The dress 
 of the men is much more uniform than that of the 
 women, and also plainer and easier to describe. The 
 fundamental, characteristic feature of it, is the colour, 
 always white. These garments are : (a) trousers, of 
 woollen or hemp tissue, of various cuts, the most charac- 
 teristic of them being the so-called itzari, very long 
 tight trousers, something like twice the length of the 
 leg, but then gathered up in thin folds all along the 
 leg to which they tightly fit. (b) The shirt, of flax, 
 hemp, cotton, or even rough silk white tissue, hanging 
 tunic-like over the trousers, fastened at the waist with a 
 broad, long red woollen sash called briu, or by a leather 
 belt, (c) In the way of coats, the Koumanian peasant has 
 a great variety of garments, and with extremely varied 
 names, the most common being the suman of brown 
 woollen tissue, and the cojoc or sheepskin, {d) As head- 
 gear the Koumanian peasant wears the cdciulay a 
 lambskin cap, usually black, of which a curious variety 
 is the cdciula turcaneascd, long, perhaps thrice the ordinary 
 size, worn with the top hanging on one side. Hats are 
 also worn, in summer, but only black, strong felt, large 
 brimmed hats, trimmed round the top with ribbons 
 and pearls. (e) For the feet they have the opincij 
 sandals, of cattle or pig's hide, shoes and boots. Truly 
 speaking, the sandal, the opinca, belongs to the mountain, 
 being very elastic and convenient for climbing; in the 
 plain it is only used as being a light and cheap footgear. 
 The boots are the footgear par excellence ; and they 
 must have high, strong heels too. The heel is very 
 important for the dance on a Sunday, to beat the ground 
 furiously with — 
 
 '* Be the sandal ever so good, 
 Like the boot it cannot sound ; 
 And the upper-leathered boot* 
 
 * " Fie ochinca cit de buna 
 Ca ciubota nu mai suna; 
 ^\ ciubota caputata 
 
114 FROM CARPATHIAN TO PINDUS 
 
 Were good if it were not holed : 
 But on the sandal, the poor one, 
 
 I put a clout 
 
 To the dance I go 
 And I still shout once, hop I " * 
 
 The women's dress is still more varied and elaborate. 
 Roughly speaking, it is composed of a shift, reaching to 
 the ankle, with embroideries on all the upper part, with 
 coloured cotton, chiefly red and black ; and of a catrinfaf 
 a petticoat, in its way, which is of as many varieties 
 as are the valleys between the mountains, or rather 
 the mountain rivers, for the catrintza belongs to the 
 mountain, in the plain they wear skirts. Coats they 
 wear similar to those of the men — often the same : for 
 the feet they have shoes ; they wear sometimes, in bad 
 weather, their husbands' boots, but, as a rule, they 
 go barefooted. On the head they wear the §tergar, a 
 kind of veil, of cotton tissue with silk stripes, or of silk 
 with cotton designs. 
 
 The important feature about the costume, is that it 
 is entirely home made, and all women's industry. But 
 if the national costume is still very well preserved in 
 the mountains, it is not so in the plains. Here, field- 
 labour, making so great a demand on available arms, 
 women cannot be spared to spin and weave, to grow 
 hemp and flax, and attend to silkworms ; moreover they 
 find ready stuffs in the towns, which, although not 
 wearing half so well as the homespun, are nevertheless 
 much cheaper; more than that, clothing and under- 
 clothing are becoming more and more easy to be had 
 in towns. The peasant sees at the " Jew's shop " shirts 
 and garments hanging up, which, although not exactly 
 the cut he is used to, are nevertheless nearly so; he 
 buys them, puts them on — and so national costume 
 is dying out little by little, taking in the long run some 
 
 =>'' Buna ar fi cind n'ar fi sparta. 
 Dar ochinca saraca 
 li pui potlog 
 Ma due la joe 
 Si tot strig o data, hop I " 
 
North Carpathian Dress. [Photo, Al. Antoniu. 
 
THE PEASANT IN THE SOCIAL SCALE 115 
 
 other appearance, but never the cut of the town garment, 
 for which he still feels a natural aversion. 
 
 With the Valachs of the Pindus, the costume has still 
 some fundamental features common with that of the 
 Carpathian. Here also, the national costume is preserved 
 in the mountains, consequently by the shepherds, 
 constituting as we know the bulk of the Armln popu- 
 lation, whilst the Armini of the plain — merchants, 
 tradesmen, workmen — have adopted the costume of 
 the surrounding peoples. This costume, with slight 
 differences, is pretty similar to that of the Carpathian 
 region. In the regions of the Pindus also, the cheap 
 wares are bought in town, and take the place of the 
 otherwise entirely home-made garments. 
 
 The Armin, like the| Koumanian, is just as keen as 
 he can afford to be about a good garment. Not that a 
 Eoumanian peasant thinks over much of dress : — 
 
 " It is not by the cloak one judges a man." * 
 
 But a careful dress is a good introduction : — 
 
 " The worth of a man is recognisable by his dress." f 
 
 And then among young folks, dress is a great compli- 
 ment to beauty. Scorched by the sun, with her hair 
 smoothed, limp and tightly plaited on the head, the 
 girl will cover herself with no end of strings, and pins, 
 and flowers, and necklaces of beads and coins for the 
 Sunday dance, looking almost ridiculous, if she did not 
 look so candidly happy and innocent. But after all, 
 taste is quite an individual matter, and the Eoumanian 
 peasants well agree that — 
 
 "He is not handsome who believes himself so, 
 But handsome is who has good looks ; | 
 
 'f' " Nu dupa cojoc se judeca omul." 
 f " Vrednicia omului se cunoa§te dupa port." 
 I "Nu-i frumos cine se ^ine 
 Ci-i frumos cui ii sta bine ; 
 
116 FROM CARPATHIAN TO PINDUS 
 
 He is not handsome who adorns himself 
 But he is so, when his garb is becoming." * 
 
 The Roumanian peasant highly appreciates cleanliness 
 in dress. No more important a thing than a dirty shirt 
 seems to have inspired following song : — 
 
 " Little blade of black grass, 
 
 Dear, little dear, dear. 
 Why do you wear your shirt dirty? 
 
 Dear, little dear, dear, 
 I wear it so as I like it, 
 
 Dear, little dear, dear, 
 For my beloved is ill, 
 
 Dear, little dear, dear,f 
 
 sung on the following sweet melody : 
 
 ^Tf^' 
 
 * Nu-i frumos cin'* se igate^te 
 Ci e cui se potrive^te." 
 
 f " Firi^or de iarba neagra 
 
 Draga, draguli^a draga, 
 De ce; por^i camera ineagra ? 
 
 Draga, draguli^a draga, 
 la o port c' a§a mi-i draga 
 
 Draga, draguli^a draga, 
 Ca mi-i iubita bolnava 
 
 Draga, draguU^a draga, 
 
THE PEASANT IN THE SOCIAL SCALE 117 
 
 And she suffers in her hand, 
 
 Dear, little dear, dear, 
 She has not washed for a month, 
 
 Dear, little dear, dear. 
 Let me then wash it for you, 
 
 Dear, little dear, dear, 
 With water from yonder stream, 
 
 Dear, little dear, dear." * 
 
 ^i-i bolnava zeu de-o mana 
 
 Draga, draguli^a draga, 
 N'a spalat came^i de-o luna 
 
 Draga, draguli^a draga. 
 Da-o 'ncoace s'o spal eu 
 
 Draga, draguli^a, draga, 
 Cu apa de la parau 
 
 Draga, draguH^a, draga." 
 
CHAPTEE III 
 THE PEASANT AND THE STATE 
 
 Of the whole Eoumanian nation, spread and scattered 
 about from Carpathian to Pindus, hardly one half live 
 under a Government of their own; the other half, 
 in smaller or larger portions, are subjected to seven 
 various foreign States, all differing in organisation and 
 institutions. To enter into details here would be 
 impossible, and our only aim is to treat the question 
 generally, or in principle, so to speak; to sketch out 
 the duties and rights of peasants in the State, and to 
 indicate the feelings aroused in them by those duties 
 and rights. No doubt (as in the preceding chapters) 
 the interest must centre in Free Boumania, on the 
 eastern and southern slopes of the Carpathians, where 
 the Roumanians have succeeded in building up a State 
 of their own, a home of their own. 
 
 To the peasant's mind a State is personified more 
 or less in the person of the monarch; whatever he is 
 called upon to do for his State he considers it to be 
 done for the Domnitoriu, the "prince" or "ruler," — the 
 appellation of Bege (King), of little more than twenty 
 years' standing, is rather slow in entering thoroughly 
 into the peasant's vocabulary. For a long time past, 
 Moldavia and Valachia have been under the absolute 
 rule of an absolute voyevode, or Domn, or Bomnitor, 
 briefly called only vodd ; no wonder that the notion 
 should have taken such hold of people's imagination. 
 For those under foreign rule, surely not Austro-Hungary, 
 
 118 
 
THE PEASANT AND THE STATE 119 
 
 still less Kussia, was meant to unteach the old lesson ; 
 the tmparatul, the Emperor, unmistakably represents 
 the State in those regions — it is useless to discuss Turkey, 
 although, as far as it goes, the idea of State or Govern- 
 ment could hardly be anywhere looser than in Turkey. 
 His duties towards the State the peasant thus considers 
 as duties towards the monarch, and these are, as of old, 
 military service and taxation. 
 
 " He who devised soldiery 
 May the wilderness eat his flesh, 
 And poverty his own children, 
 The crows may eat up his bones, 
 Upon all the fields." ^= 
 
 The first duty of a peasant — as well as of a townsman 
 — when he comes of age, is to **draw lots" to become 
 a soldier, to take upon himself the. duty of defending 
 the country, of being ready to give, at any moment, blood 
 and life for it. As far as love of land goes, and readiness 
 to strike and receive blows in the defence of land, history 
 is there to bear witness that the Roumanian has ever 
 been a patriot and a brave man. As for the warlike, 
 fighting spirit, the Roumanian has never been blood- 
 thirsty ; without desire of conquests, the Roumanian has 
 always been anxious to protect his own abode, leaving 
 alone that of others ; invasions and plunder have never 
 been in his line, except now and then as reprisals. 
 Conquests the Roumanians have never made, except of 
 each other, when Stephen the Great, Voyevode of 
 Moldavia, conquered a portion of Valachia, and pushed 
 his boundary to the Milcov — but this should be called 
 an early step toward union rather than conquest. 
 
 Looking back over history we find the Roumanians 
 to have been thorough soldiers at the times of Mircea 
 
 '^' " Cine-a starnit catania 
 Manca-i-ar carnea pustia 
 §i copiii saracia 
 Cioarele ciolanele 
 Pe toate ogoarele." 
 
120 FROM CARPATHIAN TO PINDUS 
 
 (Valachia), and Stephen (Moldavia), both "great," both 
 mihtary geniuses perhaps, but, after all, the victories they 
 won were not won with their heads alone, but with the 
 ready arms of their subjects. And they had arms ready 
 enough, those subjects, and wanted no special training 
 and hardly any calling out to run to the frontier to 
 defend the fatherland. In those times the peasants were 
 free, and had, moreover, their own properties, and the 
 defence of the patria was not a mere abstract notion, 
 but a very positive concrete one ; the patria or mo§ia 
 was nothing else than the aggregate of all the minor 
 individual mo§ii (lands, estates) ; everybody defending 
 the whole was conscious of defending his own small 
 piece. No training, no provisions, no weapons, the 
 monarch had to provide for nothing, but just call out 
 the people to meet him — the boiars and the yeomen on 
 horseback, the landless peasants on foot. The soldiers 
 had to provide for their own clothing, their armament, 
 their food. Mounted on their nags, on wooden saddles 
 with oaken stirrups, with wheaten bread and a burduf 
 (the skin or stomach of a sheep) of cheese in the bag 
 hanging at the saddle's bow, on they rushed ; strong, and 
 daring, and heedless, armed only with the primitive bow, 
 the battle-axe, the lance, and in most cases only vdth 
 the national ghioaga (club), they were indomitable on 
 the battlefield, those simple, common people, just freshly 
 come from the plough. The Polish writers of those 
 times might well admire such genuine braves, and they 
 did it, too, over and over again. " Dreaded men, and 
 very brave, and there is hardly on the surface of the 
 earth another people, who for warlike glory and by 
 heroism were able to defend a smaller country against 
 a larger number of foes, attacking and repelHng them 
 repeatedly" — that is the general tone with regard to 
 Roumanian soldiery. 
 
 But we know what the economic and social relations 
 came to in the long run: with the coming down of 
 the peasantry, down comes also patriotism and bravery. 
 The subjected peasant has henceforth to work for the 
 boiar; this latter does not want to waste his ''working 
 
THE PEASANT AND THE STATE 121 
 
 powers" on battlefields, and the peasant can afford to 
 go to war no more. Peasants are left out of the armies, 
 which begin to be composed only of mercenaries, who 
 formerly were to be met with in the Koumanian armies 
 only accidentally, and only in small numbers. Michael 
 the Brave had only mercenaries : he fell — with all the 
 estates he had heaped on his boiars, they deserted him 
 at the critical moment ! 
 
 The mercenaries were, no doubt, largely Eoumanians, 
 the peasants who still remained free, and runaway serfs ; 
 Eoumanians still, but the spirit had changed ; they fought 
 for money, they had no interest whatever in the war, 
 which is the monarch's own affair ; the only interest 
 was to escape safe and sound, and possibly to strive for 
 some reward at the end, and to do the enemy as much 
 harm as possible, in order to plunder him — poor incentives 
 as compared with those of the good old times of liberty ! 
 
 "With the installation of the Phanariote rulers, wars 
 are entirely dropped, armies are of no avail; the 
 Eoumanians may as well forget to fight — the haidook 
 alone keeps alive the memory of it. The princes want 
 no more armies ; the only thing they want is a body- 
 guard, and this they make up of strong vagrants from 
 beyond the Danube, especially Albanians, who under the 
 name of Arnautzi, in their special uniform with the 
 white fustanella, and a belt full of pistols, armed to 
 the teeth, were in charge of the prince's person and 
 wealth. There was no longer a national army in either 
 principality ; and yet this is the period of the greatest 
 Eusso-Turkish wars, and it appears that the Eussian 
 armies were pretty well furnished with Eoumanian 
 volunteers or mercenaries, gladly going to fight the 
 pagan oppressor. Moreover, there are documents such 
 as the letters of the King of Poland, August II., to 
 his celebrated son Maurice of Saxony, proving that 
 Eoumanians served in foreign armies, Polish and 
 Swedish, as Hght cavalry, " very successfully," as the 
 King writes, praising also the Eoumanian horses. 
 
 With the overthrow of Phanariotic rule and the revival 
 of national spirit, national armies began little by little 
 
122 FROM CARPATHIAN TO PINDUS 
 
 to be organised, reaching a remarkable development 
 under the present reign ; and in the last war of in- 
 dependence the Eoumanians were able to prove, under 
 the guidance of their warlike prince (now king), 
 Charles I., that the ancestral bravery was not dead, 
 and the spirit of Great Stephen and Brave Michael 
 seemed to be hovering above them still. 
 
 The Roumanian can fight, and no mistake, and he 
 certainly does not fear fire, but as to having any 
 particular liking for it, I am glad to say, he has not ; he 
 much prefers a quiet, peaceful life, and what he says 
 of the gipsy may fit himself just as well. Thus a gipsy 
 soldier was told that he had to go to war to fight the 
 Turks or some other enemies : " Well, why should I 
 fight them? I have no quarrel with them!" That is 
 exactly it : the soldier has to fight without being clearly 
 satisfied as to the why. A soldier is an instrument, 
 supposed to be always ready for action, without right 
 of inquiry as to the right or the wrong of it. To 
 discipline a soldier to that extent takes time. The 
 necessity of the training, the transition from the old, 
 absolute liberty and goodwill service to the enforced 
 barrack life, with the wear and tear of years of long 
 training, have told heavily upon Roumanian spirit, and 
 have largely contributed to make the army a terror to 
 the Roumanian peasant. And if he does not dislike the 
 army in itself, what he deeply dislikes is exactly that 
 training, that barrack life, which takes him for years 
 away from his field, his flocks, his cottage ; this it is 
 which is almost unbearable to him, and he will do all he 
 possibly can to avoid it. 
 
 We may be fairly sure that barrack life is not apt to 
 leave room for brilliant illusions in any country, still less 
 in Eastern Europe, where civilisation as a whole, and the 
 education of the upper classes in particular, is very often 
 a rather misty, tottering affair, just good enough to give 
 those who have it an elated, shallow idea of their own 
 personal value, and not many right, Christian ideas about 
 anything else. And persons of this kind are entrusted 
 with the care of men ! It is an open secret that the 
 
THE PEASANT AND THE STATE 123 
 
 soldiers as a rule are far from being happy in the barracks, 
 but it is a blessing when it can be stated that they are, 
 at least, fairly treated, something like human beings ! 
 Corporal punishment, although prohibited by law, was 
 still the most widespread punishment applied to soldiers 
 in training. But since these lines were written a royal 
 decree, an order of the day, issued on the occasion of 
 the twenty-fifth commemoration of the proclamation of 
 Independence, enforced the entire suppression of corporal 
 punishment in the army. The soldiers have made a 
 talisman of that decree ; they wear it on their breasts ; 
 and the knowledge of it will penetrate into the peasant's 
 hut, and work, no doubt, on the people's minds, and besides 
 the surname of " the wise," that seems likely to be added 
 to the monarch's name in more cultivated circles, that of 
 " the good " will perhaps be given by the grateful hearts 
 of his humbler subjects. That the " discipline" should 
 not go to wreck, it is the business of the upper ranks 
 in the army to devise some civilised and civilising 
 means. 
 
 Of course there are exceptions : there are humane and 
 able officers, with some comprehension of human nature, 
 who deal with their soldiers accordingly, but I am afraid 
 these are not as many as they should be. Many officers, 
 on the contrary, by their own behaviour, and that of 
 those subordinates they think proper to push on to 
 advancement, are a vivid illustration of the truth that 
 bad education is worse than no education at all. I am 
 not going to enter into the discussion of barrack educa- 
 tion, although I cannot say that I am an admirer of 
 it, yet I allow that with all its unavoidable drawbacks 
 it might give good results in the way of spreading 
 civilisation, and as a healthy physical training ; but, then, 
 the selection of the ranks above the mere soldier should 
 be much more carefully made than it is now. As things 
 are, the young peasant of sufficient age is very much 
 inclined to look upon barrack life as a martyrdom, and 
 that is why, when he draws lots and is found good, he 
 will cry and his mother with him, and his friends lament 
 over him as if he were dead. 
 
124 FROM CARPATHIAN TO PINDUS 
 
 "Green leaf of chervil, 
 We poor young lads, 
 How they gather us from vales, 
 With the mayors and constables, 
 And they drive us like oxen, 
 And shear us just like sheep, 
 And mingle our hair with the rubbish 1 
 And green leaf of wild thyme, 
 My hair of a soft yellow 
 Under the feet of the major, 
 My beautiful curly hair. 
 Mother, you will see no more." ^^ 
 
 So many feelings are hurt in him ; he is treated like an 
 ox or a sheep in a flock ; he has his hair shorn close, 
 which he likes to wear in a rather long crop, with a 
 fringe in front. A peasant is very anxious never to 
 throw his hair away in the rubbish ; he takes it carefully 
 when cut, and buries it at the root of some tree. The 
 drawing of the lots is still more heartrending when the 
 young man is already married, as is often the case. 
 
 " Green leaf of mellilot 
 For a rifle all rusty 
 I left house, I left table, 
 I left behind a fair wife f 
 
 * "Frunza verde baraboi, 
 Sarmanii de noi flacai, 
 Cum ne strange de pe vai, 
 Cu primari, cu vatajei, 
 ^i ne mina ca pe boi, 
 ^i ne tunde ca pe oi 
 ^i ne da paru'n gunoi. 
 ^'apoi frunza cimbri§or 
 Parul meu eel galbior 
 Sub picioare la maior 
 Parul meu eel mandru, cre^, 
 Mamuca, n' ai sa-1 mai vezil 
 
 f " Frunza verde de sulcina 
 Pentru o pu^ca de rugina 
 Lasai casa, lasai masa 
 Lasai nevasta frumoasa 
 
THE PEASANT AND THE STATE 125 
 
 With two babies in her arms 
 Who are crying : father, father 1 " * 
 
 The soldier in the barracks is ever pining after his 
 home ; he cannot forget all he has left behind, the life 
 of his life, all that which he grieves to think will come 
 to harm in his absence. 
 
 " Only leaf of hazel-nut 
 He who will take the rifle in hand 
 Will milk no more ewes in the fold ; 
 His wooden pails will mildew, 
 His scythe will rust in the loft, 
 His house will be deserted, 
 His fields will all be fallow, 
 His mother will become old, 
 His beloved become insane 
 His children perish on the road 1 " f 
 
 The young recruit is no doubt rather awkward when 
 he comes from his village or his sheepfold ; he is be- 
 wildered by all the new things he has never seen before, 
 by the ways and manners he has not been used to ; kind 
 feeling and humane behaviour towards him would surely 
 have a much more improving influence than harsh treat- 
 ment, which, however, is generally considered so much 
 manlier and more fit for the rough peasant. But rough- 
 ness is not exactly the characteristic of the Koumanian 
 peasant, neither is it a feature of the Koumanian soldier ; 
 quite the reverse, as far as my experience goes in this 
 respect — and it is wide enough — in streets or on roads, 
 
 * Cu doi copila^i pe bra^e 
 Care striga : tata, tata 1 " 
 
 f " Numai frunza §'o aluna 
 Cine-a luat arma 'n mana 
 N'a mai mulge oi la stana; 
 Galeata i-a mucezi, 
 Coasa 'n pod i-a rugini, 
 Casa i s'a pustii, 
 Ogoru i-a 'n^eleni, 
 Maicu^a i-a 'mbatrini 
 Puicu^a i-a 'nebuni 
 Copii pe drum i-or peri I " 
 
126 FROM CARPATHIAN TO PINDUS 
 
 in villages or open fields, the private can easily be cited 
 as a model of civility and decency to many an officer ; 
 but I know of instances of great impertinence of sergeants, 
 who seem to be the very cioco'i (the parvenus of the army), 
 raised, it seems, above their companions much more by 
 reason of the blows they have administered to their 
 " men " than by virtue of their own merit. Mostly also, 
 they are towns-people. Beyond the sergeant there is no 
 promotion, except through a special course of study. 
 The education of the officers is given in special schools 
 from the very beginning. 
 
 If the training of the soldiers has its drawbacks, a 
 greater drawback is when they get no training at all, or 
 hardly any, and that is the case with those who are 
 given out as domestic servants, as *' orderlies," to the 
 officers, where they get a training of humiliation and 
 domesticity, instead of the training of defenders of the 
 fatherland. It is quite true, that personally, soldiers are 
 sometimes better off in that condition than at the barracks, 
 but that again is only the exception, and a rare exception. 
 In most cases, what sort of work has not the poor de- 
 fender of his country to do, and what becomes of his 
 character, and of the patriotic ideals he is expected to 
 develop ? And bad as the manners of the officer, his 
 master, are towards him, those of his mistress are very 
 often ten times worse. '' Well," you may hear them say, 
 "the Domnul might have been good enough in his way, 
 but the Duduha (the lady) was dreadful ! " Surely, if 
 the soldier finds sometimes in the house of his officer an 
 elevating, moral atmosphere (as he sometimes indeed 
 does), as a rule, and not in the worst cases, he is in 
 a degrading atmosphere, being either a man-of-all-work, 
 or else like the hard labouring ass in the yard. Besides, 
 domestic service has never been in favour with the 
 Roumanian peasant. 
 
 Unpleasant as the barrack life may be for the peasant, 
 it is none the less true that some good points may be 
 found in it. There are peasants who come home from 
 the army really improved, with a knowledge of reading 
 and writing acquired in the barracks, and with a large 
 
THE PEASANT AND THE STATE 127 
 
 knowledge of other things, of which he has much to say. 
 The soldier has gone about a good deal, he learns to know 
 his country, and when he comes back he is looked upon 
 as a world-traveller, and is eagerly questioned and listened 
 to, when he tells about places and things he has seen; 
 and how proud and wise he looks in the eyes of the 
 bewildered audience when he is able to say that " he has 
 been as far as Bucharest," and that " he has himself kept 
 watch on the Bomnitor himself ! " 
 
 The fact is, in places where soldiers returned from 
 military service have brought with them the idea that the 
 army is not bad, that officers are humane, and the service 
 not too hard, the feeling for the army and military service 
 is well on the way to taking a good turn. It is in the 
 very nature of children and youths to like the army and 
 soldiers ! Their animal spirits incline them to say : 
 *' Surely, we shall go to the army, for if we did not, who 
 will ? the old ? " And their emotions are also kindled by 
 war stories, told by those who have come back from the 
 last war, which are very inspiriting to youth, and they 
 look forward, gladly fighting *'the Turk," the traditional 
 Turk ; and greatly puzzled they are to hear that politics 
 have changed, and that the Turk has to be looked upon 
 henceforth as a friend. And humour enters sometimes 
 into the matter, as witness the following anecdote. 
 
 In the last war, it is known that one of the regiments 
 which particularly distinguished itself by dash and daring, 
 and also by heavy loss of life, was the 13th Eegiment 
 of the Borohantzi, known also under the nickname of 
 curcani (turkey-cocks), because of that bird's feather 
 adorning their black cdciula. Now, the anecdote tells us, 
 the Sultan, hearing of all the havoc done among his 
 own troops by these dreadful curcaniy was very anxious to 
 have one brought to him that he might see what they 
 were like. But catching a curcan was just as difficult as 
 catching the mountain eagle, his attendants said, and all 
 they could do, was to bring to the Sultan the garments 
 of such a curcan. As the Sultan sat on his divan, the 
 servants stretched on the floor in front of him, the long 
 trousers, the itzari — those worn gathered up the leg, and 
 
128 FROM CARPATHIAN TO PINDUS 
 
 at least twice its length — ; from the belt upwards, they 
 stretched the supposed coat, in this particular case a 
 cloak, coming down below the knee. On top of it, they 
 put the long bonnet, the cdciula turcdneascd, and at the 
 bottom of the trousers, the top-boots. At sight of such a 
 size, the amazed Sultan only sighed heavily, and said that 
 of course, against such giants, what could his poor soldiers 
 do. Later on, an officer came to announce to the Sultan, 
 that a cur can had been caught at last, and would be 
 brought before His Majesty. And, as the Sultan sat 
 there, with his elbow leaning on pillows, with his coffee 
 by him and his tchibouk between his lips, the brave, 
 fearless curcan advanced with his body leaning forward, 
 stepping steadily and heavily as his wont was — according 
 to the training of that time — and, arrived in front of the 
 Sultan, he stretched himself full length, and, with the 
 hand to his cockade, he shouted loudly: '' Sd trditi" 
 C' May you live ! '')* The bewildered Sultan fell on his 
 back, shrieking desperately : " Help, help, the turkey-cock 
 is eating me up ! " 
 
 In verse, also, the Roumanian soldier has not forgotten 
 to celebrate the war for independence; not much has 
 been collected to my knowledge, but this one I am able 
 to give : — > 
 
 "Little leaf of sand-cudweed I 
 Every town has its luck, 
 Plevna alone is ablaze 
 With Osman Pasha in its middle 1 
 The Pasha cries out aloud: 
 Come on, Turks, come on quickly f 
 
 * " May you live 1 " is the salute used by soldiers when speaking to 
 superiors. 
 
 f ''Frunzulilia siminocl 
 Tot ora§u-i cu noroc, 
 Numai Plevna arde *n foe 
 Cu Osman Pa^a la mijloc; 
 Striga Pa^a 'n gura mare : 
 Sari^i Turci, sari|)i mai tare, 
 

 Y 
 
 
 m^ 
 
 i) % 
 
 
 "^sT 
 
 
 m 
 
 
 
 m ^^.. . . 
 
THE A 
 
 :RSiTY )) 
 
 ^ JJ 
 
 ■^L 
 
 fFOl 
 
THE PEASANT AND THE STATE 129 
 
 For Charles has arrived down 
 
 Like the Sun when he rises, 
 
 With great number of army 
 
 Dressed up in oil-cloth, 
 
 Firing and bombarding 
 
 And asking after Osman, ^ 
 
 With ^' Curca/ni'' and '^ Dorohantisi" 
 
 Who wither you to the liver 
 
 They cut us down and kill us 
 
 That not one will leave this land. 
 
 From Plevna to Eustchiouk 
 
 Nothing but heads of Turks; 
 
 From Plevna to Vidin 
 
 Thousands and thousands of Koumanians pass."* 
 
 II 
 
 "The peasant brings abundance in time 
 of peace, and glory in time of war." 
 
 (Prince N. Bibbscu.)! 
 
 The second duty of a citizen towards the State, is 
 to pay taxes. In Free Eoumania, the yearly tax- 
 ation of a landless peasant is something like fifteen 
 
 * C 'a sosit Carol in vale 
 Ca soarele cind rasare, 
 Cu o^tire suma mare 
 Imbracata 'n mu^amale, 
 Impu^cand §i bombardand 
 ^i de Osman intreband ; 
 Cu curcani §i doroban^i, 
 Ce te saca la fica^i; 
 Ei ne taie, ne omoara, 
 De nu mai ie^im din ^ara 
 
 De la Plevna la Busciuc 
 Numai capete de Turc ; 
 De la Plevna pan'la Dii 
 Tree Bomanii mil §i mii." 
 
 f " "iparanul aduce belong in timp de pace §i gloria 
 in timp de rasboiii." 
 
 (Prin^ul N. Bibescu. — Discurs parlamentar, Feb. 1889.) 
 10 
 
130 FROM CARPATHIAN TO PINDUS 
 
 shillings, a little below twenty francs a year. This is 
 the taxation of a townsman as well, and this is the 
 taxation of any man without property. He may have an 
 income, he may have any amount of cash at the banker's, 
 no man in Roumania pays a farthing more than the 
 poorest of peasants. The taxes cannot really be called 
 heavy ; it is their unfairness that is their drawback. And 
 as far as I have been able to gather, this is the draw- 
 back to taxation generally, all over the continent, for no 
 country, I believe, except England, has the income-tax. 
 But there is a talk of income-tax in Roumania, and 
 may be its realisation is not half as far off as it seems 
 to be. 
 
 Those who own land pay much heavier taxes, according 
 to quantity, to quality, to the situation of the land, and 
 to the act by which they received it. To give figures, 
 even approximately, would mean nothing ; suffice it to 
 say, that taxation does not appear particularly heavy, 
 perhaps not heavy at all, in fortunate years and with 
 good harvests ; but then the prospect changes altogether 
 when the years are bad, and unfortunately this is not 
 seldom the case. There come bad years, and there come 
 very bad years, and then the peasant — as well as the 
 gentleman, for the matter of that — does not take out the 
 value of the seed he has put into the soil ; where is he 
 then to get any profit at all to pay taxes ? And there 
 come misfortunes, deaths and such like ; and there come 
 happy events like weddings, christenings, &c., and money 
 is wanted, and the expense cannot be put off, and the 
 peasant borrows. In the best case, he will greatly under- 
 sell his labour for the next summer to his landlord, or to 
 a farmer, but often he will borrow from usurers, who are 
 never lacking in any corner of the world, and it has been 
 calculated that there are places where peasants pay up 
 to 200 per cent, interest to usurers ! Surely in such cases, 
 times are hard with good or bad harvests. Of course, 
 one is always inclined to say, the peasant might be 
 more thrifty ; and spend less, or else be provident, 
 and save when he can towards the possible time when 
 he may be in need. Yes, thrift is a beautiful word ; the 
 
THE PEASANT AND THE STATE 131 
 
 Eoumanian peasant has put it into a formula of his 
 
 own : — 
 
 " Save white money for black days " * 
 
 But that is mere theory. The practice is, that the average 
 Eoumanian is not thrifty, or provident, by nature. He 
 seems to have an innate contempt for money, which he 
 is very apt to spend by anticipation ; there is a need of 
 freehandedness, of Hving ostentatiously, about the Eou- 
 manian, which rather attests a noble, *' boiarly " nature. 
 But it is a drawback too, no doubt ; a drawback that may 
 be improved in time, by education, by example from 
 above, but up to now, it is true that if the Eoumanian 
 peasant may be accounted a patient, uncomplaining 
 being, he cannot boast of being a prudent one. And 
 past history can easily explain this state of things. It is 
 only the present generation that has not been plundered 
 by the hands of Greek or Turk ; before, it was absolutely 
 useless to save, for the savings were sure to be for the 
 benefit of others ; it seemed better to have nothing. In 
 the present day, there is a general feeling, repeatedly 
 expressed even in Parliament, that taxation as a whole is 
 far from being as fairly distributed as it should be, and 
 that it falls far heavier on those who have little than on 
 those who have much ; in other words, the rich are taxed 
 too little, and the poor too much. This, as far as I have 
 been able to gather, is the general state of things with 
 all the Eoumanian people at large. Income-tax may do 
 much to improve it. 
 
 Ill 
 
 With military service and payment of taxes, the 
 peasant has done his duty towards the State, roughly 
 speaking. In return he is entitled to all sorts of paternal 
 care : administration, justice, the Church, medical assist- 
 ance, school ; all these he receives direct from the 
 State, in the free kingdom. And, first and foremost ; he 
 contributes to the formation of the Government itself, 
 which contribution is his duty and privilege as well. 
 
 * " Strange bani albi pentru zile negre." 
 
132 FEOM CARPATHIAN TO PINDUS 
 
 Thus, every peasant who has come of age, who pays 
 the smallest tax (that is, who is not a pauper), and 
 who is not a domestic servant, has the right to give his 
 vote at the elections for the Chamber of the Deputies 
 — not for the Senate. They vote for the third College. 
 Those who pay a tax of upwards of 300 frs. a year, 
 or can read and write, are entitled to a direct vote ; the 
 others only vote by delegacy ; a delegate for every fifty 
 peasants. So far, so good : the peasants are represented 
 in the legislative bodies, they take part in the making 
 of their own laws. But that is a mere figure of speech. 
 In fact, one may well ask how far a Parliament is a 
 true representation of a nation even in Western, civilised 
 countries, let alone a small Eastern country, with a 
 Parliament not half a century old ! Political habits are 
 slow to take root, and those who know what elections 
 and representation mean in old and large countries, may 
 easily imagine what they may be in a country with 
 so young a political education and habits. Truly, elec- 
 tions mean very little — if anything — beyond administra- 
 tive business. The peasant does not care for politics; 
 what he wants is to be treated fairly, to have justice 
 done to him, and he is content if he gets that. If told 
 that elections are a means to provide that for him, well 
 then, he votes. Peasants hardly ever care about the 
 representative they elect; as a rule he is a person im- 
 posed on them, a person whom they hardly ever know 
 or are interested in, or have any trust in. Of late 
 there has been a talk about universal suffrage, but it 
 is argued that the country is not ripe for it, and I dare 
 say it is not ; it has been argued, too, that the electors 
 would not be conscious of their votes, but it seems to 
 me this argument can hardly stand in face of the 
 question : Are at least half of the present voters — town 
 and country — conscious of their votes? Moreover, are 
 the representatives themselves all conscious of their 
 mandate? Until these questions have been fairly 
 answered, universal suffrage may have its claims, especi- 
 ally having the advantage that it might make corruption 
 harder, making it more expensive. 
 
THE PEASANT AND THE STATE 133 
 
 The peasants have also the right to elect their com- 
 munal authorities, mayor and communal council, but 
 here also administration interferes, here also it is party 
 business. Here also the peasants, without the slightest 
 notion about political colour or shade, find themselves 
 fatally divided into Liberals and Conservatives, according 
 to the person they are made to support. But here also 
 there is much more interest on the voters' side, as a 
 mayor is something more palpable than a deputy; it 
 is quite true that with all their voting they hardly ever 
 get the right person — interference is so pressing and by 
 so many means. Also peasants are often disgusted at 
 this mere formality, and have to be brought to the 
 ballot by entreaties and often by force. And yet it 
 would not be right to say that rather than such vote 
 better no vote at all. No, an institution, be it ever so 
 badly managed, if good in itself, is always capable of 
 improvement in time, while, where the institution does 
 not exist, what is there to improve upon? Let people 
 have rights, all rights ; let them even neglect them, a 
 time will come when they will become conscious of them, 
 will understand them, and be able to use them for their 
 own and the general benefit, whilst a country of un- 
 franchised peasants and of moral slaves will breed 
 nought but slaves. 
 
 The Eoumanians under foreign Government have 
 no political rights. In Transylvania they are striving 
 hard to get them, but only with indifferent success and 
 much sacrifice, till now. To put things clearer, a short 
 digression will be needed, I fear. The Austro-Hungarian 
 Empire is known to be a patchwork of lands and nations, 
 till it really would be difficult to give it a name, if one 
 wished to be just towards all. Hungary itself is made 
 up of Hungarians and Szecklers, Eoumanians, Saxons, 
 Servians, Slavs, Croatians, Italians, who have by degrees 
 fallen under their authority by conquest or willing 
 submission (as the Croatians). The old Hungarian 
 kingdom breathed its last on the battlefield of Mohaczi 
 in 1526, when half of the kingdom fell under Austria, 
 and the other half, consisting of the subjected province 
 
134 FROM CARPATHIAN TO PINDUS 
 
 of Transylvania and a portion of Hungary, came under 
 the authority of Sultan Soliman II., under the name 
 of the " autonomous principality of Transylvania.'* 
 A little later, the Sultan conquered Buda-Pesth and 
 organised there a downright Turkish province, the 
 ''Pashalik of Buda," which lasted more than a century 
 and a half. This state of things was put an end to 
 only in 1699 ; in the meanwhile, the Prince of Tran- 
 sylvania yielded to the Austrian Emperor — Emperor 
 of Germany then — the bit of Hungarian ^land that was 
 still in his power, and was recognised as independent 
 Prince of Transylvania. Towards the Turks, Transylvania 
 was a vassal, never more — a wavering vassality too. 
 After many wars between Austria and Turkey, Tran- 
 sylvania was conquered by Austria and incorporated as 
 an independent province with the Empire, and the 
 nineteenth century found her still in this situation. 
 
 The Austrian conquest changed nothing in the internal 
 constitution of the country; the three ruling privileged 
 nations — Hungarians, Szecklers, Saxons — only had repre- 
 sentatives in the country's Diet, which was at the head 
 of the Government of the province; the Roumanian 
 peasants were still kept, together with the Hungarian 
 peasants, in serfdom by the nobles notwithstanding all 
 the attempts of Maria-Theresa and her son Joseph II. 
 to emancipate them. We have seen the bloody rising 
 of 1785, and its apparent success, which, however, was 
 only on paper, so that serfdom remained as severe 
 as ever. 
 
 But with the end of the eighteenth century, the western 
 wind brought a new breath of liberty all over Europe, 
 down into the East. National spirit is astir ; all nations 
 stand up to assert their right to live their own life. In 
 the complicated Austrian Empire, all the various races 
 and nations lift their heads ; all want to be reckoned 
 as something, too, besides the ruling Austrian. The 
 Hungarians, aroused by hopes of independence and 
 liberty, begin to prepare to strengthen their ranks, and 
 although their speech was only of liberty and nationality, 
 they decide to assert their own dominion over all the 
 
THE PEASANT AND THE STATE 135 
 
 peoples living in their old kingdom. Thus, in 1780 already, 
 the Diet of Transylvania voted that the Hungarian lan- 
 guage should be substituted for Latin in all State affairs, 
 and that it should be taught in all schools. At the same 
 time, feeling that the difficulty would arise in Transyl- 
 vania, v^here the Hungarians v^ere the smallest nation, 
 they tried to bring about the official union of the 
 province of Hungary, but the attempt came to nought 
 then. 
 
 From 1825 the Hungarian agitation begins to take 
 a set course, with men at its head, like the patriotic 
 Szekeny, who set a patriotic example by presenting his 
 whole income for a year (60,000 florins) to found a 
 Hungarian academy. The plan was to denationalise 
 the non-Hungarians by slow, pacific means; to attract 
 the foreign element by the same bait by which the 
 Roumanian nobility of old had been coaxed into the 
 Hungarian bosom, namely, by enticing promises and by 
 the granting of rights and advantages to all those who 
 could learn the Hungarian tongue. The Hungarian nobles 
 were rather against these methods, which they considered 
 as an intrusion upon their privileges ; however, the 
 party of Szekeny constituted itself under the name of 
 the national-liberal party, and went on w^ith its work 
 of Magyarisation. It worked marvellously ; the non- 
 Hungarians did not appear to see the trap ; and they 
 did not realise that they were to forget their own lan- 
 guage, in the long run, and were exceedingly grateful 
 for the advantages offered ; and the Roumanians took to 
 the bait too, for they readily allow that — 
 
 "You take more flies with a spoonful of honey 
 than with a cask of vinegar," ^^' 
 
 and they learned Hungarian with strenuous zeal, especi- 
 ally encouraged by the united f Roumanian bishop, a 
 
 '^ " Mai multe mu^te prinzi cu olingura de miere decdt cu un 
 poloboc de o^et." 
 
 f The united^ that is, the Koumanians of Greek rite who have 
 joined in some of the dogmas of the Eoman Catholic Church. 
 
136 FROM CARPATHIAN TO PINDUS 
 
 Hungarian creature. Fortunately the Hungarians 
 changed their tactics. The younger party, with Louis 
 Kossuth at its head, did not agree in the least with this 
 temporising method, and decided that what they wanted 
 was to make everybody Hungarian at once. In ten 
 years at latest, everybody ought to know Hungarian ; 
 this language was to be used not only in official matters, 
 but in private ones too ; in church ; in school, in the 
 family, everywhere. The Roumanians took the hint, 
 and offered resistance — Kossuth saved Roumanism, in 
 the educated classes at least, where it was in greatest 
 danger. 
 
 On the other hand, under Kossuth's leadership the 
 national enthusiasm of the Hungarians rose to a pitch 
 never heard of before. If the other nations had known 
 nothing of liberty and nationalism, they might have 
 learned it from the Hungarians. Oh, but it was not 
 meant thus ! The Hungarians wanted freedom for 
 themselves, but others were not allowed to wish for 
 it ! With a logic unique in the world, the Hungarians 
 denied violently to others the rights they loudly claimed 
 for themselves : Slavs, Croatians, Servians, Saxons, Rou- 
 manians, had to become Hungarians if they wanted to 
 live, and Acts passed repeatedly voted the enforcement 
 of the Hungarian language in all business of public and 
 private life. The scheme of infant schools for children 
 three years old with Hungarian teachers was a Kossu- 
 thian idea. Any means to reach the end : a free, united, 
 consistent Hungary was the watchword. All very fine, 
 and, I dare say, the Roumanians would not have much 
 to say against it, as far as Hungary was concerned, but 
 the Hungarians wanted it to include Transylvania also, 
 and consequently decided to incorporate Transylvania 
 with Hungary. 
 
 The Revolution of 1848 was started by the Hungarians 
 proclaiming a constitution, expressed in unmistakably 
 fine words about liberty and suppression of privileges, 
 and suppression of serfdom ; and Transylvania was to be 
 represented by sixty-nine deputies, who, however, were to 
 be only Hungarians, Szecklers, Saxons, not a single Rou- 
 
THE PEASANT AND THE STATE 137 
 
 manian — and that in a country where the Koumanians 
 represent 60 per cent., the Hungarians and Szecklers 
 together 27 per cent., the Saxons 10 per cent., and other 
 nations 3 per cent. Still the old, unjust hatred, and that 
 because the land had belonged to the Koumanians, and 
 had been taken away from them; quite so : man is much 
 more inclined to forgive one who has wronged him than 
 one whom he has wronged ! but that is not the righteous 
 man. Together with the proclamation of the said con- 
 stitution, stringent measures were taken to prevent the 
 other nations from manifesting their opinions ; a severe 
 law against the press was voted. But among the other 
 nations, besides the Koumanians, the Croatians, the 
 Servians, and the Saxons themselves — who, although 
 a privileged nation, did not want to be severed from 
 Austria — began to give vent to their feelings, through 
 the press and meetings, and while everybody else was 
 pretty free to act as he liked, the Koumanians alone were 
 violently denied the right to write, to speak, or to meet. 
 As for the Croatians, the Hungarians tried every means, 
 and for a time with success, to make them friends. 
 However, some forty thousand delegates of the Kou- 
 manian people succeeded, with all the spokes put in 
 their wheel, in meeting on the 15th of May, in the field 
 since then called ''Liberty field," near Blaj, and, with 
 much order and composure, passed the resolution not 
 to accept union, and to be on the side of the Emperor 
 in the struggle at hand. But when the Diet actually 
 met at Cluj, on the union business, it was surrounded 
 with such display of force and violence that even the 
 twenty-two Saxon deputies who were against it, gave 
 their vote for union for very fear of being massacred on 
 the spot, and thus the Hungarians could emphatically 
 announce that the union of Transylvania and Hungary 
 had been voted " unanimously " by the Diet. Hence- 
 forth the Hungarians start the most cruel persecutions 
 against their opponents ; men are killed like so many 
 partridges, the Koumanians answer in no milder way; 
 civil war is ablaze. 
 The war was long and destructive of human life ; the 
 
138 FROM CARPATHIAN TO PINDUS 
 
 Roumanians, badly armed, badly trained for war, badly 
 led by the Austrians, themselves so badly organised, were 
 beaten — the intervention of Russia saved Austria from 
 imminent disaster. 
 
 Once Austria safe, surely the fate of her friends could 
 not be entirely neglected. Transylvania became once 
 more an autonomous province of the Empire, and in 
 1863 the Emperor gave this province the most liberal 
 constitution she ever had. A Diet was elected accord- 
 ingly and sat for two years in Sibin as the legislative 
 body. But by Hungarian machinations it came to be 
 dissolved; a new one, exclusively Hungarian, met again at 
 Cluj, and at once voted again the union of Transylvania 
 with Hungary. Austria gets entangled in her war with 
 Prussia ; attention cannot be spared for Transylvania. 
 After Sadowa, the weakened, vanquished Austria could 
 not but accept divided power with the strong, untouched 
 Hungary, and " dualism " was instituted. The Rou- 
 manians protested against the illegitimate union, with 
 no success. However, the Emperor and King again 
 snatched from his Magyar subjects a few rights in favour 
 of the non-Hungarians of Transylvania, to which the 
 Magyars pretended to agree. The "law for the equality 
 of rights for all nations of Hungary and Transylvania " 
 was written down but remained a dead letter ; the 
 Hungarians began again to speak of one nation in the 
 whole kingdom, namely, the Hungarian nation, which 
 was to be once more the nation of all. This " law of 
 the nations" was only meant to throw dust in the 
 world's eyes ; in fact, the Hungarians created for 
 Transylvania an electoral system, which, with the aid of 
 the administration, succeeded in the year 1887 in electing 
 a Diet in which out of four hundred and seventeen 
 deputies only one was Roumanian, in a country where 
 two-thirds of the whole population are Roumanians ; in a 
 country where so much blood has been spilt for rights 
 and liberty ! The Roumanians could not see any way to 
 better measures for the future, than that of totally 
 abstaining from the elections — and surely, " the gallant 
 little nation " of the Hungarians may well say that if the 
 
A Well in the Plain. \_Photo,J. Cazaban. 
 
 ce page 138. 
 
THE PEASANT AND THE STATE 139 
 
 Koumanians have no representatives in the Diet, it is 
 only their fault? 
 
 And yet, what the Boumanian people really does want, 
 and strives for, is not poHtical rights; the Koumanian 
 peasants only want to be acknowledged as free Roumanian 
 beings and be left alone to develop and live unharassed, 
 unpersecuted, un wronged, according to their own spirit 
 and nature, in the language and beliefs of their fathers 
 and forefathers. But that is not allowed them. And 
 that is why the Roumanians must struggle for political 
 rights in order to secure the other advantages, and 
 that is why they are now resuming the political struggle. 
 The situation is hardly bearable, indeed. The Hun- 
 garians, not satisfied with having changed the geographi- 
 cal names all over the country into Hungarian names, 
 are Magyarising the names of the people and of the 
 children at school ! Kept out of all official situations, even 
 in their own communes, they must know and write only 
 Hungarian ; no case before a magistrate, however right 
 it may be, is accepted if not written in Hungarian. 
 Why, peasants have been shot because, having been 
 addressed in Hungarian by the gendarmes, they were 
 unable to give an answer ! The smallest function, down 
 to railway porter, is withheld from all not having 
 Hungarian names and not speaking Hungarian. In 
 schools, Hungarian is enforced, and infant schools have 
 been opened to take in children three years old from 
 their mothers in order to bring them up as Hungarians. 
 The peasants being by far the greatest part of the 
 Roumanian population, they are the most persecuted ; 
 even charitable associations are not allowed to be started 
 by Roumanians. And if they raise their voice to complain, 
 the Roumanians are threatened with being ** swept away 
 from the country" — -their own country, eight centuries 
 before the Magyars came in from Asia ! — as " ungrateful 
 and perfidious." And the Hungarians are themselves 
 astonished, they say, that between themselves and the 
 Szecklers they have not yet succeeded in annihilating 
 that troublesome nation ! But the Roumanians can hear 
 a good deal. 
 
140 FROM CARPATHIAN TO PINDUS 
 
 In Bukovina, under direct Austrian rule, the Rou- 
 manians are on equal footing with the Germans, and 
 their representatives sit in the Viennese Parliament. 
 Roumanians and Germans are so much the more friendly 
 in that province because there is a strong current at 
 work, through the numerous Ruthenians, who have 
 rushed into Bukovina since the time of the union of 
 Bukovina with GaHcia, which they both feel a need to 
 struggle against. Bukovina has had great attractions 
 for her neighbours ; while, at the time of the incorpora- 
 tion with Austria, the Roumanians made up by far the 
 greatest majority of the population, to-day they only form 
 the relative majority, 35 per cent. Roumanians, 30 per 
 cent. Ruthenians, the rest Germans and a mixture. As 
 the popular poet sadly sings : — 
 
 "And she is full of foreigners 
 As the grass is full of brambles, 
 And she is as full of foes 
 As the stream is full of stones. 
 And the sympathy of the stranger 
 Is like the shade of the teasel: 
 When you try to get into shade, 
 The worse you are burnt up." ^^^ 
 
 In Bassarabia — that is to say, in Russia — who has any 
 rights to speak of ? Turkey is out of the question in that 
 respect — although some slight improvements may have 
 been noticed of late. 
 
 IV 
 
 "Two men walking up a road found a bag of corn. 
 Each of them thought himself in the right to claim the 
 larger part of the contents, and, unable to come to an 
 
 * " §i e plina de straini 
 Ca iarba de maracini, 
 ^i e plina de du^mani 
 Ca iarba de bolovani. 
 §i mila strainului 
 E ca umbra spinului 
 Cind vrei ca sa te umbre^ti 
 Mai tare te dogore^ti." 
 
THE PEASANT AND THE STATE 141 
 
 agreement, they decided to call upon a judge, who should 
 judge them ' according to God's law.' The judge bandaged 
 his eyes, then taking some corn with both hands he gave 
 it to one of the parties, while the whole remnant of the 
 bag he gave to the other, saying : * That is God's justice ; 
 to some. He gives much — so much sometimes that they 
 hardly know what to do with it; to others, on the 
 contrary, He does not even allow mere sustenance. Had 
 you asked for human justice, I should have divided 
 measure by measure, but you have asked God's justice 
 and have got it. " God's purposes, no one knows." ' " 
 
 "An unjust reconcilement is better than a just judgment,"* 
 
 says the proverb, for — 
 
 "Whoever goes to pray to the saint, must bring him taper and 
 incense; " f 
 
 and be sure that 
 
 " If your pint is full, your sentence will also be good," | 
 
 and 
 
 "On golden wheels turns the law,"§ 
 
 and so on. Many proverbs tend to show how little 
 confidence a peasant has in law and justice. Of course, 
 he is ready to believe that : — 
 
 "What is right, pleases God also," || 
 
 and will even go the length of taking the optimistic view 
 that — 
 
 "Eight comes out on the surface like oil; "IT 
 
 * "Mai bine o impacare str^mba, decat o judecata dreapta." 
 f " Cine se duce sa se roage sfantului, sa-i duca luminare §i 
 tamaie." 
 
 I "Daca ^i-i ocaua plina, ^i-i §i judecata buna." 
 § "Pe roate de a\ir se invarte^te legea." 
 
 [I "Ce-i drept, si lui Dumnezeu ii place." 
 
 II "Dreptatea iese ca untdelemnul pe deasupra." 
 
 / 
 
142 FROM CARPATHIAN TO PINDUS 
 
 but experience has taught him that this is not invariably 
 the case, and philosophically he has come to the con- 
 clusion that absolute justice is impossible, and that one 
 ought to be contented with relative justice, or a fair 
 compromise between the parties at strife, allowing 
 that — 
 
 "Neither the wolf to be hungry, 
 Nor the ewe to have two lambs."* 
 
 But, of course, all these proverbs are more or less old, 
 and it would be unfair to apply them wholesale to the 
 present state of things. Not that a man may not be 
 wronged by the justice of the present day; men are 
 wronged every day, but that, not by the judge's fault, but 
 by the fault of justice itself, which, by the multiplication 
 and complication of laws and procedure, has created such 
 a deep gap between real a>iid formal right ; and, of course, 
 the poor man, who knows nothing about formalities and 
 procedure, is much inclined to think that the judge has 
 wronged him, to please the other party, who, he is apt to 
 think, has probably bought him, for — 
 
 " Money is the devil's eye." f 
 
 So much the more will his diffidence be aroused, when 
 his opponent is a gentleman, like the judge himself ; no 
 doubt he will think — 
 
 "A crow does not pick out the eyes of another crow." | 
 
 Still more, justice and law-suits imply in most cases the 
 need of lawyers or barristers-at-law ; when these, whose 
 number is legion, take in hand the bringing to light of 
 the just and unjust, the peasant may well throw over- 
 board all ideas of justice in despair, and fall into any 
 arrangement rather than go into a law-suit. 
 
 * " Nicl lupul flam^nd, 
 Nici oaiea cu doi miei." 
 
 f *'Banu-i ochiul dracului." 
 
 I " Corb la corb nu scoate ochii." 
 
THE PEASANT AND THE STATE 143 
 
 Thanks to procedure and formalities, law, meant to be 
 the protection of the weak, becomes rather the protection 
 of the strong, who can afford an able lawyer, sure to be 
 up to all the requirements of procedure ; and who, more- 
 over, will always find some legal means of winning even 
 an unjust case. That is why the peasant will hardly ever 
 dare to go to law with his superior, the boiar, for, 
 says he, 
 
 "He who can, gnaws bones; he who cannot, (gnaws) not even 
 soft meat," * 
 
 and, 
 
 " The ox cannot measure himself with the bufTalo ; " f 
 
 and therefore he is ready to make it up with the boi'ar as 
 best he can, to his own disadvantage, in nine cases out 
 of ten. 
 
 The lowest court of law is held by the primary the 
 mayor of the village; the small differences of the 
 peasants are judged by him and his councillors at the 
 primaria, the mayoralty. This is done in a rather 
 patriarchal way, and if the primar is an honest man, a 
 "man with the fear of God," the peasants have nothing 
 to complain of ; but it happens that he is sometimes the 
 reverse of that, and often a creature of the boi'ar; and, 
 still worse sometimes, it happens that the boiar himself 
 is the mayor of the place — the pasha of the place, rather. 
 Woe to the peasant then : — 
 
 "Woe when the wolf becomes keeper to the sheep 1 
 He sheares the wool and skin withal 1 " | 
 
 A second court of law is presided over by the *' Judge 
 of peace," of whom there is one in every district, residing 
 in some small country town, or even in a village, where 
 
 * " Cine poate, oase roade ; cine nu, nici carne moale." 
 f "Boul nu se poate pune cu bivolul." 
 I "Vai cand ajunge lupul same^ la oil 
 Le tunde lana cu piele cu tot 1 " 
 
144 FROM CARPATHIAN TO PINDUS 
 
 there are no proper towns. Such a judge, invariably 
 a licentiate-at-law, that is to say, a university graduate, 
 seems to do his duty well, as a rule, but being a young 
 man, in expectation of the quickest possible advancement, 
 mostly disgusted with having to spend his time in a 
 small, dull place, his relations with the peasant are on 
 the whole of the most distant nature. And yet their 
 work is very interesting, and I have understood that 
 sometimes it really is well done ; occasionally only, 
 it is true, but the good examples may find imitators in 
 time. In my rambles about the country I have often 
 had occasion to hear peasants talk quite judiciously 
 about various matters, and when asked about the origin 
 of their knowledge, "It is a judge of ours that told us 
 that ; " or again : " We have heard it from the procurer.'* 
 In connection with that, I am pleased to add, repeated 
 tributes are paid to the ready teaching power of young 
 civil engineers, from whom absolutely uneducated 
 peasants had learned and were able to repeat correct 
 ideas about steam engines, balloons, electricity and such- 
 like. From all this it appears that among the young 
 educated men, whom their occupations draw to the 
 country, there are noble and judicious ones, who do 
 not think it beneath their station to talk with peasants 
 and explain to them things of which they might other- 
 wise have a quite wrong opinion, not from stupidity 
 or natural ignorance, as is often believed, but simply 
 from want of talking over the matter with people more 
 enlightened than themselves. 
 
 Far greater awe have the peasants of the third court 
 of law, the " tribunals," for which the peasant has 
 to go to larger towns, capitals of districts only, where 
 he, as a rule, feels himself ill at ease and as awkward 
 as can be. If the judge happens to address him kindly, 
 he takes it as a blessing ; otherwise he seems dominated 
 by the feeling that the judge could at any moment 
 turn him out of the court as an intruder. There is, it 
 is true, a means of dispensing with the stamped 
 paper, but this only for the poorest of peasants who 
 can produce an attestation of pauperism ; such attesta- 
 
THE PEASANT AND THE STATE 145 
 
 tions, however, are only issued by the mayor, and at 
 his own discretion. The procedure is very minute 
 and rigorous, and the peasant will often see in amaze- 
 ment that he has lost his law-suit because some small 
 point of procedure has not been fulfilled, although his 
 rights are as plain as dayhght ; this, of course, is 
 not apt to strengthen his confidence in justice or 
 judges. 
 
 For crimes, there is a jury ; two sessions yearly are 
 held. Criminality seems to have been mild enough 
 to permit the suppression of the death penalty, with 
 the new constitution of the Free Kingdom. Even hard 
 labour for life is seldom made use of, the highest penalty 
 being mostly hard labour for limited times, twenty years 
 or so, in the salt mines, worked entirely by criminals. 
 Crimes are perpetrated, of course, and are due in most 
 cases to drunkenness, in which state the peasant will 
 strike his opponent unmindful of consequences, and 
 the blow very often causes death. Otherwise, the 
 Koumanian does not kill willingly. Even with the 
 greatest thieves, it has been almost always found that 
 if they killed they were only moral authors of the crime ; 
 for the act itself they always had the help of some 
 tzigan (gipsy). It is a notorious fact that when capital 
 punishment was in use there never was a Eoumanian 
 willing to take the place of hangman ; he was always a 
 gipsy. Even to-day the largest number of criminal 
 cases are due to gipsies. 
 
 In Transylvania and Hungary, from the official statistics 
 themselves it is evident that there is least crime among 
 the Roumanians. As to the question if there is fair 
 justice for the Roumanian people in Transylvania, it 
 would be waste of time to enter into the question, seeing 
 that all the judges are Hungarians and knowing also 
 the humane feelings they cherish. As a sample of fair 
 justice, the so-called *' Memorandum law-suit " in 1892 
 may serve. The leaders of the Roumanians, sick of the 
 political grievances they were suffering from, decided 
 to defend their rights in a legal way ; consequently, they 
 addressed to the Emperor a "memorandum," in which 
 
 11 
 
146 FROM CARPATHIAN TO PINDUS 
 
 they complained of the injustice done them, and of the 
 unjust appHcation of the Imperial constitution. A depu- 
 tation was sent to Vienna, which, however, was not 
 received by the Emperor and King. The deputation left 
 a sealed copy of the memorandum for the Emperor, 
 but this was soon returned to them with the answer 
 that the Emperor did not wish to know what it was 
 about ! So much does the monarch seem to be King 
 of the Hungarians rather than Emperor of his other 
 subjects ! But that is not all. A campaign of persecu- 
 tion was started against the members of the committee, 
 beginning with unlawful breaking into their houses 
 and pulling these to the very ground ; they all had to 
 flee for their lives. Moreover, an action was brought 
 against them for having complained, and, after a mock 
 trial, they were sentenced to five years' imprisonment 
 Surely, if anywhere in the world the Roumanian has 
 reason to be satisfied with an "unjust reconcilement 
 rather than a right judgment," Hungary seems to be 
 the place. 
 
 The Roumanians of Free Roumania have a code of 
 laws only since the time of the constitution, 1866 ; it 
 is the French code. Before that they had various 
 codes, all partial and incomplete. But, on the other 
 hand, they have always had the customary law, the 
 Obiceiul pdmintului, the "usage of the soil," of which 
 unfortunately no account was taken in the introduction 
 of the new foreign code. For, although it may have 
 had its drawbacks, it had luminous points of justice 
 in it, and besides, it was part and parcel of the very 
 nature, the very blood of the inhabitants of the soil, 
 and to it they cling closely still, in their private affairs, 
 when circumstances do not bring them before the 
 justice of the code. 
 
