CHAPTER VIII.PEASANT HOLDINGS.Small ProprietorsSouth of the Balkans—Flourishing State of the Country a few Years ago—A Rose-Harvest at Kezanlik—Bulgarian Villages—Oppressive and Corrupt System of Taxation and of Petty Government—The Disadvantages counterbalanced by the Industry and Perseverance of the Bulgarian Peasant—The Lending Fund in Bulgaria—Its Short Duration—Bulgarian Peasant often unavoidably in Debt—Bulgarian Cottages—Food and Clothing—Excellent Reports of German and Italian Engineers on the Conduct and Working Power of Bulgarian Laborers—Turkish Peasants—Turkish Villages—Comparative Merits of Turkish and Bulgarian Peasants—Landin Macedonia—Chiefly Large Estates—Chiftliks—TheKonak, or Residence of the Owner—Country Life of the Bey and his Family—His Tenants (Yeradjis)—Character of the Yeradji—His Wretched Condition—The Metayer System Unfairly Worked—TheYeradjigenerally in Debt—Virtually a Serf bound to the Soil—Difficulty of getting Peasants to becomeYeradjis—Statute Labor—Cultivation and Crops.
Small ProprietorsSouth of the Balkans—Flourishing State of the Country a few Years ago—A Rose-Harvest at Kezanlik—Bulgarian Villages—Oppressive and Corrupt System of Taxation and of Petty Government—The Disadvantages counterbalanced by the Industry and Perseverance of the Bulgarian Peasant—The Lending Fund in Bulgaria—Its Short Duration—Bulgarian Peasant often unavoidably in Debt—Bulgarian Cottages—Food and Clothing—Excellent Reports of German and Italian Engineers on the Conduct and Working Power of Bulgarian Laborers—Turkish Peasants—Turkish Villages—Comparative Merits of Turkish and Bulgarian Peasants—Landin Macedonia—Chiefly Large Estates—Chiftliks—TheKonak, or Residence of the Owner—Country Life of the Bey and his Family—His Tenants (Yeradjis)—Character of the Yeradji—His Wretched Condition—The Metayer System Unfairly Worked—TheYeradjigenerally in Debt—Virtually a Serf bound to the Soil—Difficulty of getting Peasants to becomeYeradjis—Statute Labor—Cultivation and Crops.
The land south of the Balkans, from the Black Sea to the frontier of Macedonia, is divided into small holdings, which belong to and are farmed by a peasant population of an essentially agricultural nature. Before the late destruction of property in Bulgaria, almost every peasant in those districts was a proprietor of from five to forty acres, which he farmed himself. The larger estates, of which there were a considerable number, were superintended by the proprietors themselves, but farmed by hired laborers. The following figures will give an idea of the average extent of the holdings in those districts: Out of a thousand farms, three had five hundred acres; thirty had between one hundred and five hundred; three hundred between fifty and a hundred; four hundred between ten and fifty; and two hundred and sixty-seven under ten acres. All these lands were well cultivated and yielded rich returns. I was astonished at the beauty and flourishing condition of the country during a journey I made some years ago from Adrianople to Servia. It appeared like a vast and fruitful garden. The peace-loving and toiling Bulgarian was seen everywhere steadily going through his daily work, while his equally active and industrious wife and daughters were cheerfully working by his side.En route, I stopped a few days in the lovely town of Kezanlik, and was most kindly received by its well-to-do and intelligent inhabitants, who pressed their hospitality upon me with a genuine kindness never to be forgotten. I visited the schools, in which the people prided themselves as much as in the astonishing progress the pupils were making in their studies. I was also taken on a round of visits into well-built clean houses where European furniture was beginning to find a place, and contrasted pleasantly with the well-made native tissues that covered sofas and floors. At dawn next morning a tap at my door announced that it was time to rise and witness the rose-gathering, which I wished to see. The roses begin to be collected before sunrise, in order to keep in them all the richness of their perfume. It requires expedition and many hands; so large bands of young men and maidens, adding pleasure to toil whilst gathering the roses, amuse themselves by carrying on their innocent little flirtations and love-makings.
