Many of the roads in this part of the country are bordered on each side with mulberry trees, which have been planted as common property, with a view to the breeding of silk-worms. Considerable pains have here been taken to encourage that branch of industry, which nevertheless is not very flourishing.
The native Hungarian breed of horned cattle bears much resemblance to the wild white species which was formerly found in Britain. They are large, vigorous, and active, of a dirty white colour, with horns of prodigious length, exceeding in this respect even the long-horned breed of Lancashire. The oxen are admirably adapted for the plough, uniting to all the qualities of the ordinary ox, a very superior degree of activity.
Buffaloes are bred in Hungary for the same purposes as other horned cattle. The milk which they give is richer than other milk and the quantity considerable. As beasts of labour they are excessively strong, but slow and unmanageable. The number kept in Hungary and Transylvania is estimated at 70,000.
Bredetzky, a Hungarian writer, observes that Buffaloes are extremely valuable for their skins, which are employed at Rhonasech in forming the bags in which salt is raised from the mines. He also speaks of their ferocity and the difficulty of killing them in terms which would almost lead us to suppose them to be in a state of nature in that part of the country. The operation of shooting the Buffalo, says he, is curious but extremely dangerous, for in no other way can they be secured on account of their wildness. It is not possible to kill them with an axe like other cattle. They are first driven with great care from the inclosure in which they have been kept, and a shot is levelled by a person concealed exactly at the forehead. If he misses his aim, the animal with the most tremendous fury darts away so swiftly that dogs can scarcely overtake him, and any one who stands in his way is inevitably killed.
The original breed of Hungarian sheep is the realOvis Strepsicerosof naturalists, covered with very coarse wool and bearing upright spiral horns. Improvement on this stock by crosses with other varieties, and the Spanish in particular, is become so general, that a flock of the native race is seldom to be met with, excepting on the estates of the clergy. The wool is now an important object of commerce. It was calculated that in 1802, above twelve million and a half pounds (each pound being equal to one pound and a quarter of our weight) was exported fromHungary. A large portion goes to Austria, and is manufactured there or sent to more distant markets; and much of the wool sold in England as Saxon wool, is actually the produce of Hungary, exported in spite of the heavy duty which it pays on leaving the Austrian dominions.
Some idea of the extraordinary care bestowed by the great landed proprietors on the improvement of their flocks may be formed from the following brief sketch of the system pursued by Count Hunyadi, who possesses about seventeen thousand sheep.
At each of the head-quarters for these animals, there are well-built sheds having brick pillars at certain distances, which leave about half the side open, and thus admit a free circulation of air during summer, and afford easy means of excluding the cold in winter. The height of the sheds is about seven feet to the springing of the roof, and they are divided by little racks into such spaces as are necessary for the division among the flocks. Racks are also arranged round the whole, so that all the sheep can conveniently feed at them. The floor is covered with straw, and the upper layer being continually renewed, a dry, warm bedding is obtained. In these houses the sheep are kept almost incessantly during the winter, that is, from November till April, and are then fed three times a day upon dry food. They are watered twice a day from a well close at hand. Even in summer the sheep are driven under cover every evening, and they are conducted home in the day-time, when it rains or the heat is oppressive. They always lamb in the house; the ewe being placed on this occasion in a little pen by herself, where she remains unmolested. These pens, about three feet long and two wide, are made of hurdles. Owing to this care they never lose a lamb. The number of persons employed is about one man to every hundred sheep, and each of them considers his flock as his family and pride.
The result of all this attention has been a success which could scarcely have been anticipated. A conception can hardly be formed of flocks more uniformly excellent. It is of course the wool and not the carcase, which is the great object in a country so poor and so thinly peopled asHungary. The sheep are strong and healthy, and for the Spanish cross large; their fleeces perfect, and even the tail and legs covered with good wool. Three pounds, (about three pounds and three quarters of our weight) is the average produce of each sheep: but some, and particularly the rams, yield six or seven. The whole of the wool, without any separation, and only washed on the back of the sheep, is sold at the rate of from three shillings to four shillings and sixpence sterling for each Hungarian pound; and the consequence is that from flocks, which, if covered with the ordinary wool of the country, might be expected to yield fifteen or twenty thousand gulden, not less than fifty thousand is now annually produced.
Count Hunyadi has also taken great pains to improve the breed of his horses at his estate at Urmeny, in the county of Neutra; and with a view to ascertain the progress which he makes, and at the same time from a desire of exciting the country to exertion, he has instituted races on the English model. Solicitous to infuse into his own peasantry a spirit of improvement in this particular, he appoints a day on which their horses alone run, and gives rewards to the successful competitors. His stables are a fine range of buildings, with wooden floors, and contain from thirty to forty horses, chiefly crosses of the Arabian and Transylvanian breeds. His breeding stud is kept at a farm a few miles distant. Other proprietors of estates are beginning to understand the object and to appreciate the advantages of the plan of this spirited nobleman.