 The first attempt at legislation is not older than the 
 seventeenth century ; before that, people lived under 
 the " customary law," of which little is known at the 
 present day. As far as penal offences go, crimes were 
 private, not public offences, and a crime could always 
 be made up with money paid to the party interested. 
 
THE PEASANT AND THE STATE 147 
 
 If a man was found murdered, and the murderer was 
 not found out, the whole village had to pay a collective 
 fine. With money, one could escape capital punishment ; 
 on the other hand, it seems that one could very easily 
 be sentenced to it. As to civil affairs, that seems to 
 have been a fair traditional law which gave equal right 
 to inheritance in the wealth of the parents to all children, 
 boys and girls, legitimate and illegitimate children, 
 showing a strong feeling of justice, set above any other 
 social or political consideration ; it was a just law which 
 made the wife the natural inheritor of the husband's 
 wealth, to the making of which she had surely contri- 
 buted, this even when the wife was not legitimised by 
 an official wedding ; and this " soil's habit," the peasants 
 hold to even to-day, when they are not impeded by law, 
 and illegitimate unions are frequent enough, especially 
 in the case of second marriages, when an official wedding 
 seems to the peasant almost ridiculous. If a daughter 
 was married at the time of the parent's death, and 
 had got her dowry, she had no more right to the inheri- 
 tance, were it even such as to entitle her to a large share ; 
 on the other hand, no return of the dowry was enforced, 
 even if it were larger than the other children's share. 
 In case of debts, the first claim upon the inheritance 
 was, as it is to-day, the creditor's. In matters of landed 
 property, whoever wished to sell an estate, small or large, 
 could not do so without having asked all his relatives 
 in the first place, the neighbouring rdzdshi in the second, 
 if they would not buy it themselves. If he neglected 
 to do so, such relatives or neighbours could always have 
 it resold. 
 
 As to procedure, if it is intricate and awkward to-day, 
 it was surely hardly fairer in the old times. The absent 
 party invariably lost the case. But the right of appeal 
 was entirely at the prince's mercy, and the result was 
 that a law-suit might be prolonged through generations, 
 or for ever. The principle of res judicata seems to 
 have been unknown in civil as well as in criminal cases. 
 Each change of a prince was a ready occasion for the 
 re-opening of a law-suit, and one was never sure to have 
 
148 FROM CARPATHIAN TO PINDUS 
 
 done with it, and not be judged again and perhaps 
 condemned, even to capital punishment. How much 
 room was left for injustice one may easily imagine; 
 hence the popular proverb — 
 
 " Justice is as princes make it." * 
 
 In old times, proof was rarely given by written docu- 
 ments ; the usual means of proving a case was by 
 witnesses. In those times of perpetual change and in- 
 security, of want of papers and of documents, it seems 
 that the human word had the greatest value in the 
 imparting of justice. Belief in honesty must have 
 been great indeed to found a sentence, penal or civil, 
 merely on witnesses. Perjury was strongly punished, 
 but it appears that liars were not so numerous that 
 people should ever have lost their faith in witnesses. 
 
 Most of the cases seem to have dealt with the delimi- 
 tation of property ; in the fear of a possible contest, the 
 proprietors found it necessary to have reliable witnesses, 
 knowing exactly where the boundary lay, and able to bear 
 certain witness in case of emergency ; to impress the 
 thing on the young generation, the following method was 
 in use. Youths and children from twelve years of age 
 upwards were taken to the boundary of the land, and for 
 each mark-stone laid, were treated with a smart pulling 
 of the hair, o pdruiald, meant to prevent them from ever 
 forgetting the remarkable stone. 
 
 To the present day the peasant is fond of the attestation 
 of his rights by witnesses. 
 
 Another means of proving in justice, introduced, it is 
 supposed, under German influence, through the Slavs, 
 but fitted to Roumanian ideas, are the so-called jurdtori 
 (jurators or swearers) . These were not witnesses to the 
 facts of the case, but simply supporters with their affir- 
 mation in favour of the party who brought them before 
 the court. These jurators seem to have been able to 
 annul even the affirmations of the vdtnesses ; their number 
 
 * " Dreptatea e cum o fac domnii." 
 
THE PEASANT AND THE STATE 149 
 
 varied (usually stated by the judge — the prince very 
 often), being generally twelve, and sometimes as many 
 as forty-eight, according to the importance of the 
 case, which then was won or lost, according to their 
 power of taking the oath beside the defendant, with 
 whom they needs must be of an equal station of life ; 
 except in land contentions, when even peasants were 
 obliged to bring boiars as jurators. If a defendant was 
 unable to bring jurators, or not a sufficient number of 
 them, he lost his case. On the contrary, a party always 
 lost his cause if his opponent was able to bring a double 
 number of jurators — as much as to say, it seems, that 
 if there are to be liars, they cannot be the many ! The 
 oath was taken '' on the Holy Gospel and the Holy Cross 
 in the Holy Church " ; false swearing as well as false 
 witnessing was punished with a fine of six oxen. This 
 system, used in all affairs, civil and penal, was common 
 in all the Carpathian region, in Transylvania as well as 
 on the outer slopes of the mountains. The jurators, who, 
 on the whole, decided the case, were often called upon 
 themselves to judge the affair, making first a minute 
 inquiry into it ; after which they had to swear for the one 
 or the other party at strife. 
 
 The peasants have besides a good many moral rules 
 of conduct, but as they meet with no practical sanction 
 in this world, they do not seem to be so generally binding. 
 
 Medical assistance is another benefit the peasant is 
 entitled to from the State. The sanitary law provides 
 every plasa — subdivision of a district — with a trained 
 university graduate in medicine. The institution is in- 
 adequate enough — even when the physician is up to the 
 mark, which is not often the case — as infirmaries and 
 dispensaries are mostly wanting ; besides, the area 
 ascribed to a physician is often too large for him. On 
 the other hand, apostles would be required to fill such 
 places, and a young man just out of the university — let 
 
150 FROM CARPATHIAN TO PINDUS 
 
 him be up to or below the mark — is, as a rule, much too 
 self-conscious to forget himself and devote himself entirely 
 to the welfare of the people. 
 
 The peasant, on the other hand, resorts to the help 
 of a medical man only in desperate cases, and when the 
 cure has not proved miraculous, as he expected, his faith 
 in a physician's powers will be greatly weakened. And 
 the physician will of course prescribe strengthening food 
 and good lodging; and how is the poor peasant to 
 provide all that ? For reasons like these the peasant will 
 still, to a great extent, have recourse to incantations 
 from old women — babas — and home cures, which latter 
 are often as good as, if not better than, many a medical 
 prescription. Common diseases are malarial fever, not 
 fatal, but very weakening ; diphtheria in recurring epi- 
 demics, ravaging among small children, and the pellagra. 
 That dreadful disease, produced by misery and too hard 
 labour, it seems, is sadly on the increase, bringing after it 
 often insanity, an evil which, fortunately, is otherwise 
 very rare among the peasants. 
 
 VI 
 
 Schooling — elementary education, in the modern sense 
 of the word — is a new institution with the Eoumaniaii 
 people. An Act passed in 1864 endowed Free Eoumania 
 with free and compulsory elementary education — with 
 free also, though not compulsory, secondary and higher 
 education. 
 
 In old times, the first schools in existence were schools 
 for the training of the priests ; the teaching was religious 
 only, and the language learned was the old Slav, which, 
 we know, was dropped in the seventeenth century. Some- 
 time later, Greek was introduced into the schools, and 
 the schools were multiplied, as the Greeks wanted to pro- 
 mote Greek influences, a result which was not attained, 
 not even among the upper classes. With the revival of 
 nationalism, after 1821, Roumanian schools were founded 
 for the education of the future priests, to which any 
 
THE PEASANT AND THE STATE 151 
 
 boy wishing to learn was admitted. At the same time 
 higher schools were founded for the benefit of the upper 
 classes alone, where peasant boys were not admitted, 
 but where priests' sons were admitted, so that access by 
 the peasantry was possible, but only as a second stage, 
 through priesthood. 
 
 The educational methods were of course antiquated, 
 the belief existing that — 
 
 '*The rod is torn from Paradise,"* 
 that, 
 
 " Want teaches man, and the rod the child " f — 
 
 maxims greatly contributing to make school a terror for 
 children as well as for parents, for, although a parent is 
 apt to thrash his own child cruelly, he cannot bear to 
 have it done by strangers. On the other hand, the 
 usefulness of children about a peasant's house for all 
 sorts of small services has contributed to make education 
 not very much sought after. To-day the saying still 
 goes : ''I am not going to make a priest of him," with 
 a parent who does not want his son to learn much. 
 
 The new constitution of the country, on a new or 
 rather a renewed basis, with equal rights and equal duties 
 for all, opened a new horizon : everybody was com- 
 pelled to send his children to the primary schools. 
 This compulsion was a new thing ; the peasant looks 
 suspiciously at innovations : "If it is compulsory," he will 
 think, ''it can hardly be for our good; the boiars would 
 not compel us for our good." On the other hand, they 
 could see no immediate benefit from learning — quite the 
 reverse : taking away their children mornings and after- 
 noons, when they could be employed at more useful work 
 at home, was inconvenient. " I cannot afford to send 
 my boy to school," the peasant would say ; *' I want him 
 at home." 
 
 But the peasant cannot help seeing that " the gentle- 
 
 * "Varga e rupta din rai." 
 
 f "Nevoia inva^a pe om §i nuieaua pe copil." 
 
152 FROM CARPATHIAN TO PINDUS 
 
 man " has had education ; his Hfe seems so much easier, 
 he seems to be doing no work — playing with pen on paper 
 cannot be called work — consequently he will crave for his 
 boy an equal advantage, and, if the boy has done well in 
 a primary school, if he is smart and clever, he will go on 
 up to the other stages of education, all free too, provided, 
 moreover, with bursaries for poor industrious boys, so 
 that a father has hardly any expense until his son comes 
 out of the university a downright gentleman, with some 
 good situation in the administration, magistrature or 
 education — anything. And the father is happy to have 
 his son a gentleman, doing no more work (that is, accord- 
 ing to his notions). 
 
 But sometimes that new-made gentleman will care for 
 his father no more ; he will be ashamed of his family and 
 break off with it, in order never to be reminded of his 
 humble origin. "Well, this is the other side of the medal, 
 and knowledge of such cases will make a peasant say : 
 *' No, I am not going to let my boy go to school that he 
 may get ashamed of me, like so and so's son." But here 
 we may just as well add that cases of the kind are more 
 and more rare ; peasants' sons do become gentlemen, and 
 clever ones sometimes, even distinguished in nianners 
 and learning, and are not in the least ashamed of their 
 low origin. Social prejudice has no enduring roots 
 among Roumanians ; to be ashamed of a peasant father 
 is quite out of date now, out of the fashion ; a man may 
 become whatever he can — his origin has nothing to do 
 with it. And if the promoted sons of peasants are not 
 despised, the degenerate sons of nobles are not more 
 esteemed either — 
 
 "What if thy father has been a prince 
 If thou art not a man ? " * 
 
 Education — an ideal education — could be the fittest 
 sieve to pass a population through, regulating by its 
 results the stages of the social ladder, so as to give the 
 
 '^ " Ce folos ca tatu-tau a fost domn 
 Daca tu nu e§ti oml " 
 
THE PEASANT AND THE STATE 153 
 
 lead of the country into really fit hands, but, as things 
 stand now, there are many drawbacks. If the peasant 
 properly realises the difference between teaching and 
 education more than the gentleman, it were hard to say, 
 but he has a proverb of his own, seeming to imply it : — 
 
 "For a bagful of learning 
 A cartful of wisdom is needed." * 
 
 But, again, a peasant who has had his son at the 
 primary school wants to push him on, although the boy 
 may not be fit for it ; he will send him to compete for 
 bursaries, and when not successful he will readily believe 
 that he has been wronged by the ''gentleman." Or he 
 may be fatally wronged without any interference from 
 the " gentleman," as places of admission are naturally 
 limited, and only the very best can get in straightfor- 
 wardly, without protection, if even ! The impression 
 produced at home will be that it is useless to learn, as 
 you cannot get on because of the "gentlemen," and 
 if you are not to get on — to salaried situations — why 
 learn anything? and the peasant is not alone to think 
 so. He himself, the peasant will say, and his father 
 and his grandfather, had no schooling whatever, 
 and yet went on well enough without it ! The diffi- 
 culty seems to be to make the peasant understand that 
 learning in itself has a value, though not tending to any 
 important change in the material conditions of life ; but 
 all classes find that difficult to understand, and why 
 should a village teacher be expected to explain that 
 which teachers of all degrees fail to make plain and clear 
 in towns? 
 
 But clearness will come by itself after all. The peasant 
 must learn that if he can read he cannot be cheated by 
 his employer when the former draws up his bill for 
 labour due or done; that if he knows some arithmetic 
 and measurements, he cannot be cheated when land is 
 measured out for him ; he finds out by and by that the 
 
 * "La un sac de inva^atura 
 Trebue un car de minte.' 
 
154 FROM CARPATHIAN TO PINDUS 
 
 boy who has been at school has a better time in the army, 
 when his service time has come, as he understands things 
 quicker, is cleverer, and is consequently better treated. 
 All this works better in the long run than any persuasive 
 words, and although the percentage of illiterates is still 
 wonderfully large after these forty years of free com- 
 pulsory education, it is none the less true that people 
 get more and more interested in it, and rural schools and 
 school attendance are improving from year to year. 
 
 In Transylvania, in old times, teaching was connected 
 with the Church, just as it was in the free principalities 
 of old. The first powerful impulse to Roumanian teach- 
 ing was given by the union with the Roman Catholics in 
 1700, when schools were founded for the preparation 
 of a better trained clergy. The non-united clergy lagged 
 rather behind. By a decree of Joseph II. some twenty- 
 five schools were founded ; then, higher schools, training 
 schools, were gradually founded, and learning was so 
 flourishing, that by the beginning of the nineteenth 
 century Roumanian teachers crossed the Carpathians 
 and went into Valachia to lay the foundation of higher 
 teaching there, too, bringing thus educational organisation 
 as the voyevode founders of old had brought political 
 organisation. There are now some 3,000 primary schools 
 in Transylvania, and many secondary ones, towards the 
 support of which the Free Kingdom of Roumania con- 
 tributes a yearly grant of some 39,000 francs. 
 
 In Bukovina the Roumanians seem to be also fairly 
 provided with schools. 
 
 In Moravia and Istria the disappearing Roumanians 
 are taught Slav dialects, if anything. 
 
 In Bassarabia school attendance in Russian schools is 
 compulsory, and nobody would dare to open a Roumanian 
 school. 
 
 About the Pindus, under Turkish dominion, the first 
 Roumanian school was opened only in 1864, in Monastir, 
 the chief town of Macedonia. Soon afterwards the question 
 of Roumanian ideas in Macedonia was taken in hand by 
 the Government of Free Roumania, which to-day, with 
 all her wants and her own financial difficulties, contributes 
 
THE PEASANT AND THE STATE 155 
 
 no less a sum than 300,000 francs yearly towards the 
 support of Roumanian schools for the benefit of that 
 far-away branch of the Roumanian nation. There is 
 a large number of primary schools, two secondary, and 
 three commercial ones. That the results are far below 
 expectation is no wonder, in such out-of-the-way places, 
 so very far beyond reach of any adequate or thorough 
 supervision and control, having, moreover, always to 
 struggle against Greek and Bulgarian oppression and 
 local intrigues. 
 
 Elementary teaching is much simplified by the fact 
 that spelling is phonetic on the whole, that the peasant 
 speaks grammatically quite naturally, and that in dialect 
 differences are slight enough to permit the Roumanian 
 language to be considered as one in the whole Carpathian 
 region. The dialect of the Pindus Roumanians is rather 
 different, so that it has really to be learned by a Rou- 
 manian from north of the Danube. For the region 
 north of the Danube, the differences in the dialect are, 
 roughly speaking, made up of a number of words strange 
 to each other, but mostly by reason of the varying pro- 
 nunciations of the consonants p, b, v, d, which they will 
 speak out as ch or k, gh, or ge^ or dge, &c., and the vowel 
 e, pronounced as a or as ^ ; variations which also consti- 
 tute the only difference between the literary language 
 and the popular language. 
 
CHAPTEE IV 
 
 THE PEASANT AND HIS EELIGION 
 
 HIS BELIEFS AND SUPEESTITIONS 
 
 Christianity in Dacia is very old, and tradition 
 attributes its introduction to the preaching of the Apostle 
 Andrew, brother of Peter. Probably, among the Koman 
 emigrants who began to flock into Dacia even before 
 Trajan's colonisation, there must have been a good 
 number of Christians, and no doubt among Trajan's 
 colonists there must have been Christians too. That 
 Christianity is at least as old in the Carpathian region 
 as the Koman rule is proved by the number of funda- 
 mental words in religion, which are all of Latin origin : 
 Dumnezeu (" God," from Dominus-Deus) y Cruce ("cross," 
 from crux)y sdnt (** saint," from sanctus), Santa- Scrip turd 
 ("Holy Scripture," from sanctus and scriho), cre§tin 
 (" Christian," from the popular Latin Chrestianus) ; even 
 the irreverent expression popaventer has been faithfully 
 preserved in the very popular saying of pd^itece de popa, 
 for one who eats much. Christianity in Dacia persisted 
 after the desertion of that province ; at the time of 
 Constantine the Great, Christian bishops are mentioned 
 in those regions. If administratively any connection of 
 the empire with the regions north of the Danube was 
 cut off, it was not so with the religious connections; 
 these all the time bound Dacia to Moesia and Thessalonica, 
 on whose higher bishops the Dacian Church depended — 
 Justinian, in the sixth century, founded in Moesia the 
 Archbishopric of Justinianea Prima, with the set purpose 
 
 166 
 
A Monk. 
 
 [Photo, J. Cazaban. 
 
THE PEASANT AND HIS RELIGION 157 
 
 that it should rule over the Church on both banks of the 
 Danube. The Dacian Church then came under the 
 Bishopric of Kome, and again under that of Con- 
 stantinople (eighth century), but it is very likely that 
 the supremacy of both was rather nominal during the 
 invasions, or at least during the severest of them. At 
 the time of the Bulgarian invasion the right and left 
 banks of the Danube were conquered ; the Bulgarians 
 founded a powerful though transient empire from the 
 Balkans to the Carpathians — which we know to have 
 lasted until 1018. By the end of the ninth century the 
 Bulgarians were converted to Christianity, and in their 
 fresh proselytising enthusiasm they set off converting 
 to their new faith all the people round about them; 
 missionaries swarmed everywhere, in Poland, Kussia, 
 Hungary, to preach the Slav form of Christianity, and 
 among them, one is mentioned in a document of the 
 time as having been busy preaching in the " Alps of 
 the Valachians " {hi Alpibus Valachicis). The Valachs, 
 however, were Christians already, and what the Slav 
 missionary had to preach to them was not Christianity 
 in itself, but the Slav form of worship. It seems that 
 the Valachians did not readily accept it, and an old 
 tradition, handed down from two quite independent 
 sources, tells us that the books of Valachian worship 
 were burnt, which shows that the Bulgarians compelled 
 the Valachians by violence to accept their form of 
 worship, in their language, by substituting Slav books 
 for Latin ones. At last, of course, the Eoumanians gave 
 in ; they did not understand Bulgarian, but by this time 
 they would not have understood very much Church Latin 
 either ; so they went quietly to church to listen to the Slav 
 service, just as the Koman CathoHcs listen nowadays to 
 a Latin service. The mighty Czar Simeon estabhshed a 
 Mitropolit (Archbishop), who soon became an independent 
 Patriarch, in his capital Preslav, transferred later on to 
 Ochrida. After the overthrow of the Bulgarian Empire, 
 the Byzantine Emperor Basil II., the '* Bulgar- Slayer," 
 preserved the patriarchate of Ochrida, with a supremacy 
 over all the Bulgarians and Valachs. Although the 
 
158 FROM CARPATHIAN TO PINDUS 
 
 peoples north of the Danube were not subdued by the 
 Greek Emperor, they remained still faithful to the Church 
 of Ochrida. The Roumanians were now quite used to 
 hearing Bulgarian in their churches, although they under- 
 stood nothing of it ; national feeling was very dim in 
 those times, quite in the background of their conscience. 
 As to introducing the vulgar national tongue into church, 
 there was no idea of such a thing at that time, when 
 only four languages were deemed worthy to be addressed 
 to God (Hebrew, Greek, Latin, Slav). Besides, a hook 
 was not a common thing then; it was rather an object 
 of superstition, containing sanctity and superior power 
 in the very leaves and type ; a change in the Church books 
 might have been looked upon as a sacrilege. 
 
 With the formation of the Valacho-Bulgarian Empire 
 (twelfth century) the ties uniting the Christians on both 
 banks of the Danube became stronger, and intercourse 
 more frequent, and these relations remained the same 
 at the time of the foundation of the two Roumanian 
 principalities, Valachia (1290) and Moldavia (1349). 
 The Hungarians had long since conquered Transylvania 
 (end of eleventh century), and from the tenth century 
 they were Christians, that is, recognising the supremacy 
 of Rome. In the eleventh century, when rivalry between 
 Rome and Constantinople became so strong that it led 
 to the final split (1054) , the Hungarians held with Rome, 
 and began to persecute the Roumanians, in order to 
 bring them round to Roman Catholicism. This is the 
 chief cause that led to the large emigration from Tran- 
 sylvania and the foundation, subsequently, of the two 
 principalities. Whilst the rivalry between the Roman 
 Cathohc and Greek-Orthodox creeds was thus working 
 its mischief in Transylvania, bringing more and more 
 oppression on the heads of the Greek-Orthodox, a second 
 rivalry, of a milder sort, worke^ its way into the young 
 free principalities ; namely, the Church of Ochrida and 
 that of Constantinople : each was trying to draw the 
 Roumanian Churches to itself. Ochrida had the right 
 of first occupant, and the Roumanians held fast to her. 
 However, the Greeks, ever clever at arguing, succeeded 
 
THE PEASANT AND HIS RELIGION 159 
 
 in coaxing one or other of the Eoumanian princes, and 
 these recognised the one or the other Patriarch at will, 
 and it appears that the Patriarchs also made up their 
 minds to draw as much advantage from this as possible. 
 A typical instance we find in a document from the time 
 of Mirtchea the Great, Voyevode of Valachia (1386-1418). 
 This prince had just accomplished a new marriage with 
 a lady related to him in a degree that could not, it seems, 
 let his conscience be entirely at rest ; thus, although the 
 marriage was duly recognised by the Patriarch of Ochrida, 
 Mirtchea begged for a supererogatory blessing from the 
 Patriarch of Constantinople also. This holy man wrote, 
 that no doubt the relationship was rather near, but, " in as 
 far as your Archipastor of Ochrida has admitted it, I will 
 neither approve nor disapprove of it, only, I advise thee to 
 be generous to the Church for the remission of thy sins ! " 
 This need of being generous to two leading Churches — when 
 other sore needs were trying the country and the people 
 — perhaps induced the Valachian prince to keep to one 
 Church, and therefore he chose Constantinople, to which 
 he brought round the Moldavian Church also, by his 
 friendly influence on Alexander the Good. From this 
 time there were Archbishops {Mitropolifi) in Valachia 
 and Moldavia, independent of each other, but dependent 
 on the Patriarch of Constantinople. To the Mitropolit 
 of Valachia was also given the charge of the persecuted 
 Greek-Orthodox souls of Transylvania and Hungary, and 
 he received the title of " humble Mitropoht of Ungro- 
 Vlachia, Exarch of the whole Ungro-Vlachy and the hills " 
 ('O Tairuvog MrjTpoTroXirrjg Ovypo(5Xaxiag kqI "E^apxog iramq 
 Ovy pofdXa^iag Koi HXayr^vwv). 
 
 The union with Constantinople did not bring in a quite 
 untroubled life, as the Patriarchs of Constantinople 
 tried more than once to exercise a strong political 
 influence on the countri^ ; more than once also, they 
 tried to nominate Greek Archbishops to the Eoumanian 
 sees, and aroused thereby quarrels and troubles. But 
 after a while they were successful in that too, and 
 triumphed over the obstinate resolve of the Roumanian 
 people not to accept a Greek Mitropolit. 
 
160 FROM CARPATHIAN TO PINDUS 
 
 The Turkish invasion in the Balkan peninsula drove 
 over the Danube crowds of priests and monks of Slav 
 blood and tongue, and by them the Slav influence on the 
 Roumanian Churches was increased, and repeatedly fed 
 by new influences. The Slav language was maintained 
 quite naturally in Church, as it was also used in State 
 affairs, although the people never understood a word of 
 it. Most of these monks were glad to meet with a 
 hospitable and safe refuge in charmingly situated glens 
 hidden among the lofty Carpathians. Many monasteries 
 were thus founded both in Valachia and Moldavia. In 
 Valachia, the oldest are Tismana and Voditza, dating 
 from the fourteenth century ; in Moldavia, the monastery 
 of Pobrata, Neamtz and then Putna (in Bukovina) . At 
 the same time, voyevodes, in their eagerness to be 
 generous to the supreme Church, were endowing and 
 building monasteries at Mount Athos, e.g., Stephen the 
 Great, his son Bogdan, and later on Basile Lupu, great 
 protector of the Orthodox of the Turkish Empire, and 
 others. To the credit of the monks — and the nuns — it 
 must be said that they had a wonderful taste for scenery ; 
 all the monasteries are situated in the most picturesque 
 spots of the country. With their origins wrapt in a veil 
 of legends, like all monasteries, they became not exactly 
 seats of learning, but at any rate centres of religious 
 culture, whence priests, bishops, and archbishops were 
 drawn for the service of the Church. They were also the 
 focuses of the Slav language, whence it came to be taught 
 in the schools that existed in towns and occasionally in 
 country places. But somehow, with all the teaching of 
 it, Bulgarian never became a familiar language to the 
 Roumanians. 
 
 In these monasteries there have now and then existed 
 monks addicted to the things of the mind, busying them- 
 selves with the writing, or rather with the copying, of 
 holy books, as, for instance, the Four Gospels, Tetra- 
 vanghel, written for the wife of Alexander the Good, in 
 the fifteenth century, but which somehow managed to 
 reach the Bodleian Library at Oxford. 
 
 Another cause also contributing to the strengthening 
 
To face page iCi. 
 
 The Cathedral "Curtea de Argeo." 
 
THE PEASANT AND HIS RELIGION 161 
 
 of the Slav influence was the fear of popery, a fear 
 shared alike by all Greek-Orthodox countries. The Pope 
 has ever been casting his fisher's net in all directions, 
 and, with never-tiring perseverance, using all means to 
 arrive at his ends. The fear of being taken in that net 
 made the Roumanians even more faithful to their Church 
 usages, consequently to its language, in which there was 
 already a large store of religious literature translated from 
 the Greek. The mere idea of these translations being 
 made into vulgar Roumanian, would have been looked 
 upon as a heresy ; even later on, when the first Bible was 
 translated into Roumanian, in the seventeenth century, 
 it was not done without the preliminary blessing of an 
 Orthodox Patriarch. 
 
 In proportion as the Christians south of the Danube 
 got used to the Turks, and found that they could live 
 side by side with them, the emigration towards the 
 Roumanian countries decreased, and the culture of the 
 Slav language slackened. From the fifteenth century 
 attempts at a religious literature in Roumanian were 
 made, the oldest manuscript yet discovered being the 
 so-called " Code of Voronetz," in Bukovine. 
 
 Whilst the Slav influence was losing ground, a fresh 
 wave of Greek influence made its way into the Roumanian 
 principalities during the sixteenth century. A prince of 
 Valachia, Neagoe Bassarab, the founder of the finest 
 church in Roumania, the Curtea de Argesh, was a very 
 pious man, and in order to bring upon the Valachian 
 monasteries the brightest nimbus of holiness, he put them 
 under the supremacy of the Greek churches in the Holy 
 Mountain, Athos; he dedicated them to those monasteries. 
 The Roumanian monasteries were extremely rich, over 
 and over again largely endowed with money and lands 
 by princes and by private individuals — the boiars have 
 always been liberal towards the Church, for " the 
 remission of their sins." The Greek monks took in 
 hand the administration of those riches, drew the 
 revenues up to Athos, and on the other hand began 
 to flock into the Roumanian monasteries, which were 
 soon, in both principalities, overflowing with them, as 
 
 12 
 
162 FROM CARPATHIAN TO PINDUS 
 
 the example of Neagoe Bassarab was followed, if not 
 surpassed, in Moldavia also. And these Greek monks 
 took the top of the table in the Roumanian monasteries, 
 and drove to the foot the poor Roumanian monks, much 
 more ignorant than they. And the people had an 
 extremely high opinion of the holiness of the Greek 
 monks, sure to be much holier than their own home- 
 made monks, coming from such holy places as Athos 
 was reputed to be ; and thus a Greek influence took root 
 in the Church, to spread out and bear fruits by and by. 
 
 But about the end of the sixteenth century another 
 current of Slav influence came, especially over Moldavia, 
 and this time from the north, from Galicia and Poland, 
 under pressure of Jesuit persecution, supported on political 
 grounds by the Polish Government. This last current, 
 however, was only a transient one ; it soon died out, and 
 after it the Slav language in Church and State in the 
 Roumanian principalities broke down, to die its more 
 natural death. About the middle of the seventeenth 
 century, the Metropolitan of both countries, deploring 
 the want of knowledge of the Slav language by the 
 priests, had nothing better to suggest for the maintenance 
 of Church worship, which was felt to be dying out, too, 
 than the introduction of the Roumanian language into 
 the Church service, which course was adopted by common 
 agreement between the voyevodes of both countries, 
 Basile Lupu and Mathet Bassarab. We may note in 
 this connection that Greek had begun to be used already 
 in some great and wealthy churches. 
 
 The Roumanians of Transylvania did away at the 
 same time, or even sooner, with the Slav language in 
 their own Church, under pressure of the Reformation. 
 The Protestants, having printed books containing their 
 teaching in Roumanian, the Greek Orthodox clergy, in 
 order to guard their own flock against the contagion of 
 the new doctrine, very judiciously decided upon the 
 translation into Roumanian of the Slav religious books, 
 and the use of the Roumanian language in church as the 
 safest of preventives. 
 
 The Slav language was dead and buried henceforth for 
 
THE PEASANT AND HIS RELIGION 163 
 
 all Roumanians ; it had never been more than a dead 
 language with them, and, in spite of all the renewed 
 fostering of Slav influence, could not be kept alive by 
 any means. In fact, it was dead long before the time 
 of its entombment. For a long while already the heads 
 of the Church had noticed how scanty was the knowledge 
 of that language in the average priest ; many an anecdote 
 exists to this day to attest the ignorance of those priests 
 who, unable to say Mass in Slav, used to falter meaning- 
 less words, on which the people have made up parodies 
 of the funniest kind, and of which children have composed 
 formulas used in their games to the present day. Other 
 anecdotes again tell us of priests and their sacristans, 
 who, at their wits' end as to what to say in their pretence 
 of Mass, were simply talking of their own private affairs, 
 not of a particularly moral kind either, interlarding just 
 here and there some meaningless Slav syllables. Other 
 priests, again, less resourceful, who perhaps could not 
 even read, let alone understand, took up the Bible and, 
 we are told, addressing the congregation : ** Good people, 
 do you know what is said in this book ? " If the people 
 said no, the answer was, ** Then I don't see the use 
 of my telling it to you." If they said yes, then he 
 answered, *' If you know, you don't require to be told 
 again." At last the disgusted congregation would decide 
 to catch him by the following trick : when he came with 
 his question half of the congregation would answer no, 
 the other half yes. And so they did, but the cunning 
 priest was still too clever for them, and his ready answer 
 was, '* Those who know will tell those who do not know, 
 for thus is it written in the book." Other priests, with 
 more religious feeHng in them, and perhaps more sense 
 of duty, composed prayers of their own, with Slav 
 syllables or words mixed up disconnectedly, unmeaningly, 
 very much like the incantations of old women, which 
 prayers were made use of at special occasions of illness 
 or trouble. The peasant used the priest's reading and 
 Church ceremonies very much as he used old women 
 incantations. For his own private worship he had his 
 own simple prayers, handed down from father to son 
 
164 FROM CARPATHIAN TO PINDUS 
 
 ever since their first conversion to Christianity in Roman 
 Dacia. Most of the prayers are still in constant use 
 among peasants, as the simple, " Cross in the house, 
 cross in the table, cross in the four corners of the house,'* 
 &c. ; or " Good cross, lull me to sleep ; holy Angel, 
 guard me, from heavy sleep awake me, from evil spirit 
 preserve me," and many other prayers. 
 
 From the seventeenth century the Roumanian Church 
 has taken to the Roumanian language, and it has ever 
 since been used in poor village churches, but in the rich 
 churches of the towns and in the wealthy monasteries it 
 was soon supplanted and kept away for more than a 
 century by the Greek language, which was driven out 
 only at the beginning of the nineteenth century. Rou- 
 mania only got rid of the Greek monks themselves in 
 1862, at the hands of the same prince who endowed the 
 peasants with land. 
 
 Prince Cuza and the young national party, seeing that 
 the clergy were in possession of one-fourth of the Rou- 
 manian ground, which ground had been given to the 
 monasteries with conditions of a charitable character 
 by the pious donors, although these conditions had 
 remained a dead letter, whilst the wealth served only to 
 maintain luxury and no holy living, or was drawn away 
 for Greek purposes, decided that the holy Greek fathers 
 —of whom, strange to say, a good many were perfectly 
 Roumanised — should return to their holy homes at Athos 
 and Jerusalem, and that the State should execute the wills 
 of the donors. 
 
 But the execution of this decision was extremely 
 difficult, because the Patriarch of Constantinople protested 
 strongly against it, and the Tzar of Russia himself was 
 coaxed into supporting the Greeks. So there was danger 
 on the horizon. But Cuza took upon himself to produce 
 a plan of secularisation on his own account, putting in 
 peril his throne, but keeping the country aloof from 
 responsibility. Long afterwards, a prominent statesman 
 reported the words the prince then used : ** When you 
 elected me prince, I had only eight ducats in my pocket, 
 the estate I had from my father was mortgaged, my shop 
 
THE PEASANT AND HIS RELIGION 165 
 
 buildings in Galatzi were sold. Now my estate is freed 
 I have, moreover, bought the new one of Ruginoasa, I 
 can afford to lose my throne if need be, but the country 
 must run no risk." But he did not lose the throne ; the 
 monastery lands were secularised and replaced by a 
 small allowance in the Budget, and ever since, the 
 number of those who desired to devote their lives to God 
 became wonderfully diminished ; * the monastery estates 
 became State land. 
 
 By the constitution of 1866 the Roumanian Church 
 was declared independent — autocefald — holding still, from 
 the dogmatic point of view, to the Church of Con- 
 stantinople. 
 
 In the meanwhile Roman Catholic persecutions had 
 become stronger than ever in Hungary, and Transylvania 
 had fallen under Austrian rule. The Roumanian clergy 
 did not see any other way to alleviate the hard fate of 
 the people than by accepting a compromise of union 
 with the Roman Catholic Church. They agreed to 
 recognise papal supremacy, to take the Eucharist accord- 
 ing to Roman Catholic ritual, to believe in the existence 
 of Purgatory, and to admit the doctrine of the Filioque, 
 which had been the starting-point of the split of 1054. 
 Thus, since 1700, the Roumanians of the Austro-Hungarian 
 Empire were, from the religious point of view, divided 
 into two parts — Greek Orthodox and Roman Orthodox 
 — these last are called uniti or uniaiti (united). 
 
 South of the Danube, about the Pindus, the Armini, 
 under Greek and under Turkish rule, were easily drawn 
 into the Greek Church, and this was the strongest means 
 by which the Greeks worked, and are still working, to 
 push on their work of total Grecisation of the Armtni. 
 A small group of the Macedonian Valachs have adopted 
 
 * There are very few Roumanian monks, rambling in small 
 numbers about the old monasteries. The nunneries are better 
 populated with women who have hardly anything religious about 
 them except the dress, and who make a livehhood by their handi- 
 work, especially in woollen fabrics, and an extra income by lodging or 
 boarding townspeople in summer, when the monasteries are turned 
 into health resorts. 
 
166 FROM CARPATHIAN TO PINDUS 
 
 the Mussulman religion ; these are the Valachs from the 
 Meglen. 
 
 II 
 
 "Omul trebui sa cinsteasca 
 Legea lui cea parinteasca." 
 
 ("A man must honour the law 
 (religion) of his fathers.") 
 
 Religion is law to the Roumanian peasant, and his 
 strongest feeling about it is that he ought to keep it by 
 all means — 
 
 " He who his own law honours not 
 Is called a lawless man."* 
 
 To keep to the faith of his forefathers is the first and 
 foremost duty he feels bound to fulfil towards rehgion, 
 because 
 
 "He who jumps into another law 
 Has no God at all."f 
 
 But what this faith really is I am afraid the Roumanian 
 peasant would be very much at a loss to explain. At the 
 best he knows only the outward manifestations of his 
 creed : how to make the sign of the cross, which 'fasting- 
 days to keep, and how ; what the Church garments of the 
 priest are like, and what is the general aspect of the 
 house of God; as to the doctrines of the Church he is 
 not in the least a theologian. And how could the 
 peasantry get a doctrinal knowledge of religion ? The 
 Roumanian clergy, whether the regular (monastic) clergy 
 — who have ever had but little to do with the people — 
 or the lay clergy, who are directly entrusted with the 
 care of souls, have always been utterly ignorant, and 
 could hardly be expected to teach what they only dimly 
 — if at all — understood themselves ; on the other hand, 
 
 * *' Cine legea nu-§i cinste^te 
 Fara lege se nume^te." 
 
 f " Cine 'ntr' alta lege sare 
 Nici un Dumnezeu nu are." 
 
THE PEASANT AND HIS RELIGION 167 
 
 it has never been the custom for priest and people to 
 meet on spiritual ground anywhere else than at church. 
 And at church the programme of worship has always been 
 crystalised in the Mass liturghia ; no sermon, no special 
 teaching. No wonder, then, that the peasant should look 
 upon Church service as upon some magic rites, the super- 
 natural power of which resides in the very robes or 
 movements of the priest and in the mostly indistinct 
 words he utters in his nasal, chanting tone. Even now 
 religious teaching, the elements of it at least, is imparted 
 at school, but then the largest number of the present 
 adult peasantry have never attended school ; whence, then, 
 has he received his religious teaching? All the Rou- 
 manian peasant know about religion, be it doctrinal or 
 historical, he knows only by oral tradition, by the tales 
 and explanations and beliefs handed down from father 
 to son ; all the Roumanian peasant feels and thinks as to 
 moral principles he has got by tradition, too, from 
 ancestral advice and teaching, handed down from 
 generation to generation. The religion of the Roumanian 
 peasant, his beliefs, his ethics, his philosophy, are of his 
 own making, it seems, much more than the result of the 
 priest's teaching. G-enerally, the Roumanian priest has 
 never enjoyed much respect from his flock except very 
 occasionally, when he personally has deserved it. It is 
 true the peasant thinks much of the consecration of the 
 priest ; the sacrament of priesthood really imparts to the 
 priest a special power, the gift Darul, which enables him 
 to celebrate the rites, and at the same time gives him a 
 special character in the peasant's eye ; but if the peasant 
 kisses the hand of the priest he has met by chance, he 
 will none the less throw after him a straw blade, a stick, 
 a bit of thread, or any small thing at hand, with the 
 imprecation " PtiUy piei drace ! " ('* Fie, perish devil! ") to 
 ward off any mishap that might befall him through the 
 mere meeting with the priest. 
 
 Socially, when class distinctions still existed, the priest 
 was the stepping-stone from the peasant to the upper 
 ranks. Peasants were admitted into priests' schools only ; 
 priests' sons were alone admitted into the higher schools, 
 
168 FROM CARPATHIAN TO PINDUS 
 
 and consequently to higher functions and higher social 
 rank, and yet priesthood does not seem to have ever been 
 a very desirable state : — 
 
 " Make me, Lord, what you please, 
 Only do not make me a priest, 
 That I should eat bread 
 Grumbled upon, 
 And cracknels 
 From the poor I " * 
 
 The little regard for priesthood, as nothing more than 
 a profession, and not of much importance to humanity, is 
 also shov^^n by the superstition that when a priest has 
 been ordained his wife must go out to meet him, on his 
 coming home, with spade and shovel in her hand, to get 
 thereby a prospect of plentiful burials for him. As to the 
 morals of the priest — setting aside individual exceptions 
 — they are at their best when doubtful, I fear, and this 
 has brought the peasant to the belief that if a priest dies 
 a violent death he will go to heaven ; on the other hand, 
 if he dies a natural death, he is sure to go to hell. Very 
 wisely, too, he will advise one — 
 
 " Do what the priest teaches you, 
 Do not what he does himself." f 
 
 And as to the priest's teaching, it is an item hardly ever 
 heard, because the Roumanian peasant is not much of a 
 church-goer, but is ready to consider that duty rather 
 an old woman's business. And surely it has been the 
 ignorance and the vices of the priests that have above all 
 kept the people away from church. Things stand on a 
 much better footing in Transylvania, where the clergy 
 
 * '* Fa-ma, Doamne, cum i^i place 
 Numai popa nu ma face 
 Sa mane pita 
 Bombaita 
 §i colaci 
 De la saraci." 
 
 f "Fa ce te inva^a popa 
 Nu face ce face el." 
 
The Monastery of Varatec. 
 
 face" page it 
 
 Priests about Town. 
 
 [Pltoio, J. Cazaban. 
 
THE PEASANT AND HIS RELIGION 169 
 
 have been called upon to play a political and national part 
 too, and where, in the struggle for life against the enemy, 
 they have felt bound to show more learning and better 
 morality as the only means of success ; and that is why 
 they also have always enjoyed quite different treatment 
 from their spiritual sons. 
 
 The Roumanian priest is a State official, and paid by 
 the State, but the Roumanian peasant will nevertheless 
 pinch himself to pay the priest for those various religious 
 rites which he would not do without for worlds, and for 
 which Ithe priest is indispensable, such as christenings, 
 weddings, burials ; as for the general Church service, the 
 peasant does not care a bit if the priest goes through it or 
 not, and if he had to pay for it, I am afraid he would 
 rather do without it. 
 
 Although not often found at church, the Roumanian 
 peasant is a deep thinker and searcher into the inexplic- 
 able, which he ever tries to fathom, as proved by his large 
 store of traditions about big things and small things, 
 all trying to penetrate the secrets of nature. All the 
 problems that have for ages aroused the greatest interest 
 in mankind have been thought of, and-aH answer has 
 been imagined (or borrowed, if thought more satisfactory), 
 and various legends have been shaped to explain nature 
 and its secrets ; to answer the eternal whence ? and 
 whither? It would take long to enlarge upon all the 
 traditions, especially with all their variations ; some of 
 them, however, will enable us to understand the peasant's 
 thoughts about the universe. God Himself is considered 
 as an all-powerful Being ; as a good, patient, and good- 
 natured Being, who has once trodden the earth in human 
 shape, mostly in the company of His faithful St. Peter, 
 going among men, healing and mending what was wrong, 
 but often also having very narrow escapes from quite 
 human adventures — like a good thrashing, for instance — 
 which St. Peter was not always fortunate enough to 
 avoid. Innumerable tales are told of the time when God 
 and the Saints walked upon earth. 
 
 The universe, the world (lumea), is confined to the earth 
 (pdmintul). God has made the earth out of nothing, 
 
170 FEOM CARPATHIAN TO PINDUS 
 
 according to some traditions, by just spitting into his 
 palm; with the help of the hedgehog, according to 
 others ; with the help of a much less commendable person 
 according to another tradition — said to be of Bulgarian, 
 i.e., Slav origin — viz., with the help of the devil himself. 
 God made the earth with a flat surface, floating on 
 endless water, but it being heavier than the water, it is 
 supported by two large fishes. These fishes fretting 
 violently about, the earth went in and out, and so springs, 
 rivers, valleys, and mountains came into existence. The 
 fishes still move from time to time, but are unable to do 
 more than cause earthquakes. The earth is surrounded 
 with water, and on that outer water lie the edges of the 
 sky, which, like a bull-skin, is stretched above, having in 
 it the sun, the moon, and the stars. And beyond the 
 visible sky there are six more skies ; in the seventh 
 heaven is the residence of God. According to some 
 traditions, the sky and earth were once very close 
 together, and God with His saints could walk at pleasure 
 up and down ; but once an old woman behaved very 
 wickedly towards God, and He was angry ; and ascend- 
 ing the heaven with His saints, raised it to its present 
 height for ever. Other traditions tell that God made the 
 earth with the help of the frog, which at His bidding 
 dived to the bottom of the sea and brought out some clay 
 for Him, so that He could see that there was earth at the 
 bottom of the sea, which, when He saw. He bid the 
 waters retire on both sides, and the earth came out and 
 rested, as it always will, on the surface of the water. 
 And the frog was rewarded with God's blessing for the 
 service, and that is why it is a sin to kill a frog. And 
 the earth is supported on four pillars, and Judas is sitting 
 at the bottom gnawing at them in order to bring down 
 the earth and drown it, but he cannot succeed, because 
 when he has done with one pillar and moves to the next, 
 the gnawed one grows again. When the devil helps 
 God, it is also from the bottom of the sea that he picks 
 up some clay, only he is all the time trying to cheat God 
 and make a world to his own fancy ; but God gets the 
 better of him. 
 
THE PEASANT AND HIS RELIGION 171 
 
 The belief in the existence of the devil is quite as strong 
 as the belief in the existence of God, and the fear of the 
 former in no way weaker than that of the latter. The 
 saying is general among Roumanians : — 
 
 " Great is God, but clever also is the devil." * 
 
 God has made the devils by thrusting out of heaven some 
 angels who aspired to make themselves greater than 
 Himself ; it is a widespread tradition ; but another says 
 that when God created man He created angels and devils 
 as well, and that the devils were made on purpose to 
 frighten man, and to keep him in obedience to God. And 
 the devils are innumerable, spread about in the air and 
 down below in hell, where the chief of the devils resides, 
 the devil yar excellence, the great dracu, all the minor 
 draci being his servants. A devil is a very troublesome 
 being, apt to appear under all sorts of shapes, especially 
 of animals, but only of those whose hairs he can count ; 
 that is why he never yet could take the shape of a sheep. 
 Neither can he assume the shape of a beehive, the bees 
 being sacred, as they make the wax of which the tapers 
 used in church are made. The devil can enter anywhere, 
 except the church, that is near the altar — which in 
 Oriental churches is separated from the rest of the church 
 — where the scent of the incense is unbearable to him. 
 Incense and the cross will keep away the devil ; he is 
 also hardly ever spoken of without the addition of the 
 protecting formula " Golden cross with us " {cruce de aur 
 cu noi). In case of danger, if you only are able to make 
 the sign of the cross with the tip of your tongue, you may 
 consider yourself safe. 
 
 The names given to the devil are numberless, and are 
 always used in preference to his common name; "the 
 unclean," " kill him the cross," ** the horned one," " the 
 small one," " the one on the treasure," " Skaraosky," 
 &c. Space is full of devils, always trying to do mischief ; 
 in covered places, in waters where sunbeams cannot 
 
 '^ " Mare-i Dumnezeu, dar me^ter e ^i Dracul." 
 
172 FROM CARPATHIAN TO PINDUS 
 
 penetrate, devils are always at work. The devil's object 
 is, of course, man, whom he wants to drag into hell by all 
 sorts of means. Not that the devil is entirely impervious 
 to good feelings ; he seems quite accessible to gratitude, 
 and there is a quite moving tale about a devil serving a 
 man faithfully for three years and doing him all sorts of 
 good turns, for a piece of mamaliga given when he was 
 hungry. But if a man knowingly enters into terms with 
 the devil he is sure of perdition. Old women — men also, 
 but seldom — are particularly suspected of being in friendly 
 relations with the devil ; the power of their witchcraft is 
 universally feared, and cannot be undone save by other 
 witcheries or by a reading by the priest from holy books. 
 The devil-myth is extremely varied, but sometimes, in 
 talking of him, one man or another will meaningly shake 
 his head and say : " What greater devil than man do you 
 want ? " However, there seems to be a greater one, 
 woman, who alone has been able to turn the devil's hair 
 white ! But that one did it by her cleverness ; of old 
 witches it is said that they have startled the devil by a 
 refinement of wickedness superior to his own. That is 
 also why hell's foundations are supported on seven old 
 women, and when one happens to give way, the devil 
 runs across the world to hunt up a new one. 
 
 In the rear of the devil march other similar evil spirits, 
 for example the Stafia, the ghost of a deceased person 
 or animal. Any great building of stone or brick must 
 have a ghost, otherwise it could never stand up. The 
 ghost is supposed to be obtained in this way. The 
 builder takes the measure of the person or animal from 
 behind with a string or a reed, and builds that measure 
 in the wall. Within forty days the measured being is 
 sure to die, and his or her ghost will appear every night 
 about the building, doing as a rule no harm whatever to 
 any one. This belief lies at the bottom of a fine legend 
 about the building of the cathedral, Curtea de Argesh, the 
 Me§terul Manole. 
 
 The strigoi, or the vampire, is the ghost who comes out 
 of his tomb on particular nights. The pricolici are men 
 turned into wolves. The vircolaci are a kind of animals 
 
THE PEASANT AND HIS RELIGION 173 
 
 eating up the moon at the eclipses. The moroi are the 
 souls of unchristened dead babies. The Mama Pddurcij 
 the "mother of the forest," is quite an imposing figure, 
 playing a prominent part in almost every tale, appearing 
 under various feminine shapes, especially of old women, 
 grinding her teeth on a millstone in order to eat people, 
 roasted or raw. 
 
 To avoid all these foes, the Roumanian peasant has 
 many innocent means, like the throwing of shreds on 
 places where he has sat, the not looking behind when he 
 walks, or not answering when he hears himself called, or 
 making the sign of the cross with hand or tongue ; but 
 by far the safest means is to keep quiet at home until 
 after the fateful hour of midnight, as all these spirits are 
 at work only at night. Midnight itself (Miaza-Noapte) 
 is a personality of the ''mother of the forest "com- 
 plexion. 
 
 About man's creation there are also several traditions. 
 God made man of clay, that is why he is so weak and 
 fickle. All men were at first Jews, and of such a size 
 that stepped easily from hill to hill. Adam was such a 
 Jew ; his body was so large that he was not entirely and 
 completely decayed at the coming of Christ. The men of 
 modern size are of later origin, from Christ downwards. 
 Once, some such smaller men were ploughing on a 
 hillside, when there appeared a Jewish girl of some ten 
 or fifteen years of age, and picking up three of these men, 
 with ploughs and oxen, she put them in her apron and 
 took them to her mother, saying : " Look, mother, I have 
 found these flies scratching the ground." "Oh no," 
 answered the mother ; " carry them back again, dear ; 
 these are not flies: these are men who are to inherit the 
 earth after us." The big men becoming so wicked that 
 no more understanding was possible between them and 
 God, He sent a swarm of the small flies which get into 
 the eyes, and the big men, all getting blind, died of hun- 
 ger, unable to provide any more for their food. Other 
 traditions speak of these men having come to destruction 
 by the great flood. 
 
 Again, ever and anon we come across glimpses of 
 
174 FROM CARPATHIAN TO PINDUS 
 
 mythological beliefs as to "giants*' (urie§i) who came 
 after the Jews ; cy clops y with one eye in the forehead ; 
 men with two heads ; cdpcduni, who used to eat ordinary 
 men roasted, and were the very worst of all races ; then 
 "half men," very weak and stupid; men with seven 
 hands and seven feet, but powerless with all that, as they 
 got entangled in their too numerous limbs. All those 
 men have disappeared now, good just to play a part in a 
 tale ; there seem to exist still, it is said, small-sized men, 
 as small as children, called pitici (dwarfs), who, neverthe- 
 less, are so strong that they can overthrow the strongest 
 man. God made woman at the same time as man, and 
 to distinguish them he put beside them a hoe and a 
 distaff ; when they awoke the man took up the hoe, the 
 woman the distaff, and their divergent destinies were 
 thereby settled for ever. But those implements were used 
 rather as playthings then, as man and woman had every- 
 thing without work. But when woman, under the devil's 
 persuasion, ate apples of the forbidden tree, and squeezed 
 some juice into her husband's mouth as he was sleeping, 
 they were both punished by having to earn their livelihood 
 by hard work with those same implements, the man with 
 the hoe, the woman with the distaff. And hence began 
 the woe and misery of humanity, by woman's guilt alone, 
 and that is why woman has been cursed and has only a 
 three-sided cross on her head, while the man has a full 
 cross with four limbs ; — and a peasant woman will always 
 walk behind her husband, because his head is divided in 
 four, says she, whilst hers is only divided in three, and it 
 is not fitting (" nu se cade ! ") that a woman should walk 
 in front of a man. And that is also why woman is weaker 
 than man, and why she never can be a priest, or even 
 enter the sanctuary; and her mind is weaker, too, except 
 at mischief-making, where she gets the best of the 
 devil himself, whom also she resembles more than man 
 does. And many irreverent traditions there are as to 
 woman's origin. 
 
 On the whole, the Roumanian peasant does not allow 
 himself criticisms about God's creation ; God made the 
 bad as well as the good, and as to why He created the 
 
THE PEASANT AND HIS RELIGION 175 
 
 bad, well, **God did not fill the world with what He 
 would, but with what He could." * 
 
 The people have numberless legends to explain the 
 origin of animals and birds, some of them touching indeed ; 
 and also of all things on earth, and of the stars in heaven. 
 The stars are lights burning in heaven for men below, 
 and whenever a man dies his star falls. The falling 
 stars are sure forebodings of somebody's death. The 
 falling stars are also called zmei ('' Kytes," a kind of 
 dragons) of the devil's household, who usually hide in 
 trees, and if a tree has fallen under such suspicion, it is 
 well to burn it, and then the zmeu is heard screeching 
 inside until it dies. When a woman falls into unreason- 
 able, inexplicable love, she is said to be tormented by 
 such a zmeu, called also shurdtor (a flier), that is why it 
 is such a good action for a man to kill a zmeu when he 
 gets the chance. The sun and moon have their own 
 legends ; and the Milky Way is either " Trajan's Way," 
 or " the Slaves' Way," to lead the captives back home 
 when they have escaped from captivity. The comets, 
 the *' tailed stars " {stele cu coadd), are foretellers of war. 
 The Koumanian peasant strongly believes in the im- 
 mortality of the soul, in future resurrection, and "the 
 other world" (lumea cei-l-alta), in hell (iad), and heaven, 
 {raiy paradise). The soul going out at the moment of 
 death, in the shape of a bluish vapour, takes its way 
 towards the heavens, but is stopped on the way by a 
 number of *' toll gates or duty houses of the air " 
 {vdmile vdzduhului), which it cannot pass unless the dead 
 man has accomplished the traditional usages during life, 
 or others have done so for him at his death. About 
 heaven and hell they think what is thought in general ; 
 but to secure heaven and a comfortable life therein, 
 the surest means is the giving away of alms, together 
 with paying for services at church, Masses, and such 
 like; among the faults that will lead one to hell, 
 injustice is foremost. In many cases they seem to be 
 quite sure about the appearance of heaven or hell, as 
 
 * " Dumnezeu n'a umplut himea cu ce a vrut, dar cu ce a putut I " 
 
176 FROM CARPATHIAN TO PINDUS 
 
 very often they or some relatives of theirs, during some 
 dangerous illness, have been taken into the other world, 
 and have actually seen what it is like. Anyhow, they 
 do not seem to fear death much, but prefer an easy death 
 to a hard one ; an easy death seems to be the greatest 
 bliss the Roumanian peasant looks forward to for the 
 end of his earthly career. 
 
 He also believes in the ertd of the world, the vremea 
 de apoi (the time of afterwards) , which will be announced 
 by great sufferings and mischiefs, embodied in the ** Anti- 
 christ," after which a rain of fire will come down, and 
 / the crust of the earth will be burnt nine yards deep, and 
 become as white as chalk, as it was at the very beginning, 
 becoming only dark with the multiplying sins of man- 
 kind. Very often the much worried peasant, sick of 
 what he sees and suffers, will look wistfully and say : 
 " A venit vremea de apoi " (" The time of afterwards has 
 come "), much inclined to think that the end of the 
 world cannot be very far off after all the wickedness 
 let loose on it. 
 
 But now and then you come across latent doubt and 
 unbelief : " People say, heaven and hell are in this 
 very world, and there is nothing afterwards," with the 
 quick addition, however, of " but who knows ? " So it 
 is safer not to anticipate. Whatever may be in the 
 next world, the peasant strives to fulfil his traditional 
 duties in this. He respects the commands of the 
 Church in paying for Mass, and in fasting and holiday 
 keeping; but the holidays he keeps in his particular 
 traditional way, and besides the Church holidays, he 
 respects a good many holidays of pagan origin. Un- 
 fortunately, keeping a holiday means for him just not 
 to work, and nothing more. 
 
 ni 
 
 Spring sets in with March, which " is never amiss 
 from Lent," Mart din post nu lipse§te, goes the saying. 
 Indeed, the Greek -Christians are very keen about 
 
THE PEASANT AND HIS RELIGION 177 
 
 keeping their fasts, which are not few: seven weeks 
 before Easter, as many before Christmas ; four weeks 
 in June, before St. Peter's Day, and two in August 
 before St. Mary's, besides the three days of the week, 
 Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. Lent is seven weeks 
 long, and in this interval, the Roumanian peasant 
 becomes entirely vegetarian, with no milk, no butter, 
 no eggs, not even olive oil, which together with fish 
 is allowed on certain fasting days — never on a Friday or 
 Wednesday. Monday fasting is not quite so universal, 
 being mostly kept for the welfare of the cattle, by 
 those who possess them. Eating flesh on a prohibited 
 day is the greatest sin possible. There have been cases 
 where criminals appearing before justice, while owning 
 their crime, for the sake of stating the precise time 
 have said, " It was not a flesh day, for we found some 
 food there, but we couldn't touch it, remembering it 
 was Friday." 
 
 These severe fasts, especially in spring, have been 
 found to tell hard on the peasant's health. Not long 
 since the Metropolitan sent a circular ordinance allowing 
 people to eat fish during fasts, but the peasants would 
 never hear of it : " The Mitropolit may eat fish himself, 
 if he likes ; we are not going to ! " The rich, on the other 
 hand, keep no fasts at all, but the peasants are not much 
 shocked at it : ** The boiars may well afford to eat 
 flesh on fast days; they have plenty of money to pay 
 for their sins, whilst we have no other means of re- 
 deeming them except by fasting." The peasant will 
 sell his eggs to buy some vinegar to eat with his garlic 
 and mamaliga. Children are obliged to fast quite as 
 much as their parents. 
 
 The ninth of March, the "Forty Saints' Day," is 
 particularly feasted, with wheat cracknels or twisted bread, 
 colady in a 00 shape, sprinkled over with honey and 
 pounded walnut. A plateful of these colaci, called sfinti- 
 §ori (little saints) , is taken to church, and these sfinti^ori 
 are given away as alms all day long if possible. Not only 
 on the Forty Saints' Day, but on every holiday, good 
 pious Christians — women, mostly old ones — take to church 
 
 13 
 
178 FROM CARPATHIAN TO PINDUS 
 
 all sorts of gifts, mostly a coliva, a soft cake made of 
 bruised corn, with honey and walnut, colact, crown-Hke 
 twisted bread, and wax candles, and, if possible, oil and 
 wine. They also bring the primiticBj the first-fruits of 
 the season, fruit, flowers, wheat. The Forty Saints' Day 
 is also a weather foreteller : the weather of that day will 
 last, it is said, for forty days to come. Total fasting, 
 eating absolutely nothing, is supposed to draw particular 
 protection from the good saints — still better is it if you 
 can make forty genuflexions for each of the forty saints 
 on the eve of that day. On that day the man takes out 
 his labour implements to get them in good working order ; 
 the wife spreads a row of ashes round the house that the 
 serpent may not enter it. The peasant strongly believes 
 in the house's serpent as a protecting being, a genius loci, 
 often represented also under the shape of a serpent by 
 his ancestors, the Romans. The house serpent is quite 
 different from the common serpent, and it would be a 
 great sin to kill it, and sure to bring misfortune on the 
 house. 
 
 With fasting and genuflexions and hard field labour, 
 the Roumanian peasant has, however, a cheerful pro- 
 spect to look forward to — the approaching Easter Day. 
 Easter is his greatest feast, and lasts at least three days, 
 often almost the whole week. Indeed, the feast begins 
 eight days before, as the whole sacred week, Sdptdmina 
 patimilor (the week of the sufferings), is made up of 
 preparations for Easter. Palm Sunday, Floriile (from 
 Latin Florales), is already the forerunner of Easter — the 
 peasant may even put on the new garments he has got 
 ready for Easter Day, which he would on no account do 
 at any other time. 
 
 On Thursday before Easter, Joi-mari (Great Thursday), 
 early in the morning, before the third cock's crow, the 
 men make bonfires in their yards, supposed to represent 
 the fire in front of which Peter warmed himself and 
 denied the Saviour thrice before the cock's third crow — 
 practically in those fires the peasants bum up the rubbish 
 that has been accumulating in their yards all through the 
 winter. The women, on the other hand, go to the well, 
 
THE PEASANT AND HIS RELIGION 179 
 
 and throw several pails of water round it, and after these 
 libations they go and spill one pail of water on their 
 parents' grave, and finally bring water home. 
 