The large garden to which I was conducted belonged to the wealthy Chorbadji in whose house I was staying. It was at some distance from the town, and by the time we reached it the bright rays of a lovely spring morning were fast spreading over the horizon. The field was thickly planted with rose-bushes, with their rich harvest of half-open dew-laden buds. The nightingales, in flights, hovered over them, disputing their possession with the light-hearted Bulgarian harvesters, and chorusing with their rich notes the gay songs of the scattered company, who, dressed in theirPrasnik(feast-day) clothes,—the youths in snow-white shirts and gaudy sleeveless vests, the girls in their picturesque costume, the colored kerchiefs on their heads floating in the breeze,—had the appearance of a host of butterflies flitting over the flowers. The girls were actively and cheerfully employed in stripping off the buds and throwing them into the baskets slung on their arms. The youths helped them in the task, and were rewarded each with a bud from his sweetheart, which he placed in his cap. The children ran to and fro emptying the baskets into larger receptacles presided over by the matrons, who sat under the shade of the trees and sorted the roses. The whole picture was so bright and happy, in such harmony with the luxuriant beauty surrounding it, that I was perfectly fascinated by it, and felt almost envious of those happy beings (as I then thought them), the careless simple children of nature. Their happiness was not for long.
It is not a week since my attention was attracted by an article in one of our papers describing the destruction of Kezanlik and the horrors the writer had witnessed. The once smiling and fruitful district was become the valley of the shadow of death.
The general appearance of the villages in Bulgaria was very pleasing. Those in the plains were not so well built or so picturesque as those nestled among the hills, where the abundance and cheapness of the material needed for building afforded greater facilities for more solid and more artistic construction. Some of these villages had increased to such an extent as to look like small towns. This was owing to the more equal division of land among the people and the large number of landed proprietors that cultivated it. In the midst of the difficulties that surrounded them, such as an irregular and unequal system of taxation and the encroachment and tyrannies of petty government officials, Zaptiehs, Circassians, and sometimes native beys—the Bulgarian peasant, by his steady and persevering habits of industry, managed to get on, and in some places, when favored by circumstances, even to become wealthy. A species of lending fund was organized (since the introduction of the vilayet system) by the provincial government, chiefly for the benefit of the peasant class of proprietors. The capital of this fund was derived from an annual tax of two bushels of wheat (or their equivalent in money) levied on every yoke of oxen owned by the farmers, and of money contributed by those not engaged in agriculture, to the value of one-tenth of their income-tax. The agricultural interest of the country derived great advantage from this institution. It helped the small farmers to borrow the sum needed for the cultivation of their crops and the purchase of stock at a reasonable rate of interest, and enabled those who had large estates to improve them without mortgaging; while others were enabled to free their estates from the mortgages which already burdened them. I believe that this excellent institution did not long continue in working order, and that latterly it was beyond the reach of those who really needed the money and might have benefited both their farms and the State by its use.
As a general rule, the Bulgarian peasant is not wealthy. There are many villages that were so deeply in debt that for years they had not been able to pay their taxes. A rising was occasioned in one of the villages of the district of Sofia on this account. The Pasha of Sofia had been pressed by the Porte to send some money to Constantinople; he, on his part, had to collect it from the people. Calling up a Chaoush of Zaptiehs, he told him to make the round of the villages, and, under pain of instant dismissal, not to return empty-handed. The Zaptieh was a bandit, like many of his brethren who have represented the police corps since the diminution of pay and abolition of the excellent body that had been organized by the wise policy of Fuad Pasha and Ali Pasha. He marched with his band into one of the villages and demanded that £400 should at once be paid to him. The men were absent from the village, and the women, not authorized to act in such matters, could not accede to his demand. The Zaptiehs then seized some and locked them up in a barn, and, after subjecting them to gross ill-treatment, left the village. The unfortunate peasants, thus pressed by the authorities for taxes they could not pay, and subjected to foul and violent treatment, revolted.