It is the custom throughout all Hungary, for the inhabitants of each village to commit their cattle to the care of a herdsman who, at a certain hour in the morning, drives them to the common pasture and brings them home at night. He carries a wooden trumpet, nearly four feet in length, exactly resembling the instrument usually put by artists into the hand of Fame. With this trumpet, the sound of which is harsh, he gives notice of his approach, and the peasants turn their cattle out of their yards that they may join his drove. In the evening when he conducts his motley crew of horses, cows, sheep, and goats back to the village, each individual finds, as it were instinctively,the cottage of his master, and quietly retires to his accustomed stall. The peasants pay the herdsman a small sum for each animal, but part of this remuneration is always made in grain or bread.
The ravages of wolves among the cattle, especially in the neighbourhood of woody mountains, are extremely serious. In all the frontiers these animals are much dreaded. In the hard winter of 1803, no fewer than 1533 head of cattle were devoured by them in the single district of the Wallacho-Illyrian regiment, which gave rise to some attempts to destroy them by poison, as the Turks are known to do by means of theaconitum napellus. Thenux vomicawas here employed, and not without success.
When much distressed for food, the wolves will sometimes attack the cottages of the peasants. An instance of this kind is related by Dr. Bright to have occurred not long before his visit at Leutschau. A woman who had two children, the one about twenty years of age, the other much younger, had just quitted her cottage in the morning, when a wolf rushed upon her and tore her face dreadfully: then leaving the first object of its rage, the animal fixed upon the child, and in an instant lacerated its head and deprived it of both eyes. The elder son alarmed, flew to the spot, and seizing the wolf by the throat, held it at bay for some moments; but being unable to maintain the unequal conflict, became himself the object of attack: the hungry beast fixed his fangs deep in his neck. The cries of the unhappy victims brought some assistance to the spot, and the wolf made his escape. As soon, however, as the necessary aid had been afforded to the sufferers, an active pursuit was instituted and the animal was discovered in a thicket. A young man levelled his piece: it missed fire, and the wolf was in the very act of springing on its pursuer, when it was brought to the ground by a well aimed blow of a cudgel.
The mode of storing wheat generally adopted in this country is very objectionable. After being beaten out, often by the feet of horses and oxen, it is deposited in holes in the ground, where it is kept during the winter. There it acquires a strong mouldy smell, which, indeed,goes off in some degree by exposure to the air. These holes are dug of a circular form and about three feet deep; and an excavation is made of such dimensions that a man can sit in it to stow away the grain and assist in bringing it to the surface when required. This done, a fire is kindled in it to harden the sides, which are afterwards lined with straw. When the grain is thus stowed, straw is placed upon the top, and earth thrown in to fill up the entrance hole, which forms the neck, as it were, of the cave, and a little heap of earth remains pointing out the spot; or a piece of wood is stuck in it as a mark. There is scarcely a village near which a number of such hillocks are not to be seen.
We shall now present the reader with an account of the costumes prevailing in different parts of the country.
The figure in the annexed engraving represents the costume of the son of a wealthy Hungarian peasant of the county of Weszprim in his Sunday apparel. He has just filled his pipe, but is supposed to have been too deeply engaged in conversation to light it. The nosegay in his hat was probably snatched from the bosom of some pretty girl in coming from church, and this is the usual prelude to a more intimate acquaintance. The leathern tunic of a light colour hanging loosely from his shoulders, adorned with curious patterns and trimmed with fur, is the ordinary costume of a wealthy rustic.
The costume of the noblemen of Hungary, which partakes largely of that here exhibited, is described as being singularly picturesque. It consists of a large broad-brimmed hat, slouched behind, an ornamental jacket and light pantaloons of bright blue, with a number of silver buttons, Hessian boots, a girdle round the waist, from which hangs a tobacco-pouch, and a green mantle descending from the shoulders.
HUNGARIAN PEASANTof the County of Szolnok-Weszprim.
HUNGARIAN PEASANTof the County of Szolnok-Weszprim.
To the dress of the unmarried daughter of an opulent peasant of the county of Weszprim, when decked out in her holiday finery, the flowered corset and numerous necklaces essentially belong. Her red shoes, which have frequently white heels, are rendered still more conspicuous by the work in front, and the blue stockings are adorned with red and white clocks. Her head is uncovered, and merely encircled with a bandeau of black velvet.
The matrons are less studious of ornament: their corset, shoes, and stockings, are generally quite plain. When they go abroad, they cover the head with a white cloth, which hangs down over the back and shoulders, and wear over their other garments a blue cloth jacket with long sleeves, open in front and bordered with fur.