 For Easter the peasant prepares long beforehand ; the 
 last penny is saved for the necessary purchases. If pos- 
 sible, one must put on for Easter only new things, or at 
 any rate unimpeachably clean things. The house, too, 
 is prepared for the occasion ; not the smallest cottage but 
 will be cleaned from top to bottom, inside and out, and 
 the walls whitewashed, and the woodwork painted red, 
 making the villages look particularly cheerful at this time 
 of the year, the bright cottages being dotted over the 
 green of lawn and trees, a splendid background for the 
 happy crowds dancing on the village green round the 
 traditional swing, the scrdnciob. 
 
 There are Church services in the evening all through 
 the week, but the only crowded ones are on Friday and 
 Saturday. On Friday, the holy aier — the holy " air," 
 the holy shroud, a cloth with Christ's entombment 
 painted on it, is taken out of the sanctuary and spread 
 on a table in the middle of the church, and all through 
 the afternoon people will enter silently, kiss it, make 
 genuflexions, and crawl underneath the table. At night 
 it is " buried," after a procession round the church, by the 
 light of yellow wax tapers which every one has in his 
 hand. On Saturday night, on the stroke of midnight, the 
 bells are tolled at the village church ; the dark church is 
 soon filled, and when the priest comes out of the sanctuary 
 with his lighted white taper in his hand and announces 
 ** Christ has risen t " " Verily He has risen ! " comes forth 
 the answer a hundredfold, and in a twinkling all the 
 white tapers in the hands of the congregation and about 
 the church are spreading a joyous light around. All 
 faces are bright, hearts light ; the simple people feel full 
 of unaccountable joy, as if now every trouble has been 
 done away with, and only bright prospects are before 
 them ; as if with Christ man and all nature had arisen at 
 the same time — and so indeed it is, after dead winter ; 
 in nature renewed man feels fresher, the blood runs 
 c^uickened with new warmth through his veins ; nature 
 
180 FROM CARPATHIAN TO PINDUS 
 
 is reviving once more in its eternal round, and, part and 
 parcel of the great whole, the human atom is revived with 
 it. It is his own resurrection that man celebrates so 
 heartily at Easter time. 
 
 Young people who are able to carry home their tapers 
 burning can see their " future " in the looking-glass. 
 
 The long fast is broken at once, with red eggs and 
 pasca (a cake made with flour, eggs, butter and cheese), 
 a young roasted lamb, and as much wine as can be had. 
 First of all they greet each other by cracking each other's 
 egg, knocking them against each other with the stereo- 
 typed words, " Christ has risen ! " '* Verily He has 
 risen ! " The one who holds the stronger egg is supposed 
 to outlive the other. 
 
 On Easter Day the heavens are open — as they also are 
 all through the week, the "lighted {luminata) week;" 
 and a splendid time it is to die in, as the soul meets no 
 toll-gates whereat to pay " air duties," and can enter 
 heaven at once. 
 
 The three Easter days are duly feasted with dancing 
 and swinging in the scrinciob from mom to night, with 
 eating of pasca and " knocking of red eggs " and 
 merriment, and paying of visits and bringing of presents 
 to relations, especially to godfathers and godmothers, to 
 resume on the fourth day the old burdens of life, but with 
 a lighter heart. 
 
 On Monday after Thomas (Low) Sunday comes the 
 Blajini, a day particularly respected by women in some 
 parts. The Blajini (a feast of Slav origin) are supposed 
 to be, as their name indicates, meek, good-natured men, 
 very good and agreeable to God, living in some distant 
 fairyland, by the " Sunday water." They also seem to be 
 out of touch with what is passing in the world, and do 
 not know when Easter is. Therefore, women ought to 
 throw the red egg shells on running water to be carried 
 down to the Blajini, so that they may see Easter has 
 come and celebrate it. 
 
 St. George, on the twenty- third of April, is, so to say, 
 the herald of spring, of fine weather, which now has 
 set in for good. As the gipsy saying goes : " Give me 
 
r 
 
THE PEASANT AND HIS RELIGION 181 
 
 St. George in the palm, and I give you the summer " * The 
 Roumanian is just as desirous of fine weather as the ever 
 shivering gipsy. If the spring has been wet and warm, 
 by St. George's Day "the rook hides easily in the 
 green corn." On the eve of St. George's day, loads of 
 willow branches, of ivy or honeysuckle are brought from 
 the nearest forest, and sods from the neighbouring lawn ; 
 with these, doors and windows are adorned about the 
 house, and still more about the stables, to preserve man 
 and beast against evil spirits who otherwise might break 
 in and take away the cow's milk, disturb the baby's sleep, 
 the youthful dreams and good luck of girls and boys. This 
 usage is said to be a remnant of the Roman Ana Ferenna 
 festivals, celebrated in March in similar way. On St. 
 George's eve the milk of the cows or sheep may be taken 
 away by witchcraft. The shepherds, to save their ewes, 
 get up before dawn and blow their bucium : 
 
 i 
 
 --j^m 
 
 ritT 
 
 EEE 
 
 -I 0~— 
 
 $ 
 
 I I I I ,'^-■1 I i"l 
 
 I II ^zi^zqzzjzzi 
 
 Witchcraft cannot come within the sound area of the 
 bucium. 
 
 On St. George's morning, at dawn, the girls in their 
 finest attire, with their milk-white wooden pails in hand, 
 or hanging to the coromisla thrust aslant on the shoulder, 
 walk down to the well to fetch fresh water ; on their way 
 home they are met by the fldcdi, the young men, who 
 throw fresh water into their faces, dispersing with 
 laughter the fair flock, who, quite happy at the bath 
 received at the hands of the favourite fldcdUy run away 
 to household business, and then to the merry dance on 
 the village green — a hard beaten ground indeed. On 
 St. George's morning everybody provides himself with 
 
 =*' *' Da-mi pe Sintu Gheorghe'n palma si-ti dan vara." 
 
182 FROM CARPATHIAN TO PINDUS 
 
 some nettles, and then a hunt begins, each trying to 
 prick the other on some bare spot, the alertest, quickest, 
 smartest, always having the best of it. 
 
 The third Tuesday after Easter another pagan day 
 comes in, observed by women too, especially in Valachia, 
 the Bepotini, traced as far back as the Roman Bepotia. 
 On that day women will gather together, and, putting 
 aside all other work, will set to work to model, with clay 
 and straw, stopples for the stove and festuri (from the 
 Latin testum), a kind of vessels to bake bread in. On 
 this occasion the women drink wine, with which they 
 also besprinkle their work. On this day they are 
 supposed to be allowed to behave harshly towards their 
 husbands. 
 
 About the third Thursday after Easter, if rain is badly 
 needed, the Paparude begin to go about ; generally gipsies 
 covered all over with green weeds, mostly wall- wort, with 
 trimming of coloured ribbons and flowers. They go 
 dancing from house to house, reciting words intended 
 to bring down rain: — 
 
 " Papamda-ruda, 
 Come and wet us, 
 For the rains to fall 
 With the water-pails 
 That the ears may grow 
 As high as the hedges 
 To augment the wheat 
 And to fill the barn." * 
 
 The housewives go out and drench them with pails 
 full of water. Though they are similar to the Roman 
 
 Paparuda-ruda, 
 
 Vino de ne uda 
 
 Ca sa cada ploile 
 
 Cu gale^ile 
 
 ^i sa creasca spicele 
 
 Cit gardurile 
 
 Sa sporeasca granele 
 
 Sa umple patulele." 
 
THE PEASANT AND HIS RELIGION 183 
 
 Bohigalia, the Paparude are said to be of Thracian 
 origin. In some places, if the drought is very protracted, 
 women set to work to knead yellow clay and model with 
 it a miniature figure of a man, a Galoian — can it be a 
 remote reminiscence of the Emperor Caloianus or 
 lonitzd ? — which they set in a small coffin, cry over him 
 as over a dead person — helping out the tears with onion, 
 if necessary — burn incense round him, and bury him, 
 near the well for preference, singing verses — 
 
 "0 Caloian-ian 
 Go to heaven and ask 
 To open the gates 
 To let loose the rains 
 To run down like streams 
 Days and nights, 
 That the wheat may grow," &c. * 
 
 After three days he is unearthed and thrown in the 
 river, in order to trouble the waters, to raise clouds and 
 provoke rain. That day men will labour till twelve 
 o'clock only, and then drink and dance at the inn. 
 About the bringing down of rain, they have many other 
 superstitions, among them the ghastly one of unearthing 
 the corpse of some one stricken by lightning and 
 throwing it into running water. 
 
 The first of May (Armindin) used once to be a 
 universal and lively feast, celebrated with much merry- 
 making ; now it is falling into disuse, being only kept 
 up still in some measure by those who can afford to give 
 up work on that day, gather in crowds in the green 
 flowery fields, and break their fast with red pelin (wine 
 made bitter with wormwood) and a young lamb roasted 
 in its skin. 
 
 * " Caloiene-iene 
 Dute'n cer §1 cere 
 Sa deschida por^ile, 
 Sa sloboada ploile 
 Sa curga ca garlele 
 Nop|iile ^i zilele 
 Ca sa creasca garnele," &c. 
 
184 FROM CARPATHIAN TO PINDUS 
 
 The last day of May, or rather the sixth Saturday after 
 Easter, always on the eve of Trinity, is the '* Day of the 
 Dead," a most important day with Roumanian women. 
 According to their means they distribute alms for the 
 souls of the dead. The Roumanian peasant thinks a 
 great deal of alms, and whenever he gives anything he 
 says, " Be it for the soul of such or such person." Not 
 that he likes begging — far from it. In villages you will 
 hardly ever meet an old beggar, and even then it is more 
 than likely to be some gipsy, or harmless, friendless lunatic. 
 But the peasant, whenever he gives or receives anything 
 for nothing, considers it as alms ; it is for somebody's soul. 
 Moreover, a peasant often gives for his own soul; it is 
 quite a duty towards the soul to give alms, a ddrui, while 
 still in life, for its repose in the next world. " Whoever 
 gives, gives to himself," goes the saying, for whatever 
 you give away in this world you will get back in the next. 
 Even a well-to-do peasant will never feel humiliated if 
 you give him something for nothing — he will much 
 rather feel hurt if you pay him for any kindness, 
 especially hospitality, which he may have offered 
 you — as for an alms, he will accept it, and, think, more- 
 over, he is doing you a kindness by accepting, as it is 
 for the benefit of your own soul. On ''the Saturday" 
 of the dead, alms are given and received right and left, 
 with as much iclat as possible ; new pails, new pitchers, 
 new earthen vessels of all kinds are bought in good time, 
 and, adorned with flowers and filled with wine and 
 eatables, are sent round to friends or acquaintances, even 
 if richer, but of course mostly to those who are poorer. 
 And the recipient will eat and drink from, and use as 
 long as they last, the vessels given him, for the repose 
 of the soul of the giver or any special person mentioned 
 with the gift. 
 
 A very respected and much dreaded holiday is that 
 of the Holy Trinity, the Bussalii, hostile divinities, 
 supposed to have been originally three Emperor's 
 daughters, very ill disposed towards all mankind for not 
 having had attention paid them during their lives. The 
 Russalii are said to be ever running about, over fields 
 
THE PEASANT AND HIS RELIGION 185 
 
 and woods, from Trinity to St. Peter's Day (29th of 
 June); they raise the winds and the storms, and make 
 the whirlwinds, and one is in great danger, if caught 
 out of doors, of being raised above ground and brought 
 to destruction by them ; especially are they dangerous to 
 children, whom they are apt to snatch from their mothers' 
 very arms. A peasant will not work on Trinity Day for 
 anything in the world. For nine weeks running after 
 the Bussalii the women will gather no medicinal herbs, 
 in the belief that they have been ** pinched" by the 
 Bussalii, and have consequently no healing power what- 
 ever, but rather work mischief. On the eve of the 
 Bussalii one must put twigs of wormwood under one's 
 pillow, otherwise the Bussalii might unroof the house 
 and snatch you away withal. On the day of Bussalii 
 a bunch of wormwood ought to be worn in the belt. 
 
 The Bussalii, said to originate from the Latin feast of 
 the roses, Bosalia, are generally mixed up and identified 
 with the somewhat different evil divinities, lelele, " man's 
 enemies," "mistresses of the wind," air or wind divinities, 
 very wicked, imparting all sorts of diseases, especially 
 palsy, to the unfortunate person who should happen to 
 meet them, or only just sit down or tread on a place 
 where they have rested. The belief in the lele has in- 
 duced the Roumanian peasant to devise innumerable 
 means of protecting himself against supernatural, 
 invisible, indiscernible dangers, as, for instance : never 
 to stop at a crossway — it is the very abode of the lele : 
 if one is not sure which way one has to go from the 
 crossing, one ought rather to stop before it, to make up 
 one's mind, or then go a little further, even though one 
 must come back again, but never on any account stop in 
 the midst of the crossing ; never sit down in any strange 
 place and then go away without leaving behind some small 
 thing belonging to you, be it ever so small, as a bit of 
 thread from your garments, or suchlike ; never drink 
 water from a spring or well without leaving behind a shred 
 or something ; the evil that was to befall you will stick 
 to what you have left. Most of the diseases that cannot 
 be accounted for are attributed to the lele. " It is from 
 
186 FROM CARPATHIAN TO PINDUS 
 
 the lele I got it," is the answer as to the origin of many 
 a trouble, like blindness, lameness, pustules, &c. The 
 habas (old women) will advise you always to carry some 
 garlic in your belt or purse, to keep the lele at a distance. 
 
 These spirits are also called by other names. 
 Vintoasele (the windy ones), as they are called about 
 Transylvania and Bucovina; the Valachs about the 
 Pindus call them also Alhele (the white ones), while the 
 Moldavian peasant has invented for them the appellation 
 of Dinsele — which is nothing else than the verbal transla- 
 tion of iehy which as well as dinsele means the plural 
 feminine pronoun *' they." But the universal name with 
 all Roumanians is lele, with the article lelele. 
 
 For the curing of diseases got from the lele the babas 
 have all sorts of incantations, in which they give those 
 ladies various polite epithets, in order to coax them out 
 of the diseased body or limb; they call them in turn 
 Frumoasele (the handsome ones) ; Maiestrele (the over- 
 powerful ones) ; Zinele (the fairies) ; Bunele (the good 
 ones) ; which names are also used to signify the divinities 
 themselves. 
 
 Another much dreaded saint is St. Elie (Elijah), the 
 Christian Vulcan, the maker of thunder and lightning, 
 who in his chariot of fire drives noisily about the heavens, 
 hunting after devils. God had given St. Elie special 
 power to kill all the devils, ever since the day He thrust 
 them out of heaven Himself, but later on He thought 
 better of it — according to other legends the advice came 
 from the devil himself — and made up His mind to spare 
 some devils, as otherwise men would possibly feel no 
 more need to worship Him, as there would be no more 
 devils to tempt them to sin. St. Elie being rather 
 displeased with the limitation put upon his killing power, 
 God, to cheer him up, promised him, that on his name's 
 day he would be allowed to kill all devils. But then God 
 never tells St. Elie when his name's day is, and that is 
 why there are still devils alive. When St. Elie is out 
 after them, the hunted devils will hide in every possible 
 place, and to avoid their vicinity man must not sit under 
 a tree during a storm, especially not under a plane-tree, 
 
THE PEASANT AND HIS RELIGION 187 
 
 the devil's favourite tree; he must not walk in narrow 
 glens, must keep far from goats or cats, shut windows 
 and doors, as all these are favourite hiding places of 
 the devils, and St. Elie, striking at them, might strike 
 the innocent man or his house. But a thunderstorm can 
 be stopped, or at least any disastrous effect parried, by 
 lighting an Easter candle, if you have preserved one, and 
 making genuflexions, or by sticking an axe in the middle 
 of the yard and showering over it a handful of salt. 
 
 On the morrow of St. Elie is the Ilie-Pdlie (St. Elie's 
 brother, they say), more powerful and more wicked than 
 he, consequently his day is still more strictly observed 
 than the former's, although it is no Church feast at all. 
 But much more dangerous, and for this reason ever so 
 much more dreaded and respected, is the third day {Foca) 
 sure to bring fire on the property of the bold person 
 working on that day. 
 
 Another meteorological event still worse than thunder 
 is hail, which comes down in the heat of summer to beat 
 down whole fields, just ready for harvest, reducing thus 
 to naught in one hour the hopes of the whole season, 
 and, haply, the food of the whole next year. In con- 
 nection with this dreadful evil, charlatanism has found 
 its way among the credulous people, namely, the warding 
 off of hail by incantations and witcheries, dealt in by 
 some cunning charlatans called Solomonari, who manage 
 to get hold of people's fancy and of people's pence, in 
 many a quiet village, which they pretend to preserve 
 from hail. As chance will often have it, their incantations 
 seem to have really kept away a hail that has been raging 
 a few miles off; if they do not, well, then, it is because 
 of the sins of the people, who surely have not faithfully 
 kept some feast or fast ! Many a peasant is ready to 
 doubt the power of the Solomonari, " but after all, who 
 knows, it is better not to draw their anger upon oneself,'* 
 for they are said by some to be able to bring down hail on 
 unbelievers ; and then their demand upon the peasant's 
 purse is not so great, about fivepence, at most one franc 
 for the season from each head of a family, is ample 
 supply for the charlatan. And then there are such 
 
188 FROM CARPATHIAN TO PINDUS 
 
 clever Solomonari who can drive rats away from barns, 
 and make them run away in flocks by mere incantation, 
 and cure animals of various complaints, and so on. 
 And, to conclude this subject, there is no end of super- 
 natural means of making and unmaking things otherwise 
 beyond human power, means based on direct suggestion 
 or employed at a distance, apt to puzzle others besides 
 simple credulous children. 
 
 On the 16th of November Advent begins, a fast 
 observed just as strictly as Lent, and not shorter. On 
 this occasion there are days considered as holy under 
 the name of Philippi, observed also by women alone. 
 They do no hard work those three days ; they do not 
 throw out rubbish, it being a dangerous thing on account 
 of the wolves, but they will readily do their washing, 
 in order to burn the wolf's muzzle, as they say, with the 
 hot lye. 
 
 To complete the list of the popular saints, there comes 
 in St. Andrew^ on November 30th, a creepy holiday 
 that is, at least the night preceding it, as some of the 
 dead, the strigo'i or vampires, are supposed to rise from 
 their tombs, and with their coffins on their heads walk 
 about the premises they lived in during their lives. 
 Before candle light every woman will take some garlic 
 and anoint with it the door locks and the window 
 casements; this will keep away the strigoi. They will 
 only take away the hemp brakes, and using them as 
 weapons, will fight among themselves at the crossways 
 until the first cock's crow, when they hurriedly disperse. 
 But the ghastliest part of it is, that some people are 
 believed to be vampires from their very birth, to live 
 and die as such, without being recognisable by any 
 exterior sign. Some maintain, however, that a living 
 vampire is sure to strongly shun garlic and the scent of 
 incense; others pretend that a vampire has a rudiment 
 of a tail ; when these vampires are dead and buried their 
 tombs sink lower than those of ordinary men. And the 
 worst of it is that these living vampires are supposed to 
 take part in the St. Andrew's night row ; on such a 
 night they are said to show a fancy for sleeping out 
 
THE PEASANT AND HIS RELIGION 189 
 
 of doors, and then, brake in hand, go to fight at the 
 cross ways. Or, again, a living vampire will not go 
 bodily to mix with the dead ones, but his soul will ; 
 under the appearance of a bluish flame it comes out 
 through the mouth, takes the shape of some animal, 
 and runs to the crossway. If, in the meantime, the 
 body were moved from its place, the person would be 
 found dead next morning, as the soul could not find its 
 way into it again. Of the persons Hkely to be vampires, 
 a superstition exists as to this fate awaiting the seventh 
 child of the same sex in a family. A living vampire, 
 if he finds himself discovered, will die ; a dead one, if 
 discovered, must be buried again with a stake through 
 his heart, and will never rise again. 
 
 St. Andrew's Day has also a value in connection with 
 forecasts or predictions. Early in the morning fond 
 mothers, anxious about their children's good luck, go 
 into the garden, and ** with a clean conscience " break 
 some small sprays from an apple, a pear, and a rose tree, 
 or, these failing, from an apricot, cherry, and quince tree. 
 These sprays are bound together in small bunches, one 
 for each member of the young family, and put in a glass 
 of water daily changed. Until New Year's Eve the 
 bunch of the lucky one will be in full blossom. 
 
 The great feast, in winter are the Christmas holidays, 
 which, with some interruptions, extend over a whole fort- 
 night, and are kept practically all through the two weeks. 
 The preparations for Christmas are almost as grand as 
 those for Easter, with this difference, that whilst the 
 latter are mostly in the line of clothing, the former are 
 more in the line of eatables, as it ought to be : — 
 
 " A gorgeous Easter, a plethoric Christmas." * 
 
 Even before the beginning of Advent, a pig has been 
 put apart in a cotet, a little pig-sty of his own, to fatten, 
 and whilst everybody else about the house has to deny 
 himself, and from grandfather to grandson draw the 
 
 * "Pa^tele fudul, Craciunul satul." 
 
190 FROM CARPATHIAN TO PINDUS 
 
 girdle one hole tighter, and ever tighter, the serene and 
 careless pig has a good time such as he has never knov^n. 
 But the Ignat (the St. Ignacius on the 20th of December) 
 comes at last ; the day of reckoning has come : from the 
 early morning you may see from every yard the blue 
 smoke ascending the sky, with its shadow capriciously 
 stretched across the snow-coated hill. Under the burnt- 
 out straw, thrown aside with the iron fork, the pig is 
 discovered in his hard skin, turned ivory after some 
 rubbing and scrubbing, whereupon the cutting out begins. 
 The joints for ham, the sides for the bacon, are carried 
 up to the loft for smoke ; the rest of the meat being 
 mostly used for the filling of the traditional cdrna^i 
 (carnacius) and chi§te, the former being the thin ones, 
 filled mostly with meat, the latter, the wider ones, filled 
 with passat, the national rice, the seed of the millet. 
 And on a Christmas day there is no peasant table on 
 which the roasted cdrnati will not be grilling in their 
 own fat, beside a golden smoking mdmdliguta. For 
 the well-to-do feel obliged to help towards the good 
 cheer of the poor on such a day, and those who have 
 not been able to fatten, or at least to kill even a meagre 
 pig for Christmas, are sure to get some meat from those 
 who have ; gipsies are often in that position. Besides 
 the pork-curing the other great business of baking is 
 going on ; the housewife makes for these holidays, if 
 not bread, at least colaci, several stoves-full of them, as 
 being the most indispensable eatables for the occasion ; 
 these colaci are of various sizes, but mostly of the size 
 to get one's fist through. Otherwise, wheat bread is 
 an exceptional food with the Roumanian peasant ; his 
 "daily bread" is the mdmdliga, a hard porridge made 
 of maize flour. 
 
 The Christmas Eve, the Ajun^ the day of the 24th 
 of December, the last of Advent, is a holiday too, and 
 a special dish is eaten in every household, the turte. It 
 is made up of a pile of thin dry leaves of dough, with 
 melted sugar or honey and pounded walnut, the sugar 
 being often replaced by the juice of bruised hemp seed, 
 supposed to be sweet too. These turte are meant to 
 
THE PEASANT AND HIS RELIGION 191 
 
 represent the Infant Christ's swaddhng clothes. The 
 dough is prepared on the previous evening, and in some 
 places it is used as a means of making the trees bear a 
 rich crop of fruit in the coming summer, a kind of 
 suggestion to Nature by threatenings. The wife, with 
 her fingers full of dough, walks into the garden ; the 
 husband, axe in hand, follows close after. They stop at 
 the first tree, and he says : " Look here, wife, I am 
 going to fell this tree, as it seems to me it bears no 
 fruit." " Oh no, husband," she answers, " don't, for I 
 am sure next summer it will be as full of fruit as my 
 fingers are full of dough ! " And so on with every other 
 tree. 
 
 Christmas Eve is announced with great display of gaiety 
 from the very dawn by young boys running about from 
 house to house with the shout of: ''Good morning to 
 Uncle Eve ! " in return for which they expect to receive 
 something — a colaCy at least, with an apple or some dried 
 fruit added, or even money. If they are left to wait too 
 long, they will repeat several times the greeting : — 
 
 "Good morning to Uncle Eve; 
 Do you give, or do you not ? " * 
 
 And if the bounds of patience are passed, humorous 
 allusions will be added, where the expectation of getting 
 something is poor. Sometimes these greetings, called 
 also colinde, are enlarged upon, and become elaborate 
 recitations. On the other hand, however, they seem to 
 be gradually dying out, in proportion as those greeted 
 do not seem to find it particularly amusing to be 
 awakened at such an unusual hour and the greeters find 
 it more and more difficult to obtain anything. 
 
 On the morning of Christmas Eve the priest walks 
 round from house to house, with a sacristan in his rear, 
 and a boy bearing a kettle full of holy water ; the 
 priest holds in his hand a sfistok, a bunch of sweet-basil, 
 which he dips into the kettle, and sprinkles the house all 
 
 * "Buna diminea^a la mo§ AjunI 
 Ne da^i ori nu ne da^i ? " 
 
192 FROM CARPATHIAN TO PINDUS 
 
 over. The housewife will drop some coin into the kettle, 
 present the priest with a fuior of hemp, a handful of 
 brushed hemp ready for spinning, and invite him to table, 
 where the turte are ready, with possibly other fasting 
 dishes, and with wine. The priest may accept or decline, 
 according as the meal appeals to his appetite; at any 
 rate, he must at least taste a morsel, and will hardly 
 ever refuse a glass of wine. The priests have a settled 
 reputation of being able to swallow more food than any 
 other human creature, hence the saying ** belly of priest " 
 (pintece de popd) applied to those who eat too much. 
 
 The real colindce are performed in the evening of the 
 24th and repeated on the 31st of December. They are 
 supposed to originate from the Latin calendce, festum 
 calendarium, pagan feasts, which Christianity, unable to 
 abolish, has adopted and used for its own service, basing 
 them on the cult of the Nativity. The colindce are 
 numerous and varied. All versified, they sometimes 
 reach the length of three hundred verses, beginning 
 generally with a typical verse and the ever recurring 
 refrain : — 
 
 " This evening is a great evening, 
 White flowers; 
 Great evening of Christmas, 
 White flowers." * 
 
 Or again with — 
 
 "Get up, get up, great sirs. 
 White flowers; 
 For colinders come to you, 
 White flowers." \ 
 
 * **Asta sara-i sara mare, 
 Florile dalbe; 
 Sara mare-a lui Craciun, 
 Florile dalbe." 
 
 f " Scula^i, scula^ii, boieri marl, 
 Florile dalbe; 
 Ca va vin colindatori, 
 Florile dalbe." 
 
THE PEASANT AND HIS RELIGION 193 
 
 Sung to the following tune : — 
 
 fe 
 
 -I — \- 
 
 Then they will go on to say how they have come, and 
 what welcome they have met with, and how they have 
 christened people, and what they have been presented 
 with in return, and end with the equally typical 
 refrain : — 
 
 "For so is the law of old, 
 From the old and the good men" * 
 
 used in connection with the performance of any other 
 ancestral custom — after which follows a more or less 
 stereotyped formula of greetings for "next year and 
 many to come." 
 
 A good many of these colindce have a sacred subject : 
 the sun, the moon, the stars are brought into action ; 
 God Himself and the saints are set to talk and to act 
 in these recitals. Some of them are interesting as 
 pointing out the virtues which the peasant most prizes, 
 together with his ideas of the next world and the part 
 God and the saints play in his imagination. One of 
 these colindcB begins with the description of a river, 
 in which God is supposed to be bathing with two saints, 
 John the Baptist and St. Christmas ; the master of the 
 house is then supposed to step into the river also to 
 take a bath, whereupon God, rather astonished at so 
 much daring, asks him peremptorily how he comes to 
 do it: "Whom do you rely upon, being so bold?" says 
 the Almighty ; " is it upon Me, or upon either of the 
 saints? " But the man, not in the least abashed, gives 
 the answer: "I am not relying upon you, Lord, 
 
 ' C'a§a-i legea din batrani, 
 Din batrani din oameni buni. 
 
 14 
 
lU FROM CARPATHIAN TO PINDUS 
 
 neither on the saints, but I am relying on my own good 
 deeds, for I married young, I built my house by the 
 road, I have laid my table across the road, have fed 
 passers-by," and he goes on to describe how he has 
 built bridges over precipices, and dug wells in desert 
 fields, at which God, well pleased, praises him for the 
 good done in this world, promising him fair return in 
 the next, and sajdng to him: — 
 
 "Go to heaven untried, 
 Sit down to dinner unasked, 
 Drink the glass unpledged." * 
 
 Then comes the greeting formula with the unvaried 
 ending : " Next, and many years to come ! " {La anul §i 
 la mul^i ani!) Other colindae relate the flight of the 
 Holy Virgin with the Infant Christ ; in others, Christ, in 
 the midst of His Apostles, explains, at their request, the 
 origin of wine, corn, and oil, as coming from His blood, 
 His sweat. His tears, during His torment on the cross. 
 
 There are a large number of colindce of a quite secular 
 character ; traditions, very often, or simply ballads adapted 
 to the occasion, with the additional refrain of '^ Lev oi 
 Leo ! " (supposed to be a reminiscence of the Emperor 
 Aurelian's name, the deserter of Dacia) and the formula 
 of greetings at the end. National events enter into 
 them very often, as wars with the Turks on land, with 
 the Franci at sea, into which a fair girl will often be 
 introduced, saved, and then wedded by some Roumanian 
 hero — the master of the house for the time being; or 
 fine horses, gorgeously harnessed, supernaturally strong, 
 and ** seers " into the bargain, most faithful friends to 
 their loving masters ; or flocks of tame ewes, pasturing on 
 the hill, with the *' seeing " ewe among them, foretelling 
 the approach of the cruel hunter ; or again, the colinda 
 will tell the tale of a beautiful girl, lying softly in a 
 
 * " Mergi la rai nejudecat, 
 ^ezi la masa ne-chemat, 
 Bea paharul ne' nchinat." 
 
THE PEASANT AND HIS RELIGION 195 
 
 hammock hung between the antlers of a deer, singing in 
 her sweet, sad voice : — 
 
 "Gently, still gentlier 
 Over three-yearling deer,"* 
 
 predicting the hunter's approach, her wedding with him, 
 and the timely death of the hart, whose skin and antlers 
 are to adorn her house. Other colindm will describe the 
 pleasures of hunting, with friendship and rivalry between 
 horse and falcon, or an over-conceited stag, too proud of 
 his nimbleness, killed by a smart hunter — frequently the 
 master of the house. In others, finally, domestic happi- 
 ness is described, with the pleasures of the home, the 
 garden with its flowers and trees, the persons and their 
 gorgeous attire; or some bridal and the many claims 
 of the bridegroom as to dowry, to give them all up at 
 last for a "fair face," and ''red lips," and ''inky eye- 
 lashes." The very end of the world is foretold as 
 happening — 
 
 "When the son will beat his father, 
 And the daughter her mother, 
 The godson his godfather, 
 The god-daughter her godmother." f 
 
 Then the earth will be — 
 
 "Burnt up in the flame of fire. 
 And in the flashes of hell." | 
 
 Another customary practice about the Christmas 
 holidays, and a great event in boys' life, is the Star 
 {Steaua), a big star, made of wood, borne on a wooden 
 
 * " Lin, mai lin 
 Cerbe stretin." 
 
 f " Cind a bate fiu pe tata, 
 Fiica-sa pe mama-sa, 
 Finu-seu pe nasu-seu, 
 Fina-sa pe nasa-sa." 
 
 I "Ars in para focului. 
 Si 'n valvoarea iadului.' 
 
196 FROM CARPATHIAN TO PINDUS 
 
 pole, and covered with gilt and painted paper, adorned 
 with frills of cut paper and little bells. In the middle 
 of the star is stuck a representation of the ** manger," 
 with the Holy Virgin, St. Joseph, the Baby Christ, 
 and the three wise men ; at the back of it, a small candle 
 burning, under glass, lighting the transparent picture. 
 On the top comer of the star there stands a picture 
 of Adam and Eve deceived by the serpent ; in the 
 other corners, winged heads of angels. This star is 
 carried about from house to house by schoolboys, who 
 in earlier times used to go attired in special garments, 
 but go now in their ordinary every-day clothes. They 
 stand at the door in small or large numbers, and, shaking 
 the star to make the bells ring, sing carols about the 
 birth of Christ, the adoration of the wise men, and such 
 like, with the somewhat stereotyped introduction of : — 
 
 " Who receives 
 The fair star 
 With many corners 
 And small ones, 
 Presented by Christ 
 Like a bright sun," * 
 
 chanted on the following melody : — 
 
 i 
 
 q=T: 
 
 — t- 
 
 ■^=E 
 
 f^^jg^^ 
 
 The star is carried about during the whole fortnight, 
 
 * *'Cine prime^te 
 Steaua frumoasa 
 Cu col^uri multe 
 ^i marunte 
 Daruita de Christos 
 Ca un soare luminos. 
 
THE PEASANT AND HIS RELIGION 197 
 
 and the boys get money for their singing. It is supposed 
 to be a reHc of the pagan A telancB, mimce, satirce. 
 
 Another symbohcal representation of the birth of 
 Christ is the so-called Vicleim (from Bethlehem, the 
 birth-place of Christ), or the Irozi (from Irod, Herod, 
 the principal person of the play). With all its religious 
 subject, this is a theatrical performance, hence its 
 description will find a more convenient place further on 
 in the chapter about amusements, together with the 
 many other performances, like Dolls, Brezaia, con- 
 stituting the cycle of Christmas festivities. 
 
 New Year {Anul nou), St. Basil's Day, is very con- 
 spicuous in the popular calendar. It is announced from 
 the very eve by the Plugu§orul ("little plough "), another 
 amusement in which boys and adults go about from house 
 to house, soon after dark and late into the night, with 
 long recitations of greeting, having especially good 
 harvests in view, with noisy accompaniment of bells 
 and whip-cracking. On the night preceding New Year's 
 Day the heavens open and the beasts speak; one can 
 overhear them and listen to what they say, but it is 
 unlucky ; and the trespasser on the beasts' privacy will 
 die before the year is out. If a man can catch the 
 moment when the heavens are open he may get anything 
 he asks for, but the best thing to ask is well-being in 
 the next world, only to catch that short moment is so 
 extremely difficult. 
 
 On New Year's morning there is the widespread 
 custom of sowing (samanatul) , namely, people greet each 
 other by throwing a handful of corn at one another, and 
 saying some appropriate words, such as : — 
 
 " May you live, 
 May you flourish 
 Like apple-trees, 
 Like pear-trees * 
 
 'i' " Sa traie^ti, 
 Sa inflore^ti 
 Ca meri, 
 Ca peri 
 
198 FROM CARPATHIAN TO PINDUS 
 
 In spring time, 
 
 Like wealthy autumn, 
 
 Of all things plentiful." - 
 
 This New Year greeting is usually addressed by the 
 young to the old, the poor to the rich ; the answer to 
 it is some substantial present, money generally. In 
 towns, the houses of the well-to-do are practically 
 besieged with " sowers " ; all the servants, all employed 
 far or near, will come to get a tip in return for their 
 sowing : it is really the Roumanian Boxing Day. It 
 is also the day of sending presents to any one. In 
 some places the corn is omitted, but never the greeting, 
 only the greeters go about with a Sorcova, a stick 
 ornamented with flowers — originally the flowers of the 
 sprays gathered and put into water on St. Andrew's 
 Day, which were supposed to blossom till Christmas, 
 if the possessor of the little cluster had luck. It seems 
 that the old Romans used to greet each other every 
 New Year with a branch of laurel. 
 
 The last act of the great winter festivities is the 
 Epiphany (Boboteaza), and the day preceding it, the Eve 
 day. 
 
 The Eve of Epiphany (Ajunul Bohotezei) is celebrated 
 in the same way as Christmas Eve, with fasting, with 
 eating of turte^ with the priest going from house to 
 house and besprinkling all with holy water. Fasting on 
 that day is supposed to be particularly good for keeping 
 away all sorts of evils, and pecuniary losses in particular. 
 Boys will willingly fast, in order to have luck at catching 
 birds with the snare. The priest is presented again with 
 hemp and wool, and some meat, and, if possible, with 
 money. By all means he must be invited to be seated 
 a while on the bed, otherwise the brooding hen will 
 not sit on the eggs ; moreover, the housewife should have 
 taken care to put on the bed, under the mattress, maize 
 grains ; by the priest sitting upon them, the hens will 
 
 * In timpul primaverei, 
 Ca toamna cea bogata, 
 De toate 'ndestulata." 
 
THE PEASANT AND HIS RELIGION 199 
 
 lay lots of eggs. Besides, it is a very good thing to 
 get some of the hemp the priest has his fishtoch tied 
 with, which, tied then to the fishing net, will bring in 
 any amount of fish. Girls are very anxious to get some 
 sweet basil from the priest's ^s/t^ocZ:, it being particularly 
 good for love incantations. If in a household there are 
 troubles and things do not go on as well as they should, 
 the housewife may on this occasion bring back the good 
 luck ; to do that, when the priest steps out of the house 
 she must take the cociorva (the hooked poker) and, as 
 if by mistake, draw back the trivet by the leg. At 
 night, the heavens open again, and one may make wishes. 
 This night is also particularly propitious for magic with 
 regard to marriage. All sorts of means are employed 
 to find out how soon one is to get married, who 
 the "future one" is to be, and what sort of person. 
 On the Epiphany morning, too, efforts are made to 
 inspire love. 
 
 "With these festivities the winter cycle is practically 
 closed ; in a few weeks, Lent comes in again. 
 
 IV 
 
 Besides the procession of saints and sainted days just 
 reviewed, the days of the week are endowed with special 
 sacredness and power by the all-hallowing imagination 
 of the Roumanian peasant ; every week-day is a saint, a 
 living being, in the popular tales, wanting to be respected 
 and worshipped in his own way. The greatest of all is 
 Saint Sunday (Sinta Duminica), a female saint, as all 
 days are — an extremely respectable person, but generous 
 and good-natured : she does not want you to fast ; she only 
 wants you not to work, and be as merry and happy as 
 you can. But the most dreaded day, the most exacting 
 and powerful, is St. Friday (Sinta Vineri), worshipped 
 by fasting, and, if possible, by total fasting all day long. 
 Many women also do not work on Friday, for health's 
 sake, they say, and never wash their hair on that day, 
 for fear of remaining widows. Girls usually fast for the 
 
200 FROM CARPATHIAN TO PINDUS 
 
 purpose of having their hair grow fine and beautiful. 
 Wednesday [Miercure) and Monday (Luni) are also saints 
 and fasting days, the latter not so very exacting, except 
 for the people who have cattle, and wish to fast for 
 the sake of the health of their beasts. Tuesday {Mar^i) 
 is a bad day to begin anything on, to cut out, or start on 
 a journey. So also is Saturday {Simbdta), but if you 
 have some work begun, do not end it entirely on 
 Saturday, but just leave a little to be done on Monday 
 morning ; it is good for a long life. 
 
 For the months of the year, the peasant has his own 
 popular names, and also various means as to the fore- 
 teUing of next year's harvest. 
 
 January is Cdrindar, from the Latin Calendarium^ 
 name reserved by the Romans for the first day of the 
 month only. Gerar is another name for January, from 
 ger, bitter cold, frost. 
 
 February, Fdurar and FauTy worker in metals {faher, 
 fabrum), especially iron; Fdurar ferecd si desferecd: 
 February fastens and unfastens (with iron), as frost and 
 thaw come in quick succession. 
 
 March is Mdrfisor, or simply Mart, or also Germdnar, 
 from germene, germ. 
 
 April is Frier, or Florar, the flower-bearer. 
 
 May, Frunzar or Pratar — from frons and pratum 
 respectively, the finest month in the year, because of the 
 gorgeous development of the vegetation, but rain is 
 wanted too, for — 
 
 ' No rain in May, 
 
 No maize-meal to eat."* 
 
 June is Cire^ar, the bearer of cire§e, cherries. 
 July, is the luna lui cuptory the month of the kiln, 
 it being as hot as a kiln. 
 August, Gustar and Mdssalary from messis (harvest). 
 
 * " Nu ploua in Mai, 
 Nu se mininca malai.' 
 
THE PEASANT AND HIS RELIGION 201 
 
 September, Bdpciune, from raptionem; also Vinicer, 
 the producer of wine. 
 
 October, Brumdrel, from hrumd^ hoar-frost — that is, the 
 small hoar-frost bringer ; whilst 
 
 November is Brumar — that is, the hoar-frost bearer — or 
 Promorar, from promoroacd, white frost. 
 
 December, Andrea or Undrea (knitting-needle), also 
 Ningdu or Neios (the snower, the snowy). 
 
 We do not claim to have herewith exhausted the whole 
 ground of popular beliefs, but what we have cited may, 
 we hope, give a fair idea of what are the religion and 
 religious notions of the Koumanian peasant, his law, as 
 he calls it. In the course of the ages he has identified 
 it with nationality, and just calls it lege Bomineascd 
 (Koumanian law), as well as lege Gre§tineasca (Christian 
 law) ; and as he uses the name of " Roumanian " to mean 
 a man, he will also say ** a Christian " for a man. His 
 religion, as he understands it, he will keep to, because his 
 father and forefathers have done so. As far as doctrine 
 goes, one may change the whole of it without his being 
 aware of the change ; but one could not change a thread 
 of the material part of the cult, of the worship, without 
 his strongly protesting against it. Church and priest are 
 wanted for all the successive rites of life; as to any 
 particular food for the soul, the peasant does not get 
 it from either Church or priest, but by tradition from 
 generation to generation. He knows what ought to be 
 done on every occasion; the priest has only to carry 
 it out, being endowed with the dar (the gift), just like a 
 magician with his supposed supernatural power. He 
 strongly believes in incantations, descintece, harmless 
 recitations, often accompanied by medicinal herbs, but 
 oftener also by mere fresh water from the well — apd ne- 
 inceputd, unbegun water ; that is to say, water from which 
 nobody has drunk yet. They also believe in an otherwise 
 guilty kind of magic, the farmici, witcheries by which 
 
202 FROM CARPATHIAN TO PINDUS 
 
 the desired result produced is as often as not brought about 
 by injury to somebody else; in these /armtc^, devil's work 
 is at the bottom. This kind of witchcraft is sinful, and 
 sure to lead those who use it, and the old women who 
 perform it, into hell. But if a man takes the precaution 
 of weighing himself on St. George's Day he is beyond the 
 reach of witchcraft. 
 
 The Roumanian peasant has also a great fear of 
 " curses." A man who has been cursed will not moulder 
 for seven years after his burial ; he ought therefore to be 
 taken out of -the grave, propped against the church wall 
 for forty days, and all passers-by must say: "May God 
 forgive him ! " The curse of parents is especially 
 weighty, always being fulfilled, and there are some 
 beautiful ballads on the subject of a mother's curse. A 
 curse is sure to come into effect if pronounced in an 
 " evil hour" (ceasul rdu); the Roumanian peasant strongly 
 believes in good and evil moments, and attributes to 
 them a great part of his fate. For he believes in fate ; 
 without being subject exactly to Oriental apathetic 
 fatalism, he is none the less a convinced predestinarian ; 
 his predestinarianism, however, is rather of a consoling 
 character: whenever the unavoidable has happened, "it 
 was written" (a fost scris), "So it was to be" {a§a a 
 fost sdfie). Man does as much as he can for his own 
 good, but fate is stronger : — 
 
 "When there is to fall on man 
 A to him unknown evil, 
 He will either tarry to wait for it, 
 Or run forward to meet it." * 
 
 With the spread of education in the country, with a 
 better training of the priests, superstitions and evil 
 practices will die out, as they are already observed to do 
 in many places ; the pagan feasts will probably die out 
 
 * "Cand omului e sa-i vie 
 Vre-im rau fara sa-1 §tie, 
 Ori zabave^te pana '1 sose^te 
 Ori da fuga sa-1 ajunga." 
 
THE PEASANT AND HIS RELIGION 203 
 
 too, only it would be a pity, as for the most part they are 
 so closely bound up with the origins of the nation. For 
 my part, I hope women will keep them alive, together 
 with the other national usages, just as they have kept 
 alive the national language, carefully tended in the 
 interior of their poor cottages, through all the political 
 storms raging outside. 
 
 Through the ages of suffering the Roumanian has 
 found consolation and a renewal of hope in his religious 
 practices; by them he has been taught to put up with 
 his fate, to endure and to wait. Sfintul A§teaptd, **St. 
 Wait," is a very popular and indeed the only genuine 
 national saint, not the same as " St. Never," but I fear a 
 near relative of his. 
 
 For other people's religions the Roumanian does not 
 care: of the proselytising spirit he has none. He has 
 some dim idea that there are other Christians too, but 
 those are lifta, lifta spurcatd — they take milk on a 
 Friday ! This appellation of lifta comes probably, with 
 a slight metathesis, from litva, litvaUy Lithuanian, as 
 Roman Catholicism came to the Orthodox Lithuanians 
 from Poland, spread among them, and then made its 
 way towards Moldavia too. The appellation of spur cat, 
 impure, soiled, dirty, is given to any other religion but 
 his own by the peasant. The Roumanian peasant is very 
 hospitable to every one, but a vessel in which a man has 
 eaten flesh food on a Friday is spurcat ; no scouring can 
 make it clean again, but some holy water will easily 
 do it. For his own use, he will not mix pots and plates 
 in which he prepares his fasting food with those for flesh 
 food; this is also the groundwork of cleanliness as a 
 whole. A man who eats flesh on Friday, or eats toads, or 
 frogs, or horseflesh, is unclean : the Roumanian peasant 
 will not share his food, or eat from his plate, but, after 
 all, that is his own business; the Roumanian neither 
 interferes with, nor does he despise or hate him in the 
 least — he simply wishes to have nothing to do with him. 
 Marriages are extremely rare with people of other 
 religions, and even then, only when the latter change 
 their religion. But he much prefers to see a man stick 
 
204 FROM CARPATHIAN TO PINDUS 
 
 to his own lege, whatever it be; a renegade is more 
 contemptible in his eyes than any frog-eater. BeHgion is 
 for the Roumanian peasant the greatest obstacle to inter- 
 mixing with other nations; and where that hindrance 
 does not exist, the Roumanian has mixed, and has, as 
 a rule, denationalised the other. What floods of Slavs 
 has he not assimilated in the course of time ! And where 
 he has been denationalised, it has also been due to 
 religion. The tolerant spirit of the nation breathes also 
 in its national Church : never religious strifes, never 
 religious persecutions ; if there was a persecution in the 
 sixteenth century against the Armenians in Moldavia, it 
 was the prince's doing, not the people's; if there were 
 riots against Jews, they took place in towns, not at the 
 peasants' hands, and the cause has never been in the 
 least religious, but economic. 
 
 Ignorant and narrow-minded as the Roumanian peasant 
 may appear in the eyes of the severe critic, with his 
 many holidays and superstitions — which narrowness after 
 all is mostly external — he is at all events the very emblem 
 of tolerance and non-interference ; this he is in politics, 
 in national affairs, and this he is in religion : he advocates 
 wide, large-minded liberty for all. This also he is socially, 
 in his morals with respect to his fellow-creatures, in 
 which goodness is his leading thread in the maze of social 
 relations. ** Ever do good," that is his untiring formula. 
 
 "If a dog barks at you 
 Stop his muzzle with bread,"* 
 
 Not that he expects any reward for the good done; a 
 good deed done brings its own reward : — 
 
 " Do the good and throw it on the road 1 " f 
 
 * "De te latra vre-un cine 
 Astupa-i gura cu pine." 
 
 I "Fa binele §i-l arunca'n druml 
 
CHAPTEE V 
 THE PEASANT IN HIS HOME AND AT HIS WOBK 
 
 Feom whatever side one ascends the Carpathians, 
 following the course of one of the numerous streams 
 coming down from them, one is sure to meet with 
 Roumanian villages which, larger and wider down in the 
 valley, become smaller and narrower as we go up, to end 
 in two lines of cottages dispersed on both banks of the 
 stream in the highest glens. Lowly or highly situated, 
 comfortably spread out in a large valley, or hidden away 
 in the narrowest, quietest nook, these villages all have a 
 general appearance of simple peacefulness and alluring 
 homeliness, sheltered on all sides by thickly fir-coated 
 mountains, gladdened by the all-prevailing murmur of 
 the water running along the pebbly vale. Surely people 
 living in such abodes lead nothing but a peaceful and 
 quiet life; but hard toil, scanty earnings, bare living 
 from day to day, is the eternal problem set before them. 
 At the opposite end of the widely spread branch of the 
 Boumanian nation in the Pindus, where the struggle for 
 life, if perhaps not harder, is at all events fuller of real 
 fighting, the villages have also a more appropriate aspect. 
 Built on the highest slopes of the mountains, very 
 difficult of access, with their many storied stone houses, 
 they present a much more imposing, warlike, indomitable 
 appearance than the simple, humble Carpathian cottages. 
 The Eoumanian in the Carpathians has managed to live 
 by avoiding and patiently bearing ; the Pindus Eoumanian 
 
 205 
 
206 FROM CARPATHIAN TO PINDUS 
 
 has struggled by armed fight for the same end, but with 
 only indifferent success. 
 
 Beyond the Carpathians, in the hilly region of Free 
 Roumania, the villages are situated on the slopes of the 
 hills, amphitheatre-like, but with no other regularity in 
 their respective position except that they all look in the 
 same direction, always downhill. Often also villages 
 extend over two or three hills ; then also the principle 
 of looking down is observed in the building of the 
 houses, so that those on opposite hills will look at each 
 other. At the foot of the slopes the valley will usually be 
 broken by a gully, sometimes very deep, a ripa, at the 
 bottom of which a small rill will be noiselessly trickling 
 to become a wild, troubled torrent in ^spring, at the time 
 of the thaw or after copious rains. This ripa is usually 
 hemmed in with willows, bending their silvery stems 
 above the tiny rivulet. Even in the plain, villages are 
 seldom situated on perfectly flat ground; whenever 
 possible, they are sure to lie on some bending slope and 
 by running water. At all events, in every Roumanian 
 village, good spring water must be at hand, for there are 
 no things a Roumanian prizes more than fresh water and 
 pure air. 
 
 Seen from the distance, a Roumanian village will 
 always strike the traveller as a nest of peace, of comfort 
 and homeliness, with those little white cottages peeping 
 among the trees, in their own yards, more or less large, 
 all away from each other, separated by large stretches 
 of green and irregular roads meandering about in all 
 directions. A village has nothing town-like about it ; no 
 mistake would ever be possible. From the top of a high 
 hill, let us say in Moldavia, the very home of exquisite 
 hills, the traveller has a wide horizon of hills on all sides 
 apparently moving in the distance under the bluish haze 
 tinged with the gold of a rising sun like the billows of 
 a sea, but studded all over with centres of population ; 
 he will always be able to say which is the village and 
 which the town, whatever their respective sizes may be. 
 As different as the Roumanian peasant is from the 
 townsman, so different are their respective abodes. 
 
PEASANT AT HOME AND AT WORK 207 
 
 A Roumanian village looks at its best in spring, when 
 all Nature is green and fresh ; after Easter, the cottages 
 are still shining with cleanliness, with their white walls 
 and red wood-work under the thatched roof, like 
 Roumanian black-eyed country girls, with their glistening 
 strings of bright-coloured beads round their necks. 
 
 A Roumanian peasant's cottage, the casa (pronounced 
 " cassa ") as he calls it, is invariably surrounded by a 
 yard, or rather has a yard in front, a garden behind; 
 a house with open front, and a yard only at the back of 
 it, is a rare thing. The fence is usually of hurdle work, 
 sometimes crowned by a large edging of thorns, running 
 along the fence like a boa of feathers round a lady's neck; 
 but this is mostly the case in the vicinity of woods, where 
 thorns are easy to be had. The entrance is provided with 
 gate, and little gate of hurdle- work too, or else of paling, 
 locking only by means of a twisted limewood collar 
 sliding up and down along the terminal posts of both gate 
 and hedge. In the yard the house is, as a matter of fact, 
 the most important if not always the largest building; 
 such house having a particular type of its own, with two 
 variations : either a front with two windows on one side 
 and the door on the other, or else the door in the middle 
 and the windows on both its sides. The latter type is 
 only in use for larger houses, where there is more than 
 one room, but by far the widest spread type is the first 
 variety. No two-storied peasant house is to be found in 
 all the Carpathian region, except very occasionally, as in 
 some quite new construction, an inn oftener than any- 
 thing else. In the Balkan Peninsula, in the Pindus 
 especially, the houses are built with three or four stories 
 — which means more cramming for space, more need of 
 resistance and defence. The difference in the material 
 used is also striking : stone in the Pindus, clay and wood 
 in the Carpathian. 
 
 A peasant's cottage in the Carpathian region is easily 
 built, and is always made by the peasants themselves. 
 Each newly-married couple has, as a rule, to build a 
 cottage of their own, sometimes before, but oftener still 
 after, the wedding, in which case the young pair are 
 
208 FROM CARPATHIAN TO PINDUS 
 
 still housed by the young man's parents for a year or so, 
 until the house is ready. The material needed for the 
 making of the house is at hand : mud and wood ; in the 
 districts richly wooded more of the latter ; in the districts 
 where wood is scanty, more of the former. In opposition 
 to the general idea of building, the roof is made first, the 
 walls afterwards. To begin with, four big pillars are 
 stuck in the ground, denoting the four corners of the 
 house ; then the four outer walls are sketched out, as well 
 as the inside partitions, by thinner pillars also stuck in 
 the ground, running along from comer to corner at a 
 distance of one or two feet between each. Room is left 
 for the doors, and the pillars are cut short at the place of 
 the windows. The house being so outlined with trans- 
 verse beams fastened to the upper end of the pillars, the 
 roof is made of a wooden frame, covered with reed and 
 thatch, or with timber and shingles, or in better circum- 
 stances and more modern cases, with iron sheets. Once 
 the roof is ready, the walls are built up : mud, kneaded 
 down with the feet, and mixed with straw, is shaped into 
 clay-lumps, taking here the place of bricks. These clay- 
 lumps (vdldtuci) are set tight between the pillars above 
 one another, high up to the roof ; the rough walls thus 
 ready are left for a time to dry. In parts where wood is 
 more plentiful, the walls are made of hurdles plastered 
 heavily with mud. This plastering, as well as the building 
 with lumps, is generally done by gipsies, being rather 
 dirty work which the Roumanian is always willing to 
 shun if he can. In the mountain districts the houses 
 are made entirely of wood, the w^alls being built of logs, 
 roughly hewn and straightened into beams, fastened 
 horizontally one over the other, crossed at the ends, each 
 fitting into a suitable notch, permitting the logs firmly to 
 join one another. Such a wooden framework is very 
 much like one of those Swiss cottages one sees in every 
 Swiss village, except that the Swiss cottage is bigger, and 
 that the smaller Roumanian cottage is never left thus in 
 its bare wooden bones. Yes, one may come across such 
 constructions, high up in the remotest glens, but these are 
 not looked upon as houses ; such a cottage is only called 
 
PEASANT AT HOME AND AT WORK 209 
 
 odaia (room), and is merely meant to serve as a refuge 
 during the summer work, pasturing or haymaking, in the 
 lofty poiana ; it is otherwise not inhabited, and is entirely 
 deserted in winter. 
 
 When the rough walls are ready and dry, be they of 
 wood or of mud, then their smoothing and refining begins 
 with layers of clay, mixed with cow-dung, repeatedly 
 stuck on them by hand in sheets thinner and thinner, 
 until the walls are quite even and neat, and present not 
 the slightest chink to the most inquisitive eye. This 
 work is also left as much as possible to gipsy women, 
 who seem to have quite an industry of their own in this 
 not over-respectable business of the lipit (clay plastering). 
 The plastering is done on the out- and the inside, and on 
 the floor as well. Timber floors are quite a new invention, 
 and are only to be seen in newer houses and richer 
 households ; otherwise the floor is made of clay, by the 
 hand, and remade every Saturday evening by every 
 industrious housewife, with an overlayer of cow-dung 
 mixed with black clay as an embellishment. 
 
 For one year the newly made house is kept in its clay 
 colour, to dry well, even though it must be occupied 
 during the time ; the peasants say it would bring ill-luck 
 were one to whitewash it before the year is out. But 
 after the year's end the house is beautifully whitewashed, 
 in- and outside, from top to bottom — which whitewashing 
 is hereafter repeated at least once in every year, before 
 Easter, by every Roumanian peasant wife. After the 
 whitewashing comes the painting of the wood-work, all 
 about the house : ceiling, doors and door-posts, window- 
 frames, casements and shutters, everything is painted 
 with a dark reddish clay called luti§or (red loess) with 
 carefully straight hues at the edges. Outside, the house 
 is invariably surrounded by a prispa, a narrow terrace 
 running round the walls, also plastered with clay, 
 trimmed with a tiny edge of red clay, a briu (a band) at 
 its upper side, where it meets the wall, and a broader one 
 of black clay at the bottom, above the ground. A 
 Roumanian peasant woman is extremely fond of these 
 sharp lines, wherever two edges, or rather two colours, 
 
 15 
 
210 FROM CARPATHIAN TO PINDUS 
 
 meet, and young girls are particularly anxious to draw 
 them as straight as possible — a shaky briu would look so 
 ridiculous, they say, like old women's teeth ! The prispa 
 is protected by the jutting-out roof hanging over it, lined 
 underneath with a span of ceiling of red-painted timber, 
 and supported on wooden pillars, also painted with red, 
 at the edge and at the corners of the prispa. A little 
 wooden staircase or one or two steps of rough stone give 
 access to the prispa, and into the house. 
 
 About the yard there are, except the house, as many 
 out-buildings as the owner can afford. Sometimes, even, 
 one may see two houses in the yard, one newer, larger, 
 for show, for guests, where the good things are kept — 
 meant to become eventually the son's house — and another 
 older, smaller, for everyday use. Then there may be 
 a small summer kitchen as well, painted in grey clay, 
 as limestone would be considered much too expensive 
 a material to waste on such a humble building, although 
 the usual summer kitchen might just as well be in the 
 open air : a hole in some corner of the yard, with an 
 appropriate contrivance for suspending the ciaun (a kettle 
 in which the mamaliga is made) . Next come the wooden 
 constructions : a barn, stables (if there are horses, which 
 is rather rare), a shade or hovel for the cattle (which, 
 I am sorry to say, are generally sorely neglected in the 
 way of lodging, the Roumanian peasant seeming to think 
 that cows or oxen can do quite well out in the roughest 
 weather, if they only have plenty to eat) ; a pig-sty and 
 a hen-coop are quite common in a peasant's yard, but 
 a co§dr — that is, a hurdle construction to keep maize in 
 — is only to be found in well-to-do households. The yard 
 itself will be more or less clean, according to the season 
 and the individual taste of the masters of the house ; 
 not over-clean, I may say, as a rule: "A little dirt 
 brings luck to a man's house." Behind the house, the 
 garden with vegetables and fruit-trees, and some flower- 
 beds, especially where the housewife is young, or where 
 there are young girls ; in the poorest garden there must 
 be at least two or three clusters of busioc (sweet-basil), 
 of minta (mint), and of some velvety dark yellow vizdoage 
 (gilliflowers). 
 
PEASANT AT HOME AND AT WORK 211 
 
 As to the interior of the cottage, if we now wish to 
 step in, first of all we must not forget to stoop a little, 
 as the lintel is rather low ; the master of the house can 
 hardly ever pass a door about his house without stooping, 
 and he, I am afraid, could hardly imagine, without a 
 shiver, spending a winter in a house where one could walk 
 upright "as in a barn ! " The door of the cottage is 
 hardly ever locked, except with a wooden latch whose 
 hook fastens at the inside to the door-post. Doors are 
 rarely locked in peasants' cottages ; a bolt on the inside 
 for the night, that is all. Padlocks are used by rich 
 people only, who possess valuables to put under lock and 
 key, but the average peasant, when he goes away from 
 home, and has no child to leave behind to take care 
 of it, simply takes a stick and leans it against the door ; 
 by this the visitor recognises that there is nobody at 
 home and that he has no business to enter. In villages 
 where many padlocks are to be seen, the moral atmo- 
 sphere as to respect for property seems to be some- 
 what dubious, although they will readily tell you : " The 
 padlock is for honest people " {Lacata e pentru oameni 
 cinstiti). At all events, padlocks are a much cheaper 
 commodity now than they used to be. 
 
 As we enter the peasant's house, the first space we are 
 admitted into is the tinda (the ante-room), a plain, scantily 
 furnished place, in which the most conspicuous thing is 
 a big oven (cuptor), with a hearth (vatra), in front, on 
 which, at least in winter, a perpetual fire is smouldering ; 
 a little brick stool beside it is built part and parcel of 
 the wall, and is considered as the place of honour in 
 the most modest tinda. In the corner behind the door 
 there is sure to be a rd§nitay a very primitive hand- 
 mill, in which maize is ground when needed quickly, or 
 if there has been any impediment in sending to the mill. 
 Besides, we may see in this tinda labour and house 
 implements, as well as provisions of maize, corn, &c., 
 in bags, standing along the wall or in wooden boxes ; 
 then a wooden bench, a table, and suchlike. This tinda 
 in most cases has no ceiling, but is quite open to the 
 black smoked reedy roof ; often, at the back of the tinda. 
 