The women of the county of Neutra dress nearly in the same manner: wearing short pelisses of blue cloth lined and bordered with fur or wool, and white handkerchiefs closely bound about their heads.
In the Hungarian language, the termCzikosorTsikos, signifies a keeper or tender of horses.
Mezöhegyes is an imperial domain in the county of Csanader, where, during the reign of the emperor Joseph II. in 1785, a stud of horses was established. This institution is unrivalled in Europe both for its magnitude and value. The establishment, when complete, consists of nearly 17,000 horses and upwards of 700 men, of whom 238 are Csikoses.
They are a handsome, not very tall, but robust and muscular race of men, inured to all sorts of privations, and enduring them with the greatest ease, owing to the small number of their wants. These are almost confined to bread, bacon and tobacco, which is with them a necessary of life. If to these the Csikos can add a pudding of maize-flour and a bit of fresh pork, he has nothing more than a pint of wine to wish for.
The dress of these men is as simple as their fare. A wide shirt and loose trowsers of coarse linen, a high felt cap, and convenient boots of horse hide, a leathern girdle, a curiously worked tobacco-pouch of sheep-leather, with its accompaniments, are all that they need, besides a sheep-skin with the wool on, which serves both for garment, tent and bed. The linen garments become extremely dirty from long wearing, for when once on they are never taken off till they drop to pieces and are replaced by new ones. The reader will not be surprized at this, when he knows that these men are obliged to pass three-fourths of the year on the moors, without any other shelter than the firmament of heaven, and therefore cannot possibly be provided with a wardrobe.
Their dexterity and strength, and the courage which they display in their vocation are truly astonishing. In order to be able duly to appreciate these qualities, it is necessary to have witnessed the scene which takes place, when the owner of a herd of wild horses orders some of them to be caught. The animals are first driven very adroitly into a large inclosure. Here the owner or purchaser points out which of them he wishes to have caught, on which some of the Csikoses go with long ropes having nooses at the end, among the horses, and endeavour to fling the nooses over their heads. In this attempt theCsikos generally succeeds at the first trial. He then throws the animal upon the ground, where he is held down by his comrades, and in this state a bridle is quickly put on him. The conqueror places it between his legs; the rope is loosed, the horse springs like lightning from the ground, with the Csikos on his bare back, and holding by the mane. The furious beast darts off at full speed: the undaunted rider lets him run and even applies his whip from time to time, till his steed, weary with the length of his course, slackens his pace. The Csikos then begins to exert himself and to make use of the bridle. Man and horse return home exhausted with hunger, thirst and fatigue; the latter is conducted for the first time into a stable, where the operations of breaking commence while the former relates to his comrades over the smoking board the adventures of his hazardous journey, on the steed winged by rage and terror.
Besides the Csikoses there are other classes of herdsmen denominated from their particular occupation Gulyas, cowherds; Juhasz, shepherds; and Kanasz, swineherds.
The mode of life of these herdsmen, who are brought up from childhood to this occupation, and during the summer seldom approach the habitations of men, appear to have debased them so much, that even in this country, uncivilized as it is, they are considered as a tribe of savages.
The dress of these cattle-keepers in the county of Schümegh, consisting of a shirt and wide trowsers of coarse linen as already described, is rendered stiff and of a dark dirty colour by the grease with which it is purposely imbued. Their object in thus besmearing the clothes is to render them more durable, and to prevent vermin from harbouring in them, as well as to defend the person from the bites of gnats: but whatever the object may be, they are seldom changed before they are ready to fall in pieces. The feet are enveloped in wool, over which they fasten on the sole a piece of leather by straps. Besides a round hat, frequently ornamented with a ribbon, and a large mantle of thick coarse woollen cloth, for here they seldom use sheep-skin cloaks, they are provided with a leathern pocket, hanging by a broad belt over the shoulder, andcarry, for offence and defence, a small axe with a long handle. The broad belt by which the pocket hangs is generally adorned with two or three rows of shining metal buttons, for which these herdsmen are so eager, that they have been often known to fall upon travellers for the sake of them alone. The axe serves them in place of a stick, and in time of need becomes a formidable weapon against man or beast. They understand the management of this instrument so well, that at the distance of twenty or thirty paces they seldom miss a mark set up against the trunk of a tree. Their skill in this exercise is derived from constant practice while their flocks are feeding.—These men are still more careful in besmearing the hair of their head with grease than even their dress, and they then tie it up in knots hanging on each side below the ear.