212 FROM CARPATHIAN TO PINDUS 
 
 there is a small pantry, a camard or celara§, as they call 
 it, where the provisions are stored up. 
 
 From the ante-room we pass into the principal room, 
 the casa, par excellence, kept as tidy and presentable as 
 possible, the wear and tear of everyday life going on 
 chiefly in the ante-room. Not very light, the windows 
 being rather small with their little glass panes in the 
 cross-like wooden sashes, which generally open like 
 Enghsh windows, the two halves sliding vertically over 
 one another. The house windows have their legend too. 
 The first house is said to have been made by the devil, 
 only he did not know how to light it, and tried hard 
 to carry light in a bushel. God, passing by, came to 
 the rescue by making the windows, but then He put the 
 cross in the middle of the window — the wooden casement 
 — and ever since the devil has had to give it up and have 
 nothing more to do with a man's house. The windows 
 are, moreover, furnished with curtains, and often adorned 
 with flower-pots on the vdndow-sill. The furniture of 
 this room is of two kinds. First and foremost, a big 
 oven with a large hearth in front, surmounted by a large 
 chimney to let out the smoke, just like the one in the 
 ante-room, only kept in a much more brilliant condition 
 of cleanliness and ornamentation. The back of the oven 
 is in winter the most desirable bed, and the oldest couple 
 of the household usually take their rest upon it. From 
 the oven a large bed (pat) , made of planks, stretches to the 
 opposite wall, covered with various home-made woollen 
 mats or suchlike, and at the end of it is placed a wooden 
 box (lada) containing the linen and other precious belong- 
 ings of the family. On the top of this box lies the 
 zestrea, the outfit, the trousseau, composed of carpets, 
 coverlets, blankets, pillows, piled up to the ceiling. From 
 the bed {laife) wooden benches run along the walls all 
 round the room, covered also with Idicere (long, narrow 
 woollen carpets), which serve as beds for the younger 
 members of the family. The second type of house is 
 without an oven, but has a good stove in one comer; 
 then two large beds set opposite one another in the two 
 further corners of the room, with additional lai^e at their 
 
PEASANT AT HOME AND AT WORK 213 
 
 feet, down to the end of the wall. Between the beds, 
 under the window, there will be a table, and in richer 
 houses two or three wooden chairs. In some corner, on 
 the wall and towards the East are hung the icoane (the 
 holy images), often adorned with the housewife's bridal 
 ornaments, and in front of them, hanging from above, 
 a candela, a little lamp with olive oil and a floating wick, 
 giving a light not bigger than a lentil; the candela is 
 always lit on Sunday and holiday eves. Besides, the 
 walls are ornamented with fine tissues, hanging like 
 large draperies, or small kerchiefs with pretty designs, 
 knotted and fixed with a nail, from which hangs some 
 pretty, glossy earthen plate or jug ; above the beds 
 woollen carpets are usually hung, and then at random 
 occasional pictures, representing some emperor, prince 
 or general, bought from packmen roaming about the 
 country, very often from Russian iconari, who, by selling 
 their holy images, are trying some secret but scarcely 
 novel propaganda, with a view to Russian interests. On 
 the wall will be fixed a long ledge, laden with the best 
 plate of the family ; sometimes this is contained in a real 
 cupboard, more or less elaborately carved in wood. Over 
 the big bed we may also often see a transversal beam 
 below the ceiling, on which are hung all the family clothes, 
 neatly covered over by some beautifully spun counterpane. 
 
 In such an abode goes on a peasant's humble, un- 
 assuming life, with all its tragedies and sorrow, with all 
 its joy and happiness. Or rather, the peasant considers 
 the house as a nice little thing, to be spared and kept as 
 clean as possible, but to be used only in case of necessity. 
 In winter and bad weather he sleeps in the house, but all 
 the summer he will take his rest out of doors, partly oix 
 the prispa, partly in the car (cart) , standing ready inTfront 
 of the house as if for an early journey on the i3^orrow, and 
 well furnished with thick sheets of hemp, the toale ; out 
 of doors, under God's sky, watched\ov<fer by the stars or 
 lighted by the sun, does the Roumanian peasant spend 
 his life, be it at work or at rest. 
 
 It is really seldom that a peasant will be at home on 
 a week day during labour time ; all his life is spent out 
 
214 FROM CARPATHIAN TO PINDUS 
 
 in the open, in the free air, either as shepherd, which 
 in times of trial has been his chief occupation, or as 
 husbandman, which is by far the chief occupation of the 
 Roumanians : the only one in the plains. 
 
 II 
 
 When history dawns upon the Roumanians, between 
 the heavy clouds of barbaric invasions, they appear in full 
 pastoral life ; from Carpathian to Pindus, all the elevated 
 poianas are theirs ; all over them they drive their flocks, 
 live on their milk and flesh, dress in their wool. Not 
 that agriculture is entirely forsaken — to plough (a ara), 
 to sow {a sdmdna), to reap (a sdcera) are all Latin words — 
 it is not forsaken, but is only followed as a secondary 
 pursuit. 
 
 The remembrance of his pastoral life the Roumanian 
 peasant has immortalised in the beautiful pastoral legend 
 of the Miorita (the ** She-lamb") in which it is told that 
 three shepherds were pasturing their flocks about "the 
 foot of a ridge, the gate of a paradise," but two of them, 
 jealous of the third, made a compact to murder him. 
 But they were overheard by the miorita, the little 
 young ewe, who was a seer, and who for very sorrow lost 
 her appetite and gaiety. When her master, with deep 
 concern, asked her about her ailment, she disclosed her 
 dreadful secret, with entreaties to him to take care of 
 himself ; but he seemed to accept his fate; he cheered her 
 up, and only begged her, if indeed he were to be killed, to 
 tell the murderers to bury him there behind the fold, that 
 he might hear his dogs ; and she should put his whistle 
 at his head, that the wind passing through it might play a 
 tune, upon which the ewes assembling, all would lament 
 him with " blood tears " ; and not to tell the ewes about 
 the murder, but only that he had married a "fair princess, 
 the world's bride" (death) ; that at his wedding, " a star 
 has fallen," that the sun and the moon held his crown, 
 that trees, mountains, birds were his bridal train, and 
 stars his shining tapers. But if she happened to meet his 
 
PEASANT AT HOME AND AT WORK 215 
 
 old mother, asking for a fair young shepherd, she should 
 pity her, and tell her that he had married a king's 
 daughter, in a beautiful place, but nothing about the sun 
 and moon and mountains, birds and stars being the bridal 
 party, as the good old woman would not be deceived by 
 that. 
 
 In the Bucegi Group there is a summit called Virful 
 cu dor, **the Peak of the yearning," about which the 
 legend goes that a young shepherd died there of a broken 
 heart for the sake of his ewes, which he had deserted for 
 a woman. 
 
 Another legend says that the very thistle is nothing but 
 a yearning shepherd turned into a thistle by God at his 
 own prayer, that he might ever stick to ewes who had 
 fled away from him, because he had betrayed them for a 
 girl. On the Steiasa, a large solitary grassy mountain in 
 Valachia, a lonely wooden cross stands on a mound ; as 
 I was passing by last year, the guide told me a shepherd 
 was buried there ; he had been killed by another shepherd 
 whose ewes he had beaten ! 
 
 The shepherd's life is very solitary even to-day, all the 
 summer spent on the high poianas ; on a Sunday they 
 come down into the villages, taking it in turns at the 
 Sunday dance ; they are easily recognisable by their shirts 
 and trousers, which, although of the same cut as the other 
 peasants', differ in colour, being of a brownish tinge and 
 looking rather dirty, although perfectly clean in their way, 
 because they are washed in whey, said to keep away any 
 sort of parasite. On his heights, the shepherd is a dreamy 
 sort of man, often leaning on his elbow and playing to 
 himself and his grazing ewes, on his bucium or on his 
 finer, now a gay dancing tune, and now the sorrowful, 
 wailing do'ina. The dogs around keep good watch — so 
 good, indeed, that you can hardly approach within a mile 
 but they are upon you, quite determined to tear you to 
 pieces if there are no good strong sticks to strike hard in 
 your defence. At the fold the shepherds are very 
 amiable, and will treat you to milk and cheese and urda 
 (a sweet cheese) and jdntita (a juicy mixture of curdled 
 milk) and excellent new ca§ (fresh cheese) . Now, Eou- 
 
216 FROM CARPATHIAN TO PINDUS 
 
 manian hospitality is traditional, but, I believe, it is be- 
 coming more and more an antiquated tradition. It 
 seems that the desire for gain is spreading from town to 
 country, as times become harder, or rather more material- 
 istic and business-like, for it would be hardly true to say 
 that times are harder now than they used to be. Besides, 
 it seems that all regions are not alike as to the spirit of 
 hospitality : I have come across sheepfolds high up in the 
 Moldavian Carpathians where shepherds would accept in 
 return for the hospitality offered nothing but some tobacco, 
 so hard to get, they explained, on those heights ; I have 
 again come across sheepfolds in the Carpathians of 
 Valachia where mocani, or Transylvanian shepherds, 
 eagerly pocketed the money offered them. As far as the 
 villages go, my own impression is that Moldavian peasants 
 are much more hospitable than the Valachians. But, 
 after all, I do not see why the poor peasant, too, should 
 not try to get something from tha traveller, already used 
 to being so nicely fleeced in towns ! 
 
 Besides sheep, cattle breeding has been a staple busi- 
 ness of the Roumanians ; in the Free Kingdom it was so 
 down to the middle of last century. The Moldavian oxen 
 had a widespread renown ; by the end of the seventeenth 
 century, as the prince- writer Demetrius Cantemir tells us, 
 they were exported by many thousands every year, and a 
 good bargain for the dealers they were too, being bought 
 in Moldavia for three and five thalers apiece and sold in 
 Danzig at the rate of forty and fifty thalers. The bovine 
 race is found to be much degenerated at the present day. 
 Again, Moldavian horses were reputed a noble race — that 
 nobility, too, is degenerated to-day. Even the pigs are 
 said to be much more neglected animals now than of old. 
 
 All this shows that the golden times of quiet, peaceful 
 pastoral life have gone by, and that agriculture is quickly 
 taking its place, stepping from the second rank it occu- 
 pied of old into the first and foremost ; that with the 
 new openings of larger markets abroad for Roumanian 
 agricultural produce — through the improved political 
 conditions since the Treaty of Paris — agriculture has 
 largely increased, encroaching on pastoral pursuits, and 
 

 
 
 Ploughing, 
 
 \_Fhofo, J. Cazaban. 
 
 To face page 217- 
 
 A Cattle Fair. 
 
 IPhoto, J. Cazaban. 
 
11 UNIVL/^SJTY ] 
 
 PEASANT AT HbME ANt) AT WORK 217 
 
 subjecting them to her own wants. But there is room 
 for improving pastoral life, too, certainly cattle breeding, 
 as up to now, in the Free Kingdom at least, all pastures 
 are only natural, producing some 1,800 kgr. hay to 
 the hectare ; turned into artificial pastures they could 
 fairly produce double at least. Even in the Pindus, 
 where the Roumanian is still chiefly a sheep and cattle 
 breeder, he feels more and more obliged to take to 
 agriculture — to settle down in the plains, which he 
 abhors, and forsake the mountains he dearly loves. 
 
 By far the most widely spread occupation of the 
 Roumanian people is agriculture, which they almost 
 consider as the only work, and are so fond of that they 
 would give it up only to become a boiar, to live 
 without working ! 
 
 The real life of the peasant begins with the coming 
 in of spring. In March, after the snow is gone, the 
 house is little by little deserted, and outdoor life takes 
 more and more hold of the Roumanian peasant. The 
 first care of the Roumanian girl, on a 1st of March 
 morning, is to take a red and a white thread, to twist 
 them together to make a Mdrfisor, and with a small 
 coin suspended to it, wear it round the neck until the 
 appearance of the first blossom — this in order to preserve 
 a fair white and pink complexion ! 
 
 Indeed, spring is not always as beautiful a season 
 as the name would imply ; it is rather a trying, change- 
 able time, with extreme variations of cold and warmth, 
 of wet and dry, and, above all, with a raging, scorching 
 wind, especially trying on the eastern slopes of the 
 Carpathians, where it comes full blast from north and 
 north-east, to meet with no hindrance whatever, 
 especially since the forests have been so indiscriminately 
 hewn down. Although March means the beginning 
 of spring — the more so for Eastern Europe, where the 
 calendar is thirteen days behind the calendar of Western 
 Europe — yet it is not rare to see in March drifts of 
 snow yards deep — to melt away in foam at the first 
 sunbeams, no doubt, — but still, half of the month at 
 least goes in sleet and rain and gales, with intermezzos 
 
218 FROM CARPATHIAN TO PINDUS 
 
 of fine days or at least fine hours. The first nine days 
 of March are called the zilele babei {"the old woman's 
 days ") or simply Bahele (the old woman), and popular 
 fancy has invented various legends to explain these 
 sudden changes of weather. One of the legends runs 
 as follows : The sun had been entrusted by God with the 
 care of lighting up the earth, but, weary of all the 
 wrongs and evils he has daily to witness, tries to run 
 away; that is why the place of his rising is shifted 
 regularly to the right in spring, to the left in autumn — 
 change produced as is known by the translatory move- 
 ment of the earth — and, if he ever succeeds in rising 
 where he now sets, then the earth will come to an end ; 
 and that is exactly what the sun is endeavouring to bring 
 about, in order to get rid of the earth, and have all the 
 sky to himself to rest in. But that is not the will of 
 God, and, to prevent the possible misfortune, he has set 
 two saints, St. Nicora in the north, St. Theodor in the 
 south, to stop the sun in its attempts to flee. In 
 spring the sun takes to flight southwards, on a carriage 
 with nine horses, with nine old women on them to incite 
 them to a fast race ; these old women produce by witch- 
 craft snow and rain and the worst possible weather to 
 hinder St. Theodor's pursuit, but it is all to no avail : 
 after a terrible race, the sun is overtaken, and brought 
 back to its place. 
 
 Another legend, built up on the ancient theme of 
 the dislike between mother and daughter-in-law, says 
 that after one of the usual quarrels, the wicked old 
 mother-in-law, thinking that spring has come because 
 she has seen the sun, puts on nine sheepskins and drives 
 up to the mountain her flock of sheep. Tired and 
 heated, she takes off her nine sheepskins one by one, 
 but sleet and snowstorm came down unexpectedly and 
 she is frozen to death. Other legends, again, are the 
 outcome of a confusion between this last and the 
 historical legend of Dohia, alluded to in the first chapter, 
 so one may occasionally hear that the first nine days of 
 March are the days of " Baba Dokia." The first part 
 of March being thus generally made up of very bad 
 
PEASANT AT HOME AND AT WORK 219 
 
 weather, it is considered great luck if one day happens 
 to be fine, and the true grand-child of old Eome, always 
 on the look-out for omens, has imagined here one more 
 way of foretelling one's luck for the year to come. One 
 chooses beforehand one day among the nine — some 
 chose only one hour — and if it happens to turn out 
 fine, then luck is at hand ; if the reverse happens, there 
 is not much luck to be expected during the year. 
 
 After the nine baba's days, the three next one's are 
 the "days of the stork" {zilele cocostircului) , it being the 
 time about which the storks come back from their 
 winter tour, to build their nests on the top of the 
 peasants' cottages. If the first group of storks one sees 
 are in pairs, it is a good omen. Girls are particularly 
 anxious to see just two storks, which sight means a 
 marriage in the same year. The stork is a great 
 favourite with peasants; his very nest on a cottage 
 is a good omen : everything will prosper in that house. 
 But woe to him who kills a stork ! It is considered 
 a great sin, and sure to be punished sooner or later ; just 
 as great a sin is it to pull down a stork's nest. There 
 is a rather mysterious punishment that might come in 
 more than one way, when least expected, as blows of fate 
 always do, but then the stork may take his own revenge. 
 He will fly until he finds some fire, then he will pick 
 a brand in his bill and bring it to his enemy's house. 
 There are several legends about the stork's origin, just as 
 there are about every bird living in these regions. 
 
 The next three or six days after those of the stork, 
 are the ** days of the thrush " {zilele sturzului — sturz 
 from turdus), which bird is also considered as a weather 
 foreteller, a spring's harbinger. A fine legend gives a 
 dialogue between this bird and his beloved blackbird, 
 who most energetically declines all his offers of love, at 
 which the broken-hearted thrush goes into mourning, 
 turns monk and retires into the depths of the mountains. 
 The thrush is said to have been of old a very proud bird, 
 believing that the summer was absolutely his making. 
 Once upon a time, the legend says, in long past ages, 
 when God used to walk about on earth, in company 
 
220 FROM CARPATHIAN TO PINDUS 
 
 of His faithful St. Peter, they happened to pass on 
 a bright March morning by a large forest. A thrush 
 was just perched on a tree, and swinging gracefully on his 
 twig, was pouring forth one of his most joyous tunes. 
 
 " ' Good-morning, thrush ! ' St. Peter said. 
 
 " * I have no time to answer ! ' said the thrush. 
 
 ** ' And why, if you please ? ' 
 
 " ' Oh, I am busy with the making of the summer ! ' " 
 And went on singing — 
 
 "To-day I will wed, 
 To-morrow a brother of mine ! " * 
 
 The holy travellers walked on. In the afternoon, 
 however, God sent down a fearful rain, and during the 
 night snow and frost as well, just as in the heart 
 of winter. Next morning, as they were passing that 
 very same way, the Almighty and His fellow-traveller 
 had the pleasure of seeing the conceited one humbled. 
 The poor thrush was hanging on a twig, humiliated and 
 benumbed with frost. 
 
 " ' Good morning, thrush !' 
 
 "'Thank you! ' 
 
 ** * What are you doing there ? " 
 
 " ' Ah, to-day I shall die, to-morrow a brother of 
 mine! ' " 
 
 Ever since the thrush has become a very modest and 
 thoughtful bird ; she never more boasts of making 
 the summer, but continuously sings : — 
 
 " Trousers and sandals, 
 For to-morrow it snows ; 
 Long linen trousers 
 And sandals of leaves 
 To go to the beloved ! " f 
 
 * " Azi ma insor eu, 
 
 Mane-un frate-al meu ! " 
 
 f " Cioareci §i opinci 
 Ca de mane ninge ; 
 Cioareci lungi de pfi-nza 
 Si opinci de frunza 
 De mers la dragu^al" 
 
PEASANT AT HOME AND AT WORK 221 
 
 But by far the chief messenger of spring is the cuckoo 
 {cucul). The Roumanian peasant, ever anxious to 
 penetrate the enigmatic future, has a deep beHef in the 
 singing of the cuckoo, which he takes as a good or bad 
 omen, according to the direction it comes from. Mi-a 
 cintat cucu'nfatd ! — '' The cuckoo has sung to me in my 
 face," is the very best tidings a man can bring for himself 
 after a spring day's labour ; also the singing " from the 
 right hand " {din dreapta) is apt to fill with delight and 
 hope any peasant's heart, young or old, whilst the singing 
 of the cuckoo heard from behind, or from the left, is a 
 very bad omen. Neither must you run the chance of 
 hearing the cuckoo before eating, for then the year will 
 be a poor one for you. But with all the anxiety as to 
 which side the cuckoo's singing may come from, the 
 Roumanian peasant is nevertheless fond of that bird's 
 song : — 
 
 " Whjen I hear the cuckoo singing 
 And the Httle blackbird whistling 
 I don't feel man upon earth, 
 Neither know I where I am." ^' 
 
 And he is particularly anxious to hear it every spring : — 
 
 " Sing, cuckoo, to me alone : 
 Till next spring who can tell 
 Whether I shall live or die: 
 Man is but a transient dream 1 " f 
 
 And many are the popular songs about this bird, which is 
 decidedly more listened to than the nightingale herself. 
 And the twig on which the cuckoo has sung has a peculiar 
 power too ; you just take a spray of it and wear it in your 
 
 Unde-aud cucul cintind 
 ^i mierli^a §uerand 
 Nu ma ^in om pe pamant 
 Nici nu ma §tiu unde s^nt." 
 
 ' Cinta-mi cuce numai mie : 
 Pan' la anul cine ^tie 
 De traiesc ori daca mor; 
 Omul e vis trecator ! " 
 
222 FROM CARPATHIAN TO PINDUS 
 
 girdle, and people will listen to you as to the cuckoo's 
 song. 
 
 Neither is it difficult to hear the cuckoo sing : the 
 smallest grove, the thinnest cluster of bushes, is sure to 
 be visited by this prophetic bird. It sings all the spring, 
 up to the time when cherries are ripe in June ; to be 
 then silenced till next spring. " The cuckoo has eaten 
 cherries" is said of a singer who has lost his or her 
 voice. It does not seem to be considered as a very well- 
 balanced bird in its little winged mind : ** A cuckoo's 
 head " is said of a silly, thoughtless person. Again, *' He 
 is a cuckoo " is said of a tipsy man. Several legends are 
 told about the cuckoo, too, all supposing it to have been 
 a man once, as, indeed, most of the legends about birds 
 or animals tend to show. 
 
 At the first sound of the cuckoo's song the Roumanian 
 peasant will yoke his oxen to the plough and ploughing 
 begins, and with it the long and tiring labour for one 
 hundred and forty days, the length of the labour time. 
 
 In summer the peasant sleeps exceedingly little, and is 
 always up before dawn. Time-piece he has none; his 
 clock is the cock in the yard. The cock gives his first 
 sleepy crow on the stroke of midnight. The moment the 
 cock crows is the beginning of the first morning hour, the 
 cdntdtori (from cdntare, to sing); the crowing of the 
 cock is singing to the Roumanian ear — to the Latin ear 
 in general also, it seems. The cock then crows about 
 every hour in succession, but louder and livelier as time 
 advances and he is himself more awake. 
 
 The mdnecate (from mane) is the moment when the 
 busy peasant gets up, especially if he has some pressing 
 business on hand, a journey, for instance, or if his piece 
 of land is rather far. The third hour is the zori (the 
 dawn) when baby day and old decayed night " are stam- 
 mering at each other " ( se ingdnd ziua cu noapted). Now 
 the cock's part is done, he may crow for his own plea- 
 sure or for his hens' gratification ; henceforth the time 
 regulator for man is " the holy sun." 
 
 The peasant gets up : there is not much dressing, as 
 there has been but little undressing ; he washes his face 
 
PEASANT AT HOME AND AT WORK 223 
 
 with cold water and wipes it with a home-spun towel, or, 
 failing this, with his ample sleeve ; makes the sign of the 
 cross towards sunrise, and the fourth hour of the day will 
 find him on his way, in good time, or at his work. "When 
 the sun is pretty high above the horizon, " three spears 
 high," the hour is called the prdnzi§orul {ivomprandium) ; 
 it is the hour of the small dinner or breakfast. At mid-day 
 comes the prdnzul (the dinner), followed by a siesta. 
 Towards four o'clock is the kindia, the time of the toaka 
 at church (vespers). After sunset (the apus), comes the 
 amurg (dusk) ; then, after nightfall and supper, the straja 
 a treia, " the third sentry " (bed-time). 
 
 The sleep of the peasant, if short, is sound, one may well 
 assume, he being always so dead-tired, otherwise he could 
 hardly sleep a wink with the swarm of parasites that are 
 filling house and yard all through the summer. "It is 
 from the cattle," they say; neither do they seem inclined 
 to think that so much ado should be made about such 
 small insects : when one has some leisure one hunts 
 them ; otherwise, one lets them alone. But ** who on 
 earth has ever seen a summer without fleas ! " A summer 
 without fleas is an incredible fiction. The general view 
 of the thing seems rather to be that only dead bodies can 
 be without parasites of some sort or other; fleas seem to 
 be an unavoidable evil of summer life. In my rambles 
 about the country I had often the opportunity to spend 
 the night in peasant houses — fine houses, exceedingly 
 clean houses, in which nobody ever slept, in beds made 
 up with quite new blankets taken out from the pile of the 
 zestrea, yet I could hardly shut my eyes for fleas. More 
 than that : I have been sitting down in the forest under 
 trees I had soon to run away from, because of hosts of 
 fleas ! There is flea-producing wood, I have been told. 
 In mountainous districts it is even worse, as far as indoor- 
 sleeping goes ; few fleas truly, but, in return, no end of 
 nasty stinking, creeping bugs, produced by the pine- wood 
 of which the houses are made. They can be destroyed, 
 no doubt, but this requires such an amount of time, such 
 minute cleanliness, such repeated effort, that a peasant 
 housewife can hardly afford to do anything else than just 
 
224 FROM CARPATHIAN TO PINDUS 
 
 let them be. Winter will keep them qmet. No traveller 
 should ever venture on a Carpathian or Pindus tour 
 without a large supply of insect powder, and, moreover, 
 should never let himself be tempted into neglect by the 
 utterly misplaced belief that, in hotels, at least, the 
 servants might have time enough at their disposal to 
 ensure that which the too busy peasant wife cannot, a 
 flealess couch for the night ! 
 
 But the peasant sleeps soundly ; in the open in 
 summer, or indoors in winter, he has made the sign of 
 the cross on his pillow, stuck his fist under it, and will 
 not awake before cock-crow, lulled by the never-failing 
 symphony of dog-barking and lowing of cattle in 
 one or another yard, under the brilliant light of the 
 moon. 
 
 The night is uncanny to the peasant's mind. " Mid- 
 night " is for him a real being; the devil under all sorts 
 of shapes is abroad doing mischief, but the first cock- 
 crow will disperse all that : the morning is announced, 
 it is near at hand, and everything fearing daylight dis- 
 appears and hides itself away. That is why the first cock- 
 crow is considered as good as day, and is apt to bring a 
 sigh of relief from the awe-stricken bosom. A man can 
 start on his errand without any fear of the devil. One 
 man told me how once in his youth he was pasturing a 
 herd of bullocks, but somehow, one evening, he was late in 
 driving them back to the village : they ran about, and he 
 lost sight of them. He went in search of them, wandering 
 from wood to field, from hill to valley, but all in vain. At 
 last he seemed to lose consciousness ; he did not know 
 where he was no more than what he was about : a cloud 
 had settled on his weary mind, till, all of a sudden, a cock's 
 crow brought him back to his senses, just in time to 
 prevent his stepping over a ditch and tumbling down into 
 a deep pond. Not that you will not find men shaking 
 their head with a smile at the story, and suggesting : 
 ''Well, sleep may have troubled him!" But again, 
 some one else will immediately be reminded of some 
 similar mysterious case which had befallen him also in 
 his youth, of which no plausible explanation was to be 
 
PEASANT AT HOME AND AT WOKK 225 
 
 given either. The devil seems to have freer play with 
 youths, at all events. But if a peasant has a long 
 journey before him, he will, all the same, travel at night, 
 especially if there is moonlight ; and if the road is good 
 and fairly even, he will simply lie down in his cart, as 
 we might do in a railway carriage, and with much more 
 comfort, and his oxen slowly but steadily will draw him 
 on with just as much safety as the engine draws the 
 train. 
 
 If the sun is the peasant's clock, the moon {luna) is his 
 calendar. The phases of the moon are the chief regulator 
 of peasant activity, especially a woman's ; a brooding hen 
 is not to be set on her eggs at new moon, because the 
 chickens will then be continually shrieking ; the hair is 
 not to be cut during a waning moon, for then it will fall 
 off. The whitewashing of the walls is, on the contrary, 
 to be done during a waning moon, by which means the 
 troublesome insects will be killed. The planting and 
 felling of the trees is also regulated by the moon, and the 
 sowing of seeds too ; if the root is the important part of 
 the plant, the seed ought to be sown during a waning 
 moon ; if the outer part is to bear the fruit, then at new 
 moon. The moon is also a weather foreteller ; according 
 to the position of the crescent in the sky, one can say if 
 the month, or at least the quarter, is to be wet or dry ; if 
 the horns are upturned, there will be a drought ; if they 
 turn downward, there will be much rain. If, as it often 
 happens in winter, the moon has a halo, the weather will 
 be severe. At the time of an eclipse the moon is eaten 
 by vircolacif and this presages war, or invasion ! 
 {resmerita) . 
 
 It is a very good thing to have money about you when 
 you first see the new moon, for then you will not be 
 in want of money for the whole month. But do not 
 by any means come in to announce to those in the house 
 that there is a new moon, for all the pots in the kitchen 
 will get broken ! 
 
 At the sight of the new moon {crai-nou) children will 
 go into the yard and address it thus : 
 
 16 
 
226 FROM CARPATHIAN TO PINDUS 
 
 "Moon, new moon, 
 Cut the bread in two, 
 And give to us. 
 Half to thee, 
 Health to me." * 
 
 The moon is a great favourite with the people ; she 
 is the sister of the sun, and a beautiful legend tells us 
 the story of their origin. 
 
 The powerful sun rises one morning and sets out 
 in search of a suitable bride. Nine years on nine 
 successive horses, he has been running the world over 
 high and low, but has found nothing to please him, 
 except that on a sea strand he has come across a group 
 of nine girls, amongst whom the youngest, sitting in 
 the middle, like "a fine flower," surpassed them all in 
 nimbleness of fingers at weaving and beauty of her face, 
 and this was — 
 
 *' Ileana 
 Simziana f 
 The queen of the flowers, 
 And of the carnations. 
 The sister of the sun, 
 
 The sun goes up to her, praises her industry, and 
 proposes to wed her, explaining that with ail his 
 researches he has not been able to find a fitter wife 
 
 * "Lima, luna noua, 
 Taie panea 'n doua, 
 ^i ne da si noua, 
 "yie jumatate, 
 Mie sanatate." 
 
 f Ileana is Helen ; Simziana^ supposed to be derived from " semi- 
 divine " is also called Gosinzeana, especially about Moldavia. 
 
 J "Ileana 
 
 Simziana 
 Doamna florilor 
 S'a garoafelor 
 Sora soarelui 
 Spuma laptelui." 
 
PEASANT AT HOME AND AT WORK 227 
 
 for himself. Ileana timidly repels the suit, on the 
 
 ground that "who has ever seen, who has ever heard 
 
 of a brother wedding his own sister ? " The sun insists, 
 
 however, and Ileana, seeing no other way out of the 
 
 difficulty, promises to consent if he is able to build for 
 
 her a bridge of cast iron across the Black Sea, with, at the 
 
 end of it, a ladder reaching up to heaven. The powerful 
 
 sun has nothing more to do than just " clap his hands," 
 
 and bridge and ladder are ready in a moment. Then, 
 
 going up the ladder, the sun gets into heaven, where 
 
 he finds Adam and Eve, who, hearing of his arrival, are 
 
 awfully shocked, and try by all means to bring home 
 
 to him the unfitness, nay the great sin, of wedding one's 
 
 sister. They take him over the heavens, where he sees 
 
 long tables with joyous guests around, and all sorts of 
 
 pleasant things. Then over hell, where he sees all sorts 
 
 of dreadful punishments for sinners. But it is all in 
 
 vain. The sun was young then, passion had the best of 
 
 him, and he came down to his sister pressing his suit 
 
 harder than ever. After repeated protestations, Simziana, 
 
 in order to win time, asks for a copper bridge with a 
 
 cathedral at the end, to be married in ; but she is 
 
 immediately granted her desire by the mere clapping 
 
 of the sun's hands, and she must give in. They start 
 
 for the church, he leading her in front of him and 
 
 holding her by the hand. But Ileana has her own 
 
 scheme ; she asks the sun to let her walk behind, 
 
 pointing out how unfit it is for a woman to walk in 
 
 front of her husband. Left behind, she makes the sign 
 
 of the cross, jumps into the sea and is drowned: God 
 
 pities her and turns her into a barbel. The sun at once 
 
 commands fishers to search for her through the whole sea, 
 
 but they fish out nothing but a barbel. Saints come 
 
 down from heaven, clean her neatly of her scales, and 
 
 throw her up into the sky, Adam and Eve take her in ; 
 
 they polish her and call her Luna. She weeps bitter 
 
 tears for fear of again meeting the sun, but God is kind 
 
 to her and orders that, although her dominion will be in 
 
 the sky as well as the sun's, he shall never come within 
 
 reach of her, and so it is that — 
 
228 FROM CARPATHIAN TO PINDUS 
 
 "When the moon shines 
 The sun sets ; 
 When the sun rises 
 The moon dives in the sea." * 
 
 ni 
 
 The Roumanians are chiefly, if not solely, an agri- 
 cultural population, and in Free Eoumania more than 
 anywhere else. A German expert in the matter assigns 
 her the third place among the agricultural countries of 
 the world ; she comes third only after Russia and the 
 United States, which, colossal as they are, being 69 
 and 41 times respectively the size of Eoumania, produce 
 each only about eight times as much as she does, 
 Roumania cultivating 20 '7 per cent. — 60 per cent, of 
 her superficies — the other two only 8*3 per cent, and 
 5*2 per cent, respectively. And to think that the great 
 giants should still wish to bite a mouthful from the mite's 
 tiny morsel ! 
 
 The chief agricultural products are wheat and maize. 
 The soil is very fertile, mostly " heavy land," exactly 
 the best fitted for corn-growing. The arable stratum 
 is deep ; some places, like the Delta and the Bugeac or 
 south of Bassarabia, are said to be the most fertile in 
 the world, with an arable layer of one metre depth. 
 With such soil, no wonder that manuring is quite a 
 novelty, and looked at by the peasants as a wonder in 
 itself. On the other hand, agricultural methods are very 
 behind the times. The ploughing is still done by the 
 old simple plough, drawn by oxen, only very seldom by 
 horses; but there was a time, not very far back, when 
 even the plough was of wood ! To-day, one may see 
 on Roumanian soil the latest improvements of agri- 
 cultural machinery, but that is on the lands of rich 
 
 ^' " Luna cand luce^te 
 Soarele sfin|ie^te ; 
 Soare c4nd rasare 
 Luna intra'n mare.' 
 
^^, 
 
 
 li 
 
 i ^^^^H 
 
 
 PP^i ^^ -w^illHIMIMMMI^M^M 
 
 Carrying the Hay. 
 
 \Photo, y. Cazaban, 
 
 e page 228. 
 
 With Hay to Town. 
 
 IPhoto, J. Cazaban. 
 
PEASANT AT HOME AND AT WORK 229 
 
 agriculturists only, and here we are concerned with, 
 plain peasants only, small agriculturists, whose number 
 is reckoned to be some 937,389, as against some 4,060 
 large and middle agriculturists, owning land above one 
 hundred hectares each. From early spring into late 
 autumn, with hardly an interruption in summer, one 
 may see ploughs with two at least, or three and four 
 pairs of oxen, slowly marching up and down hill, and 
 trimming the earth with dark velvet stripes, growing 
 broader and broader under their untiring steps, till they 
 have covered the whole field with an ample brown cloak. 
 The oldest man holds the horns of the plough, to draw 
 the furrow straight ; a boy with his long whip drives the 
 oxen, who walk sedately on, under the old-fashioned 
 heavy yoke, looking, with their melancholy black eye, 
 as though they had long given up all hope of progress 
 in their employment. "With all his slowness in adopting 
 improvements, the peasant seems to have got a deep 
 sense of the suffering connected with the yoke, but instead 
 of bestowing his sympathy on the ox, it is the yoke 
 he has made an almost sacred thing of. It is a sin to 
 put into the fire a yoke, or even a splinter of it. 
 
 The sowing is done by hand only. A pretty sight 
 to look at is the sower, with arms swinging regularly, 
 as if in the act of pronouncing incantations on the fresh 
 dark furrow. Still prettier the sight of mowers, in a 
 straight, long row in the flowery meadow ; a splendid 
 and delightful exercise too, and if machines were intro- 
 duced for every other work, mowing, at least, should 
 be left to the hand scythe, and as many people as 
 possible induced to partake in it — it would widen the 
 area of human happiness ! But machines should be 
 introduced as soon as possible for the cutting of wheat ; 
 the sickle is an instrument of torture, and reaping the 
 most tiring and hardest toil in the fields, and not in 
 the least a healthy exercise either, as mowing is. Hoeing 
 is done in very primitive ways too, and very hard work 
 it is, but at least it has the advantage of being a healthy, 
 strengthening occupation. And what amount of hoeing 
 is required one may imagine, knowing that Free 
 
230 FROM CARPATHIAN TO PINDUS 
 
 Roumania alone grows maize on more than two million 
 hectares, that every maize field requires at least two 
 successive hoeings, and that maize is the staple food 
 of the Roumanians at large. It is striking how all 
 Latin people took to maize, imported from America 
 only in the beginning of the sixteenth century. Before 
 maize, the Roumanian's food was millet, called in 
 Roumanian '* meiu " or malai, whence the name of 
 mamaliga, made now of maize, the polenta of the 
 Italians, a kind of hard porridge, only sweeter and 
 tastier than porridge. Millet is almost out of use 
 now, and grown only on a very small scale. Maize 
 production is difficult, as it has been calculated that 
 for one hectare of maize the labour required is 42 days, 
 while the same hectare of wheat requires only 10 days* 
 labour. The wheat grown in Roumania is said to be 
 of the very best quality, richer in gluten than any 
 other in Europe. There are two sorts of wheat ; by 
 far the most appreciated is the autumn corn, sown in 
 September, which, if there is plenty of snow in winter, 
 will answer splendidly, but woe if the winter has been 
 bare of snow ! Then the agriculturist will be glad to fall 
 back on the spring corn. Oats seem to answer very well, 
 but are cultivated on a comparatively small area, being 
 only used for horse feeding, and not much asked for 
 abroad, it appears. Porridge is an unknown thing 
 among Roumanians, and oatmeal bread is considered as 
 a calamity, to fall on poor people in famine times only. 
 Neither does rye bread enjoy much popularity, and it 
 is cultivated on a still smaller area. Rape-seed is hardly 
 cultivated except by large agriculturists; it can give 
 splendid results and help a man on wonderfully, but 
 can also bring him to ruin in no time, with the most 
 unsettled of weathers ! 
 
 Important as the fertility of the soil and the ways 
 of working it may be, it is not the only thing : a good 
 harvest depends very much on the weather, and this 
 is so very uncertain that an agriculturist's head may 
 have ample time to turn grey between Lady-Day and 
 Michaelmas, St, George and St. Demetre, as to whether 
 
PEASANT AT HOME AND AT WORK 231 
 
 it will rain in time, or if it will stop raining in time, 
 or if there will be no hail storms ; troubles from which, 
 in fact, nothing can distract his anxious mind, except 
 the hardness and pressure of the work itself. The care- 
 worn mind of the poor agriculturist, always on the 
 look-out for future events, has invented a number of 
 prognostics, in which not only the moon but all nature 
 takes a part. When the sparrows flutter about chirruping ; 
 when the cattle make a row and the forest is astir with 
 sound ; when the cock crows all day long, the ducks 
 beat the ground with their wings, and the frogs keep 
 up their croaking concert ; when the mist rises, the sun 
 sets in a cloud, and your ears itch, there will surely be 
 rain. When, on the other hand, the setting sun " looks 
 behind," gilding the sides of the hill he rose from, when 
 the sparrows take a bath in the dust, when the storks 
 stand quietly in the field, the lambs gambol gaily about, 
 and the cat after washing her face with her paw looks at 
 the door, there will be fine weather. But when the 
 sparrows are hurrying about, looking for a shelter under 
 the roof, when the lark dashes unheedingly at the 
 window, when cattle bellow, looking up into the air, 
 and the pig goes about with a straw blade in his snout, 
 then a storm is threatening. And many other are the 
 weather prognostics, and what is still more bewildering 
 than their number is that they are often contradictory. 
 But then there are means of influencing the weather, 
 some of which have already been alluded to, as the 
 Paparude, the Caloian, the witcheries of the Solomonari ; 
 in some places, the interment of a doll at a crossing 
 is supposed to stop the rain, or again, the tossing down 
 into a well of a holy image, stolen out of a church or 
 house. Besides, from Joi-mari (Thursday before Easter) 
 until Ispas (Ascension Day), the women will never do 
 any house work, such as spinning, sewing, or laundry 
 work, on a Thursday, as it might either bring down hail, 
 or else stop the rain and bring in a drought. 
 
 The uncertainty of the weather is thus the greatest 
 drawback with Koumanian agriculture, and this has 
 surely done much to work into the peasant's head the 
 
232 FROM CARPATHIAN TO PINDUS 
 
 belief that all depends only on God's will, and all is to 
 be expected only from Him. Among the leading classes 
 there is a talk of irrigation, and plantations of new 
 woods, and systems of manuring and new methods of 
 tillage being introduced, but all that is a matter of time, 
 a long time to wait, and also a matter of capital, hardly 
 ever available. Trials, however, are made on some 
 private properties, and especially on the Crown dominions, 
 whose chief object seems to be to become model-farms 
 for the surrounding peasants to copy. Until the hoped- 
 for progress has settled in, the Roumanian peasant will 
 go on sticking to his traditional ways and methods, and 
 will look to Heaven for rain and for sunshine, but will 
 all the same firmly believe that the only possible work 
 for him to do is agriculture. It is really wonderful to 
 look at their faithfulness to the soil, at their unshaken 
 loyalty to husbandry : hardly have they shut the doors 
 of their empty barns in a bad year than they will 
 unhesitatingly again begin to plough, to sow, to harrow, 
 and so on, year after year, with their hopes and their 
 fears always in the bosom of the earth. Beside the 
 evils arising from unseasonable weather there are others. 
 Mischievous insects there are, depositing their eggs in 
 the sown fields in September ; but then a good frosty 
 winter will destroy them one and all — let alone that they 
 are ^likely to have been eaten up by crows, which, how- 
 ever, from a blessing can become a curse, if they find no 
 insects, destroying whole fields of corn and maize. Then 
 dogs, in numerous free flocks about the villages, are great 
 destroyers of maize in autumn, in which damage the 
 badgers take their part in the vicinity of woods ; the very 
 sparrows become a nuisance to the com grower, and 
 nothing but the gentle swallow will help against the 
 general damage — that is why peasant boys will tell you 
 that it is no sin to kill a sparrow, but a very great one 
 to harm a swallow. All these minor evils, however, are 
 noticed by the husbandman only in bad years ; at other 
 times he will tell you, when God gives, there is plenty 
 for all his beasts to feed upon, and for man to reap 
 plentifully. 
 
PEASANT AT HOME AND AT WORK 233 
 
 In all the minor branches of agriculture there is still 
 much room for improvement : some of them only want 
 reviving, as they seem only to be asleep, after having 
 flourished in old times ; others want downright develop- 
 ment. 
 
 The Eoumanian is not much of a gardener — so little, 
 indeed, that vegetable gardens are called bulgdrii, being 
 almost always kept by immigrant Bulgarians, who grow 
 all the vegetables for the town's supply, the staple pro- 
 duce being melons, water and sugar melons, cucumbers, 
 pimentos, cabbages, vegetable marrows, tomatoes, &c. 
 Potatoes do not yet enjoy much favour with the 
 Roumanian peasant as regular food, but seem to be 
 gaining ground, nevertheless ; they are grown in the 
 bulgdrii, but still more are they sown between the 
 maize, where also one can see no end of pumpkins 
 creeping among the maize in all directions, and also 
 haricot beans, which are grown in great quantities, 
 being the staple food of the Roumanians in fasting 
 times. 
 
 Vines are cultivated on an immense area, and there 
 are places celebrated for wine in Transylvania, Valachia, 
 and especially Moldavia; in good and plentiful years 
 the wine comes down. at such a rate that it is sold at 
 fivepence the vadra (some fifteen litros — over three 
 gallons), of course, not of the very best quality, yet such 
 as splendidly suits the business of wine-dealers in the 
 "West of Europe ! But vineyards are mostly near towns 
 and belong to townspeople ; there are vineyards round 
 the villages, but few of these cultivated for trade ; hardly 
 ever will a peasant sell his wine. He makes a cask or 
 two at the most, and just manages to get it drunk before 
 frost comes on, as deep cellars are not a usual commodity 
 in peasant households. In hilly regions they grow 
 prunes, of which alcohol is made. The Valachian sort 
 is celebrated under the name of fuica, a light, tasty 
 drink, mostly used as an aperient, very agreeable if well 
 made ; but the peasants usually make it at home, and 
 distillation is a rather complicated process, and the result 
 is that what they get to drink is a horrid stuff compared 
 
234 FROM CARPATHIAN TO PINDUS 
 
 with the otherwise stronger Moldavian rakiu, and 
 especially the good Moldavian wine. 
 
 In olden times the Roumanians used to be great honey 
 producers, owing to the riches of flowers in the 
 meadows, but since tillage has more and more en- 
 croached on the hayfields, and sugar mills have taken 
 in hand the industry of the bees, this production has very 
 much diminished ; but there is a tendency to revive it. 
 
 Besides these agricultural occupations, others are being 
 pushed more and more to the front. Mining is gradually 
 opening as a new or renewed peasant industry; in 
 Transylvania it is mostly by Roumanian peasants that 
 the mines of salt, lead, iron, silver and gold are worked ; 
 in Free Roumania there are extensive petrole'jm fields, 
 whose area is developed year by year farther ; anthracite 
 mines, worked by peasants also, and large salt mines, 
 which, however, are almost entirely worked by criminals 
 sentenced to hard labour. 
 
 Another trade once in great favour with the Roumanian 
 peasant, but disappearing fast now with the multiplica- 
 tion of railway lines, is the carrying trade {cdrdu§ia, or 
 chiria). Formerly endless strings of oxen-carts could be 
 seen filing off slowly along the highways, carrying corn to 
 Galatzi and Braila, the greatest ports on the Danube; 
 the trade is now almost extinct, but it used to bring 
 a fair income into the peasant's pocket. Even in the 
 mountains the locomotive is striving hard to replace the 
 patient ox, but the lines through the mountains being 
 few as yet, we may still have the chance of coming across 
 old-fashioned carriers. "What they carry here is timber, 
 in carts too, but still more in rafts (plute) which are 
 not over safe, being made up only of the wood carried, 
 and fastened together with ropes, more seldom with 
 iron chains; these rafts are delightful to look at, as 
 they slide arrow-like on the swift stream, but are apt 
 to make you feel very uncomfortable, if you too 
 happen to be upon one of them. Only, you soon get 
 used to it. And then the scenery is so beautiful all about 
 you, the way so smooth ; the able cirmaciu in front and 
 the trustworthy ddlcdu§ steering behind look so very 
 
PEASANT AT HOME AND AT WORK 235 
 
 wise and competent, that you entirely forget you are 
 gliding on Death's slippery back. It is not at all rare to 
 hear of unfortunate accidents in connection with rafts, 
 but the news of them does not spread far, and, even 
 in the place, they do not stop for one moment the busy 
 course of the other rafts. 
 
 The Eoumanian is not a tradesman, except in so far as 
 trade is connected with his own special pursuits, or with 
 agriculture: if he has an industry, it is industry as a 
 direct branch of agriculture ; if he has a business, it 
 is only to sell his own agricultural goods, and these 
 he hardly ever sells except on the spot. In the neigh- 
 bourhood of towns, the peasants sometimes go in with a 
 cart-load of firewood, eggs, or milk produce, but town 
 dealers are often too much for them, and on returning 
 home at night they will find out that if they have 
 not actually lost by trade, the day's labour and often also 
 that of the oxen have gone for nothing ; that is why they 
 prefer to sell their wares for a trifle to the crafty Jew 
 who comes out to meet them far beyond the town's 
 barrier. But a market the peasant is always glad to 
 go to is a fair (iarmaroc), where, beside traffic, there is a 
 good supply of amusement too; fairs used to be great 
 things with poor and rich some time ago, but they are 
 falling more and more into disuse now. 
 
 But the Roumanian is a tradesman where he cannot 
 call the soil his own, in the regions of the Pindus. A 
 cheese trade was developed early ; the Valachian cheese 
 used to play so prominent a part in the commerce of 
 Ragusa that it was used along with money as a standard 
 of price. The price of the caseus valachicus (ca§ or 
 hrenza, called hrenga in a document of 1357) was regu- 
 lated by the authorities. But the cheese trade was 
 insufficient for Roumanian wants ; they took to the 
 carrying trade too, doing it by means of caravans ; with 
 their mountain nags, the Roumanian chirigii carried lead 
 from Bosnia to Ragusa and took back salt in return ; 
 to-day still, many Roumanians are carriers. Very many 
 of them, too, are innkeepers (Jiangii) and their (hans) 
 inns are reputed by travellers to be the cleanest in the 
 
236 FROM CARPATHIAN TO PINDUS 
 
 country. Also industry is much more developed south 
 of the Danube, where many Valachs are found to have 
 settled in towns and undertaken various industries, 
 especially metal work, at which they seem to be very 
 clever, their filigrees being quite famous. They also are 
 said to be particularly skilful at wood-carving. 
 
 The Roumanian of the Carpathians, always master of 
 the soil, has kept to the working of it; that is why 
 commerce has been left for foreigners to take in hand. 
 Among the ruling classes there is much talk in Free 
 Roumania of developing industry for the benefit of the 
 people — they had better care about all the development 
 that could still be given to agriculture, for, poor as the 
 Roumanian peasant is, he is still at a great advantage 
 compared to his brother in Western industrial countries ; 
 he has at least fresh air to live in and work in, and 
 splendid nature to look at, which benefits are denied the 
 workman in the mill, and must make a very great 
 difference to their bodies and minds. Thank God, up to 
 now we have only a few mills of paper, matches, rough 
 cloth and sugar; if some profit is to be expected from 
 them, it is only in a dim far-away future ; up to now, 
 they, or at least some of them, have only brought a great 
 expense on Government for protecting them, and ridi- 
 culously high prices for paper and still more for sugar. 
 
 But the Roumanian peasant is a good deal of an in- 
 dustrialist in his own way. Almost everything about the 
 house, with the house itself, is of his own make. I have 
 seen peasants making their own stoves and manufacturing 
 the very bricks for them. Among them, the ablest at one 
 special work is sure to be applied to by the others in case 
 of want ; and so one always meets in a village with 
 peasant artisans such as carpenters, wheelwrights, and so 
 on, even bootmakers and cobblers. No doubt all these 
 village industries can be enlarged and greatly improved, 
 but it would be a great pity if this had the result of 
 drawing the peasants into towns. The Roumanian does 
 not dislike trade, he well appreciates it — 
 
 " Trade is a golden bracelet " * 
 * " Me^te^ugul e bra^ara de aur." 
 
To face page 237. 
 
 Woman Riding. 
 
 IPhoto, J. Cazaban. 
 
PEASANT AT HOME AND AT WORK 237 
 
 says a popular proverb ; but he by far prefers agriculture, 
 and there are trades that seem to thoroughly disagree 
 with the Eoumanian nature, the blacksmith, e.g., is 
 invariably a gipsy, so much so that **the gipsy" means 
 just the same as '* the blacksmith." 
 
 lY 
 
 But the great industriaHst in a peasant household is 
 the housewife. To begin with, all the household duties 
 are in her hands, as the man does not interfere with 
 them — never, at least, indoors ; in the yard he may help 
 her if he has a mind to, by splitting firewood or milking 
 the cow, but everything else is the woman's business. 
 And if she has a host of children, the elder ones will 
 usually be of some help to the mother. From the early 
 morning she has to set the house in order and to think 
 of preparing the family's food. The house must be 
 swept, after having been sprinkled with water to prevent 
 the rising of dust. The rubbish is carefully thrown out 
 on the rubbish heap, but on no account thrust carelessly 
 into the sun's face, which it would stain, and then the 
 sun would take his revenge by burning the crops, or in 
 winter he may let loose the harness of frost, and bring 
 perdition on man and beast. If she has possibly been 
 too busy to sweep in the morning, she will do it in 
 the evening, but then the rubbish is not to be taken out, 
 but left behind the door till next morning, otherwise 
 the cows would not come to their calves. She then 
 gets food ready. Eoumanian cookery is very elaborate, 
 and there is a number of dishes a Roumanian peasant 
 woman can cook if she only can afford it, but as a 
 matter of fact, want will come to the rescue and make 
 things ever so much easier. The plainest kind of food, 
 the real national dish, is the mamdliga with hrdnza 
 (cheese, sheep cheese). The mamdliga takes the place 
 of bread, which is considered a luxury in a peasant's 
 house ; the mdmdliga is always made fresh for each 
 meal and eaten warm ; cold mdmdliga can be eaten too, 
 
238 FROM CARPATHIAN TO PINDUS 
 
 but if a fire is at hand, it is cut into slices and fried on 
 the embers. Also a baked bread can be made of Indian 
 meal, called malai, very tasty and sweet. Dishes of herbs 
 and vegetables, and of fowl and fish, are very numerous ; 
 meat is rarely used. In summer the meals are mostly 
 taken in the field, beside the work. After the husband's 
 departure for the field, the wife will put the prepared 
 food in pots, earthen pans, and clean napkins; the 
 dry sort is put in a bag, which she usually rests on her 
 back, with the sling aslant her head, the pots with juicy 
 food which ought not to be upset she carries in her right 
 hand in a bundle, the left being often occupied by the 
 baby, and thus loaded she will walk to the field where 
 the husband is long since at work, and they break their 
 fast, working afterwards, with food kept for the following 
 meal, at midday. At home the meals are taken on a 
 round low table on three legs, which usually stands 
 against the wall in the tinda, and is spread in the middle 
 of the room only for the meals. The family sits round 
 as well as it can, on small stools, or anything handy 
 about the room, a log or so, or kneeling on one knee often 
 enough. In well-to-do rdzdshi houses this table is set 
 on the large bed, and the people, if few, will sit round, 
 not exactly lying, but with outstretched legs, and the 
 back leaning on cushions against the wall. No table- 
 cloth is used, except on festival occasions. The table, 
 of white wood, is milk-white with scrubbing ; the mdrnd- 
 liga is turned out in the middle of it from the ciaun 
 (iron round kettle for mdmdliga) and stands like a golden 
 cupola smoking there until everybody has sat down 
 round the table. In the meanwhile the wife is careful 
 to take off the fire the pirostii — iron tripod on which 
 the ciaun has been boiling — otherwise she might also 
 burn in hell's flames. If the mdmdliga is furrowed with 
 cracks, this means that an unexpected journey is at 
 hand for some one of the household. The men, who 
 usually go covered about the house, will take off their 
 hats or bonnets when sitting down to eat ; to eat covered 
 would be a sin, for which *' God would weep and the 
 devil laugh." They all quietly make the sign of the cross. 
 
PEASANT AT HOME AND AT WORK 239 
 
 Then the mdmaliga is cut into slices, with a thread, 
 carefully from upside down, and not the other way, 
 as then the maize grows ear, and divided among the 
 members of the family. The courses then come in, in 
 a porringer {strachina) y put in the middle of the table, 
 from which every one helps himself with his own wooden 
 spoon, or if there is not a spoon for each, several will 
 help themselves in turn. The bill of fare will be as varied 
 as means will permit : a chicken hor§, a soup, wholesome 
 and tasty — made with fermented meal in water, producing 
 a somewhat sour, clear liquid, to be used for cooking the 
 whole week round — some stewed fowl also, meat being 
 very rare in villages. In winter, pork and mutton can 
 be had; mutton only about the Dobragia. On fast -days, 
 the horsh is prepared with herbs and all sorts of vegetables, 
 of which also stews are made, like haricot-beans, beans, 
 peas, lentils, beetroot, potatoes, cabbages — sour cabbages 
 all the winter — pickles, and, in poorer households, the 
 bill of fare will not often extend beyond a mojdei, bruised 
 garlic, with salt and water — if vinegar can be added, 
 it is considered a delicacy ; also, raw onion with salt will 
 easily constitute a dish, and I have seen shepherds on 
 fast-days eat their mdmaliga with plain fresh water from 
 the pail. Fruit is used in stews, eaten also with mdma- 
 liga , as soon as it is ripe, and unfortunately also long 
 before that time. When pouring out the food from the 
 pot the housewife must never look into it to see if there 
 is no more left at the bottom, but just try with a spoon ; 
 looking at the bottom of the pot brings poverty. Neither 
 must a girl ever eat out of the pot, for then she will have 
 rain at her wedding. The drink is the pail of water in 
 some corner of the room, out of which everybody helps 
 himself with a small pot (ulcica) ; the grown-up will also 
 help themselves directly out of the pail. But no one 
 ever drinks without tossing some drops out of the vessel, 
 by blowing them over ; these are for the dead. 
 
 Besides the feeding of her small or large family, the 
 peasant wife has the care of her fowls, and ducks and 
 geese, and turkeys, of which she generally rears large 
 broods; if she can afford to eat them in the house — as 
 
240 FEOM CARPATHIAN TO PINDUS 
 
 many of the well-to-do will — so much the better, but 
 she will probably prefer to sell them, because of the 
 chronic want of money. 
 
 "With all this, the peasant wife has to keep herself 
 and her family clean ; on Saturday afternoon she is 
 always at home, washing the linen, cleaning and scrub- 
 bing, to end at last with a thorough washing of children, 
 husband and herself. The Idutoare (washing of the head) 
 is universal on Saturday evening in every Roumanian 
 household. And it is rare that a wife neglects her home 
 duties ; sarcasms would pour out upon her at the Sunday 
 dance, in the indirect strigdturi (shoutings of verses) 
 which often have a really wholesome effect on village life. 
 Among these, there are many aimed at lazy women, not 
 because there are many lazy women, but because it is 
 considered so great a shame for a woman to be lazy. 
 
 "Green leaf of a tulip, 
 How industrious my wife is: 
 She set the pot for the washing 
 And grass has grown underneath 1 " * 
 
 Besides the usual house work, the peasant woman 
 does a large amount of field work too ; no ploughing is 
 done by her, nor mowing, but any other field work short 
 of stacking the hay, which the men pretend is much 
 beyond a woman's capacity, and for which even among 
 themselves a special gift seems to be required. In 
 mountainous districts, women do little field work, as 
 there is not overmuch of it for men, and that is why 
 they can do a much larger amount of house work ; some 
 of them, however, in certain places help in felling wood 
 with the men. 
 
 But, as already said, the woman is the great indus- 
 trialist of the peasantry, and she takes almost every trade 
 
 "^ " Frunza verde ^'o lalea 
 Hamica-i nevasta mea ; 
 A pus oala sa se lea 
 §i-a crescut iarba sub ea ! " 
 
OF THE 
 
 UlNUVERs/TV 
 
 OF 
 
PEASANT AT HOME AND AT WORK 241 
 
 ah ovo. She works hemp and flax, up from the very 
 seed. The man will only plough her piece of land for 
 her, then she sows the hemp or lint seed ; when the 
 plant is ripe and dry, she takes it to the pool to put it " to 
 melt," then brings it home and passes it through all the 
 processes — bracking, combing, and spinning. The big 
 loom is spread out in the principal room, or in the second 
 best, to be then taken away and folded under the roof 
 in spring. And all sorts of cloths are made of hemp by 
 them, for everyday wear ; of linen, and finer stuffs. 
 They also weave much cotton stuff, the cotton being 
 bought in town as prepared yarn ; they make beautiful 
 tissues, with varied patterns and elaborate stripes, very 
 serviceable as tablecloths and napkins and towels, for 
 which there is a large demand, even in towns, as they 
 wear beautifully. The bleaching is done by the women, 
 too, the cloth being repeatedly rinsed at the well and 
 spread on the grass that the sun may do his part, whilst 
 the women will patiently sit by with their distaff in their 
 girdle, spinning. 
 
 The peasant woman grows silk — an industry that was 
 universal once upon a time, but neglected of late, though 
 now meeting with more demand and fresh encouragement. 
 She only buys in town the silkworm-seed, then produces 
 worms, on the best bed of the house, or if there is no 
 room, then under the bed, on mulberry leaves, changed 
 daily, and, if no invasion of ants breaks in to destroy 
 them, they will produce a finer or coarser sort of silk, of 
 yellow or white colour, which the women then spin on a 
 pretty distaff in the shape of a bow. "With silk they 
 weave stuff for shifts and head-veils, sometimes wonder- 
 fully thin and beautiful, with stripes or delicate designs 
 in white cotton. 
 
 She also works wool. After the sheep are shorn in 
 spring the wool comes into the women's hands ; after 
 varied processes of washing, combing, spinning, the 
 worsted, of various qualities, according to the thickness or 
 sort of wool, is woven into all sorts of carpets, for the 
 house and for sale, into blankets and thick stuffs, into 
 coverlets and many articles of clothing, it being used in 
 
 17 
 
242 FROM CARPATHIAN TO PINDUS 
 
 the natural colour, or dyed, in as many colours as needed, 
 by the women themselves. They weave their beautiful 
 catrintas with silver stripes or designs ; they weave all 
 their husbands* and all their household garments. The 
 cloth for sumane, of white or brown worsted, is then 
 carried to a piua, a fulling-mill, situated high up on some 
 mountain stream ; and the women in most of the places 
 will do the carrying, too. The women about the Mol- 
 davian Dorna are examples of this. Some scores of years 
 ago, when the intercourse along the river Bistritza was 
 limited to narrow footpaths, one woman would generally 
 undertake to carry the cloth of the whole village. The 
 cloth was loaded on horses, who were then tied in a long 
 string of a dozen perhaps, each with the bridle tied 
 to the tail of the horse in front ; she drove them along 
 up-hill, step by step, singing all the time, interrupting 
 herself only to urge the horses on, or rather making of 
 that very incitement a refrain to her song : — 
 
 " Green leaf of a tulip, 
 Oh my poor heart 
 Has again begun to ache, 
 Deh, horse Dehl 
 
 And so hard does it ache 
 That I can ride no more, 
 Hee, uphill, Heel 
 
 Neither ride nor walk can I, 
 As does a weak human being 
 Hee, boy, hee 1 " * 
 
 =i= " Foaie verde ^i-o lale 
 Saraca inima me 
 lar o prins a ma dure 
 De, cal, de 1 
 
 ^'a^a ma doare de tare 
 De nu pociu merge calare 
 Hi, la deal, hi I 
 
 Nici calare, nici pe jos 
 Cum e omul pacatos 
 Hi, mai, hi I 
 
Wool bi 
 
 [Photo, Al. Antoniu. 
 
 ce page 242. 
 