The county of Marmaros forms a strong contrast with the rest of Hungary. In regard to situation it might justly be denominated the eastern Highlands, the principal valley alone being conveniently habitable. The rest of the country consists of bare mountains and forests: hence the population bears no proportion to the extent of this country. It is chiefly remarkable for its rich salt-works, which furnish 30,000 tons of salt annually, and its numerous mineral springs.
The woodcutter of Bocsko in the county of Marmaros, whose axe is his only companion, frequently abides for weeks together in the immense forests, to earn wherewithal to satisfy his scanty wants, partly by cutting woodfor fuel, which he conveys at a very moderate rate to Szigeth, the capital of the county, and partly by furnishing timber for salt-rafts.
His apparel is of coarse hempen stuff; in winter he dresses rather warmer, but even then his bosom is uncovered and icicles may be seen hanging from it, without prejudice to the health of this hardy Highlander. His shoes consist of a piece of tanned ox-hide, which is fastened on the foot with a leathern thong, and just serves to keep it from the ground.
The unmarried female appears in all her finery. Her head is encircled with a metal hoop adorned with beads and flowers. Round her neck she wears several necklaces of coral, and a black and red silk handkerchief covers her bosom. Over this she sometimes throws another of larger dimensions, which, from the variety of its colours and forms, resembles a piece of patchwork. The red boots are worn only on extraordinary occasions, and the owners generally carry them in their hands to church, to protect them from the wet which would stain them indelibly. It is well known that the same practice prevails among the females in the Highlands of Scotland.
The married woman is more simply clad: yet the embroidery on her loose jacket without sleeves, trimmed with fur, and on the short sleeves of her chemise, drawn tight round the arm below the elbow, show that the cares of a family have not rendered the matron wholly negligent of personal decoration. Her head-dress consists of a handkerchief tied under her chin, and she goes according to the custom of the country on ordinary occasions, without shoes or stockings.
The women of this part of Hungary are remarkable for their industrious disposition: they are never idle, but even in their walks carry with them a portable distaff, and ply the spindle without intermission.
EXTENT AND POPULATION—MANNERS OF THE WALACHIANS—THE GIPSIES—COSTUMES.
EXTENT AND POPULATION—MANNERS OF THE WALACHIANS—THE GIPSIES—COSTUMES.
The grand principality of Transylvania, about one-sixth of the extent of Hungary, contains a population of about a million and a half. It presents as great a diversity ofnations and religions as Hungary, being inhabited by Hungarians, Germans, Walachians, Greeks, Servians, Armenians, Bulgarians, Poles, Slowaks, Jews, and Gipsies, and containing, besides the four religions established by law, namely, those of the Catholics, Reformed Lutherans, and Unitarians, also disunited Greek Christians and Jews. The Armenians and united Greeks are numbered among the Catholics. It may naturally be supposed that the variety of nations may be perceived in the variety of their peculiar costumes, of which we shall present some specimens.
The Walachians, a great number of whom are spread throughout the Hungarian counties, are the most numerous race of the inhabitants of Transylvania. They may be divided into three classes. To some of them all the rights of nobility have been granted by different kings and princes of the country. They are ranked with the noble Hungarian landholders and enjoy the same rights; and among them are found several families of importance. Others belong to the class of knights who, on account of certain military services entrusted to them at different times, have obtained limited privileges of nobility: but by far the greater part of the Walachians are, like other peasants, bound to the service of the owner of the estate on which they live. Besides these, there are two Walachian frontier regiments, and a third part of the Szekler hussars is formed from this nation.
The Walachians are considered as one of those races which are tolerated in Transylvania, and according to the laws of that country cannot possess the rights of free citizens: but the free families are reckoned among the number of that established nation in whose territory they reside. Their religion is the Greek church, either united or not united, the former being in the proportion of about two to nine of the latter.
The total number of Walachians in the Austrian dominions is calculated at 1,600,000: of whom 900,000 inhabit Transylvania, 550,000 Hungary, 150,000 the Bukowina. The latter are, more correctly speaking, Moldavians,but they differ little in language and manners from the genuine Walachians.
The Walachian is short in stature, but of a compact muscular frame of body. The savage mode of life to which he is accustomed from his earliest infancy enables him to bear hardships with fortitude. Heat and cold, hunger and thirst, make no impression upon him. His features are strong and expressive, his hair dark and bushy. His countenance on the whole is not disagreeable, and both men and women, as well as girls of great beauty, are often seen among these people. They arrive early at maturity, yet frequently live to an advanced age. At seventeen or eighteen the Walachian marries a wife who is seldom above thirteen; before he is thirty he is a grandfather, so that the race multiplies rapidly, and the Walachians are already more numerous than all the other inhabitants of Transylvania.
In regard to character the Walachians are sly, reserved, cunning, revengeful and indolent. With the appearance of the greatest simplicity they well know how to profit by every opportunity of overreaching their neighbours. Indolence is a failing of the men rather than of the women, who perform all the labour of the house, make clothes for the whole family, and frequently afford their husbands much assistance in agriculture: whereas the men, after performing the most indispensable operations of the field and vineyard, pass the remainder of their time in idleness. The natural indolence of the Walachians receives much encouragement from the frequent holidays of the Greek church, which they usually spend in prayer, drinking and sloth. To work on such days would be criminal.
They are much addicted to drink, and the Walachian will frequently consume in wine and brandy in a few hours the produce of the labour of a week. If he is fortunate enough to find a pipe or violin, in addition to a full pitcher, he seldom ceases from revelry till he is quite intoxicated, and is carried home senseless. It rarely happens that many Walachians are assembled under such circumstances without fighting, for they are very quarrelsome when drunk.
The idleness of their disposition is naturally connected with an inclination to plunder; and if the Walachians are not such professed thieves as the gipsies, they never suffer a favourable opportunity to pass, and are particularly dexterous at stealing cattle; so that many laws passed in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries are directed against them by name, and at the present time the inhabitants of the countries in which they reside take strong precautions to prevent their depredations. When they leave their homes, for fear of punishment or to avoid military service, they often retire to the forests and mountains, where, singly, or in bands, they become the terror of the country. Perfectly acquainted with every hiding-place and every by-path, they are always ready to fall upon passing travellers, or to plunder lonely houses and villages, exercising the most inhuman cruelties: and in spite of the greatest precaution on the part both of the civil and military power, it is generally long before the depredators can be secured or expelled from their haunts, especially as the inhabitants are prevented by fear of a cruel revenge from affording effective assistance.
The Walachians are in the highest degree superstitious, but make no scruple of employing shocking oaths on every trifling occasion. The stupidity and avarice of the greater part of the clergy, who find a rich source of profit in the ignorance of the common people, tend to encourage the failings and depravity of their flock. The ignorance and want of cultivation in the inferior Walachian clergy exceeds all belief; and there can be no doubt that the first step towards an improvement in the morals of the people must be a reform in that order.
The habitations of the Walachians are small and confined; their towns are generally built of mud and timber, very seldom of stone. The houses have seldom more than one room, besides which there are a small kitchen and an oven. The stable and other buildings belonging to a peasant’s yard, are universally ill built, low and dirty. They keep their grain in pits; and some sorts, particularly maize, in wicker baskets, suspended on a pole some feet above the ground, and protected by a lid of the samematerial, covered with straw. They pay little attention to gardening, and besides a few vegetables irregularly planted, nothing is to be found in their gardens but fruit-trees, which are left entirely to the care of nature.
The internal arrangements of their houses are extremely simple. The furniture consists of the family-bed, formed of straw, sacks and coverlets, or according to the circumstances of the possessor, of feather-beds and bolsters, with covers ornamented with coloured stitch-work, which are objects of extraordinary luxury. Besides these articles they have commonly a rude table, benches arranged round the room, and one or two wooden chests, adorned with rudely painted flowers, in which they keep their clothes and other valuables. Pitchers, plates and dishes are ranged or hung against the wall, together with pictures of Greek saints, before which lamps of coloured glass are sometimes suspended. The windows are very small, and the light is usually admitted through a piece of bladder instead of glass.
Of all rural employments, the Walachians are most attached to the rearing of cattle. Their natural indolence causes them to prefer this to all other occupations. All the changes of weather, and all the privations to which the life of a herdsman is subject, in distant and uninhabited countries, which he is forced to explore in order to find good pasture for his cattle, are easily borne by the Walachian, whose bodily frame has been hardened from his childhood; and the exemption from labour, which he enjoys as he follows his herd, renders the difficulties he has to encounter still less irksome.
The Walachian cultivates the field or the vineyard only when the climate or other circumstances prevent him from attending to the breeding of cattle. The grain chiefly grown by him is maize, a principal article of diet in Hungary, because it is more productive than any other kind of corn. Still the produce of the fields and vineyard seldom exceeds his immediate wants; while on the other hand, the Walachian cattle-breeders amass property. They have but little inclination for handicraft-business and the trades which are carried on in towns; probably because in formertimes they were not suffered to become members of any of the companies or guilds. This disability was removed in 1802, and much benefit is expected to result from this measure.
The women spin and make the greater part of their own clothing and that of their families. A stranger, seeing a Walachian woman going to market with a basket of goods upon her head, and spinning with her distaff as she trudges along, would be apt to conceive a favourable idea of the industry of these people, which, however, is soon lost on a nearer acquaintance, particularly as it respects the men.