PEASANT AT HOME AND AT WORK 243 
 
 And woe to the woman who is not industrious ! Not 
 only the husband may take it upon himself to correct her 
 aziness, that does not count for much — 
 
 " An unbeaten woman is like an undressed mill " * — 
 
 but there will also be much teasing for her at the dance 
 on Sunday, in the fearless sfrigdturi, at which nobody 
 dares to get angry, for fear of exposure ; one for a lazy 
 woman : — 
 
 ** Since my mother's maidenhood, 
 I had two lots of yarn; 
 I set the cloth on the warper, 
 I don't know one or two years since. 
 
 Cloth, cloth! 
 
 Become a foal. 
 And do run home to mother 
 And neigh that she may weave thee I " f 
 
 Then the lazy woman's calendar has been made up for 
 her in more than one way, the most widely spread of 
 which is the following : — 
 
 ••Monday is (St.) Luney, 
 Tuesday, Macovey, 
 Wednesday I go to town, 
 Thursday I do the shopping, J 
 
 * " Femeia ne-batuta e ca moara ne-ferecata." 
 
 f '• Din fetia mamei mele 
 Avui doua torturele 
 Pusei panza pe urzoi 
 Nu §tiu de un an ori doi. 
 
 Panza, panza 1 
 
 Fa-te m&nza 
 ^i te du la mam' acasa 
 $i rincheaza sa te ^asa I " 
 
 J ••Lunl-i Lunei, 
 Mar|ii, Macovei, 
 Mercuri ma due la targ, 
 Joi tilrguesc. 
 
244 FROM CARPATHIAN TO PINDUS 
 
 Friday I come home, 
 Saturday I will rest, 
 And Sunday, if the popa works, 
 I will work also." * 
 
 Sometimes, however, it appears that clever, cunning 
 women will be able to take in their surroundings and by 
 their ready wit cover their too little love of work. One 
 story tells of a woman who, although married for some 
 time, had spun no more than one single spindle of hemp 
 yarn and carefully stored it up in the loft. If the husband 
 ever hinted at anything like a want of industry on her 
 part, it was not a mild scolding he got from her. Until 
 one day he insisted on being shown the winter's work. 
 The wife said the loft was full of spindles, and even 
 offered to count them, and with this she lightly sprang 
 to the opening of the loft, while the somewhat slower 
 husband remained at the bottom of the ladder. She very 
 dexterously show^ed him the one spindle a hundred times 
 in succession, until he, very much confused, acknowledged 
 that he had undeservedly suspected his wife, and that 
 nothing more was wanted than a rd§cliitor, a hand reel, 
 to make the yarn into skeins, and then to set it on the 
 loom for weaving ; so he set out for the wood, to cut the 
 required reel. But the audacious woman took a shorter 
 path thither, and from a hiding-place began to shout in 
 a changed voice: " Whoever cuts reels, his wife dies!" 
 (Cine taie rd^chitoare, femeia-i moare f) at the hearing of 
 which the fond husband returned home with empty hands. 
 But the artful woman went the length of laughing at 
 his credulity. Next day she played the same trick, but 
 the third time it no more succeeded, as the husband was 
 no longer imposed upon by the ominous shouting, and 
 brought home the hand-reel. The deceitful woman was 
 not at her wits' end, however. She just managed to 
 make a skein with the one spindle she had, then, filling 
 
 * Vineri ma 'ntorc acasa, 
 Simbata ma odihnesc, 
 ^i Duminica, daca a lucra popa, 
 Oi lucra §i eu." 
 
PEASANT AT HOME AND AT WORK 245 
 
 a bucket with rough, uncombed hemp, set the kettle in 
 the yard in order to boil the yarn, which must be done 
 before weaving. On the top of the hemp, she placed the 
 one skein, and then began to pour the boiling water on it. 
 As she had — or pretended to have — some other work to 
 attend to, she asked her husband to take care of the 
 bucket for awhile, but, " Mind," she said, " let no crow 
 by any means fly over the bucket, as if she does, all the 
 yarn will turn into rough hemp inside." And so the man 
 did, but he found it quite impossible to over-rule the high 
 flying crows, and the unfortunate result was that on 
 emptying the bucket there was nothing but rough hemp 
 cdlti in it ! 
 
 But the hold fldcdi (swains) at the hora would hear of 
 it, and the too simple husband is not considered less 
 answerable for the bad ways of his wife : — 
 
 *' The wife who is in love 
 Washes and mends by night, 
 And changes her shift by day (bis). 
 
 If she sets to dance the hora 
 
 Her heart gets ablaze 
 
 And the dance she ever prolongs (bis).* 
 
 Allegro. M.M. = J^ 192. 
 
 i 
 
 Spa - la noa - ptea si - car - pe - §te §i 
 
 zi-ua se 
 
 ISSI 
 
 3t=i: 
 
 ^m 
 
 ^ 
 
 pri - mi - ne - ^te Si - zi-ua se pri - mi - ne^te. 
 
 "Nevasta care iube^te 
 Spala noaptea §i carpe^te 
 §i ziua se primine^te (bis). 
 La hora daca se prinde 
 Inima i se aprinde 
 ^i dan^ul mereu intinde (bis). 
 
246 FROM CARPATHIAN TO PINDUS 
 
 She jumps, straining the steps, 
 The children cry, she cares not, 
 Neither for house nor for table (bis). 
 
 But the husband, he, poor man, 
 
 Carries his load to the mill ; 
 
 Devil take the two of them I " (bis).* 
 
 * Sare pasurile 'ndeasa 
 Plang copiii ei nu-i pasa 
 Nici de casa nici de masa (bis). 
 
 lar barbatul el saracul 
 Cara la moara cu sacul 
 Pe-am4ndoi lua-i ar dracul I " (bis). 
 
I 
 
CHAPTEE VI 
 THE PEASANT IN HIS SOCIAL RELATIONS 
 CUSTOMS AT BIRTHS, CHRISTENINGS, WEDDINGS, DEATHS 
 
 "A CHILD is a blessing in a man's house," goes the 
 saying, and woe to the woman who has none : she will 
 feel extremely unhappy, and will have to consult babas 
 and submit to their incantations, and drink their herb- 
 infusions, and leave no stone unturned to get into the 
 blissful state of motherhood. Neither is one child the 
 climax of happiness, for with one child the too fond 
 parent has always an anxious heart whenever the 
 slightest ailment appears ; and if a parent were unfor- 
 tunate enough to lose the one child, he will assure you 
 that ** one child is worse than none at all." The Kou- 
 manian peasant feels very comfortable with a houseful 
 of children round him, and as a rule this is also the 
 case ; one hardly ever comes on a childless peasant's 
 home. Unfortunately, though many children are born, 
 it is no exaggeration to say, I am afraid, that no more 
 than half of them are reared into men and women. 
 The death-rate among small babies is great ; in some 
 parts, epidemics of diphtheria have almost become 
 endemic; and if the sanitary arrangements are much 
 beneath the mark for grown-up people, they are much 
 more so for children. And if a Spartan breeding is by 
 far preferable to the up-bringing of weaklings, on the 
 other hand it is a great pity that so many children should 
 be mowed down by preventable diseases. 
 
 247 
 
248 FROM CARPATHIAN TO PINDUS 
 
 A woman who expects a baby has many rules to observe 
 and much advice to follow, and must do this, and not do 
 that, and so on, until baby has seen daylight. And she 
 is never to look at ugly things or beings, as the child is 
 then in danger of resembling them; and not to steal 
 things — as though that inclination were inherent to 
 her actual state — for the image of the stolen object 
 would appear on the body or face of the innocent 
 offspring; and be careful not to yearn for things, or if 
 so, have the yearning satisfied, or else miscarriage would 
 be the fatal outcome of deprivation. When the moment 
 of birth has come, great mystery must be observed, and 
 the news must not be spread about, as then the birth 
 would be a very pamful one. If another woman happens 
 to hear of it, she should come at once and with some 
 shreds torn out of her garments, which she should 
 bum, enshroud the invalid in smoke or besprinkle her 
 with water from the mouth, or put her own finger-ring 
 on the invalid's finger. But cases are frequent enough 
 where the woman gives birth to her child with no 
 attendance at all, and it is often born in the field where 
 she has been labouring, and she brings it home in her 
 lap ; and as to going to bed, that is a luxury not many 
 peasant women can afford. 
 
 As all over the world, the boy is much more welcome 
 than the girl — apparently because his share in life is so 
 much lighter than the girl's. If a baby happens to 
 be born in a "shirt" — a kind of film in which he is 
 wrapped — this means uncommon luck, and the film can 
 be made into an irresistible talisman for success in 
 life, if put through a good many preparations ; at any 
 rate, it is not thrown away, but spread on a bunch of 
 sweet-basil, which plant plays so important a part in 
 the Roumanian peasant's life. Immediately after the 
 birth the baby is washed carefully in hot water — in 
 which water if a white goose has been previously bathed, 
 the child is made proof against any witchery — then 
 swaddled tightly in his swaddling-clothes and put to 
 sleep, not before there is made on its tiny forehead a 
 benchiu, a small spot of white ashes, to ward off the 
 
PEASANT IN HIS SOCIAL RELATIONS 249 
 
 evil-eye. In some places about the Pindus, the Armini 
 are said to submit the new-born babe to the strong 
 Spartan treatment of covering his little body all over 
 with salt, and after leaving him no less than twelve 
 hours in that pickling state, they wash it in hot water 
 mixed with wine. However that may be, the bath-water 
 of a baby is not thrown away carelessly after using, 
 but is always poured carefully on a clean place, never 
 beyond the house's shade, for fear of spilling it on the 
 ursite (the fairies) who would then get very angry and 
 bring bad luck on the child. Baby and mother have 
 to wear something red about them, being both exceed- 
 ingly liable to the evil-eye, which the red colour has 
 the special power of keeping off. In some places the 
 new-born baby is submitted to a prematurely long 
 fast, being suckled for the first time only twenty-four 
 hours after the birth, and then a sieve with bread in it 
 is put on the mother's head during the suckling. When 
 friends or relatives come to see her, she must not say 
 a single word at their departure, or it would cause her 
 milk to disappear ; for that same reason, nothing is 
 taken out of the house after sunset. Nor should the 
 swaddhng-clothes of the baby be left out after sunset, 
 for then it would lose its sleep. At night, shutter 
 or blinds should never be left open, lest the invalid 
 should happen to see light in any other house ; neither 
 is it advisable ever to leave her alone before the christen- 
 ing of the baby, and, before going to bed, the looking- 
 glass — if there is one in the room — should be covered, 
 and the room smoked with incense. As soon as possible 
 the priest is called in to read the prayers and make 
 the apa or the aghiasma (the holy water). The little 
 oil lamp (the candela) must burn for forty days running. 
 
 On the third day after the birth there takes place a 
 great banquet (a masd-mare) in the house ; the midwife 
 goes around giving invitations, and friends and relatives 
 all come bringing with them presents for mother and 
 child. On that same day, after the banquet, a table 
 is prepared with eatables, usually under the holy images, 
 and everybody in the house goes early to bed that 
 
250 FROM CARPATHIAN TO PINDUS 
 
 night. The doors are locked and are not opened under 
 any inducement, for that night the ursitori, called in 
 other places about the Pindus the A Ibele (the white ones) 
 and also the trei mire (the three fate-bringing fairies), 
 come in and write down "the luck of the child," his 
 chance in life ; they must meet with fair welcome and be 
 in no way disturbed in this most important act concerning 
 the future of the child. In some places even the dogs 
 are sent away to friends, that their bark may not disturb 
 the fairies or frighten them away. Until the christening 
 the child should on no account be left alone even for 
 a moment, for the devil might come and take it away, 
 putting in its stead some soft baby, which would remain 
 so all its life ; or a strigo'i (a vampire) may also come 
 in, and turn it into a strigo'i too. If one were absolutely 
 obliged to leave the baby alone, then a broom leant 
 against it would do the office of keeping off^ danger. 
 The baby ought never to be put to sleep with its face 
 towards the moon, at least not until one year is out, 
 for then it would become a lunatic^ a sleep-walker, or 
 at least would get thin. Neither must it be allowed to 
 see its face in a looking-glass before it is three years 
 old, as it then would be liable to get the falling sickness, 
 cade din afar a, as they call it. 
 
 The baby is laid in a small wooden trough (alhiu^a) 
 — replaced by a larger one (an albie) as it grows — and 
 rocked in it to sleep, either on the bed, or, oftener still, 
 on the floor, in the house, or out of doors, wherever the 
 mother is busy and, whenever she hears it crying she 
 will manage to rock it with the foot, whilst with her 
 hands she attends to her work. When the baby is lying 
 in its trough it ought never to be stepped over, as this 
 would prevent its growing tall. Until it is able to walk 
 by itself, the mother keeps it ever at hand, if not always 
 in her arms ; and wherever she goes, to the field or in 
 the village, to work or to amusement, the baby is always 
 snugly nestled in her never- weary arms ; the baby really 
 wants none but the mother, at this early stage of its life. 
 If it laughs in its sleep, it is an angel telling it its father 
 is dead — and as baby understands nothing about its 
 
PEASANT IN HIS SOCIAL RELATIONS 251 
 
 father, it answers by its innocent, stupid laugh — but 
 if the baby cries in sleep, it is that the angel has 
 told it its mother has died, and it knows quite well 
 what a mother means. A peasant mother is always 
 fondling her little baby, and she may do anything 
 with it except kiss it in the palm of its hand, for then 
 it would grow into a thief ; neither must she kiss it in 
 the nape of the neck, for then it would disobey her and 
 turn out badly. If the child does not walk in good time, 
 it is supposed to be from fear, hesitation, want of courage 
 in the child; the mother will then tie its feet together 
 with a red thread, and putting it astride on the doorstep, 
 will cut that thread with the hatchet, while another 
 woman stands by asking, ** What are you doing there ? " 
 " I am cutting off the baby's fear," answers the mother, 
 and the child will walk very soon. 
 
 The christening takes place generally at the week's 
 end after the birth, or not much later ; the persons 
 who have served as sponsors at the parents' wedding are 
 generally sponsors for the child's baptism, too, or at 
 least one of them, usually the godmother. 
 
 The baptism is celebrated at church, where the parents 
 of the child do not go, or, if they do, they leave the 
 church during the ceremony. Through the christening, 
 not only the sponsor becomes a relation to the godchild 
 and his parents — cumdtru to the latter, na§ to the former 
 — but every person present becomes also a relative to 
 the baby and to each other ; they all become cumdtri, 
 and to a degree of relationship, too, that will make 
 impossible any subsequent intermarriage between them. 
 That is why very few people go to church to attend the 
 baptismal ceremony. This is done by the priest in his 
 robes plunging the naked baby thrice into a metal vessel 
 full of cold water, head and all, at which it yells fiercely, 
 and, redder than a lobster, is wrapped in the crijma (a 
 piece of white linen) , in the arms of the sponsor ; the 
 anointment with holy oils follows, and at last the baby 
 is given Holy Communion — during which it ought to 
 cry, and if it forgets to do so, the midwife will remind it 
 of its duty with a smart pinch. All through the cere- 
 
252 FROM CARPATHIAN TO PINDUS 
 
 mony the godmother or father holds a big taper in the 
 hand, trimmed with flowers, ribbons, fine tissues, what- 
 ever can be afforded. Taper and baby are carried back 
 by the sponsor and handed over to the mother with 
 congratulations and suitable good wishes. If the taper 
 can be brought home burning, it means luck to the 
 baby. The sponsor sticks the taper into white bread, 
 that the child's heart may be pure, and that there may 
 be abundance in the house. 
 
 Just as important as the christening is the next 
 morning's bathing (scdlddtoarea), when the holy oils are 
 washed off the child. In this bath a few coins are 
 dropped, to bring the new-born one riches, along with 
 some bread, meant to bring him abundance, and some 
 sweet-basil, which is to make him lovable. 
 
 As soon as possible after the baptism, if not on the 
 very day, the parents must give a dinner, the cumdtria, 
 with as much rejoicing as possible, and rather than omit 
 this they are very apt to run into debt. The sponsor 
 then takes the head of the table ; he and all the guests 
 are expected to put on the table more or less money, 
 according to means, which money should fairly cover 
 the expenses of the dinner. Between godfather or 
 mother, (na§, na§d), and godchild (fin, find), a strong link 
 of relationship has been established through the baptism ; 
 the former feel always obliged to protect and help the 
 latter, while the latter is always supposed to ask advice 
 from and pay some obedience to the former, and have 
 for them as much respect as he is expected to have 
 for his parents. On the second day of Easter, it is 
 considered a great offence if the child's parents do not 
 call with it on the cumdtri, bringing them dutiful presents, 
 a lamb, poultry, or at least the never failing red eggs and 
 pasca. 
 
 If a mother has been unfortunate enough to see her 
 children die one after the other, then the last new-born 
 child is taken to church and deposited on the door-step ; 
 the future godmother is at hand : she pretends to just 
 find it, and takes it to its mother, wha, pretending not to 
 recognise it, adopts it as her own. In some places the 
 
Carriers. 
 
 [Fhoto, J. Cazaban. 
 
 Old Decayed Dwelling. 
 
 tee page 252. 
 
 iPhoto, J. Cazaban. 
 
PEASANT IN HIS SOCIAL RELATIONS 253 
 
 child is given away through the window to some one who 
 takes it and, bringing it to the door, sells it to the mother 
 for a penny. 
 
 But so dreary is a childless house felt to be, that if a 
 couple have no child of their own, or are unable to rear 
 any, they will adopt one, take it ** for the soul," de 
 suflet — a sufletel, a little soul, it is called. Moreover, the 
 adoption of a strange child has often proved apt to bring 
 about the desired blessing of a child. But adopted 
 children have another drawback : although they may 
 turn out to be good children in the end, this does not 
 seem to be the rule, but rather the exception ; and if as 
 a last resource adoption is resorted to, it is oftener with 
 distrust and anxiety than otherwise ; one does not expect 
 much genuine affection from an adopted child. A widely 
 spread anecdote exists on this subject. A childless 
 couple adopted a little boy and reared him into a full- 
 grown man ; by some particular bad luck — owing mostly 
 to his own wish — the father came to be sentenced to 
 death, although not in the least guilty in reality. He 
 made his will, leaving half of his money to his adopted 
 son, the other half to his executioner. But there was no 
 hangman in that place, and so it was decided to fetch 
 one from somewhere else ; but the adopted son came and 
 offered to hang his adoptive father himself. Yet dying 
 without progeny seems to the Roumanian peasant such a 
 misfortune that he will do anything rather than run the 
 risk of dying alone, of having nobody to '' shut his eyes," 
 to take the responsibility of the rituals after death for 
 the repose of his soul. That is the great question, the 
 moment of death and the cares attached to it, and hence 
 the great importance of children, beyond anything else. 
 And mother and father are very anxious to see their 
 children grow fast, in order to get help from them ; and 
 that comes soon enough, for the age of ten usually finds 
 the boy, whip in hand, leading the oxen at the plough, 
 and the girl with the (furca) the distaff thrust in her 
 small girdle. 
 
254 FROM CARPATHIAN TO PINDUS 
 
 II 
 
 "Insuratul de t^nar 
 §i mancatul de diminea^a." 
 ("Wed young, eat early.") 
 
 A boy and a girl are not accounted grown up before 
 their first dance. Joaca/n hord, " she dances at the 
 dance," is said of a girl who is a child no more. She is 
 grown up now, with her fifteen or sixteen years of age ; 
 at home she works busily at her zestrea already, learning 
 from her mother all the house-work and industry ; at the 
 dance, lavishly got up with flowers and ribbons on the 
 head, and necklaces of beads round the neck, she already 
 casts shy looks at the young men, whom she hardly used 
 to take notice of until yesterday. But now they look 
 very important, the fldcdi (the swains) and they also look 
 conqueringly at the girls, and, ten to one, in more than 
 one heart love has sprung up from the first dance. The 
 slender figure, the charming looks, have done their 
 work : — 
 
 ♦' The young man is tall and slender, 
 As if he were drawn through a ring, 
 To love him at heart's content. 
 
 The fair one is tall and slender, 
 As though she were drawn through a bead, 
 To love her at heart's content."* 
 
 And love holds a large place in the Roumanian peasant 
 life ; it is the unavoidable companion of youth : — 
 
 " Tiny leaf of little hazel, 
 Whilst man is still young,f 
 
 * "Badiu-i nalt ^i sub^irel 
 
 Par' ca-i tras printr' un inel 
 Sa te tot iube^ti cu el ! 
 M4ndra-i nalta, sub^irea 
 Par' ca-i trasa prin margea 
 Sa te tot iube^ti cu ea." 
 
 f "Frunzuli^a de-alunel 
 Cat e omul tinerel 
 
PEASANT IN HIS SOCIAL RELATIONS 255 
 
 Yearning will sit by his side, 
 As th' ewe by her lamb. 
 But when man has grown old 
 Yearning will depart.""^' 
 
 Under the power of beauteous and bountiful nature, 
 the splendid skies and the all-softening temperature of 
 summer, the Eoumanian peasant is much addicted to 
 reverie; the newly aroused love will become absorbing 
 yearning ; and what the Roumanian peasant mostly sings 
 is not love, dragoste (also amor), but this yearning, the 
 dor : — 
 
 "Green leaf of three oHves, 
 He who has no yearning on earth 
 May come to have some from me ; 
 I have a yeaarning (big) as a spring 
 That will be enough for all."f 
 
 And he will go a long way to meet his love, and never 
 spare time or rest : — 
 
 "He who has no love in the vale, 
 Knows not when the moon does rise, 
 Neither how long is the night. 
 He who has no love in the meadow 
 Does not know when the moon sets. 
 Nor how lengthy the night isl"| 
 
 * Sade dorul Unga el 
 Ca oi^a langa miel 
 Dar c4nd omu' mbatr&ne^te 
 Dorul se calatore^te." 
 
 f "Frunza verde trei alune 
 Cine n' are dor pe lume 
 Vie sa-i dau de la mine; 
 Am un dor cat un isvor 
 Sa le-ajunga tuturor." 
 
 J •' Cine n' are dor pe vale, 
 Nu §ti' luna ctod rasare 
 §i noaptea c&tu-i de mare; 
 Cine n' are dor pe lunca 
 Nu ^iV luna cand se culca 
 ^\ noaptea catu-i de lunga 1 ' 
 
256 FROM CARPATHIAN TO PINDUS 
 
 But if our lover is over-hasty, and ventures to proclaim 
 himself a victor too soon, then he may easily " catch it," 
 but will nevertheless sing merrily his own discomfiture — 
 
 •'For a little bit of kissing 
 All night have I shivered; 
 When it came to kissing though, 
 A good slap I have got — 
 And, Lord, what a pity I " * 
 
 But once sure of her love, the young Roumanian 
 peasant will faithfully cleave to her ; no human power is 
 able to draw him away : — 
 
 "Mother said she would drag me off, 
 From how many things, from all; 
 From two she won't be able to: 
 From the fair one and from death!" f 
 
 If, however, love was not returned — if the fair one were 
 cruel and would not have him — the mother would do her 
 best to soften his sorrow and cheer him up, but his heart 
 is set on the one fair person, and no other will ever do : — 
 
 " ' Dear mother's Georgie, 
 
 The village is large, girls are many, 
 
 And bigger and smaller ones 
 
 You have enough to choose from.' J 
 
 * "Pentru 'n pic de samtat 
 Toata noapte am tremurat ; 
 Cind a fost la sarutat 
 Buna palm' am capatat — 
 D'aleu,' Doamne, ce pacat I " 
 
 f *'Zis-a mama ca m' a scoate 
 De la cate de la toate] 
 De la doua nu ma poate : 
 De la mandra, de la moarte I 
 
 J " ' Dragu mamii Ghi^isor 
 Satu-i mare fete-s multe, 
 ^i mai mari si mai marunte 
 Ai de unde sa-^i alegi.' 
 
PEASANT IN HIS SOCIAL RELATIONS 257 
 
 'Wait, mother, and I'll tell you: 
 The sky is large, the stars are many, 
 Both large and smaller ones, 
 
 But like the moon 
 
 There is none I '"* 
 
 Or if the far-seeing or too ambitious mother would like 
 another choice for him, he will hear no advice, and 
 remains true to his fair one: — 
 
 ' Oh, dear little mother mine, 
 Do you not see what I wish? 
 You are old and don't agree 
 The world is large, but you don't see 
 That from the hundred and thousand 
 One alone is there to please me! 
 The sky is large, the stars are many, 
 The bigger and also the smaller, 
 But as bright as they all are 
 They are not as fair as Litza I " f 
 
 And while the young man is passing through his pangs 
 of joy or woe, the girl also will be singing her own love 
 or yearning, attributing it at first to sweet-basil, the 
 plant of love : — 
 
 * ' Stai, mama, ^i eu ^i-oiu spune ; 
 Ceru-i mare stele-s multe, 
 ^i mai mari si mai marunte, 
 
 Dar ca luna 
 
 Nu-i nici una!'" 
 
 f "Vai mamuca draga mea 
 Nu pricepi tu ce a^ vrea? 
 E^ti batrana §i nu crezi 
 Lumea-i larga §i nu vezi 
 Ca din suta |i din mie 
 Niunai una-mi place mie 1 
 Ceru-i mare stele-s multe, 
 ^i mai mari §i mai marunte, 
 Dar cat sant de luminoase 
 Nu-s ca Li^a de frumoasel" 
 18 
 
258 FROM CARPATHIAN TO PINDUS 
 
 "Basil, may you never ripen, 
 And never have any seed, 
 For out of your little seed 
 Love has been squeezed outl"* 
 
 She won't give in easily to her new feeling; she will 
 look after her work as before, but now and then fall back 
 on her favourite thought, her feeling overmastering 
 her little by little : — 
 
 "Over and over again asks my heart. 
 Do I feel happy or not? 
 And I say, I don't feel ill — 
 My tears run down in a rill ! " f 
 
 And a time will come when work will fall into neglect ; 
 the love-stricken girl will forget all about it, and 
 people will notice her absent-mindedness, and account 
 for it : — 
 
 "The fair one walks up the hill 
 Spinning her silk 
 
 On the spindle she's put no thread 
 Looking upon a sky's cloud. 
 Curse upon thee, yearning I" J 
 
 An unhappy lover finds alleviation of his sorrow in 
 nothing but singing, which together with sighing are his 
 only solace, their weight depressing all Nature, too : — 
 
 "Busioace nu te-ai coace 
 ^i samdn^a n' ai mai face 
 Ca din samincioara ta 
 S'a scociorat dragostea I " 
 
 " Mult ma 'ntreaba inima 
 Bine mi-i mie on ba ? 
 ^i eu zic ca nu mi-i rau — 
 Lacrimele-mi curg parau 1 " 
 
 "Suie mandra pe colnic 
 Easucind la burangic 
 §i pe fus n'a pus nimic 
 Pe cer catand dup' im nor. 
 Bata-te pustia, dor I " 
 
PEASANT IN HIS SOCIAL RELATIONS 259 
 
 " For my very heavy sighs 
 The sun himself does not rise, 
 Nor has the moon any light, 
 No flower grows on the field 1 " * 
 
 And— 
 
 "Whoever invented the sigh 
 Forgive him, O God, his sins I 
 For if only man can sigh 
 His heart becomes lighter." f 
 
 But happy, mutual love, far from putting a stop to 
 singing, takes the whole of Nature into the concert. 
 
 "Green leaf of little apple, 
 Down there by the spring 
 Love meets with love. 
 And so beautiful they sing 
 That all the herbs lie down. 
 And the glades do rustle 
 And the leaves do shiver 
 And the birds gather together 
 Listening to the songs." | 
 
 * "De oftat ce-am oftat tare 
 Nici soarele nu rasare 
 Nici luna lumina n'are 
 Nici pe camp nu cre^te-o floare ! " 
 
 f "Cui a starnit oftatul 
 larta-i doamne pacatul 
 Ca omul daca ofteaza 
 Inima-§i mai u^ureaza." 
 
 I " Foaie verde meri^or 
 Colo'n vale la isvor 
 Se' nt^lne^te dor cu dor 
 ^'a§a canta de frumos 
 Toata iarba culca jos. 
 ^i huesc poienile 
 $i tremura frunzele 
 §i se Strang paserile 
 S'asculte cantarile." 
 
260 FROM CARPATHIAN TO PINDUS 
 
 And the lovers mean to be faithful too, for — 
 
 " Who is a man and wants to know 
 Love is not a mere estate 
 ■That you may take it on lease." * 
 
 Quarrels may ensue between lovers, often the outcome 
 of intriguing from outside or the result of jealousy and 
 diifidence ; then the lover will sing in vexation : — 
 
 "Green leaf of a tulip, 
 The fair one went by on the causeway 
 As if unaware of me ; 
 But what business have I (with her) ? 
 Let her pass 
 And let her choose 
 Let her choose out of a thousand. 
 Only that he be like me 
 In the eyes and in the eye-brows, 
 In the mouth and in the eye-lashes, 
 And also in my love-making." f 
 
 Or the fretful fair one may take the strain : — 
 
 " Do not fancy, master, fancy, 
 That like you there are none. 
 Like you there are a thousand 
 Only I do not want them I " J 
 
 * " Cine-i om §i vra sa ^tie 
 Dragostea nu e mo^ie 
 Ca sa mi-o iei cu chirie." 
 
 f "Frunza verde de lalea, 
 Trecea mandra pe §u^ea 
 Par' ca nici nu ma vedea; 
 Dar ce treaba am cu ea? 
 Las 'sa treaca 
 Sa-§i aleaga 
 
 Sa-§i aleaga dintr 'o mie, 
 Numai sa-mi semene mie 
 §i la ochi §i la sprincene, 
 ^i la gura §i la gene 
 ^i la dragostile mele." 
 
 I "Nu gandi badeo, gandi 
 Ca ca tine n'or mai fi. 
 Ca tine sant §i o mie 
 Numai nu-mi trebue mie." 
 
PEASANT IN HIS SOCIAL RELATIONS 261 
 
 where vexed love pierces so charmingly through would- 
 be contempt. But at last quarrels are made up again, 
 and misunderstanding finds a ready excuse : — 
 
 "Green leaf of walnut wood, 
 Have you seen, O ever seen 
 A high hedge without a shade, 
 A fair maid without a trouble ? 
 Have you seen, O ever seen 
 Any high fence without props 
 A handsome man without faults ? " * 
 
 And now, when a suitor offers for the girl, it is the 
 parents' right to choose for her, and her own taste is 
 consulted only last of all. Traditional duty for a young 
 girl is to look down modestly, and answer in matters of 
 love as in anything else : " As father and mother wish ! " 
 As a matter of fact, however, the girl is usually a good 
 deal spoilt by her father, and if both parents are not 
 always ready to give in to her wishes, as far as taking an 
 undeserving man goes, they hardly ever will oblige her 
 to marry against her inclination. In cases of wealthy 
 suitors, they will advise her strongly not to turn her back 
 upon fortune, but she will protest just as strongly against 
 the disagreeable suitor : — 
 
 " Mother, the ugly one asks me. 
 Don't give me against my liking; 
 I am a girl — I am nob earth, 
 I feel dislike to the ugly I" f 
 
 Frunza verde lemn de nuc 
 Mai vazut-a^i mai vazut 
 Gard inalt fara zaplaz 
 Puiu frumos fara nacaz ? 
 Mai vazut-a|ii, mai vazut 
 Gard inalt fara propele 
 Om frumos fara gre^ele ? " 
 
 Mama, uratul ma cere, 
 Nu ma da fara placere ; 
 Ca io-s fata nu-s pamdnt, 
 Nu ma 'ndemn dupa urat 1 
 
262 FROM CARPATHIAN TO PINDUS 
 
 All her life will be an endless suffering if she has 
 married against her inclination, and to this death alone 
 will put an end : — 
 
 "Black, dear Lord, is the earth, 
 But still blacker is dislike — 
 From a man it will unman you. 
 You would sleep, and are not sleepy, 
 You would eat and are not hungry. 
 You just wither on your feet, 
 Like the flower of chicory. 
 Every disease has a cure, 
 But dislike finds none 
 Save only in the fir-plank 
 And a big stone at the head 1 " * 
 
 But alas, the heart's desire is not always to be had, 
 and the fair one may sometimes have occasion sorrow- 
 fully to sing : — 
 
 "If only God had ordered 
 What you love to be your own, 
 There would be no evil on earth. 
 But then God has settled it that 
 The fair is to mate with the ugly 
 That she may have a worried life I " f 
 
 A young girl has no greater anxiety than as to what 
 her future, her part in life, will be, and that is why 
 
 '^ "Negru-i, Doamne, pamantu 
 Da-i mai negru ur^tu 
 Din om te face neom, 
 C'ai dormi §i nu ^i-i somn, 
 Ai manca §i nu ^i-i foame, 
 Numai te u^ti pe picioare, 
 Ca ^i floarea de cicoare. 
 Toata boala are leac 
 Da uratul n'are cap 
 Fara scandura de brad, 
 §'o piatra mare la cap." 
 
 f "De-ar fi lasat Dumnezeu 
 Ce iube^ti sa fie-al tau 
 N'ar mai fi pe lume rau. 
 Dumnezeu a randuit 
 Sa lea m&ndru^a ur&t 
 Sa aiba traiii nacajit 1 " 
 
PEASANT IN HIS SOCIAL RELATIONS 263 
 
 repeatedly she will turn towards the Giver of all good 
 gifts, and with ardent entreaties will she pray : — 
 
 "Do with me, Lord, what you like, 
 But give me not what I dislike ! " * 
 
 Great is the anxiety of youth about the future, and 
 many also are the means of scrutinising it. St. Andrew's 
 Day, Christmas and Epiphany Eve, New Year, are, 
 amongst all, the very best days for finding out the future 
 and treating of love affairs. On such days girls will 
 gather together, and sometimes boys will do the same, 
 and try all sorts of methods in order to discover the fate 
 reserved to them, especially and almost solely, in regard 
 to love matters. Sweet-basil is an all-powerful plant 
 in such dealings. A spray of sweet-basil, stolen from the 
 priest's sprinkler at Christmas Eve, stuck under the eaves 
 and left there through the night, will mean great good- 
 luck if found next morning covered with white frost. 
 Again, sweet-basil laid at the foot of a kerbstone, if 
 found next morning covered with hoar frost, will signify 
 marriage in the very same winter. Another foretelling 
 plant is onion. Every girl takes one, and scooping out 
 the middle, fills it with salt ; all the onions are set by the 
 window till next morning — the girl who find most water 
 in hers will have the best luck. A girl can also see her 
 future husband in the looking-glass. After a complete 
 fast of a whole day, at midnight she sets two looking- 
 glasses face to face with four candles between. From 
 the back of one of the looking-glasses she looks into 
 the other without winking — after a while the "future" 
 shows himself in the reflection of the looking-glass. But 
 how many girls can afford two looking-glasses and so 
 many candles? The poor girl has, however, a means 
 of seeing her future husband : she thoroughly scours and 
 sweeps the house, plasters the floor, makes her beautifully 
 straight hrie round the hearth, and on the first cock's 
 
 * "Fa-ma, Doamne, ce mi-i face 
 Numai nu-mi da ce nu-mi place." 
 
264 FROM CARPATHIAN TO PINDUS 
 
 crow she looks intently at the door, broom in hand ; the 
 " future's " image will not tarry to appear in the door- 
 way. If her heart is already set on some flacau, she will 
 take two pig's bristles, one personating herself, the other 
 the beloved swain, and after carefully sweeping the ashes 
 from the hot hearth, she lays the two bristles side by side. 
 If they curl towards each other, she will have him ; if the 
 hairs curve away from each other, she must give up all 
 hope about him. Various means there are also for seeing 
 the "future" in one's dreams, which are used on these 
 special holy days. 
 
 And there are many incantations in verse and prose, by 
 which skilful babas will help a girl or a young man in 
 their love affairs ; and illicit witchcraft is said to be some- 
 times used, to bring about an otherwise impossible 
 wedding ; and some people believe that an old witch is 
 able to bring the sought-for lover astride on a rod, flying 
 through the air — although all the stories I could gather 
 on the subject related to remote times, when our grand- 
 fathers were young ! 
 
 At all events, whatever a girl's attractions may be, she 
 should never be without sweet-basil ; moreover, if she 
 has been careful to grow her own ** love-sweet-basil" 
 (busioc de dragoste), she is quite sure of being irresistible. 
 The love-basil is sown with the mouth on St. George's 
 morning, and then watered daily with water brought in 
 the mouth at dawn, until it comes out. A spray of this 
 plant, thrust into the girdle or the hair of a favourite young 
 man, is sure to bring him round in a short time. Another 
 influential plant in love matters is the fern (navalnic), a 
 herb apt to bring on a veritable invasion (ndvdlire) of 
 lovers ! 
 
 Although the popular saying goes : — 
 
 "As to marriage and out-at-elbows, no one shall complain" — ^* 
 
 SO sure it is to come — yet it seems that the chief, the 
 only aim in life for a young girl is no other than 
 
 * "De maritat fi de coate goale sa nu se pl4nga nimene." 
 
PEASANT IN HIS SOCIAL RELATIONS 265 
 
 marriage. Indeed, an unmarried woman is hardly ever 
 to be met with in the peasant class, and is also an 
 extremely rara avis even among the upper classes ; such 
 are considered as rather ridiculous beings, and it is not at 
 all rare that many a girl will marry without the slightest 
 regard to her own heart or taste, in order merely to escape 
 the ridicule of remaining an old maid, making a sacrifice 
 of her soul and of her body to a foolish unjust prejudice. 
 
 Wealth undeniably plays its part in bringing about 
 marriages : — 
 
 "Vineyard and land 
 Will marry the horror." * 
 
 Nevertheless, in the humble classes, love is much more 
 taken into consideration, and be it imputed to incanta- 
 tions or not, will work its bewitching effect. One of the 
 most popular songs to be heard among all the Roumanians, 
 I am told, relates the struggle of love thus : — 
 
 1. Green leaf blade of mallows (bis) 
 Rise, moon, the sooner, (bis) 
 
 2. To light up the meadow, that (bis) 
 I may mow wormwood and herb, 
 For the fair one to untie me. 
 
 8. Undo, dear, what you have done (bis) 
 And do let me free to go. 
 And I'll give you a full piaster. f 
 
 * "Viea ^i mo^iea 
 Marita urgiea." 
 
 t 1. "Foaie verde fir de nalba (bis) 
 Rasai luna mai degraba (bis) 
 
 2. Sa se vada In livada (bis) 
 Sa cosasc pelin ^i iarba 
 
 Sa dau puicai sa-mi desfaca. 
 
 3. Desfa puica, ce-ai facut (bis) 
 §i-mi da drumul sa ma due 
 Ca ^i oiii da un leu batut. 
 
266 
 
 FROM CARPATHIAN TO PINDUS 
 
 4. You may give even ten piasters (bis) 
 I did not do this for you to die 
 But for you to wed me." * 
 
 Andante. M.M. J = 
 
 = 126. 
 
 crei. 
 
 r~w 1 
 
 r-f p-^ 
 
 m m 
 
 _ 
 
 :^4.ti=^ ^ ^*- 
 
 \4=i=^ 
 
 =M^ 
 
 p — n 
 
 =t^t^- 
 
 = 
 
 i 
 
 Foa - ie ver-de fir de nal-ba, foa - ie ver - de fir de 
 rTs ^ dim. 
 
 j=g 
 
 nal 
 
 i 
 
 ba Ea - sai 
 
 pp poco rail. 
 
 lu - na. 
 
 mai de- 
 
 V-^i-i^ 
 
 ^ 
 
 gra • ba, ra-sai lu-na mai de - - gra - ba. 
 
 Ill 
 
 " Until he is twenty years of age, a young man is 
 married by his parents ; until twenty-five, he marries 
 of his own free will ; between twenty-five and forty the 
 babas marry him, but after thirty the devil alone will 
 do it ! " 
 
 " Marry young," was the old formula when the parents 
 were in a great hurry, as soon as they had a marriageable 
 boy or girl, to ** send them to their own house " {sd-i 
 deie la casa lor) . But this hasty usage seems to be losing 
 ground as time goes on, with the increasing difficulties 
 and responsibilities of family life; and this is so, 
 especially with the regular army service, which calls 
 every young man to draw lots at one-and-twenty, and 
 go through his training as a soldier for five or, at least, 
 three years. Not that the young men married by parents 
 were always happy. 
 
 " Hush, cock, for father may get you married too I " f 
 
 * 4. Bat^r sa-mi dai zece lei (bis) 
 Nu ^i-am facut ca sa piei 
 Ci ^i-am facut sa ma iei 1 " 
 
 f " H4ci, cuco^, ca te insoara tata ^i pe tine ! " 
 
PEASANT IN HIS SOCIAL RELATIONS 267 
 
 is the vexed utterance of a very young husband as re- 
 ported through tradition. Though the young people may 
 fall in love with each other, or may arrange their own 
 future, the wedding business itself is left in the hands 
 of the parents. Generally, the son will declare his 
 intentions to his mother first, who will then carefully 
 break the news to the rather severe father, for whom the 
 respect of children and wife is often mixed with awe. 
 If he does not say no, then they will begin to scan the 
 genealogical tree of both families to find out whether 
 the young people are related to each other, which fact 
 would be a serious impediment to marriage. The father 
 will take his son apart and give him the advice of wisdom 
 as to the step he is going to enter upon, and try to bring 
 home to him all the responsibilities he is taking upon 
 himself; then two respectable men of the village are 
 sought after and entrusted with the charge of proposing 
 to the girl's parents ; they are called the pefitori or the 
 starosti and they go impetit, taking under their pro- 
 tection the young suitor. The pe^ire is done in more or 
 less allegorical manner, according to region and people. 
 At the entering of the petitori, if the girl's father looks 
 cheerful and puts another log on the burning fire, it is 
 a sign that he is in good spirits and ready for the 
 transaction ; if, on the contrary, he smothers the fire, 
 this means that he is not well disposed towards the 
 suspected message, and that the petitori will have hard 
 work to get the best of him. At all events, formalism 
 is strong here, and all the time he will look as if he knew 
 absolutely nothing about the business of the visitors 
 until these have delivered the proposal, which consists 
 in a more or less allegorical speech in prose or verse, 
 often preceded by an introductory tale of a biblical 
 nature. The father of the girl will generally pretend 
 that he is not prepared, that he has not thought of 
 marrying his daughter yet, that the dowry is not ready, 
 and thus suggest all sorts of lame impediments. But 
 the petitori will insist, alleging that dowry is not the 
 most important point, and that " for wedding and for 
 death one is never ready," and so on. The man begins 
 
268 FROM CARPATHIAN TO PINDUS 
 
 to give in ; he will ask his wife's opinion too, but she will 
 humbly answer that, of course, he knows best, and then 
 some one will go in search of the girl to ask her opinion 
 also, who, if she happen not to know the suitor before- 
 hand — a case very rarely met with now — will be looking 
 through some chink in the door, or from behind the oven, 
 trying to make out what he is like. In the meanwhile the 
 matter of the dowry is settled. How much land does the 
 young man possess ; will he get the site for a house to be 
 built on ; how many head of cattle ; even, how many 
 suits of clothes has he ? For the girl's dowry is made of 
 all her handy work in the way of wool, hemp, flax, silk 
 or cotton wefts, all carefully reckoned in yards, or, if she 
 is rich, then only by rolls (valuri) of weft ; she will get 
 cattle, oxen and cart, and, possibly, land also. The girl's 
 parents are anxious to give their daughter as honourable 
 a dowry as may be, in order to save her from possible 
 gossip, of from still more possible censure from her future 
 mother-in-law. When both parties declare themselves 
 well pleased, a bottle of whisky is brought in for the 
 cinste (the treat), everybody taking a draught in turn with 
 suitable greetings, often followed by a short collation 
 of a roasted hen or so, during the preparation of which 
 the inclinations of the young people have once more been 
 thoroughly tested, and a kind of promise has been made 
 between them, by the girl giving the young man a 
 handkerchief and receiving from him money. 
 
 A few days later the parents of the young girl will call 
 on the young man's parents, to settle definitely about the 
 wedding ; if they are living in another village they will 
 drive in a cart drawn by oxen, in company with several 
 relations or friends, the mother always on the alert for 
 the good or bad omens they may meet with, and from 
 which the happiness or bad luck of her daughter are to 
 be augured. On their arrival, they are met at the gate, 
 wide open for them; fodder is given to the oxen, the 
 visitors are asked in, and led on to indifferent talk on 
 all sorts of topics except the burning one. Some of the 
 men will walk out and just look round about the yard, 
 to take in the real status of the man's wealth. The 
 day of the betrothal (the mcredinfare or logodna) is fixed. 
 
Bleaching the Linen. 
 
 [Photo, J. Cazaban. 
 
 To face page 269. 
 
 Washing Women. 
 
 iPhoto, J. Cazaban. 
 
PEASANT IN HIS SOCIAL RELATIONS 269 
 
 On the betrothal day great preparations go on in the 
 bride's house : thorough cleaning and scouring and 
 baking and cooking. The friends have met, the pefitori 
 arrive. Some man of reputed virtue and wisdom takes 
 the two young people apart, and after a new recital of 
 the catalogue of the evils, much more numerous than the 
 pleasures, of married life, asks once more for their views, 
 sure that they are quite decided upon the impending 
 union. A plate of corn is brought in, mixed — in moun- 
 tainous districts especially — with hemp-seed; the whole 
 is spread over with salt, some lumps of sugar are added, 
 to make Hfe sweet, together with a few sprays of sweet- 
 basil ; the father adds some coins, and then the rings 
 of the young people are hidden underneath. These turn 
 round the plate and seek out each other's ring ; outside 
 rifle or pistol shots celebrate the happy event. The rings 
 are put on the fourth finger of the left hand of the young 
 betrothed by the old man. Musical assistance is called 
 in — a fiddle and a lute at the least — and a dance is 
 started, interrupted only by the supper, at which the 
 most conspicuous dish is a roasted hen, which the bride- 
 groom is to carve with his own hand, showing thus his 
 ability, cleverness and spirit ; to make more fun the hen 
 is often sewn with strong thread, and brought in ex- 
 tremely hot. In such predicaments the bridegroom is 
 very apt to show his temper if he has not good command 
 of it ! A young man is allowed to look silly and awkward 
 in talk ; this is rather expected from him, being youthful, 
 and therefore shy ; but if he is awkward with his hands, 
 too, this would be matter of serious consideration for the 
 bride's parents. 
 
 At parting the bridegroom's party pretend to take 
 away the bride, and in some parts she really is taken 
 away, and stays with the bridegroom and his family till 
 the wedding. In most places, however, the taking away 
 is a mere pretence, after which she is left to go home 
 with her parents, but still under the protection of some 
 trusted man of her own party. 
 
 The time between betrothal and wedding — generally 
 three weeks, because of the strigdri, the banns to be 
 
270 FROM CARPATHIAN TO PINDUS 
 
 published on three consecutive Sundays or holidays at 
 church — is spent in preparations, cutting out, sewing, 
 washing, baking, &c. The girls who help will make 
 up the bride's corUge — they are dru§te. The nuni (the 
 sponsors) are then looked for ; if possible, the godfather 
 and godmother of one of the two young people — four 
 sponsors are very rare. They are called upon with 
 presents and begged to crown {sd cunune), that is to say, 
 to be sponsors for the young couple, to which they 
 usually willingly consent, considering it a duty as well 
 as an honour. The documents are prepared at the 
 mayor's in the meantime, which, although it is legally 
 the most important part of the marriage, is looked upon 
 by the peasants as a mere formality, binding to nothing. 
 The band is engaged, for no wedding could ever be 
 thought of without music and dancing ; the necessary 
 shoppings are made at the nearest town. The bridegroom 
 then appoints his train, of which the most important 
 figures are the vornicei or conacari, or else colacari, 
 the leaders of the dance, the representatives of the 
 bridegroom, the smartest among the young men in the 
 village. 
 
 The wedding itself lasts not less than three days — in 
 old times boiars' weddings used to last seven days — and 
 is usually celebrated in autumn when the wine is in, but 
 may also be carried out in spring or winter ; summer 
 would seem to be a quite improper time, being the great 
 labour season. The only suitable days for a wedding are 
 Sunday and Thursday, the latter, however, mostly for 
 second marriages. Practically, the wedding business 
 begins on the Thursday before the appointed Sunday, 
 when the baking preparations are begun, for there is a 
 lot of bread, and colaci, and malai to be got ready for 
 the wedding dinner and other meals. The very grind- 
 ing of the corn, the bolting of the flour, the kneading 
 of the dough, and putting it into the oven, are done 
 according to prescribed rules — not like any other ordinary 
 baking affair — but with much cheerfulness and fun, 
 and very varied rules, according to the longitude and 
 latitude from Carpathian to Pindus. 
 
PEASANT IN HIS SOCIAL RELATIONS 271 
 
 On Saturday the real wedding is entered upon. On 
 Saturday morning, in some parts, the bride and her 
 druste will walk out to the wood and bring home flowers 
 which are set in water to keep fresh. In the middle of 
 the room a table is laid with a clean tablecloth on it ; in 
 the middle of the table four big colaci are set on top of 
 each other, with a lump of salt in the hollow middle 
 wrapped in a handkerchief, meant to be given by the bride 
 to the bridegroom, but which then is given back by him 
 to the bride after the coronation , the wedding, and 
 which she carefully lays by at the bottom of her box, to 
 be taken out again only to cover her face when she is 
 dead. These things ready, the flowers are then attended 
 to, twisted together in a garland, a cunund, with a fine 
 penny piece at each of the four sides, and then set on 
 the head of the bride, who will thus wait for the bride- 
 groom. 
 
 In the meanwhile, on the same Saturday, at the bride- 
 groom's house cooking is going on too ; his friends come 
 with music ; he is seated on a chair in the middle of the 
 room, where his toilet is attended to : he is shaved, his 
 hair trimmed and combed, while his mother and sisters 
 are crying as bitterly as they can. He puts on his best 
 suit, and then with his party starts for the bride's house, 
 often one of his party carrjdng a small pine-tree adorned 
 with gilt paper and fruit. Some women (cdlfundresele) 
 carry the presents for the bride. If the bride lives in 
 another village, the men will ride, the women drive. At 
 the other end they meet with the bride's party of men, 
 on horseback too, and a race will take place between 
 both parties. "When there is to be a wedding, the 
 horses weep three days beforehand," and good reason they 
 have to. 
 
 When the bridegroom's party arrives at the bride's 
 house the yard is packed with people ; the vornicel is 
 stopped at the gate or at the door, where he delivers his 
 rhymed speech — his ora^ie or condcdrie. These condcdrii 
 or orafii are very varied and usually of considerable 
 length ; the following is one of the simplest : — 
 
272 FROM CARPATHIAN TO PINDUS 
 
 " ' Good-day to this honoured gathering, 
 And to the honoured parents-in-law I 
 How do you do? 
 How are you?' 
 
 * Thank God we are well.' 
 
 'But please to deliver your errand. 
 What are you looking for here ? ' 
 
 * What we are coming for 
 And what we are seeking 
 Eight will we tell you, 
 
 For we have fear of nobody. 
 Where we are coming from 
 
 We know. 
 And where we are going to 
 
 Also. 
 For we are imperial messengers, 
 Good men, godly men, 
 And we have imperial orders 
 To be stopped by nobody. 
 Hence, you are requested 
 To listen attentively 
 While we speak 
 And deliver our message.* 
 
 * " ' Buna vremea la cinstita adunare 
 §i la cinsti^i socri mari 
 
 Cum trai^i 
 
 Cum va afla^i? 
 'Mila Domnului, ne aflam bine.' 
 Dar §i D-voastra sama sa va da^i 
 *Pe la noi ce cauta^i? 
 *Noi ce umblam 
 ^i ce cautam 
 Sama bine ne vom da, 
 Frica nimarui nu purtam. 
 De imde venim, 
 
 ^tim 
 §i unde mergem 
 
 Cunoaftem, 
 Ca noi santem soli imparate^ti 
 Oameni buni, dumnezeie^ti 
 §i avem porunca' mparateasca 
 Nime sa nu ne opreasca. 
 Deci D-voastra sante^i ruga^i. 
 Bine sa ne ascultati 
 Cand om cuvinta 
 §i sama ne om da. 
 
PEASANT IN HIS SOCIAL RELATIONS 273 
 
 Our young emperor 
 
 Summoned us one evening 
 
 And gave us the following order : 
 
 " Mind you, gather troops and braves, 
 
 With hatchets, and big and small, 
 
 And I wish to go hunting 
 
 After yellow little birds 
 
 And tame little does ! " 
 
 We all submitted. 
 
 And a-hunting we went. 
 
 But towards evening the emperor 
 
 Noticed a light foot-print 
 
 Of a nimble fawn; 
 
 Some said 
 It was the track of a paradise bird 
 For our emperor's happy life; 
 
 Others said 
 It was the trace of a fairy, 
 To be the emperor's garden 
 Full of beautiful fruit. 
 Then the fair emperor 
 In golden stirrup he rose ; 
 Upon his fine host he looked * 
 
 Al nostru tanar imparat 
 De cu sara ne-a chemat 
 §i aceasta porunca ne-a dat: 
 " Sa strange^i cete de voinici 
 Cu topoare mari §i mici, 
 Ca sa fac o vinatoare 
 De paseri galbioare 
 De blande caprioare ! " 
 Noi cu to^ii ne-am supus, 
 La vanatoare ne-am dus. 
 lar imparatul in desara 
 Zari o urma u^oara 
 De sprintena fieara. 
 
 Unii zisera 
 Ca-i urma de pasere de raiii; 
 Sa fie imparatului de bun traiii; 
 
 Al^ii zisera 
 Ca-i urma de zina, 
 Sa fie imparatului gradina 
 De frumoase roduri plina. 
 Atunci m^ndrul nostru 'mparat 
 In scari de aur s'a ridioat, 
 Feste mSindra-i caste a catat 
 
 19 
 
274 FROM CARPATHIAN TO PINDUS 
 
 And said: 
 "Who will be able 
 To hunt up a fawn 
 And track her on her trail, 
 And then to bring an answer? " 
 Then we sorted ourselves 
 And started on the spot 
 From track to track 
 Like a herdsman after a flock; 
 And coming, we three braves. 
 And arriving in this place, 
 With the breath of the wind 
 Over the face of the earth 
 We saw falling on a house 
 A fine and bright star; 
 We saw also a little flower 
 Finer even than the star 
 Which blossoms with the flowers 
 But which bears no fruit. 
 Our emperor wants her 
 And has sent us after her 
 To bring her to him as bride 
 To make her his empress.' " * 
 
 * ^i a zis: 
 "'Cine-a fi 'n stare 
 Sa prinda o fiara 
 ^i pe urma -i sa se duca 
 $i raspuns apoi s' aduca ? ' 
 Atunci noi ne-am ales 
 ^i de loc am purees, 
 Din urma 'n urma 
 Ca pastorul dupa turma; 
 ^i viind noi trei voinici 
 ^i ajungand pana aici, 
 Cu suflarea vantului 
 Pe fata pamantului, 
 Am zarit cazind pe-o casa 
 O stea mandra, luminoasa ; 
 ^'am mai vazut o floricea 
 Mai mandra decat o stea, 
 Care in flori inflore^te 
 Dar de rodit nu rode^te. 
 Imparatul nostru o vrea 
 §i ne-a trimes dupa ea, 
 Ca sa i-o aducem mireasa 
 Sa §i-o faca imparateasa.' " 
 
PEASANT IN HIS SOCIAL RELATIONS 275 
 
 During the ora^ia the bride is surrounded by her dru§te, 
 having a pail of water and a big colac beside her. At the 
 end she will take the pail and gracefully pour away the 
 water round her, besprinkling with as much spirit as she 
 can the young men round her ; she breaks the colac and 
 distributes it all round. Fine handkerchiefs are tied to 
 the horses' bridles, and one of the bride's vornicei joining 
 the party, they return to the bridegroom, who now puts 
 together the presents for the bride in a bolter, and cover- 
 ing them with a fine napkin, sends them to her by the 
 vornicei and suite again. The handing over of the presents 
 is again accompanied by a long recital, inchinare, with 
 enumeration of the presents which, the vornicei pretends, 
 the bridegroom has gone to fetch from Constantinople, 
 and after shipwreck and no end of troubles has at last 
 succeeded in bringing them. 
 
 When the bride puts out her hand to take the offered 
 presents, the vornicei swiftly draws them back, in order to 
 tease her a Httle, and make the company laugh at her 
 expense : — 
 
 " Wait a bit, 
 Lady bride, 
 Do not be in a hurry with taking 
 As you have been with wedding, 
 Although sir bridegroom too 
 Has been over-hasty to wed you 
 For fear another might get you 1 
 
 Well now, please 
 Put out your hand * 
 
 * " la mai Ingadue 
 Jupaneasa mireasa: 
 Nu te grabi cu luatul 
 Cum te-ai grabit cu maritatul, 
 Cu toate ca si jup&n mirele 
 S'a prea grabit cu insuratul 
 Ca sa nu te-apuce altull 
 
 Ei, poftim acuma, 
 Pune mana, 
 
276 FROM CARPATHIAN TO PINDUS 
 
 And take them heartily 
 
 And look somewhat more cheerfully, 
 
 For you have to set off to your own house 1 " * 
 
 The presents are tendered, and passed on from hand to 
 hand. Now the turn of the bride has come ; she gives the 
 presents for the bridegroom to her own vornicel, who, 
 followed by his suite, carries them to the bridegroom, to 
 whom he also offers them with the recitation of the due 
 inchinare. Here, the refreshments served are wine and 
 
 Upon the arrival of dinner-time, the bridegroom and 
 party are invited to the bride's house. They come 
 dancing, the dance being led by the vornicel who, besides 
 other accomplishments, must be a first-rate dancer. 
 Whilst these are approaching, the bride's party also 
 organise a dance, disposed in such a way that all the 
 entrances of the house are guarded, the young men 
 clasping ach others' hands so that nobody can break 
 in. The two parties dance face to face, each of the two 
 leading vornicel doing his best to deceive the other, and 
 by some stratagem to master the field. If not successful 
 by dance and cunning in undoing one another, they will 
 try fair fighting, but when neither succeeds, the sponsor 
 of the bridegroom (the nunul-mare) pays a fee to the 
 bride's party and they are all let in. 
 
 After dinner the cart with four oxen is driven to 
 the front door to be loaded vdth the zestrea (the dowry), 
 the trousseau. A trunk or two, full of all sorts of linen, 
 of towels, napkins, tablecloths, and under-garments, then 
 carpets, rugs, pillows, &c. After much struggle and 
 dance, and wear and tear, the things are carried out to the 
 sound of the untiring music. But when it comes to the 
 trunks two of the bride's party will stand at the door 
 and stick their knives crosswise in the door-posts and 
 never allow them to cross over the threshold unless 
 the nunul-mare has paid a fee. In some place the dowry 
 
 * §i prime^te cu toata inima 
 $i cata mai voioasa 
 C'ai pleoat spre a d-tale oasa ! " 
 
PEASANT IN HIS SOCIAL RELATIONS 277 
 
 is taken to the bridegroom's house only on Sunday 
 morning. After the cart with the bride's belongings 
 has driven aside from the door, seats are put out for the 
 parents and nearest relatives, and carpets are spread 
 in front, on which the young pair have to kneel down, 
 to ask the parental blessing before setting out ; whilst 
 they do it, a vornicel stands on their right and pronounces 
 a recitation of forgiveness, a long piece of verse, in 
 which he begins from the very creation to explain that 
 man may sin, that youths are apt to make mistakes, but 
 that parents must forgive. Whisky is handed round, 
 and, as the couple and their friends set out, the musicians 
 will sing : — 
 
 "Be quiet, bride, and cry no more, 
 For to thy mother I'll bring thee 
 "When the poplar will bear apples 
 And the willow egriots." * 
 
 At which song, if the bride had no mind to cry before, 
 she is sure to begin now. But a bride always cries ; it 
 would be very improper if she did not ; it would be unlucky. 
 She steps into the cart or on horseback, and the whole 
 party starts for the bridegroom's house, where again 
 various formalities are accomplished for the reception of 
 the bride. The zestrea is brought in, with dancing again, 
 while the musicians sing merry, humorous songs to the 
 soacra-mare (the bridegroom's mother) to predict for 
 her all the troubles her daughter-in-law is to bring upon 
 her, and also foretelling to the bride dreadful things at 
 the hands of her future husband. They sit down to 
 dinner in due order; afterwards, some of the guests go 
 out to dance in the yard, while the rest remain in the 
 house to get the peteala (the gold-thread) ready, by 
 arranging it in long, thin skeins, to be put on the bride's 
 head, and hang streaming down her back. All the time 
 
 Taci mireasa, nu mai plange, 
 Ca la maica-ta te-oiu duce 
 Cand a face plopul mere 
 §i rachita vi§inele." 
 