The clothing of the Walachians varies in many points according to the district in which they reside; but may generally be described as follows:—The summer dress of the men consists of a short coarse shirt with wide open sleeves, which reach partly over the thighs and hang outside of the trowsers.
The latter, of coarse white woollen cloth, or in summer sometimes of linen, are very large and descend to the ankles. Round their feet they wrap rags, and over them put a piece of raw hide, bound on with thongs and thus fastened to the foot and leg above the ankle. Instead of these sandals, the more wealthy wear short boots reaching to the calf of the leg. Round the waist the shirt is bound by a leathern girdle, generally ornamented with brass buttons, in which they carry a knife, a flint and steel, and a tobacco-pipe. Over the shirt is sometimes thrown a jacket of coarse brown woollen cloth. They wear the hair short, suffering it to hang down a little way in the natural curls. None but old men, or such as from their situation or office are particularly entitled to respect, suffer the beard to grow. Among the common people this usually takes place after the age of forty, and such persons are distinguished by the appellation ofmoschule, grandfather. The head is generally covered with a woollen or white cloth cap, or a low round hat; but while the Walachian is in mourning he always goes bare-headed, be the weather what it may. He carries a knapsack, containing provisions and necessaries, slung across the shoulders, and a strong stick in his hand.
The women wear a long shirt reaching to the knees, and ornamented at the bosom and sleeves with coloured stitches. From a small girdle are suspended two aprons, one before and the other behind. These are somewhat shorter than the shirt, and are made of striped woollen cloth, bordered below with fringe. Over the shirt the bosom is often covered with a stomacher of cloth or leather. They also wear, particularly in winter, under their shirts, long wide drawers; and in the mountain districts cover their feet with the sandals already described, but commonly wear boots in the plain. The girls have no covering on the head, but their hair is plaited in braids, which are disposed cross-wise on the head, and fastened with pins. Married women wear head-dresses of white linen, and the richer part of them of muslin.
The Walachian women are very fond of ornament. They paint their cheeks red, and this addition is deemed even by the poorest essential to beauty. They often colour the eyebrows black, and wear ear-rings of different kinds: but the chief ornament of the rich consists of several necklaces of silver or sometimes gold coins, instead of which the poor use base coins and glass beads, strung on threads and hung round the neck and breast. Their number is indefinite, and they frequently reach quite to the girdle. The embroidery also upon their shirts and their many coloured aprons is esteemed by them an indispensable part of ornamental attire.
Children of both sexes wear in summer nothing but a long shirt reaching to the ankles. In winter they are seldom better clothed, and may be seen playing and leaping about in their shirts in the snow. At the age of six or seven years, they begin to dress like men and women.
In winter the Walachian provides himself with a sheep-skin cloak with the wool turned inward, and having a fur cap instead of a hood; or he throws over him a white or brown cloth mantle, which descends to the knees, and has a large hood to put over the head in bad weather. Under this cloak he wears his usual dress. The women likewise wear sheep-skin cloaks with sleeves; lined inside with wool and adorned outside with coloured patches andcoarse embroidery, and held together in front by laces and buttons.
The gipsy tribe is also very numerous in Transylvania. They may be divided into two classes, the itinerant and the stationary. The former having no fixed habitations, wander in summer and winter from one place to another. In summer they generally live in tents; in winter in wretched huts of clay, or in holes which they excavate to the depth of a few feet in the declivity of the hills, and cover with branches, moss and turf, to protect themselves from the weather. It is easy to conceive how miserable the inside of one of these dwellings must appear. Air and light are almost wholly excluded; and the only apartment is a cave, in the centre of which is a fire serving at the same time for warmth and cooking. Household and culinary utensils are scarcely to be expected. The inmates sit, eat and sleep on the bare ground, or at best lie on a heap of rags. On a fine winter day they open their cavern for a few hours to the sun; but if the weather is cloudy they keep themselves shut up, nestle round the fire, cook and divide the food which chance or theft has placed at their disposal, and pass the remainder of the day in chatting and smoking, for the latter of which they have a particular predilection. Men, women and even children know no greater happiness than to smoke tobacco out of a short pipe, or to chew a piece of the wooden pipe when it has been well impregnated with the essential oil of tobacco.
Their furniture seldom consists of more than an earthen pot, an iron pan, a spoon, a water-jug, a knife and sometimes a dish. If the father is a smith, which is most frequently the case, he has a pair of small hand-bellows, a stone anvil, a pair of pincers and a couple of hammers. Add to this a knapsack, a few rags for clothing, a tattered tent, formed of a piece of coarse woollen cloth, and this is a complete inventory. But if he is so fortunate as to possess besides these an old foundered horse, he puts the whole establishment on its back, and thus rambles from place to place.
The wandering gipsy is generally clothed in rags, andthe women are more remarkable, if possible, for their want of cleanliness than the men. Wrapped in their tattered garments, which scarcely suffice for decency, carrying their infants in a piece of cloth suspended from their shoulders, and driving before them the elder children, naked, or at most covered with a torn shirt, they visit in all their filth, particularly during fairs, the towns and villages, to dispose of the paltry produce of their labour, or rather under that pretext to exercise their skill in pilfering. Their stations are generally by the road side, where the naked children lie and beg; or by following travellers, by tumbling and by locking the wheels of carriages, they obtain a trifle or seize an opportunity of purloining something. Their usual occupation is making coarse iron articles. Some cut spoons, shovels and little troughs out of wood; others make brooms of twigs, weave baskets, and gather herbs, rushes, or juniper-berries. In this manner they contrive to gain a scanty subsistence, and if, after providing absolute necessaries, there is any surplus, it is expended in brandy of which they are very fond.
The settled gipsies, who are termedNeubauern, or new peasants, live much better than their wandering brethren. They reside in the outskirts of suburbs and villages, where they herd together, and their habitations contain a greater variety of conveniences than the dens described above. Their occupations are in general those of the wandering tribe. The greater part are smiths, and in spite of their imperfect apparatus they perform their work well. They visit also the neighbouring towns and villages to mend iron and copper utensils: others make a profession of music, and pass in companies from place to place. Some of them are tolerable performers, and collect large contributions from parties which amuse themselves with dancing and other festivities: others are engaged in mending shoes and in working in wood, or assist in agricultural occupations, in which, however, they are seldom industrious. They are usually employed as executioners, and in the business of flaying animals which have died a natural death. The women mostly trade in old clothes, in which the men assistthem; or they levy a tax on the superstition of the peasantry by fortune-telling and pretensions to magic. Another occupation in which they are much engaged in Transylvania is gold-washing, in the many rivulets of the country which yield that metal.
Thoroczko, pronounced Torotzko, is a village in the county of Thorda, with an iron mine which is not wrought by means of regular shafts, but by passages cut in the side of the mountain. The inhabitants are Germans from Styria, who have settled here to work in the mine, but have ceased to speak their native language; and Hungarians belonging to the Unitarian church.
The females of this place are distinguished from their neighbours by their head-dress, by the singular and tasteful embroidery on their chemises and corsets, by the red sash which encircles the waist, and by the peculiar manner in which they plait their petticoats. They wear occasionally a blue cloak, without arm-holes, plaited like the petticoat.
The head-dress of the young female of Oberascha, or more correctly Obrasa, is composed of variegated ribbons, which are fastened round the head, and the ends of which hang loose over the bosom and shoulders. Above each ear are generally fixed a couple of peacock’s feathers. Round the neck she wears a fine sort of net-work to which are hung pieces of silver coin. The gown is adorned withembroidery on the shoulders. To the red sash which holds the black apron are attached several rings, probably tokens of love. Red boots complete her costume, the general appearance of which proclaims her a Walachian.
The inhabitants of Oberascha and the environs, are distinguished from other Walachians by the custom of wearing their hair tied in a club on the right side, and also by their tight pantaloons, and half-boots turned down at the top. The shirt, which the Walachians wear over the pantaloons, is fastened on holidays round the waist by a variegated scarf and a leathern belt, decorated with a profusion of metal studs, from which are suspended the tobacco-pouch, flint and steel.
In Transylvania, as well as throughout all Hungary, proper precautions are taken for the security of travellers against the attacks of banditti. The guards employed to patrole the roads for this purpose are called by different names in different parts of the kingdom. In Transylvania they are styled Plajashes, from the Walachian wordPlaja, a foot-path, or road. The duty of these Plajashes is to escort travellers and goods over the mountains, which are frequently very unsafe: hence they always appear completely armed. Their weapons consist of a musket, two large sharp knives or daggers, and the nationalbuzogany, or mace. They carry their ammunition, tobacco, materials for striking a light and other articles attached to their belt. In other respects their dress resembles that of the Walachians, to whom they indeed belong.
ARMED PLAJASH.
ARMED PLAJASH.
Upon the whole, there is scarcely any country in which travelling is safer than in Transylvania, because the inhabitants of every place are responsible for all the losses and injuries which travellers may sustain in its territory.
TRANSFER OF THE COUNTRY TO AUSTRIA—EXTENT—POPULATION—COSTUMES.
TRANSFER OF THE COUNTRY TO AUSTRIA—EXTENT—POPULATION—COSTUMES.