278 FEOM CARPATHIAN TO PINDUS 
 
 the music goes on with songs, partly sad, partly merry. 
 All Saturday night they dance and amuse themselves 
 at the bridegroom's house; at dawn they all go home 
 to sleep for an hour or so, and on Sunday morning they 
 again gather to make the preparations for church. 
 
 On Sunday morning the party assembles early at 
 the bridegroom's house ; one of them says the Lord's 
 Prayer, then they set out to fetch the sponsors. There 
 the nuna-mare adorns with flowers two big white wax 
 tapers, usually with roses, white and pink ; she hands 
 one to her husband, keeping the other for herself, and 
 amid greetings and shouts of "Good luck" and "In 
 a lucky hour " they all go to the bride's house, where 
 the scene of the betrothal is repeated. The bride, ready 
 dressed, is seated on a chair in the middle of the room ; 
 the nuna will now comb her hair, part it in two and make 
 two plaits of it, arranging them in a coronet on top of 
 her head, on which then the gold-thread and the orange 
 flowers are fastened, together with a silver coin hidden 
 in the hair, that she may never be in want. The bride 
 ought to weep all through the operation. A little bunch 
 of flowers and gold-thread is put on the bridegroom's hat 
 and also in the hair of the dru§te. One big colac is then 
 broken and divided among the people present, and then, 
 in ox-carts and horse-vehicles and also on horseback, 
 they will start for church to the sound of music and 
 pistol shots. A bride ought never to meet another bride 
 on her way to church, it would be a very bad omen ; but 
 it would be a very good omen if she met with a funeral. 
 At church they go through a ceremony of honouring 
 the chief images, then the pair receive Holy Communion 
 and the ceremony of the " coronation " is gone through, 
 the sponsors standing by the young pair with lighted 
 tapers in their hands. The priest reads the usual prayers 
 and admonitions to the young pair with the never 
 forgotten : " And tlie wife shall fear her husband," on 
 which a too cheerful old priest will add: "And the 
 husband the poker." Two crowns, made of flowers or 
 of metal, are put on the head of the married couple by 
 the priest, aided by the sponsors, after which the married 
 
PEASANT IN HIS SOCIAL RELATIONS 279 
 
 couple, sponsors and priest, will join hands and turn 
 thrice round the table while the priest sings : ** Jessaiah 
 dances," whilst one of the party will shower upon them 
 sweets, raisins, and hazel-nuts. At this moment, if 
 the bride wishes to have the upper hand at home, she 
 ought to tread on the bridegroom's foot. The couple 
 are then given some bread, and drink some wine out 
 of the same glass, the priest and party congratulate them 
 and the cununia (the coronation) is over. Of course 
 the wedding at the mayor's has been gone through 
 before the church coronation, but without any particu- 
 lar ceremony. At the bridegroom's house — the couple's 
 house henceforth^ — the bride is received with carpets 
 spread on the door-step by the mother-in-law, who kisses 
 her, while the Idutari will play and playfully sing — 
 
 " Mother-in-law 
 Sour grapes 
 You may ripen 
 Ever so much 
 You will never become sweet." * 
 
 A plate with bread and salt is offered to the young 
 couple, often also with honey and butter. The bride 
 takes some butter with the finger and anoints the door- 
 frame crosswise. In some places the young pair are 
 offered to eat with a needle a hard-boiled eggy in order 
 that they should be thrifty, and attached to their house 
 as the hen to her eggs. At dinner the priest will occupy 
 the head of the table, or in his absence the sponsor; 
 colaci are offered round in due order, with appropriate 
 recitations of mchindciuni and hearty cheerings. 
 
 Towards evening the dance breaks off, and only inti- 
 mate friends and important persons are invited to the 
 masa-mare (the great dinner). This meal takes place 
 
 * " Soacra, soacra, 
 Poama acra 
 De te-i coace 
 Cit te-i coace 
 Dulce tot nu te-i mai facel" 
 
280 FROM CARPATHIAN TO PINDUS 
 
 at night, and only married couples partake of it; the 
 guests all pay for their place with as much money 
 as they can afford ; the sponsor is expected to give 
 most, from £1 upwards ; promises also may be made 
 of cattle and sheep. Every guest is presented with a 
 colac and a beautifully spun napkin, part of the bride's 
 dowry. The courses brought in are many, and endless 
 the toasting, with long speeches, cheerful music, and 
 no end of practical jokes and mutual teasing. At dawn 
 the table is left ; the nuna puts out the wedding tapers 
 which have been burning all the while, stuck in a loaf, 
 and gives them to the bride, who carefully lays them 
 by, towards the time when she and her husband shall 
 want them to light their last moments on this earth. If 
 one of the tapers is burned out more than another, the 
 owner of it will die first. The nun then takes the bride's 
 handkerchief and puts in the collected money, with some 
 bread and salt added for abundance' sake, and also some 
 sweet-basil for love's sake. But he must not tie the 
 bundle too tight, as the couple are then apt to become 
 miserly, nor too loose, as they will then be spendthrifts. 
 
 On Monday morning a young woman is sent out with 
 a red kerchief tied on a stick and a bottle of red whisky 
 to ask friends for the evening dinner (the uncrop), when 
 spirits are so high that men will get up on the top of the 
 house to drink there, and amusement will go on all night 
 again. On Tuesday a party goes with music to fetch the 
 nuna, who begins again to dress the bride's head, putting 
 on it the kerchief that she will always wear, so that 
 the holy sun shall never again shine upon the married 
 woman's bare head. On the next Sunday the young 
 couple have to receive their relatives at dinner ; the 
 Sunday after they are entertained by the bride's parents, 
 and there at last is the end of it. 
 
 Roumanian peasants, with all their faithfulness to old 
 usages, are nevertheless often obliged to bring in changes 
 more in accordance with outside circumstances, stronger 
 indeed than their own wishes. As far as possible, they 
 preserve all the formaHties, local or general, but then 
 want and pressure of work will often affect them, 
 
PEASANT IN HIS SOCIAL RELATIONS 281 
 
 shortening more and more all such amusements ; in old 
 times a wedding took more than three days ; nowadays 
 a tendency appears to crowd the various formalities as 
 much as possible into Saturday and Sunday. 
 
 The Eoumanian peasant — rather different from his 
 compatriot of the upper class — has married for life ; he 
 and she are perfectly aware that — 
 
 " Marriage is an iron yoke 
 Your life long you are with it." * 
 
 Yet they will stick to it, and bear with one another all 
 through the years. The multifarious shortcomings of 
 life may well fill the weaker of the two with dejection, 
 put forth in a song like this, begun before, ended after, 
 the gleaming mirage of love and wedding, a song which 
 sounds more like a yearning for past youth than for lost 
 liberty : — 
 
 1. " Before being in love with thee, 
 Love, O nay love, 
 Where I lay down I did Bleep, 
 Love, my love. 
 
 2. But since I have loved thee, 
 
 Love, O my love, 
 
 I can rest myself no more, 
 
 Love, my love.f 
 
 * " Maritatu-i jug de fier, 
 Pana-i trai e^ti cu el." 
 
 f 1. " Pana nu mi te iubeam, 
 Dor, Dorule, 
 Unde ma culcam dormeam, 
 Dor, Dorule. 
 
 2. Dar de cand mi te iubesc, 
 Dor, Dorule, 
 Nu pot sa ma odihnesc, 
 Dor, Dorule. 
 
282 FROM CARPATHIAN TO PINDUS 
 
 3. As a maid in my mother's house, 
 
 Love, O my love, 
 I knew how a flower is worn, 
 Love, my love, 
 
 4. But since I have been married, 
 
 Love, my love, 
 The house's care I have taken. 
 Love, my love." * 
 
 Adagio. M.M. J = 62.^ 
 
 Un-de macul-cam dor-meam, 
 
 She may have still stronger reasons to draw a compari- 
 son between girlhood and married life and find the latter 
 wanting, thus : — 
 
 "The well-being of my girlhood, 
 No penman can ever write it. 
 Even though the sky were paper,f 
 
 * 3. C§,t eram la maica fata, 
 Dor, Dorule, 
 §tieam floarea cum se poarta. 
 Dor, Dorule. 
 
 4. Dar de c&nd m'am maritat, 
 Dor, Dorule, 
 Grija casei mi-am luat, 
 Dor, Dorule." 
 
 f ** Binele meu din fetie 
 
 Nu-i diac sa-1 poata scrie. 
 Chiar de-ar fi cerul hartie 
 
PEASANT IN HIS SOCIAL RELATIONS 283 
 
 And the moon were an inkstand, 
 The holy sun a young penman, 
 Ever writing in a small hand."* 
 
 For husbands are rather exacting, and wives have not 
 always an easy time with them. Of course, as long as 
 he keeps to language only, be it bad language even, it 
 does not seem to matter overmuch, for — 
 
 "The husband may say many things, 
 The wife puts them behind her back."f 
 
 But, unfortunately, he will often come to blows, and 
 not for very sufficient reasons, either. Even blows are 
 not taken too unkindly, for — 
 
 " An unbeaten woman 
 Is like an undressed mill " — | 
 
 and, **A man who does not beat his wife does not love 
 her." It all depends, of course, on the causes of the 
 beating, and if the wife has reasons to think that 
 jealousy and love are at the bottom of her husband's 
 cruelty, she will surely not take it unkindly ; rather the 
 reverse. Moreover, a Roumanian peasant woman would 
 much rather be beaten, ever so much, by a strong 
 husband, than possess one whom she could beat herself. 
 The centuries- old Vidra, the wife of Stoian, the ancestral 
 type of the Roumanian woman, denies him the help he 
 begs from her in his single fight with the Pduna§ul 
 Codrilor ; she declines to tighten his girdle, loosened in the 
 struggle, for she thinks it a cowardly thing that a man 
 should ask help from a woman, especially in a single 
 
 * §i luna un calamar 
 Santul soare-un diecel 
 Sa tot scrie marun^el 1 " 
 
 f "Barbatu multe zice 
 Femeia la dos duce." 
 
 I "Femeia ne-batuta 
 
 Ca moara ne-ferecata." 
 
284 FROM CARPATHIAN TO PINDUS 
 
 fight. She is the prize of the victory, and she is ready to 
 accept the victor, the bravest, strongest of the two : — 
 
 " 0, no, no, dear brother man. 
 For you want a just fight — 
 And the one who is the victor 
 He it is that I shall love." * 
 
 And when the victorious Stoian prepares to cut off her 
 head in punishment for the denied service, she is not 
 cowed in the least, but boldly and bravely holds her 
 own : — 
 
 "So it is, Stoian, so! 
 I said, and say it again, 
 That I'll ever love a brave man 
 Who can fight his struggle out 
 Without asking woman's help." f 
 
 Alas, though, for that deplorable husband, unable to 
 appreciate his noble wife's strength of character ! He 
 actually cut off her head, and made with it a top to a hay- 
 stack ! The Roumanian woman is still true to the 
 ancestral taste ; she always prefers a man of whom she 
 proudly can say that he is *' a cross of a man" {cruce de 
 harhat), and then she will light-heartedly step behind him, 
 on the road of life ! 
 
 Unfortunately, domestic strife may be the outcome of 
 vice, of drink, on the man's side mostly, but sometimes 
 on both ; then it may come to bloody tragedies, for the 
 maddened drunkard will strike indiscriminately, and the 
 hardened wife will still cross him and arouse his wild 
 anger by : " Strike, for I am not made of glass to break 1 " 
 
 Ba nu, nu, badi^a frate, 
 Ca vrei lupta pe dreptate 
 §i ori-care a birui, 
 Eu cu d^nsul m'oi iubi." 
 
 A^a-i Stoiene, a^al 
 Am mai zis-o §'o mai zic 
 Ca mi-i drag oine-i voinic 
 De se lupta far' a cere 
 Ajutor de la muiere." 
 
PEASANT IN HIS SOCIAL RELATIONS 285 
 
 And he strikes ! But cases of the kind are rare. Happy 
 couples are frequent (much more so than in the upper 
 classes) who patiently accept the hard conditions of life, 
 and a wife will easily find it in her heart to sing after a 
 departed husband : — 
 
 "Ever since my lord is gone 
 
 Mist has set in my courtyard, 
 On the stake and on the rod, 
 And on my own little heart."* 
 
 With strokes now and then, with rare petting and 
 caressing, with frequent hardships and hard toil, they 
 walk through life side by side, the peasant couple, and 
 really there is still a subdued love in the still twinkling 
 eyes of the shrunken mo§neag (old man) when speaking of 
 his old wrinkle-faced wife, of his baba. Love is, has 
 been, a youthful dream, for which many allowances have 
 been made in time, the conditions of which, however, 
 will arouse the humour of the aged, to which he will give 
 vent in a jocose hora like this : — 
 
 1. " • You have been, ma'm what you have, 
 And are only a poor lot now.' 
 'You have been, sir, a strong man. 
 And are now a good-for-nothing man.* 
 
 2. 'You had, madam, blooming cheeks, 
 Now you've wrinkles on your skin.' 
 'You have had, sir, steady eyes, 
 Have now your body on crutches.' f 
 
 * "De cand badea mi s'a dus 
 Negura 'n curte s'a pus; 
 ^i pe par si pe nuiea 
 $i pe inimioara mea." 
 
 f 1. '"Fost-ai, leleo, c&nd ai fost 
 ^'ai ramas im lucru prost.' 
 * Fost-ai, badeo, om voinic 
 ^'•ai ramas om de nimic' 
 
 2. 'Avufi, leleo, floricele, 
 
 §'acum ai sbarceli la piele;' 
 'Avu^i badeo ochii dS-rji 
 ^'acum e^ti cu trupu 'n clbrji.' 
 
286 
 
 FROM CARPATHIAN TO PINDUS 
 
 :t 
 
 Pi 
 
 8. 'You were, ma'm, full of attractions 
 Have remained with : Away, hence 1 ' 
 'You were, sir, a sprightly man. 
 Have become quite a vampire"! ' " * 
 
 Giocoio. M.M. J =72. -^^ 
 
 4 
 
 -P M 
 
 ^ 
 
 i 
 
 Fost-ai, le - leo, C£i,nd ai fost, le-leodra-ga le-leo... 
 
 :sr=p: 
 
 ^ 
 
 t^=^ 
 
 5 
 
 — 1^— ♦ 1 . IT 1 ^ ' ■ 1 1 
 
 §'ai ra-mas un lu-cru prost, le-leo dra - ga le - leo. 
 mf 
 
 ■^s^ 
 
 ^^ 
 
 ^ 
 
 Fost-ai, ba • deo, om voi-nic, 
 
 ba - deo ba - < 
 
 ii - ^or 
 
 rj * n_ 
 
 
 
 , 
 
 h*" 1 1 
 
 '" 11 |~\ 1 ■ 
 
 -fr.^~\ — m—f — -^ 
 
 J r ' 
 
 ^ J 1 r^ 
 
 — jVp — ■J-'tr*-'4*- -1- 
 
 !^ — ii — Z — 1 *J 
 
 l^ — m-' ' 1 
 
 1 ^ m J \ 
 
 L^ — ; 1 1 " 
 
 9*ai ra-mas om de ni-mic, ba-deo ba - di - ^or. 
 
 Divorces, very frequent in the upper classes, are hardly 
 ever known among the peasants; very rarely indeed, 
 happening only in cases V7hen the wife has somehow 
 reached town, taken domestic service, and got within 
 reach of some lawyer's advice. Conjugal philosophy has 
 come in the tolerant admission that — 
 
 "A man's home is heaven and hell as well."f 
 
 Consequently, one puts up with vexations for the sake 
 of the happy moments, be they ever so scarce. For 
 after all — 
 
 " As in a man's home, nowhere," | 
 
 for better for worse. 
 
 * 3. 'Fost-ai, leleo, cu lipici 
 
 §'ai ramas cu fugi d'aici ' 
 •Fost-ai, badeo, om vioiii 
 §'ai ramas chiar un strigoiii I ' 
 
 I " Casa omului ^i raiii ^i iad." 
 
 I "Ca la casa omului, nicairi." 
 
PEASANT IN HIS SOCIAL RELATIONS 287 
 
 If the two are equally below the mark, then they have 
 been " made by fate " for each other : — 
 
 "God has not spoUed two houses."* 
 
 But if one only seems to be made for the misfortune of 
 the other, the proverb seems to admit that this is the 
 usual state of things in this world; that a good useful 
 being will be usually coupled with a bore, a disagreeable 
 weight, it is generally — 
 
 " An ox and a bore ; " f 
 
 and even the still more discouraging — 
 
 " Good grapes are eaten by pigs " — J 
 
 seems to imply that couples are seldom fitly matched, 
 and then one really does not know which it is best to be, 
 the grapes or the pig ! 
 
 About conjugal virtues there are many anecdotes and 
 songs, tending, it would appear, to show that they are 
 somewhat loose, the man does not much trust his wife : — 
 
 " "Woman and dog, never believe them." § 
 
 Or again — 
 
 "Your horse and your wife never trust to another." || 
 
 But the wife has her answer also — 
 
 " Husband and horse, never trust them : when they seem to go 
 best, then you are overthrown." IT 
 
 * *' N'o stricat Dumnezeu doua case." 
 f "Un bou ^i o belea." 
 
 I "Poama buna porcii o m&nanca." 
 § "Femeia §i canele, sa nu-i crezi." 
 
 II •• Calul §i femeia sa nu-i dai pe m&na altuia." 
 
 II " Barbatul ^i calul sa nu-i crezi: cind i^i pare ca merge mai bine, 
 atunoi te trante^te." 
 
288 FROM CARPATHIAN TO PINDUS 
 
 Of course, in this discussion about virtue, man has 
 managed to put himself into a rather superior situation : 
 Roumanian as well as other peasants will look down upon 
 woman in general, and stamp her inferiority in everything 
 by saying that woman is — 
 
 "Long skirts, short understanding, 
 Judgment rather small; 
 Bound head, girt heart, 
 Unreached by the mind."* 
 
 Anecdotes and proverbs and strigdturi, verses shouted 
 at the hora, are very severe, harping upon defective virtue 
 in woman, but after all, will all this stir not rather tend 
 to show that people feel keenly about it, that it is the 
 exception rather than the rule, and that exactly because 
 virtue is the groundwork of peasant society the departures 
 from it arouse so much ado and talk ? As a matter of 
 fact, this seems to be one of the greatest drawbacks of 
 Roumanian social life — is it not rather Latin ? — that, for 
 good and evil, there are more words than deeds. Gossip 
 is strong in every social stratum and is apt to emphasise 
 and develop facts, until they have quite reached the 
 dominion of pure fancy. Popular wisdom has put it 
 down in a few words : — 
 
 "Water, wind, and people's tongues, 
 You cannot stop." f 
 
 "Man has nought else to think 
 But over and over will reckon 
 How he will live for ever. J 
 
 * "Poale lungi §i minte scurta 
 
 Judecata mai marunta. 
 
 Cap legat inima' ncinsa 
 
 ^i de minte ne-cuprinsa." 
 f "Apa, v4ntul §i gura lumii 
 
 Nu po^i opri." 
 t "N'are omul ce gdndi 
 
 Far' mereu a socoti 
 
 Oa in veoi va tot trai. 
 
Old and Weary. 
 
 iPhoto, J. Cazaban. 
 
 Group of Peasants. 
 
 IFhoto, D. Cadcre. 
 
PEASANT IN HIS SOCIAL RELATIONS 289 
 
 But the human life 
 Is like the field flower: 
 At dawn it will blossom, 
 Fade away at even."* 
 
 Happy, too, when time is given one to fade away, but 
 Death, embodied in the shape of an emaciated old woman, 
 does not choose in reaping her harvest, but cuts down 
 indiscriminately old and young. And the will of God 
 must be done, for He has given ** man's days " and His is 
 the right to cut them short when He likes. '* Where 
 there is life, there is also death " —wncZe-i via^d, este §i 
 moarte. The Eoumanian peasant looks quietly forward to 
 death : " when his days are out," a man must go. But 
 if death itself is looked upon with no special fear, the 
 moment of death, the idea of crossing this world's 
 threshold, is considered with some foreboding. An easy 
 departure is the last happiness a man may wish for him- 
 self ; what will happen after death is not so disquieting 
 as the manner of the transition from the known life to 
 the unknown one. Death is foretold by many an omen. 
 If the dogs bark in a wailing tone and dig holes round 
 the prispa, some one of the family will die ; if the owl 
 shrieks on the chimney top, if the oil lamp {candela) is 
 overthrown, if oil is spilt, if a falling star is seen, some- 
 body about the house or one of the family is sure to die. 
 Old people will generally prepare long beforehand the 
 needed things for their own burial — the clothes in which 
 they will be laid out, the necessary kerchiefs, down to 
 the tapers and the cof&n. They do not like to be taken 
 unawares, and besides, they think it safer to have every- 
 thing ready, against the possible neglect of their children 
 and relatives. 
 
 At the moment of death, when no incantations, no 
 potations, no doctor's help, have been able to save a sick 
 person, the priest is called in, and the last sacrament is 
 
 Dar via^a omului 
 E ca floarea campului: 
 Diminea^a inflore^te 
 Peste zi se vesteje^te." 
 
 20 
 
290 FROM CARPATHIAN TO PINDUS 
 
 administered, which is supposed to have a curing power 
 sometimes, when no other physic can help. At any rate, 
 the patient is grijit (cleansed, provided for) ; he is ready to 
 depart from this world ; he has gone through the supreme 
 act of his religion, he dies " in his law." Sd nu mor in 
 legea mea (" May I not die in my own religion ") is one 
 of the heaviest oaths a man can take. 
 
 On no account should a dying man be left to breathe 
 his last "without a candle," a lit taper, which is put into 
 his dying hand at the very last moment, and, whatever the 
 state of agitation of the dying man may be, this taper 
 must be held fast in his hand by some friend or relative. 
 li iine lumdnarea (" one holds his candle ") means that 
 a man is at his last gasp, and a great wrong would 
 be done him if he were left to die without a candle. This 
 candle is meant to keep away bad spirits that might 
 intrude upon the dying man, trying to tamper with his 
 soul, and also the candle lights the soul on its way towards 
 heaven. 
 
 If the agony is hard, a priest is called in to read special 
 prayers (molifte) for the deliverance of the soul. If the 
 man cannot die easily, something is supposed to be 
 tormenting his soul, and, to save him from that torment, 
 his friends will subject him to all sorts of troubles with 
 the object of helping him to die, and grant him thus the 
 best last service friends can grant. They will shift him 
 to different positions on the bed, pillows and all ; or 
 they will put him to lie down on the floor, facing East ; 
 if that will not help, they will bring an ox-yoke or some 
 wheel, things he may have sinned against, and put them 
 under his head. For if a man cannot die easily, it is 
 because his soul is overloaded with sins, and he will not 
 die before pardon is granted to him. If an estate official, 
 or a land surveyor, has a hard agony, this is supposed 
 to be the outcome of his unjust measuring of land ; to 
 help him, they will bring a rod into the room, passing 
 it through the window, and put the end of it into his 
 hands : rest will come to his soul, and he will die. 
 A curse is supposed to have a great effect upon a man's 
 death ; if some one has had reason to curse another 
 
PEASANT IN HIS SOCIAL RELATIONS 291 
 
 so that he shall not die before he is pardoned, he will 
 indeed not be able to die; but his enemy is sought 
 after, and if found, brought in to ask from God pardon 
 for the cursed one. The torments of a dying man are 
 the direct outcome of his misdeeds, injustice and wrong- 
 doing in the first place ; to these torments (chinuri) , 
 the friends of the dying man will do all they can to 
 put an end, which then will mean that he is safe 
 now, that his sins are pardoned. Of course, many other 
 things remain to be done for the dead, but those are 
 just as necessary for the man who has led the brightest, 
 most angelic life, as for the one who has spent his 
 life in the blackest of misdeeds. 
 
 When the dying man has breathed his last, the 
 windows are opened immediately, or a glass-pane is 
 broken, that the soul may fly out to the free air. The 
 eyes of the dead are shut by the nearest relative — a 
 service a man always wants to have done to him by 
 his favourite child — the bells are rung at the little village 
 church ; the women undo their hair, letting it hang loose 
 on their back, and begin lamenting over the dead. If 
 grief is very great, they go lamenting round the house. 
 This lamentation is a real formality that a poor, sorrowful 
 woman is condemned to go through ; and the words she 
 utters are listened to, her complaint being often in verse ; 
 and it is considered quite a duty for a woman to lament 
 a boci properly, her deceased husband, child or parent; 
 it is a recognised merit to have lamented one's dead 
 ''beautifully." A woman's grief may by no means be 
 silent, quiet. This part of the lamentation will induce 
 many a mother-in-law to put up with daughters-in-law, 
 if they have no daughters of their own, for they know 
 that these are destined to lament over their dead bodies. 
 
 The dead man is thoroughly washed, shaved, and his 
 hair dressed ; he is washed in a hot bath, the water 
 being then poured at the root of a tree, and covered with 
 the kettle, in which it has been heated, for a while : it 
 were a sin to walk on that water. His nails are cleanly 
 cut, and in some places, I hear, the parings are stuck 
 together in a small ball of wax and kept as a keepsake in 
 
292 FROM CARPATHIAN TO PINDUS 
 
 a narrow partition inside the chest. It is a fact that the 
 Roumanian peasant is very careful about his nails, the 
 parings of which, when cut, must be carefully gathered 
 together and laid by safely — otherwise, in the next world, 
 the neglectful person will have to gather them up with 
 his or her own eyelashes. The deceased is dressed in 
 new linen, with his best clothes and a black lamb-skin 
 cap on his head. A married man or woman will be 
 buried with their wedding ring on the finger. A young 
 girl will be dressed like a bride, and a ring will also be 
 put on her finger. The body is arranged on a table, in 
 the middle of the room, facing East — in Transylvania, 
 though, generally with the feet towards the door. Four 
 tall tapers, in tall candlesticks, are lit at the four corners 
 of the table; a priest sits by reading the stilpii (the 
 pillars), that is the Gospels. Some friends or relatives will 
 begin making the coffin, by first taking an exact measure- 
 ment of the body, with a reed or a string, and taking 
 good care not to make it too long, which would mean 
 that some other relative of the dead will die soon. The 
 reed which has served for measuring is laid at the bottom 
 of the coffin ; when it is a string that has served, this is 
 wound up, stuck into a little hole above the door and 
 plastered over. The coffin is made of fir-planks, the 
 bottom composed only of several transversal palings, 
 covered over with reeds. The coffin is painted red, with 
 white crosses on the lid and side planks. The body 
 is put into the coffin as soon as this is ready and covered, 
 except the head, with a white thin stuff, the giulgiu, 
 zovon, pinza, the shroud. The hands are crossed on the 
 breast, and between the fingers a small cross of white 
 wax is set; this is made of a thin taper wound up 
 and folded into the shape of a cross, with a coin in it — 
 for the paying of the entrance fee into heaven. Under 
 the head there is a pillow made of herbs or of the 
 deceased's hair, if she has preserved what has been cut 
 during life. In some places they put a comb by the 
 pillow ; in other places they put some bread and salt. If 
 the dead has been a shepherd, they put his whistle 
 by him in his coffin. In other places, in the coffin of a 
 
PEASANT IN HIS SOCIAL RELATIONS 293 
 
 mother of a family, they put as many dolls as she has 
 children. 
 
 The corpse is kept three days in the house, the tapers 
 burning continually, the priest reading as long as possible. 
 People call in to see the dead; the relatives cry over 
 him from time to time, but by no means should he be 
 left alone. At night there is a gathering of guests, 
 as large as for any entertainment ; and, indeed, they play 
 games all night long, in and out of doors, when they light 
 a fire in the yard. This amusement, for the sake of 
 attendance on the dead at night, is called priveghiu, a 
 kind of watching. 
 
 After three days the body is taken to church, carried 
 on a kind of litter, which four men bear on their 
 shoulders, or he is driven in his ox-cart, or, in other 
 places, in an ox-sledge, even in summer, and if the way 
 is long, the work is hard for the oxen; to alleviate it, 
 green plants, mostly wall-wort, are thrown on the road 
 before the advancing sledge, that it may glide along 
 easier. In some places, when the dead is the head of 
 the family, the yoke is put on the necks of the oxen, with 
 the upper part downward. Anyhow, the funeral corUge 
 will advance slowly along the road, slowly, noiselessly, 
 with no other sound than the almost continuous wailing 
 of the woman. The litter is draped round with a stuff 
 more or less costly, of which priestly robes are afterwards 
 made ; poorer people will hang round the litter some 
 home-made carpets or other rougher stuff, afterwards 
 given away to the still poorer. The dead person is 
 carried uncovered to church, that he may behold this fair 
 world for the last time, and take from it a last farewell. 
 In places where it is not allowed to bury the dead 
 uncovered two little windows are cut out on both sides 
 of the cof&n, about the head, for the dead to breathe, 
 they say, and see his friends, and hear those who lament 
 after him, and take leave of them ; for, what is the good 
 of lamentation, if the dead is not to enjoy it? The 
 funeral procession is more or less large, according to the 
 position of the family ; in any case the cross and banner 
 lead, with at least one lantern taken from the church, 
 
294 PROM CARPATHIAN TO PINDUS 
 
 and borne by men, who receive a wax taper and a 
 kerchief in payment. Then follow several big trays with 
 the pomeni, gifts of eatables for the soul of the dead ; the 
 chief item among these is the coliva, a kind of corn- 
 pudding, very good to eat when well made ; then come 
 the colaci, some very big ones, some smaller, in which 
 sticks covered with figs and raisins, mostly gilt, are stuck. 
 The priest and attendants walk in front of the coffin 
 in their robes, and holding in their hands tapers tied 
 with a kerchief, which they then take home; all along 
 the way they recite or rather chant prayers. Behind 
 the coffin the family follow, the women lamenting; if 
 possible a band will play mournful tunes ; for shepherds 
 especially, some whistler is appointed. From time to 
 time the slowly advancing train will stop, for repeated 
 blessings on the coffin; at every fresh start a piece 
 of linen is spread on the road in front of the coffin, 
 with a candle beside it, and this is to be walked over by 
 the coffin bearers : these are poduri (bridges) , which are 
 supposed to be numerous, on the way to heaven ; by the 
 means of these linen bridges it is hoped to assure an 
 easier passage to heaven for the dead. The linen and 
 candles are given away to some poor followers. A short 
 service is held in church; the priest then requests the 
 family to say farewell to the dead, which is done with 
 heartrending lamentations. The coffin is then lowered 
 into the grave with cords and two long girdles (brie), 
 given afterwards to the grave-diggers, who have lowered 
 down the coffin. Before the lowering of the coffin lid, 
 the priest will throw from above wine (apaos) crosswise 
 on the dead, and some mould cut with a spade from 
 the four edges of the grave, with the last blessing of: 
 Fie-i farina u§oard ("May the earth be light on him"). 
 — which those assembled silently repeat. In some places, 
 about the mountains, two shepherds playing the horn 
 will come, and, crossing their alp-horns over the grava 
 they will blow a last prolonged peal to the memory 
 of the departed, especially if the latter was a shepherd 
 himself. Over the grave various gifts are bestowed for 
 the soul of the dead: a black hen in most cases, or 
 
PEASANT IN HIS SOCIAL RELATIONS 295 
 
 a sheep, or cattle. If the dead person was a young man 
 possessing a horse, his horse will be given away over his 
 grave to some other lad of his age, some friend of his. 
 After the burial the procession returns home, possibly by 
 some other way than the one just travelled with the 
 dead ; on entering the house every member of the family 
 washes the hands, and as many friends as wish to do 
 so. Whilst the burial was going on in the churchyard, 
 at home some trustworthy women friends have been 
 busy sweeping and cleaning the house and preparing the 
 funeral dinner (the comendare) . 
 
 In older times there was another custom, now fallen 
 into disuse. On the eve of the funeral day, one or more 
 sheep, usually black, were brought home from the sheep- 
 fold ; at the rising of the stars the priest (popa) was called 
 in; in his presence a hole was dug in the yard; the 
 sheep, with burning wax candles stuck to its horns, was 
 placed beside it, looking westward, and whilst the popa 
 was saying a prayer, the animal was killed, the blood 
 being made to run into that hole, called ard. The meat 
 of the sheep was used for the preparation of the funeral 
 dinner ; the priest got the head and skin of the animal. 
 This unmistakably Latin custom has died out, but the 
 saying has remained behind : A da pielea popii ("To give 
 the skin to the priest ") is a very common saying, and a 
 rather gay metaphor, meaning " to die." 
 
 At the funeral dinner, when drinking, everybody will 
 begin by spilling a few drops of the wine, saying, *' May 
 his earth be light " ; this libation is meant for the soul of 
 the dead. As a matter of fact, a Roumanian peasant 
 never takes any drink, be it water or anything else, with- 
 out spilling a few drops on the ground, by just blowing 
 over the drink. If the family can afford it, all those who 
 have attended the funeral are invited to partake of the 
 dinner ; the table is then spread out of doors, on long 
 planks, or on many yards of linen, just stretched along the 
 courtyard on some straw, in front of which people sit 
 down on the ground and eat. The principal table, however, 
 at which the priest and most important guests are to sit, 
 is laid inside the house. Besides the ordinary eatables, 
 
296 FROM CARPATHIAN TO PINDUS 
 
 every guest gets a colac and a candle, for the soul of the 
 dead. A da colac §i lumdnare ('* To give away colac and 
 candle ") has also passed into a proverb, to express the 
 state of one who has made up his mind to bear a loss, or 
 give up something. 
 
 In the place where the deceased has breathed his last, 
 some coals are put in a potsherd with some incense 
 over them, and, beside them, a glass of water, a piece of 
 bread, and a wax candle, called to'iag. This candle has 
 a peculiar shape : it is made of a thin wax candle, as long 
 as the body of the dead, coiled up and with the end turned 
 up and lit ; from time to time the coil is unwound, and 
 kept burning all through the night for three nights 
 running, for the enjoyment of the soul, which is supposed 
 to be dwelling thereabouts during three days. After three 
 days the soul is supposed to find its abode above the door 
 lintel, that is why in some places a piece of linen is 
 arranged there for the soul to rest upon. After the burial 
 the most important things to attend to, are the grijele, 
 the " cares " or attendances, as we may say, for the repose 
 of the soul : services on the tomb, with accompaniment 
 of coliva, colaci and candles, taken to church, and 
 saying of prayers by the priest every three, nine, twenty 
 and forty days. Then a great funeral service with dinner 
 is given after one year (the pomenire), repeated every 
 year for seven years running. Alms are given away on 
 every occasion, among which water is considered an 
 important item. After seven years the usage is to exhume 
 the dead : the bones are taken out, washed in wine and 
 buried again in a smaller coffin. At the grave, from the 
 very moment of the burial, a broken pot — that which has 
 been used for pouring the bath water out of the kettle — 
 is set at the head of the tomb, with burning coals in it 
 and incense. In some places they put a fir-tree, which 
 for the three funeral days has been standing in the dead 
 man's yard with all sorts of ornaments hung on it; 
 deprived of these, the tree is stuck at the head of the 
 grave. If the dead person was a young girl they plant 
 ivy, and sweet-basil is sown on the tomb. Besides, at 
 the head of the tomb a wooden cross is placed, painted 
 
PEASANT IN HIS SOCIAL RELATIONS 297 
 
 red generally, and sometimes only a red pillar. The rich 
 get a stone, with the sun, the moon, and an inscription 
 carved upon it. But the popular poet knows best what 
 he would like upon his tomb ; he would like a weeping- 
 willow, with eternal tears to overshadow his lonely tomb : 
 
 "Bend, bend, 
 Weeping willow, 
 That I may reach you, 
 That I may wind a crown 
 To wear it for ever. 
 
 Bend, bend, 
 Weeping willow, 
 That the wind may blow you, 
 That you may kiss the earth. 
 That you may shade my grave." * 
 
 * "Te lasa, te lasa 
 Salcie pletoasa 
 Sa te-apuc cu mana 
 Sa' mpletesc cununa 
 S'o port tot-de-una. 
 
 Te lasa, te lasa 
 Salcie pletoasa 
 Sa te bata vantul 
 Sa saru^i pam^ntul 
 Sa-mi umbre^ti morm^ntul. 
 
CHAPTEE VII 
 THE PEASANT IN HIS RELATIONS TO FOREIGNERS 
 
 "You will make the foreigner brother 
 When milk will spring out of the stone 
 And the foreigner a sister 
 When the gun will go off unloaded." * 
 
 A GLANCE at a map of the Balkan Peninsula will bring 
 home to us at once where and how numerous the 
 foreigners are with whom the widespread Eoumanian 
 nation has to live in direct contact. First and foremost, 
 there is the great Slavic sea surrounding the Eoumanian 
 land on all sides, indenting it with its numerous and 
 varied gulfs and coves, dashing for centuries with its 
 reckless waves on the enduring Eoumanian. The Slavs 
 in their multifarious shapes meet the Eoumanians every- 
 where : in Bassarabia, where they altogether constitute 
 about 12 per cent, of the whole population, although 
 of genuine Eussians there are only some 2'10 per cent, 
 (on the whole, 34,473, the rest of some 259,000 being 
 Euthenians) ; in Bukovina, where the Slavs (Euthenians) 
 constitute over 30 per cent, of the total population ; 
 in Austria-Hungary at large, where the Slavic element 
 (Bohemians, Euthenians, Croathians, Slavonians, Ser- 
 vians) constitute at least one-half of the whole population 
 of the Empire, partly only in direct touch with the 
 
 * "Atunci ii face strainul frate 
 Cand a da din piatra lapte 
 §i straina surioara 
 C&nd a pocni pusca goala." 
 
THE PEASANT AND FOREIGNERS 299 
 
 Roumanians. South of the Danube the continuity of the 
 Roumanian nation is far more broken by the Slavic 
 element: Bulgarians and Servians (respectively 3,309,816 
 and 2,250,712) in their own States, with comparatively 
 few Roumanian colonists among them, and the 2,000,000 
 Slavs of the province of Macedonia under Turkish rule. 
 With Slavs the Roumanians have been longest in touch ; 
 of Slavs the Roumanians have assimilated incalculable 
 numbers ; at their hands the Roumanians have received 
 death blows, and been deprived of their too far-stretching 
 members in Istria and Moravia, in the heart of the 
 Austrian Empire. On their own politically constituted 
 soil, the Roumanians have to-day some 86,000 Slavic 
 colonists, leading the life of the Roumanians, and getting 
 on well with them. 
 
 The next foreign neighbour in numbers, and still more 
 in closeness of intercourse in everyday life, is the Jewish 
 race, spread all over the world, but no doubt much more 
 diffused in Eastern Europe ; the Roumanians have to 
 deal with this race in every corner of land occupied by 
 them ; in their own home, in Free Roumania, they 
 accommodate no less than 400,000 Jews, probably 
 more. 
 
 The third race, as to number, are the Gipsies (the 
 Tzigani), of which in Free Roumania alone there are 
 over 200,000 settled down, beside the endless streams of 
 nomads. 
 
 Besides these three races, of which every Roumanian 
 has a practical knowledge, and members of which every 
 Roumanian peasant is obliged to meet, there are many 
 other foreigners, the contact with w^hom, however, is 
 more limited and partial. The Hungarians, being alto- 
 gether over six and a half millions (against the more 
 than ten millions of Roumanians), come, however, 
 into contact with Roumanians only in the regions of 
 Trasylvania (where they constitute together with the 
 Secklers 27 per cent, of the population, as against 60 per 
 cent, of Roumanians), in Hungary proper and in Free 
 Roumania, namely, in Moldavia, where some 30,000 
 Hungarian settlers have lived for ages. With Germans 
 
300 FROM CARPATHIAN TO PINDUS 
 
 the Roumanian peasant comes into touch in Bukovina, 
 where, however, they furnish a lower percentage than the 
 Ruthenians ; in Transylvania the Saxon settlers are no 
 more than 10 per cent. ; in Bassarabia, the number of 
 German settlers is a little above that of the Russians 
 proper ; in Free Roumania, too, there are rather sporadic 
 German settlers, but living chiefly in towns, hardly ever 
 in the country. ItaHan settlers are of recent date, but 
 their number seems to be increasing, especially as road- 
 builders and stone- workers, in which capacity they stream 
 in almost every spring. French settlers are rarer ; only 
 in towns, and almost all are of the educated class. English 
 are still rarer, and hardly ever come within touch of the 
 Roumanian people. Of Armenians there are a good many 
 about the Carpathian region, but they have remained 
 unassimilated, keeping to their own religion and usages, 
 although without any language of their own. With the 
 Greek the contact is more intimate : about the Pindus 
 they have Grecised numberless Valachs or Armini, and 
 are still at their undermining work ; about the Carpathians 
 the contact with the Greek has greatly diminished, shrunk 
 back into the Danube valley to the banks of the river, in 
 the commercial ports only; but they used to be very 
 intimate at one time, and have not left felicitous memories 
 behind. At the feet of the Pindus the Valachs come into 
 nearer touch with the Albanians, the last representatives 
 of the most ancient among the Greeks. With the Turks 
 the Roumanian nation has had in the past to deal on a 
 much larger scale than it does now, as Turkey stretched 
 its suzerainty at one time high up into the Carpathians 
 and beyond the Dniester and the Black Sea. 
 
 It seems only natural that of all the races the Rou- 
 manians have had to deal with, they should have suffered 
 most at the hands of the uncivilised Mongol race, repre- 
 sented by the Turks and their friends and vassals the 
 Tartars (South of Russia and the Crimea). These two 
 peoples, indeed, have made themselves known to the Rou- 
 manians by their ever recurring and conjointly planned 
 invasions, during which they plundered and sacked the 
 Roumanian villages, taking into slavery as many men, 
 
THE PEASANT AND FOREIGNEES 301 
 
 women, and children as they could lay hands upon, fear 
 driving others away to the woods and mountains, into 
 marshes and among the bulrushes, and any other secure 
 hiding-places. The remembrance of those invasions is 
 still alive even now, and the impressions of the sufferings 
 caused thereby have been crystallised into a popular 
 proverb : — 
 
 " Neither Turks nor Tartars are coming," * 
 
 to explain that there is no particularly great hurry for a 
 thing. 
 
 No doubt all who attacked the Christian populations 
 under the name of Turks were, truly speaking, a very 
 varied mixture of all sorts of Asiatic tribes, so that whilst 
 some of them may have left a respectable name in history 
 and in people's memory, others, on the contrary, have 
 gathered for themselves and the nation they represented 
 the worst possible reputation. If there were valorous, 
 disciplined troops among the Turkish armies, there were 
 also disorderly, undisciplined hordes addicted only to 
 plunder and cruelty, not very anxious about a fair fight 
 or a good name ; many a battle was fought between 
 Roumanians and Turks, and for a long time the Rou- 
 manians were victors, but in the long run the Turks got 
 the upper hand, and the Roumanians had to submit. 
 Then the Turkish tribes did what they liked, never fearing 
 any check to their misdeeds from their Government at 
 Constantinople. Thus the Roumanian countries were 
 overrun by all sorts of adventurers, merchants, extor- 
 tioners in Turkish garb and under a Turkish name, 
 individuals who by their behaviour have impressed upon 
 the unfortunate populations the beUef that the Turk is — 
 
 " A coward as to bravery 
 But skilful at treachery." f 
 
 ' Nu dau Turcii nici Tatarii." 
 'Om fricos la vitejie 
 Dar mooter la viclenie." 
 
302 FROM CARPATHIAN TO PINDUS 
 
 In the long run, the Roumanian came to reaHse that 
 what the Turk really wanted, as an individual as well as 
 an organised Government, was nothing else but money, 
 hence — 
 
 ** Give the Turk money, and you can put out his eyes." * 
 
 Many a sad tale has the Roumanian to tell of those 
 times, when the plundering Turk took away many of his 
 compatriots into slavery and enforced the Mussulman 
 religion upon them ; and when the Turk in his pretended 
 commercial transactions with the Roumanian, always 
 managed to put him down as an insolvent debtor, he 
 sold his belongings, his wife, his all, to make up the 
 amount of the debt. As a legend tells us : — 
 
 *' Three black cocks crowed : 
 Three Turks in the land thundered: 
 ' Sell, oh brother, thy wife 
 And pay off thy debt to me I ' 
 
 He sold vineyards, 
 
 He sold lands, 
 
 He sold mills. . . . " f 
 
 The poor man sold everything, and at last was obliged 
 to sell his own wife. And it seems that women fetched 
 high prices in those days, like that particular one who 
 was sold for thrice her weight in copper, silver and gold 
 coins respectively, and even the urdta cetd^ii (" the ugly 
 one of the city ") fetched not less than a bushel of 
 ducats, another of piastres and a third of coppers. 
 But it is not seldom that the legend ends with the 
 discovery that the buyer is no other than the very 
 
 i!c 4« Turcului, da-i bani ^i scoate-i ochii." 
 
 f " Trei cuco^i negri cantara : 
 Trei Turci in ^ara tunara: 
 ' Vinde^i frate nevasta 
 ^i imi plate^te darea I ' 
 
 Vandu vii 
 
 Vandu mo^ii 
 
 Vandu mori. ..." 
 
THE PEASANT AND FOREIGNERS 303 
 
 brother of the bought woman, himself carried away 
 by Turks in his childhood, and brought up as a Turk. 
 He returns the wife to her husband, with still larger 
 presents of money. Those hard times are still alive 
 in the people's memory, as in the following popular 
 song : — 
 
 " Green leaf of spare wheat 
 Come down, O Lord, on the earth 
 And see what the Turks have done (bis). 
 
 Many a house they have devasted, 
 Many a child they have orphaned, 
 Women they have widowed 
 And destroyed monasteries." ••' 
 
 :#* 
 
 \=^: 
 
 S^ 
 
 :m:TT 
 
 1 ■ — ^—^iS 
 
 de grau ma - runt Co 
 
 On the other hand, the Roumanian has also had to 
 deal with honest, humane, righteous Turks, in whom he 
 has had occasion to observe good qualities, and these the 
 
 " Frunza verde grau marunt 
 Cobori Doamne pe pamant 
 ^i vezi Turcii ce-au facut (bis). 
 
 Multe case-au pustiit, 
 Mul^i copii au saracit, 
 ^i femel au vaduvit, 
 Manastiri au rasipit." 
 
304 FEOM CARPATHIAN TO PINDUS 
 
 Roumanian has ever been ready fairly to acknowledge 
 and honour. The Turk is reputed to be a man of his 
 word ^^ om de cuvinf ; he kept his word when he had 
 given it, only it appears that he did not give it very 
 often, and that not many Turks made any ado about 
 giving and breaking their word. Again, the Roumanian 
 appreciates in the Turk the rare virtue of gratitude, 
 which he is said to extend as far down as the seventh 
 generation, in repayment of a service received — but 
 revenge does not stop half-way either, it seems. Turks 
 have been settled on Free Roumania's soil till lately, in 
 the Dobrogia ; but, very sensitive in their religious 
 feelings, they found it too hard to abide under Christian 
 rule, be it as tolerant as can be, and so they have 
 flocked again under Mahomet's green flag, leaving 
 behind the name of hard-working, honest, trustworthy 
 labourers. Not so the Tartars, who have remained 
 behind, not very easy to deal with, sly, cunning, and 
 not in the least a desirable population to the others. 
 
 With the Tartars the Roumanians have had to deal 
 ever since the thirteenth century; still more dreadful 
 were they than the Turks, with their ever-repeated 
 invasions. Hosts of quiet, innocent people were driven 
 by them into captivity and slavery. Ghastly stories 
 run current among the people about those invasions, and 
 the subsequent fate of the unfortunate captives. As 
 one of these stories will have it, the captives were cooped 
 in large cages, at least the youngest among them and 
 the children; there they were fattened on bread and 
 walnuts, then thrust into large heated kilns, and roasted 
 for the Tartar's dinner. One day, the Tartars, being 
 all away on their plundering pursuits, left behind only 
 an old Tartar woman, to get dinner ready for them. 
 The old woman heated the kiln, then went to the 
 cage, took out a young girl and led her to the kiln. 
 There stood in readiness a long shovel with a kind of 
 wheel-barrow in front, where the captive was put and 
 just pushed into the kiln ; she invited the girl : " Step, 
 girl, on the shovel." ** Step on, baba, to show me." 
 The old woman stepped on the barrow just to show 
 
THE PEASANT AND FOREIGNERS 305 
 
 the girl how she should do it, but the girl at once 
 pushed the baba into the kiln, shut the opening, and 
 then running to the cage, opened it for her friends to 
 come out, and thus they all fled homewards. The 
 Tartars, on coming home, saw that the woman was absent, 
 but being too hungry to wait for her to turn up, they sat 
 down to have their dinner. They took the roasted body 
 out of the kiln, and began to eat it, but finding it very 
 tough, they suspected the truth, ran to the cage and 
 found it empty. They at once set after the fugitives to 
 bring them back. In the meantime the latter could 
 not go very fast, not knowing the way home ; they only 
 travelled at night, being led in their wandering by the 
 Milky Way, that white strip on the sky which from 
 times immemorial people have always been told was the 
 guiding thread of escaped fugitives, and was therefore 
 called the " Slaves' Way " {Galea Bohilor) (which name 
 is just as widespread among the people as that of 
 "Trajan's Way"). By day they did not travel at all, 
 but hid as best they could in marshes, among the high 
 bulrushes, where, however, the Tartars' often managed 
 to find them out, with the aid of lapwings, who were 
 trained to fly about, and then* just stop and hover above 
 the places where they caught sight of human beings. 
 Somehow, however, these captives, or some of them at 
 least, had the good luck to reach Moldavia, and lived 
 on to tell the story of their flight to their descendants, 
 who in due course added to it as much as their own fancy 
 suggested. 
 
 Turk and Tartars are pagans, and consequently 
 "unclean" (spurca^i) ; their religion >is unclean, and 
 the Roumanian peasant feels no respect towards it. 
 They eat fat on a Friday ; they do not make the sign of 
 the cross, and the Roumanian will have nothing in 
 common with them. Let the Turk or Tartar stick to 
 his own creed, the Roumanian will not feel bound to try 
 to convert him, but he will also never mix socially with 
 him. 
 
 Towards his Christian neighbours the feelings of the 
 Roumanian peasant are regulated on the same principle : 
 
 21 
 
306 FROM CARPATHIAN TO PINDUS 
 
 if they eat fat on a Friday, they are unclean ; if not, they 
 are all right. With people of the same Christian creed 
 he will wed, never with people of a different creed, unless 
 in rare cases, when they consent to adopt his own 
 creed, and come to live in his village, and speak his 
 language ; and so it is that the Roumanian peasant 
 has accomplished through centuries, quite unconsciously 
 and quietly, the greatest work of denationalisation ever 
 done, not by imposing his views upon others, but just 
 by loyally sticking to his own. Thus his character has 
 been moulded, in the long run, to reserve, to indifference 
 towards other peoples, but at the same time to tolerance, 
 in reHgion as in everything else. Thus it is that the 
 Roumanian peasant, with all his superstitions and in 
 some ways narrow views, is tolerant, large-minded, even 
 high-minded, towards his fellow-creatures : — 
 
 "Do in thy life ever good, 
 Even to the foreign * nations." f 
 
 It is nevertheless true that upon his foreign neighbour 
 the Roumanian peasant looks rather down than up; a 
 little of the Roman pride seems to have trickled down 
 into his descendant's veins, and he is ever ready to 
 believe himself the superior of his foreign fellow-man. 
 The Russian, taken as an individual, is supposed to be 
 a rough kind of being, eating raw vegetables; the pig 
 is metaphorically called " a Russian with a rouble in his 
 snout." The word '' moujik," meaning simply peasant 
 in Russian, has been adopted in the Roumanian voca- 
 bulary only as an epithet of great scorn, to mean a 
 coarse, churhsh, ill-bred fellow — mojic. The Russian is 
 supposed to be of a greedy nature. An anecdote tells us 
 that a Russian went into a shop to buy some cheese, 
 but somehow he managed to buy soap instead. He went 
 home and sat down to supper, but on beginning to eat 
 
 * Nation and religion are equal notions in the peasant's mind, and 
 both are rendered by " lege " = law. 
 
 f "Fa in via^a ta tot bine, 
 Chiar §i legilor straine." 
 
THE PEASANT AND FOREIGNERS 307 
 
 found the cheese rather tough and of particularly high 
 flavour ; oh, but he would not lose his money. 
 
 " He shall eat even to bursting, 
 Ivan gave money for it!" * 
 
 has become quite a common proverb. 
 
 The Russian is said to be a cheat even in his gratitude : 
 A Russian was very ill ; when everything had been tried 
 and found useless for his recovery, he had recourse to 
 the help of the saints — namely, to St. Nicolai, to whom 
 he promised that if the saint cured him, he would sell 
 his horse, and with the whole price of it have an immense 
 taper made and light it in front of the saint's image. 
 He recovered. But as to the fulfilment of his vow, he 
 took his horse to market, along with a cock, insisting 
 on selling them together, but asking one hundred roubles 
 for the cock and one rouble for the horse. At last 
 he comes to terms for eighty and one half rouble respec- 
 tively, pockets the eighty roubles, and with the half 
 rouble buys a taper, which he lights in front of the 
 saint's image, with prayers and assurances that he had 
 done all that was in his power for the satisfaction of 
 the vow. 
 
 But with the Russian at large the Roumanian has 
 hardly ever had occasion to meet on peaceful friendly 
 footing ; it is much rather during wars, and invasions, 
 and plunderings, and military occupations that they 
 have learned to know each other, and so there is no 
 wonder at all that from Bassarabian folklore we should 
 gather — 
 
 "Than the Christian Muscovite 
 Much better the pagan Turk I " f 
 
 The German — truly speaking, the Austrian, with whom 
 the Roumanian has had most to do — is supposed to be, 
 
 '•^ "I mancEl, i crap^, Ivan bani dat." 
 
 f " Decat Moscalu cre^tin 
 
 Mult mai bine Turc pagan I " 
 
308 FROM CARPATHIAN TO PINDUS 
 
 in the first place, rather addicted to drink : " He has 
 taken the German's pipe" {A luat luleana Neamtului)^ 
 is said of a tipsy man. Conceited and self-rehant, but 
 weak at the bottom, courage is not supposed to be his 
 strong point. An anecdote tells that a Roumanian met 
 a German stepping proudly forward with a rifle on his 
 shoulder and a dog at his heels : — 
 
 " Where are you going, German ? " 
 
 " To the war ! " 
 
 *' But what do you take your dog for ? " 
 
 ** I will cut up Turks and feed him with them." 
 
 After some time, they met again, the German humble 
 and hungry looking. 
 
 ** Where are you coming from, German ? " 
 
 " From the war " (in a weak, depressed tone). 
 
 ** And the dog, where is he ? " 
 
 " I've cut him up and eaten him." 
 
 The German finds it very hard to learn Roumanian, 
 and even if he does learn it, never pronounces it well. 
 An old German is said to have been settled down as 
 shoemaker in a small country town; after fifty years 
 of residence there he knew no Roumanian, and is 
 reported to have exclaimed in disgust : " How stupid 
 these Roumanians are ; fifty years I have lived among 
 them, and they know no German yet ! " On the other 
 hand, Germans are supposed to be very clever with 
 their hands; every mechanical progress is ascribed to 
 them — probably because the Germans started the first 
 railways in Roumania. Electricity and steam engines 
 are called *' devilries of the German." 
 
 The Hungarian does not enjoy much sympathy, and 
 not without reason, although, as far as my experience 
 goes, hatred would never have sprung up between nations 
 if Governments had not been there to kindle and foster 
 it. People of different nations might have liked or 
 dishked each other, silently, individually, for racial or 
 individual good or evil quahties; they might have kept 
 apart from each other, or mixed and unconsciously in- 
 fluenced one another, as they always have done at the 
 times when politics were in their infancy, but with 
 
THE PEASANT AND FOREIGNERS 309 
 
 Government persecutions it is quite natural that national 
 hatred should have been born. No doubt, it is the young 
 civilisation, the new-born national feelings that have 
 done it ; let us hope that a ripe civilisation, a higher 
 stage of human thought and feeling, v^ill atone for it. 
 Very conceited and vain is the Hungarian supposed 
 to be, caring for nothing on earth but his mustachio 
 and spurs and his horse, if he has got one. Very likely 
 the reciprocal opinion of the Hungarian about the Rou- 
 manian is not much more amiable; at any rate, this 
 is what the Roumanian thinks about the Hungarian. 
 Cunning and clever at stealing : — 
 
 "All through the length of the country 
 No thief like the Hungarian : 
 At night he steals, 
 By day he swears " * — 
 
 says one of the popular satires. Not much discern- 
 ment to boast of, with all that. An anecdote reports 
 that a Hungarian went to town, got drunk, and somehow 
 lost one of his spurs. On his way home he could not 
 get farther than half-way, and dropped down and fell 
 asleep. A carriage comes along; the hurried driver 
 shouts to him to draw up his leg ; the Hungarian awakes, 
 looks at his leg for a while, then says quietly : — 
 
 *' Drive on, it is not my foot ; don't you see it has got 
 no spur on ? " 
 
 Another anecdote tells us about two soldiers, a Hun- 
 garian and a Roumanian, both in the infirmary after 
 a battle. 
 
 The Roumanian says : " How is it, Janosh, that you can 
 keep quiet so well when the attendant comes to straighten 
 your leg, while I can't help shrieking like a madman 
 when he attends to me?" 
 
 ^' " Cdt e ^ara de-a lungul 
 Nu-i talhar ca Ungurul : 
 Noaptea fura, 
 Ziua jura." 
 
310 FROM CARPATHIAN TO PINDUS 
 
 "Oh," says the Hungarian, "you are only a stupid 
 Roumanian, that is why ; I am a Hungarian, my man, 
 and not so stupid as to give him the wounded leg to 
 rub ; I just give him the sound one, and it does not hurt 
 a bit ! " 
 
 A not very complimentary legend is told about the 
 origin of the Hungarian. At the time when Christ 
 walked on earth, with His faithful St. Peter, this saint 
 repeatedly made the request : — 
 
 "Lord, you who are so powerful, and have made so 
 many things and beings out of nothing, do make a 
 Hungarian also ! " 
 
 "Oh no, Peter," answered the Lord; "you do not 
 know what you are asking for ; we shall get into trouble 
 with him, if I make a Hungarian." 
 
 But as Peter insisted, the Lord decided to satisfy 
 his wish, and just stooped down on the road, with 
 shut eyes, to take anything that might happen to be 
 at hand, as a groundwork for His creation. He hap- 
 pened to pick up some refuse, and of this he made 
 the Hungarian. But the latter was hardly made, when 
 he drew up his mustachio, clapped his feet to make his 
 spurs clink, and shouted " Passport ! " in a voice that 
 startled both the Creator and His companion. 
 
 "Well now, Peter, didn't I tell you?" said the 
 Almighty, very much taken aback, as they had no 
 passports in those times. 
 
 The Servian is reputed as particularly dull-minded, 
 unable to distinguish " a boot from a pipe." 
 
 The Bulgarian has always been looked upon in a more 
 friendly way, if not exactly much more complimentary, 
 but feelings may possibly change for the worse if political 
 circumstances do not improve. 
 
 Still truer friends have the Albanese always been 
 reckoned : " Valach and Albanese, brothers," goes the 
 saying, but this only in as far as both are Christians ; but 
 unfortunately most of the one million and a half of 
 Albanese in existence have gone over to Islam, and, 
 together with their co-religionists the Turks, are joining 
 hands to crush their Christian brothers, or rather, the 
 
THE PEASANT AND FOREIGNEES 311 
 
 stronger among them unite to crush the best of the 
 poorer population. 
 
 The Greek has never been a great friend to the Rou- 
 manian, and, moreover, was very much hated in old 
 times : his name is hardly to be met vs^ith in the Rou- 
 manian folklore without the hardest epithets ; the re- 
 putation of heartless, cheating, cowardly, has remained 
 with him. Extremely conceited and vain besides, often 
 a dupe to his own vanity. As an anecdote reports, a 
 Greek went once into a barber's shop, and whilst the 
 barber was busy with another customer, he sat down on 
 a chair to wait for his turn. The barber, however, had 
 seen the Greek, but acted as if he had not, wanting to 
 play a practical joke on him. So he went on speaking 
 to the man in his hands : — 
 
 " I do hate soap and water ! they make one so dirty. 
 And really, when you come to think of it, they are 
 rather things for women's usage ; now, in Athens, for 
 instance, no Archonda Palicar (nobleman) would ever 
 use soap and water; they simply shave dry." 
 
 After having finished with his first customer, he took 
 the basin with soap and water and made towards the 
 Greek : — 
 
 " You wish to be shaved, I presume ? " 
 
 "Yes, but no soap or water, please, we only shave 
 dry in Athens, I am an Archonda Palicar." 
 
 The barber set to work, but the Greek stopped him 
 after a while. 
 
 ''Look here, my friend, I am not quite a Palicar; 
 you might just as well take a little water." 
 
 But as the razor wouldn't go any smoother — 
 
 " You really may take more water, I am no Palicar 
 at all ! " 
 
 And as the shaving was just as hard to bear — 
 
 " Well, you see, just take some soap, I am not quite 
 from Athens, but only from the suburbs ! " 
 
 As the result, however, was still far from satis- 
 factory : — 
 
 *' Look here, use as much soap as is necessary, I am 
 not from Athens at all, but a hundred miles away ! " 
 
312 FROM CARPATHIAN TO PINDUS 
 
 Empty pride seems to have always been the striking 
 characteristic of the Greek ; whenever Greeks came into 
 the Roumanian principaHties of old they all wanted to 
 be taken for nobles and to be looked up to by the Rou- 
 manians. An old anecdote relates that during their 
 good time in these countries, a Greek was asked where 
 he was going by a Roumanian he had met with, in the 
 latter's simple way : — 
 
 " Where are you going, man ? " 
 
 "I am not a man, I am a Greek! " was the proud 
 answer. 
 
 Later on, after the revolution of 1821 and the over- 
 throw of Greek rule, they happened to meet again : — 
 
 " How are you, Greek ? " 
 
 " I am not a Greek, I am a Roumanian." 
 
 " But what are you doing there ? " 
 
 " Eh, I am pasturing jpencZ^, exi (five or six) pigs ! " 
 
 They are not pasturing pigs now, neither are there 
 many of them among the people of Free Roumania, 
 except as merchants " in 'towns ; and clever merchants 
 they are too, making fortunes in no time ; and a strong 
 reputation they have as sly, cheating merchants. The 
 palm of slyness, however, has been bestowed, rightly 
 or wrongly, upon the Armenian, much more than on 
 the Greek, by the popular mind which has invented 
 this gradation among the foreign merchants it has had 
 to deal with : a Jew can cheat seven Roumanians ; a 
 Greek can cheat seven Jews, but an Armenian can cheat 
 seven Greeks. 
 
 The Armenians have settled down among the Rou- 
 manians of the Carpathian region in colonies as old as the 
 fourteenth century, and have lived apart, and have been 
 kept at a distance, on account of religious differences ; 
 the reciprocal distrust and dislike has been very much 
 fed by the Greeks, who fought a long while with the 
 Armenians for the supremacy of their respective archi- 
 episcopal sees. Through the Greek clergy a number of 
 beliefs have been introduced among the people about 
 supposed Armenian superstitions and usages, which make 
 them in the peasant's mind the uncleanest among unclean 
 
THE PEASANT AND FOREIGNERS 313 
 
 people. A peasant will hardly eat anything from an 
 Armenian. On the other hand, the cleanliness of the 
 Armenian house is readily acknowledged : — 
 
 " Sleep with the Armenian, eat with the Jew." * 
 
 Indeed, if the Jews ever enjoyed a good name, it has 
 been only with regard to the cleanliness of their food; 
 this character is founded on the extreme anxiety of the 
 Jews to eat nothing but kusher (food allowed by 
 their religious official, the haham). Otherwise, there 
 exists no filthier or more contemptible race than the 
 Jew in the popular mind. Cheating, fraudulent, sly, 
 cowardly, false, obsequious, there exists no vile epithet 
 ever thought too bad for the Jew. And the fact is 
 that the Jew never minds, still less revolts against, any 
 scornful appellation, but is ever ready to accept any 
 demonstration of disdain, if only a penny can thereby 
 be gained. The Carpathian Jews, living about Eou- 
 mania, Transylvania, Bukovina, Bassarabia, come mostly 
 from Poland and Russia. They are quite a different type 
 from the English Jew ; always fair — with few exceptions 
 — with red, thinly curled hair, conspicuously freckled 
 face, which is explained by the people thus: — 
 
 After Christ's crucifixion and resurrection, some Jews 
 sitting round their table at dinner were talking about the 
 event. A tureen of soup, in the midst of which swam a 
 boiled cock, was on the table. They would not at all agree 
 as to the resurrection, but one of them said that if that 
 were possible, the cock in the tureen might as well return 
 to life. At this the cock, with a mighty crow, jumped 
 out flapping his wings, and besprinkled them all over 
 with soup, and hence the freckles. The Jew wears 
 an oriental costume : a long, black tallar, breeches to 
 the knees, long white dirty stockings in slippers ; a 
 black velvet cap with a large brim of fur, like a fox's 
 tail, on the head; the hair cut short, except two long 
 
 * " Sa dormi la Arman, sa m^nanci la Jidan. 
 
314 FROM CARPATHIAN TO PINDUS 
 
 curls in front of the ears, called pertchiuni. This is 
 the type to be met with on the northern and eastern 
 slopes of the Carpathians, particularly in Moldavia, 
 where the population being meeker and more patient, 
 and of less warlike energy, they have found it easier 
 to have their own way. In towns that costume is 
 almost entirely given up, and is to be met with only 
 on Saturdays, here and there. All these Jews, although 
 supposed to come from Russia or Galicia, invariably 
 speak German — a broken German, but still German. 
 To pronounce Roumanian is very hard for them, and 
 you hardly ever come across one who does it well ; as 
 a rule, the Jew is immediately recognisable by his accent. 
 The Jews, like any other aliens, have the right to buy 
 properties in town, but not in the country, and a blessing 
 it is so, for otherwise, thanks to the extravagance of the 
 large Roumanian landowners, all large properties would 
 by now be in Jewish hands, as they are in Hungary 
 and Transylvania, where about a quarter of the rural 
 property is said to be already in their possession. But 
 they have the right to farm land, and they find it 
 lucrative, very lucrative; and whilst the sons of great 
 national landowners are struggling in towns, looking 
 for posts with salaries, the Jews make fortunes on 
 their lands, caring for nothing but money-making, 
 despoiling peasant as well as land of their last productive 
 power. Poor Jews, who keep in hand all the town 
 commerce, manage also to keep shops in villages, and 
 very often public-houses too, where with adulterated 
 drink and crafty speculation in human weakness and 
 dry throats, they have ever been busy, doing no end 
 of harm to the rural populations. Their real power, 
 however, is in towns, but these are beyond our present 
 scope. 
 
 Popular humour, in village and town, has found a 
 wide field in the various characteristics of the Jewish 
 race, greed for money and love of gain being the all- 
 prevailing ones. An anecdote says that a Jew — or rather 
 his soul — went once to heaven, and taking the guardian 
 angel unawares walked into God's gardens. When the 
 
THE PEASANT AND FOREIGNERS 315 
 
 angel caught sight of him he tried all means to get him 
 out, but in vain : the Jew maintained that he had as 
 much right as anybody else to be there, as there was 
 no entrance fee to be paid. St. Peter was called, and 
 tried to reason the Jew out of Paradise, but with no 
 greater success ; neither could David or Solomon persuade 
 him to leave heaven. But a little angel took a drum, 
 and standing outside of the wall of heaven, began to 
 drum noisily. "What is the matter? " was the general 
 inquiry. "An auction." "Oh, wait a moment," the 
 Jew ejaculated, " I will bid ! " and out he fled, and the 
 doors were closed upon him. 
 
 Another anecdote tells us that a Jew was being fiercely 
 beaten by a Roumanian, without the slightest attempt 
 on his part to retaliate or in any way escape his 
 punishment ; when asked afterwards why he did not at 
 least run away: "Well," said he, "I had my foot on 
 a stray halfpenny!" 
 
 Jews are very timorous, always afraid of handling 
 weapons ; army service is not to their liking either. A 
 Jew recruit, an anecdote tells us, pretended to be stone- 
 deaf in order to escape service, and nothing on earth 
 could induce him to betray himself till at last the captain 
 said, " Oh, let him go, he is stone-deaf ! " But a soldier 
 at his back said in an undertone, " Who lost this half- 
 penny?" "Oh, it is I, to be sure!" exclaimed the 
 Jew. 
 
 Another anecdote says that the Jews, rather loth 
 to be always thought of as cowards, decided to raise 
 of their own accord an army on foot, and started for 
 the war. For a while all went on smoothly enough ; 
 they marched bravely all day long, and slept in the open 
 at night, but when attacked by a dog from a mill they 
 happened to pass, they stopped and held council, and 
 decided to go back and appoint some Roumanians to 
 defend the army against dogs ! 
 
 No end of anecdotes illustrate all sides of the Jewish 
 character, but a last one will suf&ce, pointing out the 
 difference of occupation of the Jews as compared to the 
 Christian inhabitants of the country. Men of several 
 
316 FROM CARPATHIAN TO PINDUS 
 
 nations — a Turk, a Russian, a Hungarian, and a Jew — 
 once were discussing the possible nationality of Adam ; 
 every one of them thought Adam had been of his own 
 nation, but the Jew, on the authority of the Bible, 
 maintained that Adam was a Jew. The others, not 
 having such strong authority as the Bible to rely upon, 
 seemed inclined to accept his statement, when a Rou- 
 manian just passing by was asked his opinion. *' Well, 
 you see," he said, *' when Adam was driven out of heaven, 
 had he been a Jew, he would undoubtedly have opened a 
 public-house, instead of which he started tilling the ground, 
 which shows him to have been a good Christian like us." 
 
 The Jews never take to field labour, as so many other 
 foreigners, coming from afar every summer, are doing; 
 indeed, they do not care for any hard physical work. 
 Even in towns the poorest Jewess will always get a 
 Roumanian or gipsy woman to wash her linen, or to 
 do the heavier part of the house cleaning; they spare 
 themselves much more than the Roumanians do. 
 Besides, money-making is much easier for them, the 
 poorest Jew finding, like the richest, the means of being, 
 besides his other business, a bit at least of a pawn- 
 broker and dreadful usurer, ever ready for the wants 
 of the Roumanian spendthrift. 
 
 But the true subject of Roumanian humour and of 
 Roumanian jokes, the mark for his fun and ridicule, is 
 no doubt the very peculiar and in many ways funny 
 gipsy, the Tzigan. 
 
 Almost in every village, in the outskirts of most 
 of the towns, in many woods, you are sure to come across 
 gipsy settlements, gipsy huts, bordeie, in numbers more 
 or less large. These are settled gipsies, who lead, 
 nevertheless, a more or less nomadic life in the country 
 itself, going away in summer for work or theft, returning 
 for the winter to their shabby huts. They hardly ever 
 live in houses above ground, and even then it is rare 
 that these should be whitewashed, but they are brushed 
 over with grey clay or even left in their first clay plaster- 
 ing; their usual dwellings are huts dug in the ground, 
 with only a slanting roof appearing on the outside; in 
 
rr -ME 
 UNIVERSITY 
 
 OF 
 
Gypsy Camp. 
 
 \_Photo, J. Cazahan. 
 
 To face page 317. 
 
 Gypsies as Tradesmen. 
 
 [Photo, J. Cazaban. 
 
THE PEASANT AND FOREIGNERS 317 
 
 the middle of the hut they make the fire, the smoke going 
 out through a large chimney in the roof. Hearths and 
 ovens are seldom to be met with in gipsies' huts. They 
 lead a very low kind of life, representing the lowest stage 
 of humanity. There are several kinds of gipsies. The 
 superior kind seems to be that of the Ursari, those who 
 deal with bears (from urs^ bear) , taming and then leading 
 them about to dance ; but that is not their chief trade : 
 these are said to be gipsies of many trades, making also 
 caldrons and kettles, and their wives tell fortunes. An 
 even less noble kind of gipsies are the Lingurari, whose 
 original trade seems to have been the making of spoons 
 (linguri). Most of these, settled down in the villages 
 and towns, are the descendants of the old slaves, who 
 were given their liberty only in the last generation. 
 But the universal trade of the gipsies, for which every 
 one of them seems to have some talent, is that of being 
 Idutari (musicians) ; so much so that a musician playing 
 at the Sunday dance, at the wedding, or any other 
 rejoicing, is called simply a tzigan. The gipsies have a 
 peculiar organisation among themselves, some remnant 
 of an old patriarchal organisation ; they have a chief 
 called bulibasha, to whom, however, they seem to tender 
 only a loose kind of obedience. This organisation causes 
 some amusement ; I knew of a gipsy settlement with 
 a bulibasha whom they called nothing less than "God." 
 As for their notorious, universal trade, they are thieves, 
 and many crimes have been and are still over and over again 
 discovered of their doing. Still greater thieves are the 
 nomad gipsies, those who only pass across the country, 
 just temporarily settling down in camps and canvas 
 tents, with their travelling stithies, ' their multifarious 
 work cheating, fortune telling, and far-reaching thefts. 
 Yet the gipsy is looked upon by the Roumanian peasant 
 only as a queer, ridiculous kind of human being ; rather 
 harmless, with all his stealing and lying, easily caught ; 
 rather clever, but of a naive, fooHsh sort of cleverness, 
 and that exactly makes the gipsy a fit subject for amusing 
 anecdotes. The gipsy is really the Hving plaything 
 of the good-humoured Roumanian peasant. "A gipsy 
 
318 FROM CARPATHIAN TO PINDUS 
 
 is not like a man" {Tiganu nu-i ca ormc), says he; he 
 does everything wrong, he was created hke that. A 
 httle anecdote establishes this scale for the gipsy — not 
 very easy to render, its wit lying chiefly in the double 
 meaning of words : — 
 
 A Turk, a Roumanian and a gipsy went to God to ask 
 for some gift. The Turk entered first. 
 
 *'What do you wish?" asked God. 
 
 **Well, Lord" (Bine, Doamwe— that is, '*it is well," 
 a typical answer of the Roumanian peasant when asked 
 what he has come for ; bine means also well-being) . 
 
 " Well-being, shall you have in the world," was the 
 Lord's answer, taking thus the second meaning of the 
 word bine. 
 
 Enters the Roumanian. 
 
 "What do you wish?" asks God again. 
 
 " Well, Lord," says the Roumanian. 
 
 ** The well-being lias been taken by the Turk." 
 
 "And I?" (in Roumanian Dar, meaning "and," or 
 " but " but also gift, whence dar7iic= generous, giver). 
 
 " Darnic (generous), shall you be ! " answered God. 
 
 Enters the gipsy. 
 
 "What do you wish?" 
 
 " Well, Lord." 
 
 " The well-being has been taken by the Turk." 
 
 "But (dar) I?" 
 
 " The dar (the gift) has been taken by the Rou- 
 manian." 
 
 " What derision and scorn is this, Lord ? " retorted the 
 wrathful, ill-bred gipsy. 
 
 " Derision and scorn shall be yours ! " 
 
 And thus it is that a gipsy looks always ridiculous and 
 is always laughed at. 
 
 A good many proverbs are attributed to gipsy ex- 
 periences. "Another goose in the other bag" — which 
 means : "that is another question" — is explained by the 
 following anecdote. A gipsy went one night and stole 
 two geese, putting one in each partition of the wallet 
 he wore aslant his shoulder. On going away, he met a 
 man who asked what he had in the front bag. " Some 
 
THE PEASANT AND FOREIGNERS 319 
 
 corn," was his answer. ** But in the other bag?'* 
 ** Another goose, " was the too hasty answer. 
 
 A very expressive proverb again is this : *' He has 
 eaten his credit, like the gipsy his church," which arose 
 from the following anecdote. The gipsies decided once 
 to build a church of their own, but, as they were to spend 
 money on it, they wanted it to be everlasting, so they 
 held a council to discuss the affair, but could not agree 
 as to the material to be used. They thought of building 
 it of wood, " but wood rots and does not last as long as 
 the world;" they tried to have it of iron, " but iron grows 
 rusty and has no everlasting durability ; " to make it of 
 stone, "the stone breaks and does not last for ever," 
 either. At last they agreed to make it of cheese — and 
 once, when they were very hungry, they ate it. 
 
 The gipsy is endowed with very lively imagination. 
 A gipsy is said to have found a horseshoe; he brought 
 it home, and to the eager inquiries of the little gipsy 
 crowd (da7ici), he explained that this was a horseshoe 
 and that four of them were wanted for the shoeing of 
 the horse ; and then he went on to say that if father found 
 three more shoes by chance, and then if father had the 
 good luck to find a mare also, he would shoe her, and 
 then have a fine ride on horseback ; and maybe in time 
 the mare might have a little colt — "A dear little pied 
 colt, which I shall mount! " shouted merrily one of the 
 little gipsy boys. '' Thou nasty wretch ! I will teach thee 
 to mount such a young colt and break his back," shouted 
 the irate father; "I shall never forgive thee that !" and 
 he beat his too imaginative offspring. 
 
 He is much disposed to dreams of grandeur, which 
 usually end in blows upon his back, poor dreamer! A 
 gipsy on horseback, a caldron behind, set forth, very 
 proud of his appearance, thinking all along how good- 
 looking he must be, like a St. George on his horse ; he 
 might verily be taken for an emperor! And how he 
 would laugh then ! Oh no, that would not do ; laughing 
 would not be right surely for an emperor I And thus he 
 rode on, soHloquising on his possible greatness. But he 
 was overheard by a cow drover, who at once took in the 
 situation, and began to cheer the would-be emperor. 
 
320 FROM CARPATHIAN TO PINDUS 
 
 " Great emperor, have pity upon a blind man ! ** 
 " Well now," thought the emperor, " there must be 
 something in it, if even a blind man can see I am like an 
 emperor ; fate may be fulfilling itself after all." 
 '* Great emperor ! " resumed the drover. 
 " How do you know I am an emperor ? " 
 ** On hearing such a noisy rider, I thought he could not 
 but be an emperor ! And I am blind, and a monk said to 
 me that if I could get the chance of wiping my eyes with 
 the hair of an emperor I should see again." 
 
 The credulous gipsy bent his head, the drover took 
 in hand his long locks, and pulled and pulled, and beat 
 him, and took horse and all from him. The poor gipsy 
 ran away without stopping, till he met a man, to whom 
 he said, " If you go that way, just take care of yourself; 
 there is a blind beast there which takes you smoothly 
 at first, and honours you, until he gets your hair into 
 his clasp, then there is work for you to get away." 
 
 Always hungry, always on the look-out for something 
 to eat, to lay hands on, over and over again caught, 
 always short of resourceful inventiveness, a gipsy was 
 caught by a Roumanian in his garden, stealing onions. 
 " How came you herej, gipsy ? " 
 " The wind blew me, Roumanian." 
 " But what is your hand doing on that onion ? " 
 " I am holding it tight so as not to be taken again by 
 the wind." 
 
 " But then what are those onions doing in your bag? " 
 " Well, that is just it, don't you see, dear Roumanian! " 
 No power of invention, but ready at ridiculous imita- 
 tion. A gipsy was said to have stolen a gun and was 
 taken before the judge. A Roumanian was already there, 
 under accusation of having stolen a pig. He was de- 
 fending himself, as best he might, explaining that he had 
 not stolen the pig, but reared it since it was only one 
 foot high. The gipsy overheard him, and when his own 
 turn came to defend his case : *' I have not stolen the 
 gun, but reared it with broth of maize since it was one 
 foot long," said he. 
 The Roumanian peasant has put down his troubles 
 
THE PEASANT AND FOREIGNERS 321 
 
 with justice and administration, in a gipsy anecdote too. 
 A gipsy had committed some theft, and was now in the 
 hands of the poHce ; what is he to do ? No friends, no 
 powerful relatives to mediate for him, what can he do ? 
 At last he decided to sell all he possessed and with the 
 product to bribe the magistrate (the sous-prifet). In 
 effect, he is set at liberty and comes to his home full of 
 joy and all ablaze about what a good thing money is, and 
 how it can bring you out of any trouble ; "in fact," he 
 went on to say, "it is a great pity things could not be 
 managed thus in Adam's time ; I am sure he would have 
 had his sin remitted ! " 
 
 " But have you got a receipt for the money ? " asked 
 his old more experienced mother. 
 
 " No, I have not ! " 
 
 " How could you neglect that, wretched boy ; did you 
 ever hear of any one giving money without a receipt ? " 
 
 The gipsy went to the official and asked for a receipt. 
 
 " What, you scoundrel ! does the like of you ask a 
 receipt when he has stolen ? " was that official's answer. 
 
 Poor, foolish, silly gipsy, always taken in, always 
 cheated, as the Roumanian peasant only too often feels 
 himself to be. A gipsy one winter had got a sheepskin ; 
 he felt nice and warm in it, and went out for a walk 
 to take the air, thinking all the time what a good thing 
 it was to be warm in the winter. But now he catches 
 sight of a man in an old military coat. Old and worn 
 out it was, but then it was blue, and with plenty of red 
 on it — and the gipsy is so very fond of red ! and it had, 
 moreover, several glittering brass buttons ! And now, 
 that he comes to think of it, the gipsy found his sheep- 
 skin rather heavy, and the smell of it not very nice 
 either ! The coat was thinner, to be sure, but fitting so 
 beautifully tight on the body it could not but keep it 
 warm too ! He proposed the exchange to the man, who 
 accepted, of course, off-hand. As the gipsy was going 
 along now in his tight coat, on the ridge of the hill, 
 where he reckoned the wind would be less keen, being 
 much more scattered than in the valley, where it blew all 
 in a mass ; his teeth were chattering with cold when he 
 
 22 
 
322 FROM CARPATHIAN TO PINDUS 
 
 came upon a man wrapped in a fishing net, and who 
 seemed cheerful enough. 
 
 "What garment is that?" asked the gipsy; "and 
 don't you feel cold in it ; " 
 
 "No," said the other, "the wind couldn't hold in my 
 garment ; it is all holes, you see ; where could the cold 
 keep in ? It comes in at one side, goes out at the other, 
 where could it stop ? " 
 
 " Would you not exchange it for my coat ? '* 
 
 " Well, I don't mind, but let me tell you that one more 
 advantage for you is this, that with this net you can 
 catch fish also, and besides, at night you may make a 
 tent of it, and need no house to sleep in." 
 
 The bargain was made. The gipsy went away in his 
 net, and as night was just upon him, he decided that he 
 would at once settle down for the night and spread out 
 his tent. Once in the tent, thought he, he would not mind 
 so much about the cold ; true, to set up his tent, he had 
 to take it off his shoulders, but then one does not care 
 much for dress indoors ! And so he laid himself down to 
 sleep, and putting out a finger through the net : " Good 
 gracious, how cold it must be out of doors, when I who 
 am indoors am nearly frozen to death ! " 
 
 II 
 
 The Roumanian peasant is strongly attached to his 
 birthplace; if he has to live in another place he calls 
 and feels himself strain (foreign, or stranger, both words 
 being rendered by one and the same word in Roumanian) . 
 He is shy among strangers and extremely reserved. To 
 a young man who is going to take a wife from another 
 region, his mother gives this cautious warning : — 
 
 " Georgey, my dear treasure, 
 Mind well what I tell you : * 
 
 * " Ghiorghi|ia, binele meu 
 
 Baga 'n sama ce-^i spun eu : 
 
THE PEASANT AND FOREIGNERS 323 
 
 Go not into the house unbidden, 
 Drink not the glass uninvited."* 
 
 He feels very lonely and wretched in a strange or foreign 
 place : — 
 
 "Whom you will be angry with 
 Curse him to be a foreigner. 
 Lonely I am, like the leaf on the walnut ; 
 Finding no kindness where'er I go ? ' f 
 
 And— 
 
 " So it is. Lord, among strangers 
 Like a young shoot among thorns; 
 The wind blows and ever shakes it, 
 Against all the thorns it beats it." | 
 
 Contact with the foreigner has ever been irritating; 
 foreign occupations have left this experience, this 
 feeling : — 
 
 "There is no bitterer fruit 
 Than foreigners in the land I " § 
 
 A Roumanian girl will never marry a foreigner and 
 leave her country ; nor will she be willing to marry a 
 Roumanian if estranged from his folk and land. The 
 young man from Bassarabia complains: — 
 
 * Nu 'ntra 'n casa nechemat 
 Nu bea pahar ne' nchinat." 
 
 f " Pe cine-i avea manie 
 Blastama-1 strain sa fie. 
 Si 's strain ca frunza 'n nuc 
 N'am mila unde ma due." 
 
 I "D'a^a-i Doamne 'ntre straini 
 Ca mladi^ia intre spini ; 
 Sufla vantul s' o clateste 
 De to^i spinii mi-o love^te." 
 
 § "Nici o poama nu-i amara 
 Ca strainatatea 'n ^ara I " 
 
324 FROM CARPATHIAN TO PINDUS 
 
 "Well did I like the way down here, 
 But now have none to tread it fori 
 The little dearie I have loved 
 Says that I am Eussified 
 And speaks like a foe to me. 
 From the bank when she sees me, 
 She says ever : ' Away with thee. 
 For thou shalt never have me! 
 When thou wert a Eoumanian pure 
 I had given thee my soul, 
 But since thou hast turned Cossack 
 Thou art hateful like the devil I ' 
 The Prut is wide and I cannot 
 Swim across, over to her; 
 The Prut is like a dragon 
 When I get upon its bank 1 " * 
 
 The Roumanian peasant, severed from his old country, 
 will never have anything to do with the foreign ruler; 
 neither is he willing to learn his language ; it is a 
 Roumanian from Bassarabia who sings again: — 
 
 "Bussian will I ever learn 
 When I shall forget my tongue ; 
 When corn will grow in the hallf 
 
 "Drag mi-a fost drumu' ntra coace 
 ^i n' am pentru cine-1 face I 
 Puiculi^ia ce-am iubit 
 Zice ca m' am muscalit 
 ^i-mi vorbe^te dusmane^te, 
 De pe mal cand ma prive^te, 
 ^i-mi tot zice : ' Fugi departe 
 Ca de mine tu n' ai parte 1 
 Cand erai Eoman curat 
 Sufletul meu ^i I'am dat, 
 Dar de cand te-ai cazacit 
 E^ti ca dracul de urat I ' 
 Prutu-i mare ^i nu pot 
 Pan 'la ea ca sa inot ; 
 Prutul vine ca un zmeu 
 Cdnd sosesc pe malul seul" 
 
 " Muscale^te — oiii invata 
 Cand eu limba mi-oiii uita. 
 C4nd a create grau'n tinda 
 
THE PEASANT AND FOREIGNERS 325 
 
 And its ear will reach the ceiling; 
 When corn will grow in the room 
 And the ear reach to the table I " * 
 
 The Roumanian peasant is a bad emigrant ; he does 
 not like moving away and being separated from his 
 friends. It is again from Bassarabia that the strain of 
 a distressed mother resounds: — 
 
 *' Green leaf of feather-grass 
 Black clouds are seen from the dawn, 
 The lightning cuts through the sky, 
 Rain comes down, pouring rain; 
 Down below the forest groans 
 With thunder, with thunder-bolt. 
 It rains hail, and spoils my vineyard, 
 The Moscovites come, take off the lads. 
 And lead them among strangers. 
 Among strangers, among pagans. 
 Than fall by the Moscovites 
 Better had I hung myself. 
 For they do beat and maim you 
 Speak you to them Moldavian, fj 
 
 * §i-a ajunge spicu'n grinda 
 Cand a create gr^u'n casa 
 §i-a ajunge pana'n masa." 
 
 f "Frunza verde de nagara 
 Nori negri se vad in zori, 
 Fulgerul cerul mi-1 taie 
 Vine ploaie, vine mare 
 Hue^te padurea 'n vale 
 De tunet, de trasnet mare. 
 Ploua piatra viia-mi strica 
 Vin Moscali, flacai ridica 
 §i mi-i duce prin straini 
 Prin straini, printre pagani. 
 Decat la Moscali picam 
 Mai bine ma spanzuram 
 Ca te bate, te stalceste. 
 De-i grae^ti moldovene^te 
 
326 FROM CARPATHIAN TO PINDUS 
 
 Woe to the foreigner, 
 
 He is like the tree by the road: 
 
 All passers-by throw at it 
 
 And deprive it of its leaves. 
 
 Two little clouds come from the North, 
 
 This news they have brought to me 
 
 That Costica is in Tiflis, 
 
 And is weeping all along 
 
 By the foes badly ill-used. 
 
 ' Weep no more, Costica, dear, 
 
 Enough it is that we weep : 
 
 Thy father weeps, I weep, too, 
 
 The children weep after us . . . 
 
 May good God allow us 
 
 To see thy dear face again. 
 
 For we die with longing for thee 1 ' " * 
 
 It is from Bassarabia, too, that one of the finest popular 
 melodies has sprung, produced by the conflict between 
 longing for the birthplace and love for the fair one. The 
 words are few and simple : — 
 
 "Green leaf of lemon 
 Yearning draws me to Congaz. 
 ' Yearning do not press me on f 
 
 Vai de neamul eel strain 
 E ca pomul langa drum. 
 Cine trece-1 sburatue^te 
 ^i de crengi il sarace^te. 
 Vin doi noura^i din sus 
 Asta veste mi-au adus, 
 Ca Costica-i in Tiflis 
 §i o duce intr' un plans 
 De du^mani tare ucis. 
 ' Nu mai plangi Costica hai 
 Ca destul cat plangem noi 
 Plange tat -to, plang ^i eu 
 Plang copiii dupa noi . . . 
 De-ar da bunul Dumnezeu 
 Sa-^i mai vedem chipul-tau 
 Ca perim de dorul tau 1 ' " 
 
 '*Foaie verde d' alamaie 
 Doru la Congaz ma' nghie. 
 ' Dorule nu ma' nghie 
 
THE PEASANT AND FOREIGNERS 327 
 
 For Congaz is not close by ; 
 
 Congaz is a far-off place 
 
 From the fair one it divides me"'=f' 
 
 -sung on the following tune:- 
 
 Adagio. M.M. J = 68. 
 
 3||z|£ 
 
 -$^ 
 
 Foa - ie ver - de d'a - la - ma 
 
 m 
 
 =E^ 
 
 ^i?33^ 
 
 Do - ru la 
 P 
 
 Con 
 
 
 « — _ 1 — -^ 
 
 gaz ma'n ghi 
 
 ^J^^^i: 
 
 Sit 
 
 -m — » 
 
 a^=it 
 
 Do - ru - le 
 
 M- 
 
 :l=P 
 
 nu ma 'n ghie 
 
 m 
 
 m 
 
 ntzzjdt 
 
 Ca . . Con - ga - zu 
 
 nu - 1 cole. 
 
 '^' Ca Congazu nu-i cole 
 Ci Congazu-i loc departe 
 De puicu^a ma desparte.' 
 
CHAPTER VIII 
 THE PEASANT IN HIS AMUSEMENTS AND PASTIMES 
 
 "Dear is to me the Koumanian dance 
 But I know not how to start it ; 
 If I do not start it fitly 
 Shame shall I bring upon me I " * 
 
 Theee is hardly a Roumanian village of any size where a 
 dance will not be held on a Sunday or holiday. Dancing 
 is the chief amusement .of the Roumanian peasant, from 
 early spring far into the late autumn, and often also in 
 winter. In this respect, however, as in every other with 
 peasant usages, local colour is very much to be taken into 
 account, considering as local, though, not the village type 
 but the provincial type generally. What the cause of 
 differences between one region and another may be, it 
 would be difficult to say, but it varies with local taste and 
 local originality ; certainly it has nothing to do with 
 administrative divisions. In the mountain regions the 
 lines of division appear rather more clearly, the dividing 
 line the river valley; habits as well as costumes vary from 
 valley to valley, and so do the local details of amusements. 
 Still keeping to the national ground-work in general, each 
 valley has a variety of usages of its own, which, on the 
 
 * "Drag mi-i jocul rom&nesc 
 
 Dar nu stiu cum sa-1 pomesc; 
 ^i de nu 1' oiii porni bine 
 Lesne voiii pa^ ru^ine ! " 
 
A " ScrAnciob." 
 (On the Outskirts of a Town.) 
 
 [Photo, J. Cazaban. 
 
AMUSEMENTS AND PASTIMES 329 
 
 whole, define the small fatherland the peasant feels so 
 much bound to, in the bosom of the larger fatherland. 
 Besides, the plain presents differences from the mountain, 
 without being itself uniform in all its area; it may 
 fairly be assumed that usages and customs in the plain 
 vary pretty much with the basin of the rivers running 
 through it. 
 
 Generally speaking, dancing is the favourite Sunday 
 pastime all over the Eoumanian ground. In some places 
 they start the dance earlier, in others later ; in some 
 places there may be a dance regularly every Sunday, in 
 other places — smaller ones — only occasionally, the people 
 then walking to the neighbouring village to take part 
 in its dance. As a matter of fact, by noon on a Sunday, 
 a traveller is sure to come across a peasant dance in every 
 village of any size. At Easter the dance is accompanied 
 by the swing (the scrdnciob), built on purpose for these 
 occasions, which swing is also subject to local rules : in 
 some places it is used only up to Ascension Day, in others 
 all the year round, or, more accurately speaking, as long 
 as it will last, which is never a whole year. 
 
 The dance takes place in front of the public-house, 
 where there is a large, more or less even, well-beaten, 
 if not always well-swept, ground, the bdtdtura (" beaten 
 ground ") . Occasionally, the public-house may be provided 
 with a large room with timber floor, where the peasants 
 will crowd together, the young to dance, the old to look at 
 the dancers, but the atmosphere becomes so stuffy in time 
 that the open air seems far preferable. Neither is the 
 dancing-room other than a rarity in villages, and where 
 there is one, the lads have a liking for it on no other 
 account but the timbered floor, the stamping of their 
 heels resounding ever so much better on the boards ! 
 The open ground is not without drawbacks either: the 
 heat of the sun — ^but in all the dances I had occasion 
 to watch, never an idea of minding the sun arose; the 
 men with their hats or fur bonnets on, the girls with only 
 their flowers and ribbons on their heads, they wipe the 
 streaming perspiration from their brows, and go merrily 
 on, dancing and enjoying themselves tremendously. 
 
330 FROM CARPATHIAN TO PINDUS 
 
 Another drawback is the dust that rises after a while 
 under the feet of the energetic dancers ; but this they 
 seem to mind just as Httle. In some places, some one 
 will from time to time sprinkle the ground with water, 
 but in other places nobody wastes a thought on dust ! 
 
 One wonders that just at that time of the year when 
 work is hardest during the week, dancing should fill up 
 the Sunday, when people would rather be expected to 
 rest from their hard toil of the week. But this is what 
 they explained to me as being a very wrong expectation, 
 "because," said they, "if we stood still the whole 
 Sunday, our limbs would get quite stiff, and we could 
 hardly work on Monday, whilst with the Sunday dance 
 the muscles are kept at work continuously, and on 
 Monday morning we are just as nimble with them as 
 ever." 
 
 The young men take their first stand in the dance 
 according to local rules of their own. In most places 
 the lads of the village form among themselves a kind 
 of brotherhood, the ablest dancer at the head of it ; if the 
 brotherhood accepts him, the lad takes his place among 
 the others. The village dance is entirely at the will and 
 command of the young men of the place (the fldcdi) ; they 
 organise the dance, they appoint the musicians, they 
 overrule the dances and often the dancers too ; the flacai 
 are the undisputed masters of the dancing ground on 
 a Sunday or holiday. 
 
 The girl begins to take part in the dance when her 
 father and mother permit it; when the girl is on the 
 threshold of the marriageable age; when the zestrea is 
 nearly finished, when she is fairly acquainted with her 
 several housewifely duties. Then she is allowed to take 
 part in the dance, and she goes there, shy and fearful, 
 and looks archly for the lads to come and ask her to 
 dance. 
 
 It is always the flacai that open the dance, the leader 
 of the dance and some of the boldest joining him. In 
 places, there are regulations as to the stepping into the 
 dance ; in other places again, freedom rules : every one 
 begins when he or she chooses, the girls never waiting 
 
AMUSEMENTS AND PASTIMES 331 
 
 to be asked, but just taking for partner another girl, 
 while a lad will dance just as simply with another lad. 
 The dance is for the young folk; married people dance 
 also in many places, and even older ones, but this rather 
 happens in cases when some jolly old fellow has had a 
 glass too much, and wants to make a fool of himself, then 
 the young will use him as their butt. In other places, 
 however, the married men and women take part in the 
 dance only towards the end of the day, when the young 
 have begun to disperse ; in other places, again, they only 
 dance after dark in the public-house. In some places 
 I have come across local regulations that young men 
 were not to dance with married women, because blood 
 had been shed on that score. 
 
 As may be expected, a good deal of flirtation goes on 
 through, and between, the dances, and in this respect also 
 local character is very varied. Most respectable and 
 reserved in some places, manners become much freer in 
 others. Courtship begins from the handkerchief : the lad 
 will try his best to take off this Sunday adornment from 
 the girl he cares for, and for that purpose will push her, 
 and pull her, and struggle with her a good deal. With 
 great pride will he then wipe his brow with the stolen 
 handkerchief! Next comes the girdle (the bete), also to 
 be taken away from the girls, and worn during the week 
 by the victorious lads. And girls act as if they minded, 
 and sometimes they do mind in earnest ; often also 
 strifes and fights among lads will be brought about by 
 those bete. In places, manners are free at the dance : 
 kissing, and pinching, and bustling ; and, if you ask the 
 girls about it, they do not seem to think it very proper 
 either, but they give this explanation : "The lads are the 
 masters of the dance, they pay the musical band, they 
 give the invitations, and if you would not * joke ' (a 
 §tcgui), that is to say, flirt with them, they would not ask 
 you to dance any more ! Or, if you do not * joke ' with all 
 those who want to, you may never get the chance of a 
 dance, and they will play you all sorts of bad turns, so 
 that, whether you like it or not, you must submit and 
 * joke ' with the lads at their wish and will." This 
 
332 
 
 FROM CARPATHIAN TO PINDUS 
 
 seems to be one of the draconic laws of the dance in 
 general. 
 
 The popular dances are many and very varied, but few 
 of them are genuinely national. Among these, the more 
 universal dance among Roumanians, the national dance 
 'par excellence is the Hora from Chorus ^ thing and 
 name coming down from the Romans — for a long 
 time the chief dance of all classes ; turned out now from 
 drawing-rooms, it still prevails at the village dances. 
 The hora is danced in a circle, the dancers holding each 
 other by the hsmd, and moving with rhythmical steps, 
 now to the right, now to the left, the arms swinging in 
 cadence. It is again the lads that start it ; then the 
 bystanders will gradually join, each when he chooses and 
 where he chooses, until the circle grows so large that 
 sometimes it has to be broken into two concentric circles, 
 the band taken to stand in the middle and play the 
 tune of which the rhythm is uniform, the melodies, 
 however, being very varied. One of the finest printed 
 boras is the so-called JJora Sinazaj composed on popular 
 melodies : — 
 
 . s 
 
AMUSEMENTS AND PASTIMES 
 
 333 
 
 
 :!=:: 
 
 acfzt 
 
 r-r-r 
 
 M 
 
 -m-^^m- 
 
 t=t 
 
 ±=i4 
 
 -I M « 7 
 
 i 
 
 ^^^ 
 
 -w^. 
 
 i^ 
 
 )i3=J 
 
 tsEt 
 
 ^^ 
 
 I—US H- 
 
 i 
 
 fel^ 
 
 -^-a-# 
 
 i 
 
 -•-I- 
 
 i=t: 
 
 
 «: 
 
 -r^ r 
 
 ^t=± 
 
 3f 
 
 ^ ^S^^zz^ jft ^ 
 
 3t=t*=t=*: 
 
 ^-fc 
 
 1- 
 
 
 ^f'f 1 
 
 ^. » 
 
 =r^ 
 
 ^ 
 
 
 f^l= 
 
 r 
 
 
 ] 
 
 r 
 
 =F4= 
 
 -1 f— 
 
 Fii |l : 
 
 "■jH^ I 
 
 ,#■■ 1 i^ 
 
 l!=t 
 
 ^-f 
 
 ■•••-1 •■■■ 
 
 v^^ 
 
 ^ 
 
 ^.:t 
 
 
 
 
 ^r 
 
 
 I-' V*. 
 
 Jst time. 
 
 \T 
 
 i XJZX. 
 
 2nd time, 
 
 ^'' -^- -•- -li- 
 
 :t=:|: 
 
 -¥ r r 
 
 i — r 
 
 « 
 
 -! ■ — I I I 
 
 m 
 
 ^^^i: 
 
 ^ 
 
 r 
 
334 FROM CARPATHIAN TO PINDUS 
 
 
 p;^<- 
 
 M^ 
 
 :[:_«. 
 
 J=-^4=- 
 
 - I I I 
 
 -I— !■ 
 
 --t-PJt- 
 
 -p >r 
 
 :r=t 
 
 -111' 
 
 t=t 
 
 ^ 
 
 
 ^ 
 
 4=-^-t:- 
 
 : p-^— r 
 
 l=t: 
 
 -•-it- 
 
 Jt-m. 
 
 -jrz=ti=t 
 
 J===r 
 
 I 
 
 w 
 
 i^m: 
 
 arztz: 
 
 -|ii — »- 
 
 gjg^ 
 
 4:-#jr ^_^- 
 
 tii-^-t: ti-^-^t— ^ 
 
 ^l=p: 
 
 H 1 1- 
 
 -I I I 
 
 
AMUSEMENTS AND PASTIMES 
 
 335 
 
 
 -m. 
 
 N-LL' 1 -_r ^S^g3= pp 
 
 1=* 
 
 y— ^pn — i # I .# I gzq~g- 
 
 -^_i_ 
 
 rb^+fr 
 
 1 i !^^ 
 
 w 
 
 
 3t_ 
 
 w — 
 
 ^5:.- 
 
 [^=^ 
 ^=1= 
 
 d^ 
 
 — f — 
 
 1 ^ 
 1— 
 
 — r- 
 
 __j — 
 
 ^r. __^ 
 
 •— ^ 
 
 p 
 
 ^3^^: 
 
336 FROM CARPATHIAN TO PINDUS 
 
 m 
 
 ? 
 
 d 
 
 
 l=m: 
 
 ^ 
 
 ^ 
 
 ^^^ J . V 
 
 4:-#-4=- 
 
 4=t 
 
 f -1 i 
 
 -tn 
 
 Jt- 
 
 ^ 
 
 :t-(iU=- 
 
 ;>;) 
 
 ^ 
 
 td 
 
 ^3 
 
 «*= 
 
 D. G. al FiNB. 
 
 The hora, like other dances, also is accompanied by 
 spirited verses, recited in an energetic tone to the rhythm 
 of the dance, rather shouted out, by the leader of the 
 dance usually, the " lion " of the place ; these verses are 
 called strigdturi (" shouts,") and have a caustic epigram- 
 matic point in them, directed not exactly at persons but 
 rather at faults of behaviour, or character in general ; 
 if any one happened to be hurt at them, so much the 
 worse for him. These verses are improvised very often, 
 or at least changed or added to, so that one may always 
 happen to hear new ones. The musicians contribute 
 verses, too, of a very coarse character sometimes, they 
 being gipsies and not much acquainted with modesty or 
 shame. Sometimes, too, they may become a subject of 
 strife, if there happen to be two or more lads clever at 
 them in the same place ; then they will exert all their 
 power to overcome each other in the best verses — the 
 strife may sometimes end in blows. These strigdturi 
 are sometimes mere jokes, with some rather innocent 
 allusions, like : — 
 
AMUSEMENTS AND PASTIMES 
 
 "Mother has sent me from home 
 To dance with the fairest girl ; 
 I danced with the ugliest 
 For she had the finest shift ; " * 
 
 or a chivalrous compliment to some fair girls : — 
 
 "Mother sent me to the dance 
 
 Flint and fire I 
 To dance with the fairest maid 
 
 Flint and tinder 1 
 But out of the three who is to see 
 Whichever the handsome be 
 
 Ever so, lads ! " f 
 
 On the other hand, they may have a much weightier 
 import, as to misconduct, like this : — 
 
 " Green leaf of a peony, 
 Neither this autumn will I wed 
 But will remain a grown calf 
 Beside those who have married, 
 For the married ones have wives, 
 And they will not let me die." J 
 
 Or a wondering hint about some girl who has entered 
 the dance before knowing housework : — 
 
 -!« " M'a trimes mama de-acasa 
 Sa joe fata cea frumoasa; 
 Eu am jucat cea mai h^da 
 C'avea cama^a mai mandra." 
 
 f "M'a trimes mama la joe 
 
 Cremene §i foe ! 
 Sa joe fata cea frumoasa 
 
 Cremene §i iasca ! 
 Dar din trei cine le-a §ti 
 Cea frumoasa care-a fi 
 
 Tot a^a, copii I " 
 
 I "Frunza verde de bujor, 
 Nici la toamna nu ma'nsor 
 Ci ramaiii vitel manzat 
 P'anga cei ce s'o' nsurat, 
 Ca 'nsura^ii au femei, 
 Nu m' or lasa ei sa pieiu." 
 
 23 
 
338 FROM CARPATHIAN TO PINDUS 
 
 "Ehe, the poor tidy one 
 With a shuttle she can't thrust 
 With the wood-frame also not 
 But to the dance, go on, go on ! " * 
 
 But if the rhythm of the hora is the same, the tempo is 
 very much varied ; there are slow ones, and quicker ones, 
 and very quick ones like the following, a very widespread 
 melody of hora. 
 
 
 
 P-^i-m 
 
 v-,.i ^n F — ^- 
 
 * " Hei saraca neteda 
 Cu suveica nu §ti' da 
 Cu vatala tot a^a 
 Dar la joe haida, haida 1 " 
 
AMUSEMENTS AND PASTIMES 339 
 
 To which the following text is sung : — 
 
 " ' Said my love that he would come 
 As soon as the moon will rise : 
 I go out, the moon is high, 
 My love came, and is gone back. 
 
 *I go out, the moon is low, 
 My love has come back no more. 
 Where are you, my dear love, 
 That you keep me waiting thus ? ' 
 
 ' Be quiet, maiden, I have come 
 Ever since the moon arose. 
 And await thee behind the house 
 Under the weeping-willow.' 
 
 ' If you have come you are welcome 
 my rose, dearly beloved. 
 With thee I solace myself, 
 And forget my heavy grief.'" * 
 
 * "'Zis-a badea^ c'a veni 
 Luna cand a rasari: 
 les afara, luna-i sus 
 Badea a venit §i s'a dus. 
 
 'les afara, luna-i jos 
 Badea nici ca s'a Intors. 
 Unde e^ti, badi^a frate 
 De ma la^i pe a^teptate ? 
 
 ' Taci lelito,"* c'am venit 
 De cand luna s'a ivit 
 ^i te-astept pe dupa casa 
 Sub rachita cea pletoasa.' 
 
 ' De-ai venit, bine-ai venit 
 Trandafirul meu iubitl 
 Ca cu tine ma mai ieu 
 De-mi aUn nacazul meu 1 ' " 
 
 * Badea is the polite appellation for a peasant, as Domnul, mister, 
 or sir, is for the gentle folk ; I translated it by " my love," as giving 
 the exact meaning here. 
 
 = Lelito, imperative dim. of leleut polite appellation addressed to 
 a woman of the people. 
 
340 
 
 FROM CARPATHIAN TO PINDUS 
 
 The hora can be very quick and spirited, and then 
 it can turn without transition into a second national 
 dance, also very widespread among Koumanian peasants, 
 the so-called De hrdu, in which the dancers hold tight to 
 each other, every one having his left hand in the girdle 
 of his neighbour (hence the name " by the girdle ") 
 and his right one on the other's shoulder. Sometimes 
 they hold each other only by the shoulders. The dance 
 is very animated, and the heels are much at work. It is 
 especially a dance for men, but women will join often 
 enough. The tunes of the De hrdu are very varied ; the 
 one just described will do for a De hrdu as well as for 
 a hora, or this one, among many: — 
 
 Presto J = 136. 
 
 2nd time. 
 
 ^^ 
 
 1^ 
 
 FZNB. 
 
 P^ 
 
 |dfe-f-tt>-F 
 
 r " ! ! r 
 
 I I I 
 
 P==n^ 
 
 s 
 
 ^^^ ^'^Jv^ w <"i:'M ^ ^j^ 
 
 — *^ I I t I I I I i . f., I i I j I , I , I I , I 
 
AMUSEMENTS AND PASTIMES 341 
 
 3 I 1st time. II 8nd time. 
 
 ii^pPP^^^ 
 
 D.C7. al Fine. 
 
 ^g^ X l l ^-Ulr ' ! 'I! : fr fn; ' ;i[l 
 
 i— I 
 
 The De brdu is danced in a bow shape, sometimes also 
 in a closed circle. There are several varieties of the 
 De brdu; a rather elaborate form of it, with various 
 figures, is the so-called Bdtuta ("the beaten one"), also 
 a national dance, the music of which is like this — 
 
 
 > >'T p- 
 
 #•# 
 
 53 
 
 ;=t 
 
 I r I I 
 
 ^J=H^ 
 
 -n—'— rt 
 
 ^i^ l ^ l -^i-^ i^Tg -^ rn rr ^ 
 
 y '• 
 
 * 
 
 .^^O-^^-^^ 
 
 :«=!: 
 
 W=t 
 
 jr-^. y 
 
 ^ *rr^^ 
 
 a: 
 
 i^ a-i^ - Lj d 
 
 j ITl^r C^ i rnFj ^ 
 
 ^ 
 
 K=P= 
 
 « B • 1 VI I . ■# •■ 
 
 5 >i :>i5i J : : [if 
 
 ^IL^^^lLUL i^ 
 
 f 
 
 !/ !/ 
 
 #.^»-^ 
 
 
 ^ ^rr^ i r.^fi> ^ 
 
 1 
 
 '^ li-j 1^1 
 
 S 
 
 P-r-M4 
 
 «/ 
 
 ^^S 
 
 "1 /"I "1 •!— ? 
 
 i 
 
 I I I I I i Jng^: 
 
 ^ 
 
 • S,P »' m »- 
 
 m 
 
 » r r» 
 
 L run ! rt ^ 
 
 a LJ-J— L 
 
 ^ 
 
 5 ^*= t ^p 
 
 ^ 
 
342 FROM CARPATHIAN TO PINDUS 
 
 .^_ii. • .«_#. 
 
 ^^^e^^^^^S 
 
 =^=F 
 
 SS^ 
 
 p^^^^ 
 
 I r u 
 
 3Ci: 
 
 1 I [1 
 
 ^fzs r-^k-^^=^--i-k-^ 
 
 ts===ff 
 
 3^=3: 
 
 
 ^ 
 
 -^- _ -^ 
 
 I 1 ^1 
 
 ^ ^_^. 
 
 :ti«: 
 
 I I 
 
 «=t 
 
 I I i I -i I i I I ! I I I i =1 
 
 B£r. 
 
 m 
 
 ,^..ft. ^.^m- 
 
 - I r\ I t 
 
 I ; i i — iif—m- 
 
 .^ ^ ^ .ft. 
 
 I r I I 
 
 :t=ri 
 
 I ri ! I 
 
 ' ri 1 
 
 I 
 
 --*.# rq, ^=pg 
 
 i 
 
 aEE3d=t=*oid 
 
 - P' Q 
 
 ! r 
 
 tzqt 
 
 i 
 
 .p. .^. .p. .p. .fi. 
 
 -^- -^. 
 
 1=4: 
 
 4-^' _ I rr 
 
 1 F-[-^4-^ 
 
 :E^ 
 
AMUSEMENTS AND PASTIMES 
 
 343 
 
 Beside these almost general national dances, there are 
 an infinity of local ones, some original, others borrowed 
 from neighbouring nations. The Ardeleanul, said to 
 be very similar in step and melody to the Italian 
 *' Tarantella," the Mocdne§te, are mostly Transylvanian 
 dances, together with many others ; then there are the 
 Busasca, the Cdzdceasca, numerous Sdrbe, all borrowed 
 or imitated from beyond the frontiers, and a number 
 of local dances. In the vicinity of tovms, it is not 
 unusual to see clumsy imitations of the town dances. 
 
 Fig. 1. — CoBZA. 
 
 Fig. 2.— Tblinca. Fig. 3.— Trisca. 
 
 There is also among the national dances the dance of the 
 Calusheriy but this is more of a theatrical dance and will 
 be spoken of by and by. 
 
 The musical band is almost invariably composed of 
 gipsies Idutariy two of them at least, one playing the 
 fiddle, the other the cobza (Fig. 1), or lute, which gives 
 the accompaniment. The cobza may be considered as 
 a national instrument, although the name is Slav, the 
 thing itself being Arab ; made up of a resounding case 
 with ten chords touched by a feather plectrum. But the 
 
344 
 
 FROM CARPATHIAN TO PINDUS 
 
 national instruments par excellence, are wind instruments. 
 Several varieties of whistle, like the telinca (from Latin 
 tiliay lime-tree, of which it was originally made — Fig. 2), a 
 plain tube of elder or willow tree, fastened with two 
 bindings of string or cherry rind, of some 65 cm. length ; 
 the tri§ca (Slav, trochlea — Fig. 3) a reed whistle, 25 cm. 
 in length, with six lateral holes, the notes being produced 
 
 Fig. 6. — Flubr co dop. 
 
 
 Fig. 4.--CAVAL. 
 
 Fig. 6.— Naiu. 
 
 Fig. 7. — Bucium. 
 
 by stopping them with the fingers ; the caval (Fig. 4) or 
 shepherd's whistle, usually of plane-tree wood, bound at 
 the extremities to prevent splitting, provided with six 
 lateral holes : the length of this whistle is variable, going 
 up to 85 cm. and 5 cm. in diameter ; its tone is pleasant 
 and melancholy. Besides the three plain whistles, there 
 is the fluer cu dop (Fig. 5), whistle with a stopper, 
 
AMUSEMENTS AND PASTIMES 
 
 345 
 
 allowing only a thin passage for the breath. The naiic 
 (Fig. 6) or moscal, is a national instrument also, and is 
 composed of a series of tubes of varied lengths, up to 
 twenty of them, bound together, played upon with great 
 
 Fig. 8.— Cimpo!. 
 
 Fig. 9. — Dramba. 
 
 art. The bucium, or bucin (Fig. 7, fromLat. buccina), 
 which is nothing but the Alphom, seems to be falling 
 into disuse, only rarely used by shepherds up in the 
 mountains. The corn (horn), made of animal horn, is 
 much used, but only as a calling instrument in woods 
 
346 FROM CARPATHIAN TO PINDUS 
 
 and mountains. The cimpoi (Fig. 8), or bag-pipe, is 
 common enough, but much plainer to look at in its 
 natural skin than the gorgeous Scotch bag-pipe. But 
 the Roumanian peasant is ready to enjoy himself with as 
 simple an instrument as the drdmha (Fig. 9), the jews- 
 harp, on which he will "say" his tune by keeping it 
 between the teeth; he will even play the loveliest 
 melodies on no more than a green leaf pressed against 
 his lips ; and what lively dances will be led to the sound 
 of so plain an instrument by the spirited shepherd boys 
 on the heights ! 
 
 i 
 
 AlUgro, M.M. ^==152. 
 
 » m -M- m P 
 
 I I I 
 
 1. "At the hut with the high cross, lad my lad, 
 By the eye-browed Stancutza, 
 There goes round the full }iora^ 
 Bewitched the men rush in. 
 
 2. The wine is good, the measure big, 
 The braves drink to dry the world,* 
 
 * 1. "La bordeiu cu crucea nalta, bad 
 La Stancu^ia sprincenata, 
 Joaca hora Incheiata, 
 Curge lumea fermecata. 
 
 2. Vinu-i bun, ocaua mare 
 Beau voinicii pe sacare 
 
 ca, badica 
 
 ^ Badica, dim. from hade^ means " Uttle master ' or "my lad" 
 refrain returning after each verse. 
 
By the WiNK-Poi. 
 
 IPlWo, J. Cazaban. 
 
 To THE Dance at the Inn. 
 
 [Photo, J. Cazaban. 
 
AMUSEMENTS AND PASTIMES 
 
 347 
 
 They have no heart to depart, lad O my lad, 
 Night overtakes them by her. ,, ,, 
 
 3. Who passes by will stop short, 
 On seeing her, he gets mad, lad 
 Drinks wine, pours out his purse 
 And, my troth, he wiU not mind. 
 
 4. Whoever comes with four oxen 
 Will go home only with two. 
 And whoever comes on horseback 
 Goes with the saddle on his back. 
 
 5. But whoever comes on foot, 
 He will drink all about him. 
 And goes well pleased, without coat. 
 And goes well pleased without coat." * 
 
 If dancing is the chief Sunday pleasure of the young, 
 drinking is the pleasure of the grown-up and the old. 
 No Sunday without wine, and wine is really delicious 
 only at the public-house ; a peasant will never drink his 
 wine at home, except on very special occasions. On 
 Sunday the peasants meet at the public-house as early 
 as possible, and will be still there late in the day. The 
 staple drink of the Boumanian people has always been 
 wine; an alcoholic beverage, the rachiu, is very wide- 
 
 * Nu se 'ndura sa se duca, badica, badica 
 Neaptea la dansa i-apuca. ,, „ 
 
 3. Cine trece, se opreste, ,, , 
 
 Cit o vede 'nebuneste, ,, ,, 
 
 Bea vin, punga-si cheltueste ,, ,, 
 
 Si zau ca nu se caieste. ,, ,, 
 
 4. Cine vine 'n patru boi 
 
 Se 'ntoarce numai cu doi, 
 Cine vine de calare 
 Pleaca cu saua 'n spinare. 
 
 5. lar pe jos ori-cine vine, 
 Isi bea tot de linga sine 
 Si se duce gol cu bine, 
 Si se duce gol cu bine." 
 
348 FROM CARPATHIAN TO PINDUS 
 
 spread now, and, although said to be of comparatively 
 recent origin, seems to be fast taking the place of wine, 
 mifortunately. A beginning is being made for the 
 introduction of the much less alcoholic beer, but its 
 advance is extremely slow, being as yet an expensive 
 drink, on the outside slopes of the Carpathians, at 
 least. 
 
 The Roumanian peasant is very sociable and fond 
 of company ; at the public-house he meets with friends, 
 and, if he has a few pence in his purse, he won't be 
 happy unless he has treated cinstit (** honoured ") his 
 friends ; every one doing the same in turn, it will not 
 be long before everybody present has his blood in his 
 head, especially as the spirits sold in the popular bars 
 are of very inferior quality, insufficiently distilled, and 
 very often adulterated — when the innkeeper is a Jew, 
 at least, for the Roumanian considers it a sin to increase 
 his profits in that way. Once heated, the man, even if 
 he had some idea about the evils of drink, will forget 
 all about it ; besides, the very air is so infected with 
 the scent of the spirits and wine in the bar-room, that one 
 unaccustomed would surely get drunk by merely sitting 
 down there for a few hours together. They talk, they 
 tell stories, they laugh, they sing, getting more and more 
 excited, until they have entirely forgotten the wisdom 
 of their own saying:— 
 
 "Drink, but do not drink thy sense." * 
 
 The sense is drunk down, it gets dimmer and dimmer, 
 the physical need has got the upper hand, as : — 
 
 " The more you drink, the more you want to." | 
 
 Moreover, the innkeeper stands there with his tankard 
 always full, inviting, stimulating, for — 
 
 * ** Sa bei, dar sa nu-^i bei min^ile." 
 f "De ce bei, de ce-ai mai bea." 
 
AMUSEMENTS AND PASTIMES 349 
 
 "The wealth of the innkeeper 
 
 Is at the bottom of the glass. 
 
 * 
 
 And so it comes to pass that Sunday evening you will 
 hardly meet with a man who, if not altogether drunk, is 
 not at least afumat, "fumed" with drink. But, except 
 on Sunday or hoHdays, it is extremely rare to meet a 
 tipsy man, or to see customers at the village inn on a 
 week-day. The Koumanian peasant drinks on Sunday, 
 and that because he does not meet with any other kind 
 of recreation or pleasant refreshment to take. People who 
 work incomparably less than the peasant do, nevertheless, 
 feel the need of recreation and pleasure ; and people who 
 have at their disposal much more numerous ways of 
 enjoying themselves choose the glass deliberately — drink 
 must then have some decided power of causing happiness 1 
 And here comes in the second cause of the peasant's 
 addiction to drink, namely, he wants to forget his 
 troubles and hardships, and nothing can help him in that 
 way, it would seem, better than drink : 
 
 " A tipsy man believes himself emperor ; " f 
 
 and no drink is better for that purpose than rachiuy of 
 which two or three glasses will be sufficient to work the 
 desired effect, whilst it would require bottles of wine to 
 do the same. The troubles are thus forgotten, drowned 
 in the glass, for the day, at least. Of course it may be 
 worse next day, for the money spent or the debt incurred 
 will make a deeper hole in the already ragged budget; 
 then the wife will scold and shout, and the peasant will 
 take advantage of that to go and drink again in spite of 
 the scolding wife, and, what is worse, the latter will 
 sometimes go and drink too, in spite of her husband, and 
 it is known that the wife's drunkenness brings worse 
 misery on the house and much sooner than man's. And, 
 surely, poverty contributes a great deal towards the 
 
 * "Averea crstsmanilm 
 In fundul paharului." 
 
 t " Omul beat se crede m'parat." 
 
350 FROM CARPATHIAN TO PINDUS 
 
 prevalence of drunkenness. As a rule the peasant is 
 badly fed, though his work is hard; he feels weak, a glass 
 of spirits is a capital stimulant ; the man begins to 
 believe in its strengthening powers, and little by little he 
 forms the habit of drinking. In the vicinity of towns 
 temptation is always at work. The peasant will go to 
 town with a cart of firewood for sale, or a little flock of 
 geese, or lambs, and so on. He drives these about town 
 all day long sometimes, receiving all the time mock offers 
 considering his expectations, for his ware ; he has no time 
 to eat ; but a glass of whisky will sustain him. And not 
 seldom, either, his customer will be some Jew innkeeper 
 who will by and by take back all the money he has 
 given for the goods ; and how is the poor man to return 
 home sober ? 
 