Bukowina, formerly part of Moldavia, was subdued in 1769 by the Russians, but restored to the Ottoman Porte at the peace concluded in 1774. In the same year Austria took military possession of this province, and by the convention of the 12th of May, 1776, it was formally ceded to that power. It derives its name from the numerous forests of beech which it contains, that tree being called in the Slavonian languagebuk. Its greatest length is about 150 miles, and its extreme breadth 80. The soil is fertile, especially between the rivers Pruth and Dniester, and in the valley of Szucsawa; and the mountainous parts are interspersed with rich and extensive pasture-grounds; but on account of the early frosts and the long duration of the winter, the only crops that can be raised there are oats, barley, and potatoes.
At the time of the occupation of this province by Austria in 1776, it contained no more than eleven or twelvethousand families. The conscription of 1817 exhibited a total of nearly forty-two thousand families, and upwards of two hundred thousand souls. These are composed of Moldavians, or original inhabitants, Ruthenians, Germans, of whom there are eighteen colonies, Hungarians Armenians, Lipowanians, or Philippowanians, Gipsies and Jews.
In the Bukowina every gentleman or proprietor of land is called Boyar. The usual dress of this class is faithfully represented in the opposite plate. A long blue pelisse, with short sleeves, covers the under-garments, which consist of wide red trowsers, a blue striped shirt, and a broad belt, in which a knife is stuck, and from which hangs a handkerchief. The head is covered with a red Servian cloth cap.
The Boyar here represented, is an inhabitant of the town of Szered; he is supposed to have just quitted his house, and appears in a contemplative attitude.
The usual costume of the peasants of the Bukowina, consists of white or red trowsers, a shirt, the wide, open sleeves of which are embroidered at the wrist, and over that an open waistcoat bordered with fur. With a pouch slung over his shoulder, and a long handled hatchet,which supplies the place of a stick, in his hand, he usually proceeds to his work in the fields and woods.
BOYAR of SERET.
BOYAR of SERET.
According to the regulations of Gregory Gyka, prince of Moldavia, the holders of land are bound to labour twelve days in the year, and the holders of houses six days, for their lord, besides paying him the tithe of all their field-crops and fruit, and also of the produce of their gardens when they deal in such articles. According to ancient custom, every vassal holding grants of land gives, moreover, as a yearly acknowledgment, a hen, and a certain quantity of yarn; and if he keeps a cart or wagon, he must carry home for his lord a load of wood from his forest, or if there be none on his domains, from that which lies nearest to them.
Szucsawicza, pronounced Szutzawitza, is celebrated as the ancient residence of the princes of Moldavia. On a hill near the place are still to be seen the ruins of a strong castle which they inhabited. It seems to have been destroyed by violence, probably in one of the frequent incursions of the Turks and Poles into this province. Whether the destruction of this castle, or as some assert, the commands of the Porte, caused the princes of Moldavia to change their place of abode, we shall not pretend to determine. So much at any rate is certain, that, till the middle of the sixteenth century, the Woywodes or Hospodars of Moldavia resided at Szucsawicza; and consequently it was not till the latter half of that century that they removed from this place to Yassy.
On a gentle eminence near the town there is a convent of monks of St. Basil, belonging to the not united Greek church, which, in regard to the number of its members, predominates in the Bukowina. This edifice stands in a dreary, melancholy country, and makes an extraordinary impression on the traveller with its numerous towers,crosses, and bells, and the paintings on the outside of the church. It is surrounded by walls and towers, as a defence against sudden attacks of banditti; and owes its existence to the pious donations of several Moldavian princes who are interred in it.
The women of Szucsawicza wrap a handkerchief about the head, and wear trowsers, slippers turned up at the toe, and a jacket bordered with fur in the Greek fashion. In their manners and customs these people closely resemble the Moldavians.
Jakobeny is a place situated in the mountains and inhabited by miners. The females of the lower class here as every where else, are fond of finery. To the decorations of their persons belong indispensably numerous necklaces and other ornaments made of beads, coins, crosses, rich embroidery, and in summer fresh flowers and sprigs of plants for their hair. The gown is coloured and striped, and a red sash encircles the waist.
The engraving represents an unmarried female; the dress of the married woman is destitute alike of ornament and taste. The coarse gown is commonly of a dark colour with blue stripes, and in cold weather they wear over it a loose shapeless brown coat.
We have already observed that the Lipowanians, or Philippowanians, form a particular class of the inhabitants of Bukowina. They belong to the Russian Raskolniks, and to the not united Greek church. They removed about the year 1785, from the Black Sea into the Bukowina, and obtained of the emperor Joseph II. the free exercise of their religion. They are a peaceable, industrious and active people, addicted to agriculture, and partly subsist by the sale of fresh and dried fruit, fish, and cordage of their own manufacture. They are extremely skilful in draining wet, marshy lands, inhabit three villages, and are among the different sects of the eastern church what the Moravians are among the Protestants.