 Of course it cannot be denied that there is real vice, 
 too, only this is the exception, not the rule. This kind of 
 drunkenness has always been abhorred by the Roumanian 
 peasant; being a recognised drunkard is considered a 
 great shame, and numberless are the taunting expressions 
 to designate a drunkard. It is also considered as a 
 misfortune, as a disease, as indeed it is ; such a drunkard 
 is an om pdtima§, he is possessed by a patimd, a low 
 passion or a disease ; for such a drunkenness there is no 
 cure, the popular proverb tells us — 
 
 "Drunkenness is cured by spade and shovel."* 
 
 But drink is not absolutely drunkenness, and a man 
 who gets tipsy occasionally, on a holiday, cannot be put 
 down as a drunkard. Surely, if the conditions of life 
 were improved, if better drink were offered, if more 
 elevating amusements were brought within the peasant's 
 reach, soberness would easily take root, but whilst 
 nothing is done in this respect, in spite of all the 
 gentlemen's societies, which, for these two or three last 
 years have been playing at ''temperance work," drink will 
 continue to be the most pleasant change to a poor, 
 
 * " Be^ia, o ecue^te sapa §i lopata." 
 
AMUSEMENTS AND PASTIMES 351 
 
 worried peasant. So much the more hope there is for the 
 future, that it is not the young men who drink ; you 
 hardly ever come across a drinking young man — he would 
 never get a wife if he showed signs of vice ; and many a 
 young girl have I heard regretting that he does not, 
 "because," they said, "you marry him thinking you 
 have taken a good man, and in a few years you discover 
 that he has got the " naravul dracului" ("the devil's 
 bad habit ") ! Drunkenness is much more at home in 
 towns, no doubt, but town-people are altogether very 
 different from the peasant. 
 
 In dancing and drinking the Eoumanian peasant 
 spends his summer holidays, and his winter ones too. 
 Although enjoyments of any kind require money, these 
 amusements are not particularly affected by the state 
 of crops and harvests. Some four years ago in Free 
 Eoumania, and generally all over the region round the 
 Carpathians, there were particularly bad harvests. On 
 week-days you met peasants walking about idly, un- 
 occupied, sitting in crowds to mind a few oxen, because 
 there was no work for them ; there were no crops to reap, 
 hardly anything to gather in. Yet on Sundays the inns 
 were crow^ded, inside and outside, and the dance went on in 
 almost every village ; and as I felt rather puzzled about 
 it, an old peasant told me the following little story by 
 way of explanation. In some far-away country, he said, 
 there was once upon a time an emperor, who levied hard 
 taxes upon his people, yet wanting still more money, he 
 called his minister and ordered him to raise still higher 
 taxes. The minister obeyed, but subsequently came to 
 tell the emperor that he thought the new taxation was 
 too hard, as the people looked so poor and miserable, and 
 went complaining all over the place. "It does not matter," 
 said the emperor, "let them complain, you must raise the 
 taxes still higher." The minister did so, but came to tell 
 the emperor that he rather feared some revolution, as the 
 people seemed so wretched about it and were weeping 
 and moaning, young and old. " Do they indeed look as if 
 they suffered? " asked the emperor ; "well, you may once 
 more raise the taxes." The minister was amazed; how- 
 
352 FROM CARPATHIAN TO PINDUS 
 
 ever, he had to follow orders ; but to his utmost astonish- 
 ment he found that the people instead of weeping and 
 complaining any longer had, on the contrary, now taken 
 to amusement, to drink, and rejoicing. But when he 
 went to report to the emperor this new state of things, 
 " Now," said the latter, " you must slacken the yoke and 
 diminish the taxation, for this means that people cannot 
 bear any more ! " " And so," the peasant went on to say, 
 "if you have anything worth saving, you will haply find 
 in yourself strength enough to save, whilst, if * God 
 punishes ' us, and misery is down upon us, what can we 
 save? At least we forget our sorrows, and we are the 
 better for it." 
 
 Misery may well make one improvident, especially 
 a people who for centuries have been through the 
 most precarious circumstances, under which they could 
 hardly succeed in keeping body and soul together ; in this 
 predicament, what could be saved towards a most uncertain 
 future? But it may be in the blood, too; and also in 
 education ! And if people much better off, in decidedly 
 happier conditions of wealth and education, are not 
 provident, why should such virtue be expected from the 
 peasant ? There are, no doubt, thrifty peasants ; but it 
 is none the less true that time may inscribe much 
 progress still on his tablets : in the meanwhile, many a 
 peasant, glass in hand, will sing merrily, though most 
 improvidently : — 
 
 "I have a franc, I want to drink it 
 Tra la la — la la la la, 
 And even that one is not mine 
 Tra la la— la la la la.* 
 
 * "Am im leu §i vrau sa-1 beu 
 Tra la la — la la la la 
 §i nici ala nu-i al meu 
 Tra la la — la la la la. 
 
AMUSEMENTS AND PASTIMES 
 
 353 
 
 But what do I care indeed 
 If I do with it as I wish 
 Tra la la la la la la. Ihal la la," * 
 
 on the following tune 
 
 Allegretto. 
 
 EF 
 
 fc^=!^ 
 
 ■^-H^ 
 
 -^— ^ 
 
 ^=^ 
 
 ^P53 
 
 -t^^^: 
 
 Am un leu ^i vrausa - 1 beu Tra la la la la la la, 
 
 ^i ni - ci ala nu-i al meu, Tra la la la la la la. 
 
 i 
 
 ipzzc 
 
 ■ _J ^_ ^- _ 
 
 V_>r_^: 
 
 > l ^ ]/' 
 
 Dar ce ■ mi pasa mi - e zau. Da - ca fac cu el ce vreu, 
 
 Tra la la 
 
 la la la la la la. I - ha I la la la la. 
 
 Ill 
 
 Among the Eoumanian peasant's amusements there are 
 also theatrical performances, most of them displayed in 
 connection with special holidays or times of the year, 
 some of them universal with the Koumanians. One of 
 the most interesting theatrical performances and at the 
 same time the most puzzling as to origin, is the so-called 
 dance of the Calusheri. A group of seven, nine, or eleven 
 men, forming a brotherhood of its own between them, 
 having gone through a special training, and initiated in 
 a sort of mysteries of their own, which they keep entirely 
 to themselves, will gather on Trinity Day, or the Bussalii, 
 and will start dances which they go about performing 
 from house to house, from village to village, from one 
 district to another. The Calusheri were once universal 
 wherever there were Eoumanians ; now they seem to 
 be relegated to the West of Valachia — the Oltenia — to 
 
 * Dar ce-mi pasa mie zau, 
 Daca fac cu el ce vreu 
 Tra la la la la la la. Ihal la la la." 
 24 
 
354 FROM CARPATHIAN TO PINDUS 
 
 the South of Transylvania and the Banat, but bands 
 of them will go as far as the North of Moldavia. Their 
 dress is the national costume, ornamented with strings 
 of all colours, with flowers, and bells at the knees, each 
 man being also provided with a stick, which they make 
 great use of during the dances. The Calusheri are said 
 to be of Roman origin, their performance mimicking the 
 rape of the Sabines in early Rome. Something of that 
 there may surely be in it, so much the more as one of 
 the chief dances is called the Bomanul, but it appears, 
 nevertheless, that in time the performance has in great 
 measure altered its character, with additions introduced 
 Httle by little, especially in connection with the superstition 
 about the Bussalii as evil powers. The Calusheri are 
 invested with a kind of supernatural healing power, and 
 the contact with them is supposed to be a preservation 
 against disease, especially at the Bussalii's hand. Their 
 dances, or rather dancing tours, do not last more than 
 nine days. The most widespread tune of their usual 
 dance is — 
 
 Allegretto. 
 
 -^. -m- -m- -m- -m- -m- -m- -m- -m- 
 I ! FH I 1 h I 1 1 
 
 i 
 
 m P m 
 
 ^ P 
 
 ^w-u . 
 
 ^ 
 
 I 
 
 
 -• — •- 
 
 ^ 
 
 £fi 
 
 P-m- 
 
 - P W 
 
 I 1/-1 
 
 ^ ' I -^— H ' I — ^ — r=^-i — ^^— r-- 
 
AMUSEMENTS AND PASTIMES 
 
 355 
 
 Another amusement of still more decided theatrical 
 character is the Vicleim (from *' Bethlehem ") as it is called 
 in Valachia, or the Irozi (plur. from JrocZ=Herod), as it 
 is generally called in Moldavia and Transylvania; it is 
 a symbolic representation of Christ's birth, performed 
 during the winter carnival, especially during the 
 Christmas fortnight. This play is much simphfied at 
 the present day, and not quite as much cared for as it 
 used to be. The troupe is composed of at least ten 
 persons if not more: Herod, in imperial robes, called 
 emperor Herod too, an old grumbling ruler, speaking in 
 harsh tones to his followers; an officer in Roman dress 
 and two soldiers also in Roman attire, but called the 
 Heleyii (the Helens), always behind Herod, and carrying 
 his ample cloak ; the three Magi, or wise men, in oriental 
 garb, and a child. The gravity of the scene is mellowed 
 by two comical figures : the paiata (the clown) and the 
 mo§ul, or old man, the former in harlequin accoutrement, 
 the latter with a mask on his face, a long beard, a hunch 
 on his back, and dressed in a sheep-skin with the wool on 
 the outside. The plot of the play is quite simple. The 
 officer brings the news that three strange men have been 
 caught, going to Bethlehem to adore the new-born 
 Messiah ; Herod orders them to be shown in : they enter 
 singing in a choir. Long dialogues ensue between them 
 and Herod, who at last orders them to be taken to prison. 
 But then they address the Heavenly Father, and shout 
 
356 FROM CARPATHIAN TO PINDUS 
 
 imprecations on Herod, invoking celestial punishment on 
 him, at which unaccountable noises are heard, seeming 
 to announce the fulfilment of the curse. Herod falters, 
 begs the wise men's forgiveness, putting off his anger till 
 more opportune times. The wise men retire with new 
 songs, still to be heard when they are supposed to be a 
 long way off. Then a child is introduced, who goes on 
 his knees before Herod, with his hands on his breast, 
 asking pity. He gives clever answers to various questions 
 and foretells the Christ's future career, at which Herod 
 stabs him. The whole troupe now strikes up a tune of 
 reproach to Herod, who falls on his knees in deep 
 repentance. 
 
 In connection with this religious play there is a 
 decidedly worldly one : the " dolls " (Pdpu§ele), a theatre 
 of miniature puppets, acting on a miniature stage, packed 
 in a box a man can carry on his shoulders, something of 
 the barrel-organ size and shape. The acting is not mere 
 pantomime; there is talk as well, all done by the man 
 who pulls the strings and who suits his voice to the 
 various personages supposed to be talking. This box and 
 stage is also called a Vicleim, and the stage represents 
 the gardens of Herod's residence and part of the town 
 square. In the background houses are seen, and Herod 
 sitting on his throne, with his two attendants right and 
 left. The play of the Irozi is performed here with the 
 dolls. But besides this performance the dolls have a 
 rich repertory of funny and tragi-comical plays. The 
 chief personages are the keeper of the place, Mo§ lonicd 
 (Uncle Johnny), representative of the popular wisdom 
 and serious satire, and the humorous clown, the paiafa. 
 The subjects of the plays are varied. A parody of hunt- 
 ing, for instance, a huntsman appearing in company with 
 the clown, who ridicules his bad luck. A fight between 
 a Russian and a German — sad reminiscences of the 
 nefarious occupation by Russian or Austrian armies. 
 Then, Turks and Russians, Moscali, the Turk, always 
 beaten ; a Turkish burial by a Christian popa who 
 consents to make a mock funeral service on the corpse 
 of the deceased Hassan. Allusions to the Russian pro- 
 
AMUSEMENTS AND PASTIMES 357 
 
 tectorate, to the balls given in honour of the Kussian 
 officers, ladies talking French, stdlcind hiata franfuzascd, 
 " mutilating the poor French ! " Jews, gipsies, beggars, 
 everything that has happened to fall under the satirising 
 eye of the dollman or occurs to his fancy. At the end, 
 mo§ lonicd and his baba appear begging the audience's 
 generosity towards "poor dollman," something "for 
 mouth and for drink" (pentru gurd si pentru hduturd). 
 The "dolls" are supposed to be of pagan origin, from 
 the old Koman satire. 
 
 Another amusement of a satirical character, too, is the 
 Brezaia, or the Gapra (the "she-goat"), in which one 
 actor, in some animal's appearance, usually a goat, goes 
 about from house to house, led by several attendants, and, 
 dancing to the sound of some poor fiddle, imitates human 
 follies, often taking as a butt persons of the audience, 
 if they present any peculiarity worth ridiculing. In old 
 Eome, when the triumph of some victorious general 
 was being celebrated, it is notorious that besides the 
 " admiring " corUge and the eulogies addressed him, 
 he was also subject to keen satire at the hands of some 
 of his soldiers, who took upon themselves to advertise 
 pubHcly his faults in satirical verses, as others had 
 praised his virtues ; these soldiers are said to have been 
 also got up like animals. 
 
 An amusement of rather more recent date, performed 
 also during the Christmas fortnight, catching little by 
 little the popular imagination, is the " Peasant- wedding " 
 (Nunta ^drdneascd) , a popular play also, with many 
 actors, the chief ones being a bride and bridegroom, a 
 clown, a priest and a Jew, also with satirical tendency. 
 
 These theatrical performances, however, are more and 
 more deserting the villages and receding into towns, 
 mostly as the gain is much more considerable there. 
 
 Another amusement, as much at home in towns as 
 in villages, is the traditional Plugu§orul ("the Little- 
 plough ") going about only on New Year's Eve. A party 
 of young men go from house to house, soon after dusk, 
 at the first lighting of candles, and standing outside the 
 window or door, one of them recites a piece of poetry, 
 
358 FROM CARPATHIAN TO PINDUS 
 
 reaching sometimes to as much as five hundred verses, 
 with ever-recurring accompaniment of v\^hip-clashing 
 and unintermitting ringing of a bell which he keeps 
 in his hand, as if to beat time to his oration — urare, as 
 it is called. These recitals are very varied, the ground- 
 work on which they are composed being an apotheosis 
 of the agricultural pursuits, in which the usual hero is 
 Bddica Tro'ian ("Master Trajan"); the habitual intro- 
 duction is: ** Aho, aho, plough with twelve oxen! " and 
 the recitation goes on with the regularly repeated refrain 
 of "Now do drive on, fellows, Hai! Hai ! " in which 
 last shout all present join, as if they really were driving 
 a plough on some hard furrow. Once, the custom was — 
 and in some places it is still so — to have a miniature 
 plough carried about by the party; nowadays, "the 
 
 Fig. 10. — BuHAl (the Bull). 
 
 bull" (Buhaiul) is taken instead. This buha^ (Fig. 10) is 
 made up of a little wooden cask, stopped at one of 
 the ends with a skin bottom, instead of a wooden one, 
 through which a cord of horsehair comes out from the 
 interior. One man draws this cord between his fingers 
 all the time the recitation lasts, producing thus the sound 
 of a bellowing bull, an all prevailing and most unmusical 
 boo ! The recitation is ended with greetings for New 
 Year and for abundant harvests to the master of the 
 house and his family, and with distributions to the 
 uratori (" the greeters ") of colaci, dried fruit, apples, 
 walnuts, and possibly money. The Plugushor is also 
 supposed to be of pagan origin, and namely from the 
 Roman Opalia, festivals in honour of Ops, the goddess 
 of abundance. 
 
The Dancing Bear. 
 
 [Photo, J. Cazaban. 
 
 To face page 359. 
 
AMUSEMENTS AND PASTIMES 359 
 
 The last theatrical amusement is that performed by 
 the ''bear" in person. The "dancing bear" is an 
 amusement of all times, mostly, however, to be met in 
 spring, when the gipsies are not yet busy at field work. 
 The gipsy catches, often with great danger to his life, 
 the bear cub, puts out its eyes, rears and tames it, but 
 never to the extent, however, of being able to lead him 
 without a strong and safe chain. The dancing bears are 
 often to be seen in companies, going from house to house, 
 to dance their steps at the sound of the daira (Fig. 11) 
 or tambourine. It is considered unlucky to turn out a 
 bear, so it is received in every courtyard to dance, and 
 after the performance is presented with a plateful of 
 maize flour and some cheese, of which the gipsy gives 
 some to the bear to eat in his daira, putting the rest 
 
 Fig. 11.— DairA. 
 
 carefully by in a special bag. From this willing, and yet 
 compulsory, tribute to the bear, people have formed a 
 proverb to show that an evil coming upon your neighbour 
 may befall you too : — 
 
 " The bear dances at the neighbours' " * 
 — that is : will probably come to us too — and also : 
 
 "When you see the bear at your neighbour's, get your flour 
 ready." f 
 
 It is believed by the people that the entering of the 
 bear into the house brings luck, so those who wish and 
 
 * "Joaca ursul la vecini." 
 f " C&nd vezi ursul la vecini, gate^te faina." 
 
360 FROM CARPATHIAN TO PINDUS 
 
 can afford to give a richer tip to the gipsy, will ask the 
 bear in and make it lie on the beds, as this wonld keep 
 out illness. Also peasants who suffer from muscular 
 pains or fever, think it a cure to lie down on one's 
 face and have the bear recline on one's back, or have 
 him tread on one's body and limbs. Besides the dancing, 
 the gipsy will, if the lookers-on pay for it, fight his bear, 
 or if there are two bears, make them fight against each 
 other. Only this is sometimes dangerous, as bears with 
 all their chains are apt to get vicious, and the gipsies 
 will have hard work with their taming sticks to get them 
 down. 
 
 IV 
 
 The ^dzdtoarea, (the "Evening gathering") is the 
 great winter amusement of the Roumanian peasants. 
 Field labour draws towards its end with the appearance 
 of Brumdrel (October), *' little-hoar-frost," who comes in 
 with the warning : — 
 
 "I am, dear, 'little-hoar-frost,' 
 I come in the cool evening 
 To lie on the flower's bosom, 
 And when I start with the sun 
 Behind me the flower dies." * 
 
 Brumarel gives a first hint at winter, by spreading 
 over nature its thin grey cloak on a clear, starry night. 
 Usually, after the first hoar-frost, the weather settles for 
 a good while as unchangeably fair and bright. The 
 bringing in of the maize is hurried on, together with 
 the gathering of the grapes and the making of the wine. 
 St. Demeter, on the 26th of October, is the close of 
 the agricultural year. One gets ready for the reception 
 
 * "Eu s^nt, draga, Brumarel, 
 Eu vin sara pe racoare 
 De ma culc pe sin de floare, 
 Si cS-nd plec voios cu soare 
 Dupa mine floarea moare." 
 
A Sledge. iPlwtu, j . Cazubcin. 
 
 To face page 361. 
 
 On the Way. 
 
 [Photo, J. Cazaban. 
 
AMUSEMENTS AND PASTIMES 361 
 
 of the much severer Brumar (November), that is the 
 *'Hoar," or, rather, the ''White-frost." 
 
 "Who am I? — The great Brumar; 
 I fall down by full midday, 
 I take off the flowers' scent. 
 And when I take off the scent 
 I wither also the flowers."* 
 
 Bruynar, or Promorar (horn promoroacd = white frost), 
 coming on Hke " a hero on his horse, as white as a snow- 
 flake," covers all nature with white down. But this 
 seems to be rather out of date now ; snow is hardly ever 
 as early now as it used to be when our grandfathers 
 were young, as they tell us. Now, November hardly ever 
 looks bright and clear, although there are fair exceptions ; 
 as a rule November is the dullest and bleakest month of 
 the year, with a leaden sky above, hardly ever a stray 
 pale sunbeam, with cold and dreary days and the longest 
 nights. But sometimes it happens still, that snow falls 
 in abundance in November, and then, with all the frost 
 and cold, life looks ever so much happier in the short 
 days. But whatever the state of the atmosphere may 
 be, in November the nights are the longest, and the 
 Koumanian peasant willingly spends the half of it in 
 amusement mixed with work. Now in one homestead, 
 now in another, people will gather as soon as candles 
 are lit, to the so-called sdzatoare, (from §Mere-sedere=:i'' io 
 sit"), where people are meant to sit down and work at 
 some quiet handwork : combing, carding, spinning of 
 wool, hemp, or flax, or winding of cotton skeins. On the 
 hearth a gay fire is burning, above the flames of which 
 a kettle with boiling maize or corn is simmering in- 
 vitingly; this is the centre of the gathering. At the 
 back of the hearth the big oven, heated also, contains 
 
 * "Cine sant? — Brumarul mare 
 De cad ziua 'n pr^nzul mare 
 lau mirosul de la floare 
 ^i c^nd ieau miroasele 
 Ve^tejesc §i florile." 
 
862 FROM CARPATHIAN TO PINDUS 
 
 sometimes some big pumpkin and potatoes baking, to be, 
 together with the maize and corn, the refreshment of the 
 assembly, to which are added the sweet-tasting cuco§ei, or 
 cucurigif maize grains baked in a kettle with sand and 
 some salt, by which process they split and spring into 
 beautiful white flowers. In old times, beside the blazing 
 wood-fire, the room was also lighted by an opait^ a wick 
 dipped into grease melting in some potsherd on the 
 mantelpiece, the corlata; nowadays civilisation has 
 ushered petroleum lamps into the poorest cottage. 
 
 As a rule, all sorts of people come together at a 
 §dzdtoare; young girls to work, or pretend to; young 
 men to help them at entangling their skeins, to tease 
 them, to joke and flirt with them; people of all ages, 
 and, if possible, some old man or woman, talkative and 
 clever, with wrinkled face and young heart, with no end 
 of tales up their sleeve. These night-gatherings are 
 varied in character, according to the place; in some 
 places they seem to go on very simply and cordially ; in 
 other places the tone seems to be of a coarser kind, and 
 to give opportunities for subsequent rows and fights 
 amongst the young men. So I have come across places 
 where men were not allowed to go to the §dzdtoare, the 
 women meeting by themselves, and probably doing more 
 work than play — if sleep could possibly be kept away ! 
 In other places, I have been told, women were not 
 received in the sdzdtoare, at least young married women, 
 as bloody rows had been brought about between their 
 husbands and occasional love-makers. In other places, 
 again, these gatherings were looked upon with great 
 contempt by well-to-do peasants, who declared that their 
 girls would never go to the §dzdtoare. On the whole, 
 though, the §dzdtoare still exists, and is well attended by 
 numerous visitors, with character now strict now loose, 
 with manners now refined now coarse, according to the 
 taste of the people it brings together. 
 
 The amusements at the §dzdtoare are made up of 
 various games, in which the persons present all take an 
 active part, be it together or in turn ; of intellectual 
 pastimes, like tale-telling, asking riddles, and various 
 
AMUSEMENTS AND PASTIMES 363 
 
 questions put by one of them to which the audience 
 is expected to give appropriate answers; of puns and 
 puzzling sentences to be repeated by those present, by 
 whose mistakes no end of laughter is provoked. 
 
 The popular tales running among the Roumanian 
 peasantry are very numerous ; a good many of them have 
 ceased to be oral only, and have been written down by 
 more or less gifted collectors, so that some have still 
 preserved, while others have lost their particular simple 
 narrative character. Although on the whole these tales 
 have a kinship with tales of other peoples and countries, 
 and although the groundwork of these tales is of limited 
 variety, yet the form under which they are presented 
 is extremely varied, and appears as an unmistakable 
 outcome of local beliefs, of personal characteristics, and 
 of local culture. The anonymous tale composer (who is 
 everybody more or less) unconsciously embodies in his 
 tale his own moral or material ideals, the more eagerly 
 in that he hardly ever sees them realised in actual life. 
 As he sits in front of the little-by-little smouldering fire, 
 the tale narrator will carry along vnth him the enraptured 
 audience into worlds full of sun and of Hght, the world of 
 the Feti-frumo§i (** handsome youths") in love with 
 some fair — 
 
 "Ileana Simziana 
 
 From her hair 
 The flower sings 
 Nine empires 
 
 Listen ! " * 
 
 meeting with all sorts of difficulties and struggling with 
 all sorts of monsters, mounted on beautiful flying horses, 
 which feed on hot embers and are seers too, and a great 
 help to the beloved rider on their back. The usual foes 
 of Fdt-frumos are the zmei dragons, imaginary beings, 
 
 ^^ "Ileajia Simziana 
 
 Din cosi^ 
 Floarea-i canta 
 Noua impara^ii 
 
 Asculta I " 
 
364 FROM CARPATHIAN TO PINDUS 
 
 the shape of which is entirely left to the fancy of the 
 hearer, very brave and strong, too, but in the end always 
 overcome by the favourite hero. Physical strength is given 
 due consideration, too, but cleverness and intelligence have 
 always the upper hand in the end. Or, if not emperors 
 and princesses, the subjects of tales will be a baba and a 
 mo§neag (an old woman and an old man), with a good 
 daughter and a wicked daughter, put both to various 
 trials from which the result will always be the triumph 
 of the good, the punishment of the wicked. Superstitions 
 and beliefs will find a faithful reflection in tales: men 
 changed into animals by the power of a curse ; travelling 
 in " the other world," and so on, without the slightest 
 attention being ever paid to time and space. A very 
 important character again, playing a part in tales, is the 
 celebrated Pdcald and his congener — perhaps only his 
 " Sosie," his twin Tdndald. A pdcdli, means to take in, 
 but for fun mostly, not seriously : cheating is given by a 
 in§ela. From this verb Pdcald derives obviously his 
 name, and he will take in everybody, for fun often, but 
 oftener still in earnest. A short humorous tale brings 
 face to face the two personages. P^cala and T^ndala 
 happening to meet, both begin complaining about the 
 hardness of the times, and both agree to take service with 
 a priest, who takes them in and appoints the work to be 
 done by each. Pacala is to dig a cellar, and his remunera- 
 tion will be a prescurd (a small white loaf of which the 
 consecrated bread is made) for every shovelful of mould 
 thrown out ; Tandala is entrusted with the pasturing of a 
 cow, which being, says the priest, an exceedingly meek 
 animal, he could lie down and sleep all day in the grass, 
 and thus was not entitled to any particular salary. But 
 next day it came out that the first man received instead of 
 a little loaf a good blow from the priest for every shovelful, 
 whilst the second had to run all day long after the wildest 
 cow he had ever come across in his life, so that both met 
 in the evening crushed down with fatigue and pain, each 
 thinking, though, that his fate alone had been such a hard 
 one, while surely the other had had all the benefit of the 
 priest's promises. Each now invents the plan of changing 
 
AMUSEMENTS AND PASTIMES 365 
 
 place with the other, so that their meeting was of the 
 highest diplomacy. 
 
 '* How did you get on ? " asked Pacala. 
 
 " Oh, very well indeed ; I slept all day, the cow 
 grazing quietly by my side. And you?" 
 
 " Capital," answered Pacala, " I got so many loaves 
 from the priest that I gave a lot of them away in alms. 
 Now that I think of it, I am sorry I did not keep some 
 for you. But no matter ; if you like, I can give you my 
 place to-morrow, and go myself with the cow." They go 
 to sleep, each glad of the bargain made. Next day, 
 of course, they felt all the wretchedness of having been 
 mutually taken in, but Tandala was lucky enough, while 
 the priest was away from the cellar, to discover a barrel 
 half full of gold coins. As he could not possibly get 
 out the gold by himself, he imparted the news to his 
 companion, and at night they went together to take 
 the money and run away. But hole and barrel were 
 deep and narrow ; only one man could get down. Tgindala 
 went in with the bag which he had to fill with money, 
 and then, with the aid of a rope, bag and man had to be 
 drawn up in turn by Pacala. Tandala, however, filled the 
 bag only half with money, on top of which he stepped 
 himself into the bag, and shouted at Pacala to draw. 
 Pacala drew, but instead of lowering once more the rope 
 for his friend, he hastily shouldered the heavy bag, and off 
 he ran, leaving — he thought — Tandala in the hole. Near 
 the skirts of a forest he lay down to sleep, but while he 
 slept sound, Tandala crept out of the bag, took it upon 
 his own shoulders and went away. When Pgicala awoke, 
 he took in the situation at once, but he was not at his 
 wit's end. He stripped the bark from a lime-tree, twisted 
 it and made himself a whip, with which he began to clash 
 fiercely, as if he had been a travelling postilion. At this 
 sound, Tandala, tired and hungry by this time, came 
 forward in no time, hoping to find some relief to both 
 hunger and weariness in the advancing vehicle. One 
 may easily imagine the faces they cut on meeting. They 
 shook hands and acknowledged their equality, and that 
 nobody could ever get the better of them, except one 
 
366 FROM CARPATHIAN TO PINDUS 
 
 of another ; so they decided to part, and go about taking 
 in the simple, playing practical jokes on them, but not 
 always in mere joke ; the simple have, however, some- 
 times the pleasure of witnessing now and then how a 
 "P^cala" meets also his ** Tdndala." 
 
 The way of narrating tales is not in the least easy to 
 adopt or to reproduce. In a simple but rich language, 
 full of metaphorical expressions, spread all over with 
 proverbs, there is besides very much of the individual 
 talent of the narrator. As to its form, a tale begins 
 always by some stereotyped words, such as : " There was 
 once, when there was, for if it had not been, it wouldn't 
 be told ;" or again : " There was once upon a time, when 
 the small fishes ate the big ones, and people call them 
 thieves ; " or, " There was once, when there was, when 
 the flea was shod with ninety-nine pounds of iron at each 
 foot, and got up in the hightness of the skies and felt 
 still light ! " 
 
 The narrative, in prose, is not seldom interlarded with 
 ever-recurring verses, like — 
 
 "Tale, tale 
 There is still a long way ahead ; " * 
 
 or with words like in§ird-te mdrgdrite (** thread pearls"), 
 the tale being supposed to be told in a §dzdtoare, where 
 the work done was nothing less than threading of 
 pearls ! In some tales, again, versified parts are inter- 
 spersed. 
 
 The end of a tale, like its beginning, is also stereotyped : 
 "And I mounted on a saddle, and told it to you thus; " 
 or, " And I got astride on a rod and told you a lie," 
 and many other endings very often improvised on the 
 spot by the spirited narrator, with a hint towards 
 this or that member of the gathering or of their 
 acquaintances. 
 
 Riddles {cimilituri) are a very important item in the 
 gatherings. They all begin by the prefixed words : Cinelj 
 
 ■\i a Poveste, poveste 
 
 Inainfce mult mai este." 
 
AMUSEMENTS AND PASTIMES 367 
 
 cinel, or Cimel, Cimel, which seem to mean as much as 
 " Guess ! " To give a sample — 
 
 " (Guess 1) In the wood I was born 
 In the wood brought up, 
 To the town when taken 
 Judge I have been appointed." "^^ 
 
 {The stick.) 
 
 or — 
 
 " . . . I have a mottled little pot 
 The cocks crow in it."f 
 
 {The church.) 
 
 *' What water is there in the world without sand ? " J 
 
 {The tear.) 
 
 or, again, questions are set, to which an adequate, though 
 not exact answer is expected, as, for instance — 
 
 "Which is the longest day? " 
 "That in which you have nothing to eat." 
 
 A special kind of night gathering, in some places about 
 the Carpathians, is the Vergelul (the reveillon), on the 
 night before New Year. People gather in some house, 
 where they have been invited in good time, as soon as 
 the plugusor business has been done with, or even whilst 
 the young men are still at it. The hostess has prepared 
 a good deal of refreshment and a musical band, one fiddle, 
 at least, will not be wanting. On the stroke of midnight 
 — struck by the cock in the hen-house — a bucket, of quite 
 
 '•' " Cinel, cinel : in padure m'am nascut 
 In padure am crescut 
 ^i 'n oras cum m'au adus 
 Judecator am fost pus." 
 
 {Batul.) 
 f " Cinel, cinel : Am o ulcea pestricea 
 Cauta cuco^ii in ea." 
 
 {Biserica.) 
 
 I . . . " Ce apa este in lume fara nasip ? " 
 
 {Lacrima.) 
 
368 FROM CARPATHIAN TO PINDUS 
 
 new fir-wood, is brought in full of water and put on the 
 table. Every person in the room gives '* a sign," some 
 small object belonging to him or her, a ring, a string 
 of beads, a pipe, a knife, a hairpin, or anything, which 
 articles are all dropped in the bucket. A man then, 
 vergelatoruly comes with two green twigs in his hands, 
 and beating with them time on the bucket's edge, recites 
 a New Year's greeting, whilst at his side stands a young 
 boy in clean garments and new sandals, personating the 
 New Year. When the recitation is ended, he thrusts his 
 hand into the bucket, and picks up at random the objects 
 there deposited in turn, the vergelator predicting to 
 the possessor of each something more or less witty and 
 amusing. Sometimes the vergelator is blindfolded, so 
 that his prophecies come out still more funny and 
 ludicrous. After a final cheer pronounced by the ver- 
 gelatory the water is thrown out and the bucket brought 
 back filled with wine, and the cinste begins. A dance 
 closes the proceedings, as it often also does with the 
 common §dzdtoareas. 
 
 "Greatly do I really wonder 
 At the one who cannot sing 
 How he goes through his own life 
 For I, indeed, ever sing, 
 And go through badly enough." * 
 
 The last resort, the cheapest pastime of the Roumanian 
 peasant, is his singing. At work or at rest, merry or 
 weary, he will ever strike up a tune, cheerful or sad, 
 according to his state of mind. Not that a traveller 
 should expect to come across voices similar in beauty 
 or strength to the Italian voices ; not that he should hear 
 among the Roumanian peasants choirs well regulated 
 
 * "Mult ma mier eu de aoela 
 Care nu §tie canta 
 Cum i^i petrece lumea 
 Ca eu cant, zau, tot mereu, 
 §i-o petrec destul de greu." 
 
AMUSEMENTS AND PASTIMES 360 
 
 in tune and time, as he would among Germans; the 
 Koumanian peasant has hardly ever a good quality of 
 voice, never any training, yet his soul is musical, and he 
 ever feels an impulse to sing. 
 
 The chief part of the Eoumanian popular song is made 
 up of the words, the poetry ; the tune comes only next, 
 and is in a much less advanced stage than the poetry. 
 Most of the popular poetry is not told, it is sung, or rather 
 it is said, the word '' to say," a zice, being said by the 
 Koumanian peasant to mean also *' to sing," as well as 
 "to play" : to say a song, to say from the whistle. As 
 samples of the popular poetry as well as of the Koumanian 
 music have been given in the preceding chapters, the 
 reader is fully acquainted with them. Epic, lyric, satiric — 
 poetry as well as prose — all the literary kinds are to be 
 found in the Koumanian folk-lore. Most of the songs 
 begin Yfiih. frunzd-verde (" green-leaf"), the peasant poet 
 taking ever as witness to his feeling, a plant, a iSlower, 
 or a tree ; the content of the poetry itself may have 
 nothing whatever to do with the opening invocation, the 
 singer, however, has taken as companion and listener 
 some representative of Nature, the one, which, like him- 
 self, is doomed to the most fickle, most uncertain fate : 
 the leaf, prey of all winds. Who has composed the 
 popular poetry, none can tell. Or rather, yes, one can 
 tell that nobody in particular has done it, but that it is 
 the perfectly anonymous creation of the people at large. 
 No name of a minstrel has ever been heard of, old or 
 recent; no singer ever can tell what is the origin of 
 the song he is saying. He invariably has heard it from 
 somebody else. To some extent, however, the making 
 of popular poetry can be traced : one boy or girl learns 
 a song, then, be it by forgetfulness, or under pressure 
 of some individual feeling, he adds something of his own ; 
 the song grows, time often will make several pieces of it, 
 and thus the songs increase in number and bulk. There 
 are splendid and there are inferior pieces in the popular 
 poetry ; there is also much low trash ; all this, however, 
 only the work of the gipsy Idutar, or else, and perhaps 
 still more, of the town dweller ; as for the real peasant 
 
 25 
 
370 FROM CARPATHIAN TO PINDUS 
 
 poetry, it is ever as clean, as fresh, as pure as the Nature 
 under whose direct influence they hve, as the very fresh 
 air they are breathing. 
 
 There is a large amount of popular poetry collected 
 already ; there is, perhaps, more to be collected yet ; at 
 any rate, the composing pov^er of the people does not 
 seem in the least exhausted yet, and education, let us 
 hope, in its slow advance, will find its way to do its work 
 without extinguishing under its flat formalism the genius 
 of the Roumanian nation. 
 
 Let us hope in good time a merrier note may be 
 struck by the Roumanian singer at large, but for the 
 time being, the most popular, the most far and wide- 
 spread song, the song par excellence of the Roumanian 
 nation is a doleful one ; it is the Doina (supposed to 
 originate from the Latin doleo, dolina, or else from the 
 Dacian Daina) song, in which the Roumanian popular 
 singer has put his soul, to bewail his own multifarious 
 woes ; tune as well as poetry strongly wedded together, 
 the poetry often varying, the tune always the same ; the 
 song with which the Roumanian peasant drives away his 
 sorrows ; the song which has the power of making him 
 fancy he has paid off both taxation and labour : — 
 
 "With the doina I pay off 
 The taxation and the labour I " * 
 
 the song which is the strongest expression of infinite 
 pain : — 
 
 "He who invented the doina 
 Burnt out must have been his heart, 
 As it is just now with me 1 " f 
 
 * " Eu cu doina ma platesc 
 De bir §i de boieresc 1 " 
 
 f " Cine a st&rnit doina 
 Arsa i-a fost inima 
 Ca si mie acuma ! " 
 
AMUSEMENTS AND PASTIMES 371 
 
 the song, which, from the top of the Carpathians, comes 
 down rilling in infinite waves of wailing : — 
 
 Boina, Doina, sweet songl 
 
 When I hear thee, to stay I long — 
 
 Doina, Doina, fiery tune. 
 
 When thou soundest I stand still. 
 
 When the wind of spring is blowing 
 
 I sing the doina out of doors, 
 
 That I may lisp with the flowers 
 
 And with the sweet nightingales. 
 
 Comes the winter with its storms, 
 
 I sing the doina indoors, 
 
 To sweeten with it my days. 
 
 My days and my dreary nights. 
 
 The leaf shoots out in the wood, 
 
 Doina of bravery I sing — 
 
 The leaf falls down in the vale, 
 
 I sing the doina of wail. 
 
 Doina I say, doina I sigh. 
 
 With the doina I keep myself. 
 
 Doina I sing, doina I whisper. 
 
 With the doina alone I Hve ! " * 
 
 a: (( 
 
 Doina, doina, c^ntec dulce ! 
 Cind te-aud nu m'a§ mai duce. 
 Doina, doina, viers cu foe 
 Cand rasuni eu stau in loo. 
 Bate vant de primavara 
 Eu c&nt doina pe afara, 
 De ma' ngan cu florile 
 ^i privighitorile. 
 Vine iearna viscoloasa 
 Eu cant doina 'nchis in casa, 
 De-mi mai mangai zilele 
 Zilele §i nop^iile. 
 Frunza 'n codru cat invie 
 Doina cant de voinicie. 
 Cad« frunza jos in vale, 
 Eu cant doina cea de jale ; 
 Doina zic, doina suspin. 
 Tot cu doina ma mai ^in 
 Doina cant, doina ^optese 
 Tot cu doina Viennese I " 
 
372 FROM CARPATHIAN TO PINDUS 
 
 — the song which the lonely shepherd on the height 
 '*doinۤte" ("doins") on his whistle thus: 
 
 i^ 
 
 P^^ 
 
 -^ 
 
 -^o*- 
 
 >3 
 
 z;^- 
 
 $ 
 
 33» ' * 
 
 ^^m 
 
 tN 
 
 3- 
 
 :3t=t 
 
 I 
 
 
 
 ^: 
 
 ?^E 
 
 1^=F 
 
 *4JP: 
 
 ^ TT T fr 
 
 
 r~r-T 
 
 i 
 
 g^^f^s^^ 
 
 :a 
 
 ti 
 
 ^Il^pretto. 
 
 I 
 
 FIR 
 
 g^ -» — ip- 
 
 ^ 
 
 :^=t 
 
 S- 
 
 *=^ 
 
 .*■ 
 
 ^^^ -W^^ J— ^ < HH^- r rl^ " 
 
 i 
 
 ti^TC 
 
 i^--^fEE^ 
 
 P 
 
 fc*:zip= 
 
 ;=l 
 
 -4-^ 
 
 g= # P^ 
 
 i 
 
Index 
 
 A 
 
 Acarnany, 12, 41 
 
 Adrian, 7, 8 
 
 Adriatic, the, 5 
 
 Adrianople, treaty of, 74 
 
 Agathyrses, the, 5 
 
 " Agricultural conventions," 77 
 
 Albania, 41 
 
 Albanians, 112, 121, 300, 310 
 
 Alexander, Joan Cuza, 36 
 
 Alexander, Sutzo, 68 
 
 Alexander the Good, 22, 159, 160 
 
 Alps, the, 1, 2 
 
 America, 230 
 
 Archonda Palicar, an, 311 
 
 Ardeleanul, the, 343 
 
 Armindin^ 183 
 
 Aral lake, the, 5 
 
 Argesh, 9 ; Curtea de, 161, 172 
 
 Armani, the, 40-42, 72, 115, 165, 
 
 249, 300 
 Armenians, the, 39, 204, 300, 312 
 Arndutzi, the, 65, 68, 94, 121 
 Aryan race, the, 5 
 Asia, 139, 301 
 Asia Minor, 42 
 Asparuch, 14 
 Assan, 17 
 Athens, 311 
 
 Athos, Mount, 160, 161, 164 
 Attila, 11 
 August II. of Poland, 121 
 
 Aurelian, the Emperor, 8-10, 12, 
 
 40, 194 
 Austria, 31, i35, 38, 74, 133, 134, 
 
 137, 138, 140, 299, 307, 356 
 Austro-Hungary, 118, 133, 165, 298 
 Avars, the, 12-14 
 
 B 
 
 Badica Troian, 358 
 
 Balk, 47 
 
 Balkan, the, 1, 2, 6, 10-14, 167, 160, 
 
 207,298 
 Barlaneshti, 94 
 Banat, the, 6, 37, 109, 354 
 Basile II., 15, 157 
 Basile Lupu, 160, 162 
 Bassarab family, the, 18, 22, 27, 28 
 Bassarabia, 31, 35, 36, 38, 75, 110, 
 
 140, 154, 228, 298, 300, 307, 313, 
 
 323, 324-326 
 Batu-Chan, 18 
 Batuta, 341, 342 
 Bender, 24 
 Beotia, 41 
 Berlad, 47 
 Bersava, 9 
 Bethlehem, 355 
 Bibescu, Prince N., 129 
 Bir, the, 82 
 Bistritza, the river, 242 
 Black Sea, the, 3, 13, 227, 300 
 Blaj, 137 
 
 373 
 
374 
 
 INDEX 
 
 Blajini, the, 180 
 
 Bogdan, 19, 23, 24, 47, 160 
 
 Bohemians, 298 
 
 Boiars, the, 60-63, 65, 68-71, 73-75, 
 
 81-91, 98-104, 121, 143, 177, 217, 
 
 270 
 Boierii, 88 
 Bolosina, 63 
 Bordea, forest of, 5 
 Bosnia, 235 
 Bosphoms, the, 5 
 Boureni, 20 
 Braila, 234 
 
 Brezaia, or Capra, 357 
 Brumar^ 361 
 Brumdrel, 360 
 Bucarest, V, 69, 76, 127 
 Bucegi Group, 215 
 Bucium or Bucin, the, 345 
 Buda, the Pashalik of, 134 
 Buda-Pesth, 134 
 Buga, the, 31 
 Bugeac, the 228 
 Buhcdj a, 358 
 Bujor, 71, 72, 91 
 BujulfiUo Stojey 45 
 Bukovina, 4, 18, 23, 31, 37, 38, 71, 
 
 109, 140, 154, 160, 161, 186, 298, 
 
 300, 313 
 Bulgaria, 10, 15, 20, 39, 81, 158, 
 
 170; people of, 13-18, 25, 39, 
 
 112, 155, 157, 233, 299, 310 
 BuUbasha, a, 317 
 Bythinia, 42 
 
 Byzantines, 14, 17, 18, 81, 157 
 Byzantium, 13, 15, 157 
 
 Caloian, a, 183, 231 
 
 Calusheri, the, 343, 353, 354 
 
 Garacalla, 8 
 
 Carol I., v., VI. 
 
 Carpathians, 7-10, 12, 13, 15-18, 
 36, 37, 39, 42, 44-46, 72, 109, 115, 
 118, 149, 155, 156, 160, 205-207, 
 214, 216, 217, 224, 236, 270, 300, 
 812, 851, 866; fauna and flora 
 
 of the, 2 ; mines in, 3 ; primitive 
 
 remains in, 4, 5 
 Caspian, the, 5 
 Caucasus, the, 9, 39 
 CdzHceasca, the, 343 
 Cetatea-Alba, 24 
 Charles the Great, 12, 129 
 Charles I. of HohenzoUem, 36, 122 
 Chrestianilor, Mu/ntele, 9 
 CimiUturi, 366, 367 
 Cimpol, the, 346 
 Ciocoi, 71, 91, 95, 97, 126 
 Ciocaneshti, 94 
 Claca^i, the, 74, 75, 107 
 Cluj, 137 
 Cohza, the, 343 
 Cocan, Mount, 9 
 Codreanu, 64, 65, 67 
 Constantin Brancoveanu, 92 
 Constantine Mavrocordat, 69, 70 
 Constantine the Great, 156 
 Constantinople, 14, 23, 28, 30, 60, 
 
 61, 62, 89, 92, 157-159, 164, 165, 
 
 275, 300 
 Copou, 65 
 Congaz, 326, 327 
 Corn, the, 345 
 Costica, 326 
 Crimea, 25, 54, 92, 300 
 Crishiana, 37 
 
 Croatians, the, 133, 136, 137, 298 
 Cumans, the, 15, 16, 18 
 Cutzovlachi, 40 
 Cuza, Prince, 74, 75, 76, 164 
 
 Dacia, 6-9, 15, 45, 80, 166, 157, 164, 
 195, 370; AureUan's, 10, 12, 13 
 
 Dacians, the, 5-7, 10, 11, 109 
 
 Dairdf the, 359 
 
 Danube, the, 1, 3, 5-8, 10, 11, 13- 
 15, 17, 19, 20, 26, ;30, 31, 36, 37, 
 39, 45, 55, 76, 81, 112, 121, 155- 
 158, 160, 161, 165, 234, 236, 298, 
 300 
 
 Danzig, 216 
 
 De brdu, the, 341 
 
INDEX 
 
 375 
 
 Decebalus, 8 
 
 Delta, the, 228 
 
 Demetrius Cantimir, Prince, 81,216 
 
 Dettmata, 9 
 
 Dima, 63 
 
 Divan, the, 86 
 
 Divanuri- ad-hoc, 101 
 
 Dniester, the, 5, 15, 17, 19, 24, 31, 
 
 38, 39, 45, 54, 300 
 Dobrogia, the, 3, 13, 36, 239, 304 
 Doina, the, 370-372 
 Dokia, 8, 218 
 Dosza, 26 
 
 Dorobcmtzi, the, 127 
 Dragosh, 19, 47 
 Drdmba, the, 346 
 
 E 
 
 Epirus, 41 
 Etholy, 12, 41 
 
 Finer CM dop, the, 344 
 Forty Saints' day, 177, 178 
 Franks, the, 14 
 French code of laws, 146 
 
 G 
 
 Gaina mountain, the, 9 
 
 Galatzi, 165, 234 
 
 GaUcia, 18, 38, 140, 162 
 
 Gallienus, 8 
 
 Gepides, the, 12 
 
 Germans, the, 15, 16, 38, 39, 140, 
 
 148, 300, 307, 308, 356 
 Germany, the Emperor of, 134 
 Getes, the, 5 
 Gipsies, the, 299, 316-322, 359, 
 
 360,369 
 Goleshti, 94 
 Goths, the, &-11 
 Greece, 5, 6 
 Greek, 7, 14, 15, 28-31, 33-35, 39- 
 
 41, 60, 62, 67, 71, 89-91, 98, 131, 
 
 150, 155, 158, 159, 161, 162, 164, 
 
 165, 300, 311, 312 
 Gregory Ghika, 70 
 
 Hmdouk, a, 63-65, 71, 72, 91, 96, 
 
 121 
 Habsbourg, 26 
 Hassan, 356 
 Heleni, the, 355 
 Hellespont, the, 5 
 Herod, 355, 356 
 Hora, ithe, 332-340 ; Sinata, 332- 
 
 336 
 Horia, 70 
 Hotin, 24 
 Hungarians, the, 15, 16, 19, 20, 
 
 22-27, 38, 45, 46, 58, 86, 134, 
 
 136-139, 146, 158, 299, 308-310 
 Hungary, 3, 16, 18, 23, 25, 35, 37, 
 
 105, 133-138, 145, 146, 157, 165, 
 
 299 
 
 lanitcheri, the, 24 
 
 lelele, the, 185, 186 
 
 Ileana Cantacuzino, 63 
 
 Ileana Simziana, 226, 227, 363 
 
 lUyrians, the, 5 
 
 Innocent III., 17 
 
 loan Corvin de Huniade, Eegent 
 
 of Himgary, 23, 25 
 Ion Creanga, 99 
 lonitza (Little John), 17, 20, 25, 
 
 183 
 Ion Roata, 100, 101 
 lordacki, 92-94 
 Iron Gates, the, 2, 18 
 Irozi, the, 355, 356 
 Isaack Angelus, 17 
 Islam, 21, 310 
 Istria, 11, 37, 38, 154, 299 
 Italy, 6, 7, 133 
 
 Janoeh, the Hungarian, 51, 52, 53, 
 
 309 
 Jassy, 64-66, 93, 94, 99 
 Jerusalem, 164 
 Jews, the, 38, 39, 102, 103, 114, 
 
 204, 299, 312, 313, 316, 348, 357 
 
376 
 
 INDEX 
 
 Jianu, 91 
 
 Joseph II., 134, 154 
 Justinian, 156 
 
 Justinianea Prima, Archbishopric 
 of, 156 
 
 E 
 
 Kerson, 39 
 Kisselefif, 98 
 Kossuth, 136 
 
 Land Act, 74, 75 
 Lautari, the, 317, 334, 369 
 Leonti, 65 
 "Liberty field," 137 
 Lingurari, the, 317 
 Lissandre, 93 
 
 Lithuanians, the, 22, 58, 203 
 Lithuon, 47 
 
 M 
 
 Macedonia, 6, 27, 41, 154, 299 
 
 Macedonians, the, 5, 165 
 
 Maggiore, Monte, 38 
 
 Magyars, the, 21, 25, 38, 138, 139 
 
 Mahomet, 304 
 
 Mane, the ho^oman, 83, 84 
 
 Maramuresh, 19, 37 
 
 Marmorosh, 18, 19 
 
 Marmura mountains, 9 
 
 Maria Theresia, 134 
 
 Matei Bassarab, 29, 30, 162 
 
 Mathias Corvin, 25 
 
 Maurice of Saxony, 121 
 
 Meglen, 166 
 
 Michael the Brave, 26, 27, 89, 121, 
 
 122 
 Mihu Copilul, 51, 52, 53 
 Milcov, 119 
 Mileshti, 94 
 Mirtchea the Great, 20, 24, 26, 
 
 119, 169 
 
 Missolonghi, 41 
 
 Moesia, 10, 13, 156 
 
 Mohaczi, 133 
 
 Moldavia, 18-29, 31, 32, 35, 44, 46, 
 48, 76, 81, 82, 89, 92, 99, 109- 
 112, 118-120, 158-160, 162, 186, 
 203, 206, 216, 226, 233, 234, 299, 
 305, 325, 354, 355 
 
 Moldavian Dorna, the, 242 
 
 Monastir, 154 
 
 Mongolians, 14, 15, 17, 300 
 
 Moravia, 37, 38, 154, 299 
 
 MosTmeni, the, 48, 76 
 
 " Mo^ lonica," 356, 357 
 
 Motru, 9 
 
 Motz, 111 
 
 Muntenia, 19 
 
 Muresh, 9 
 
 Mushatini, 22, 28 
 
 N 
 
 Naiu, the (or moscal), 345 
 Neagoe Bassarab, 161, 162 
 Neamtz, 160 
 
 Ochrida, 157, 158 
 
 Olt, the, 2, 6, 9, 18, 19 
 
 Oltenia, 6, 17-19, 109, 353 
 
 Olympus, 41 
 
 Opalia, the Eoman, 358 
 
 Ops, the goddess, 358 
 
 "Organic Regulations," 98 
 
 Osman Pasha, 128, 129 
 
 Ossa, 41 
 
 Ostrogoths, 12 
 
 Oural mountains, 13, 18 
 
 Pacala, 864, 365, 366 
 Paparude, the, 182, 183, 231 
 Pdpusele, the, 356 
 Paris,' 73, 101 ; treaty of, 35, 75, 
 216 
 
INDEX 
 
 377 
 
 Patmaml Codrilor, the, 50, 283 
 
 " Peasant wedding," the, 357 
 
 Petchenegues, the, 15, 16 
 
 Petru, 17 
 
 Phanar, 30 
 
 Phanariotes, the, 30, 67-69, 92, 98, 
 
 121 
 Philipi, the, 188 
 Phoenicians, the, 5 
 Pindus, the, 1-3, 7, 10, 12, 13, 35, 
 
 36, 40, 41, 72, 73, 115, 118, 154, 
 
 186, 205, 207, 214, 235, 249, 250, 
 
 270, 300 
 Plevna, 128, 129 
 Plugusorul, the, 357, 358, 367 
 Pobrata, 160 
 Poland, 18, 23, 31, 121, 157, 162, 
 
 203, 313 
 Poles, the, 20, 21, 23, 24, 31, 120 
 Porte, the, 28, 30, 70 
 Preslav, 157 
 " Provisional Government," the, 
 
 73 
 Pruth, the, 3, 9, 15, 17, 31, 32, 38, 
 
 324 
 Purice, the Aprod, 87 
 Putna, 23, 31, 160 
 
 K 
 
 Bachiu, 347 
 
 Radu, 24 
 
 Radu Sharban Bassarab, 27 
 
 Ragusa, 235 
 
 Bazdshi, the, 48, 59, 61, 75, 78, 87, 
 
 95, 107, 147, 238 
 Eepotini, the, 182 
 Rhine, 11 
 
 Rhodope, 10, 12, 13 
 Romans, the, 3, 5-12, 47, 109, 112, 
 
 181, 182, 198, 306, 354, 357 
 Bomdn Grue Grozoran, 54, 55 
 Rome, 6, 41, 80, 157, 158, 219, 
 
 357 
 Romanul, the, 354 
 Roumania, 4, 73, 76, 77 ; Free, 75, 
 
 118, 129, 146, 150, 154, 206, 216, 
 217, 228, 234, 299, 300, 312,351 ; 
 description of, 1-3 ; history of, 
 3-43 ; landed property in, 44-80 
 
 Roumanian agriculture, 228-234 ; 
 attitude to foreigners, 298-327 ; 
 boiars and peasants, 80-109; 
 burials, 288-297; children, 247- 
 253; courtships, 254-266; diver- 
 sions, 328-353; dress, 112-117; 
 education, 150-155 ; evening 
 gatherings, 360-368 ; festivals, 
 177-199 ; homes, 205-214 ; 
 justice, 140-149 ; marriages, 267- 
 288; pastoral life, 214-228; 
 peasant women, 237-246 ; 
 physical appearance, 109-110 ; 
 political rights, 131-140 ; religion, 
 156-204 ; sanitary laws, 149- 
 150 ; social distinctions, 107- 
 109; soldiers, 119-129; spring, 
 217-222 ; taxation, 129-132 ; 
 theatrical performances, 353- 
 360; trades, 234-237; working 
 day, 222-225 
 
 Rudolph II., 26 
 
 Ruginoasa, 165 
 
 Busasca, the, 343 
 
 Bussalii, the, 184, 185, 353, 354 
 
 Russia, 18, 31, 54, 73-75, 138, 140, 
 156, 228, 313 
 
 Russians, 24, 31-33, 35, 36, 39, 75, 
 92, 95, 110, 119, 121, 154, 164, 
 298, 300, 306, 307, 316, 324, 356 
 
 Rustchiouk, 129 
 
 Ruthenians, 38, 39, 140, 298, 300 
 
 S 
 
 Sadowa, 138 
 
 Sarmates, the, 5 
 
 Sas the Moldavian, 47 
 
 Sashi, the (or Saxons), 16, 38, 183, 
 
 134, 136, 137, 300 
 Saxony, 121 
 
 l^&zdtoarea, the, 360-363, 366, 368 
 Scythia, 13 
 
378 
 
 INDEX 
 
 Scythians, 5, 6, 9 
 
 Secklers, the, 16, 25, 26, 38, 299 
 
 Seneslau, 47 
 
 Servia, 10, 20, 39 ; people of, 133, 
 
 136, 137, 298, 299, 310 
 Shalga, 55, 56 
 Shanta, 64, 65 
 
 Shoiman Burtchel, 58, 59, 60 
 Sibiu, 138 
 Silistria, 15 
 
 Simeon, the Czar, 15, 167 
 Siret, Eiver, 9 
 Sirbe, the, 334 
 " Slaves Way," 305 
 Slavic sea, 298 
 Slavonians, 298 
 Slavs, the, 11-16, 18, 29, 37-41, 
 
 44, 45, 47, 81, 109, 112, 133, 136, 
 
 149, 150, 154, 157, 160-163, 170, 
 
 180, 298, 299, 334 
 Soliman II., 134 
 Solomonari, 187, 188, 231 
 Soroca, 24 
 Stancutza, 846 
 Steiasa, the, 215 
 Stephen the Great, 21-24, 31, 57- 
 
 60, 76, 87, 119, 120, 122, 160 
 Stoian-papa, 50, 283, 284 
 Suceava, 60 
 Sutcheava, 21 
 
 Szecklers, 133, 134, 137, 189 
 Szekeny, 135 
 
 Tdndala, 364-366 
 Tarantella, the Italian, 343 
 Targovistea, 68 
 
 Tartars, 17-19, 22, 25, 28, 29, 64, 
 55, 58, 59, 92, 300, 301, 304, 305 
 TeUnca, the, 344 
 Temishiana, 37 
 Thessalonica, 156 
 Thessaly, 12, 41 
 Thracians, the, 5, 183 
 Tiflis, 326 
 Timok, 39 
 
 Tismana, 160 
 Tissa, 11, 14-16, 37, 39 
 " Toma Alimosh," 82, 84 
 Trajan, 6, 7, 9, 10, 156, 175, 305 
 Transylvania, 3, 4, 6, 14, 16, 18, 
 19, 25-27, 31, 35, 37, 38, 45, 46, 
 70, 74, 81, 109, 111, 133-138, 
 145, 149, 154, 158, 162, 165, 168, 
 186, 216, 233, 234, 292, 300, 313, 
 354, 355 
 Tri^ca, the, 344 
 TrulTifilio Choru, 46 
 Tudor Vladimirescu, 33, 34 
 Turkey, 24, 72, 73, 119, 127, 134, 
 
 140, 154 
 Turks, the, 18, 20, 21, 23-27, 30 
 31, 33, 34, 41, 46, 60-62, 88, 89, 
 121, 122, 128, 129, 131, 134, 160, 
 161, 165, 195, 299, 300-311, 316, 
 319, 356 
 Tzigani, the, (gipsies), 299, 316- 
 322, 359, 360, 369 
 
 United States, 228 
 
 Ursari, the, 317 
 
 " Usage of the soil," the, 146 
 
 Valachia, 6, 12, 14, 19-21, 24-26, 
 28, 29, 35, 44, 46, 48, 81, 89, 116, 
 118-120, 154, 158-161, 182, 186, 
 215, 216, 233, 235, 353, 355 
 
 Valachians, the, 13, 19, 22, 23, 35, 
 40, 92, 157, 165, 166, 236, 300, 310 
 
 Valacho-Bulgarian Empire, 17, 20 
 
 Vaslui, 60 
 
 Vasile Lupu, 29 
 
 Vergelul, 367, 368 
 
 Vicleim, the, 355, 356 
 
 Vidin, 129 
 
 Vidra, 60, 283 
 
 Vienna, 146 
 
 Viennese Parliament, 140 
 
 Virful cu dor, 215 
 
INDEX 
 
 379 
 
 Vlad the Empaler, 20-24 
 
 Vlahi, the, 37 
 
 VlasKka, 37 
 
 Voditza, 160 
 
 Volga, 11 
 
 Voyevodes, the, 19, 20, 49, 57-62, 
 
 68-71, 81, 86, 88, 92, 93, 99, 118, 
 
 119, 154, 159, 160 
 
 Vornic X., 69 
 Voronetz, code of, 161 
 
 W 
 Weigand, Dr., 112 
 
 Z 
 
 Zinzari, 40 
 
Zbc Oresbatn pte60, 
 
 UNWTN BBOTHERS, lilMITED, 
 WOKING AND LONDON. 
 
 *% 
 
 (^ 
 
RETURN TO the circulation desk of any 
 University of California Library 
 or to the 
 NORTHERN REGIONAL LIBRARY FACILITY 
 BIdg. 400, Richmond Field Station 
 University of California 
 Richmond, CA 94804-4698 
 
 ALL BOOKS MAY BE RECALLED AFTER 7 DAYS 
 
 • 2-month loans may be renewed by calling 
 (510)642-6753 
 
 • 1-year loans may be recharged by bringing 
 books to NRLF 
 
 • Renewals and recharges may be made 4 
 days prior to due date. 
 
 DUE AS STAMPED BELOW 
 
 MAY 1 9 1993 
 
 2.000(11/95) 
 
 LD 21A-50m-3 '62 
 
 General Library 
 University of California