A Bulgarian cottage is neither neat nor regular in construction. A number of poles are stuck in the ground, secured to each other by wattles, plastered within and without with clay and cow-dung mixed with straw. The walls are generally whitewashed, and the roof raised to a dome covered with tiles or thatch. The interior, divided into three rooms, is neat and clean. One of the apartments is used as the living-room of the family, another as sleeping-room, while the third is reserved for storing provisions and such-like domestic purposes. These rooms are of tolerable height, and from fifteen to twenty feet long and ten to fifteen wide. The earthen floor is hardened and covered with coarse matting and woollen rugs, the handiwork of the inmates. The furniture consists principally of the thick woven tissues used for bedding and carpeting.
Pictures of the saints and relics from Mount Athos adorn the walls; a night-lamp may be seen suspended before the most venerated of these objects, serving the double purpose ofveilleuseand mark of regard to the saint. The shelves round the walls contain the crockery and shining copper pans, a pair of pistols, and various other articles. The bedding, neatly rolled up, is piled in one corner, while near the door stand the jars of fresh water. Attached to these cottages are sheds for the farm stock; and a cow-house, pig-sty, and poultry-house, an oven, and sometimes a well, are inclosed in the yard, which is surrounded by walls or fences, and guarded by dogs.
In the hilly districts, the cottages of both Mohammedans and Christians are constructed with considerable solidity. The peasants throughout European Turkey are economical and frugal; their wants are few, and they are content with very little. They seldom taste fresh meat, and generally live on rye bread and maize porridge, or beans seasoned with vinegar and pepper. The dairy produce is consumed at home, and on great occasions a young pig or lamb serves as apièce de résistance, washed down by home-made wine. For pastry they have a cake calledBanitza, much relished by all.
The clothing of the peasants is warm andcomfortable. It is chiefly composed of woollen stuffs, coarse linen, or cotton cloth. Every single article of wearing apparel is woven, embroidered, and made up by the hands of the women, who are at the same time spinners, weavers, and tailors. When coming to town, and onPrasnikdays, coarse socks and sandals are worn; these are also home-made, and their use on other occasions is dispensed with.
The Bulgarian peasant is strong and healthy in appearance. Both in Bulgaria and Macedonia he is a diligent worker. He may not have the smartness and activity of the English laborer, but I have often been assured that, notwithstanding the numerous feast-days he keeps, at the end of the year he is found to have completed almost as much work, for the simple reason that he makes his working-day much longer, and his whole family turn out to assist him; for the women of these districts are as industrious as the men: no sooner are their household tasks accomplished than they join the paterfamilias in the field.
The German and Italian engineers who undertook the construction of the railways in Macedonia repeatedly asserted that the labor of the natives was equal to that of Europeans. In Macedonia, the Italian company, on commencing operations, brought out five hundred Italian navvies to work on the line; but on discovering that the natives, when well paid, well treated, and shown how to set about it, did the work better than the Italians, the latter were sent away. These gentlemen were most warm in their praises of the steadiness of the men and of the excellence of their work; but I must add that they did not omit to study the character of the people and treat them with the kindness and consideration that, in the long-run, never fail to improve and elevate even the most debased.
The Turkish peasants, who are in the minority both in Bulgaria and Macedonia, have also a healthy appearance, added in the former place to a look of audacity, and in the latter to a look of ferocity. The Greek peasant is tall and rather slim, with an intelligent look and a hardy and self-reliant expression.
All the rural population is sober. Greek and Bulgarian peasants have, it is true, every now and then, an orgy; but there is no systematic drunkenness. All the well-to-do farmers and peasants keep a provision of wine andraki, or spirit, but their daily portion is moderate, and excesses are only indulged in on feast-days, and even these are not of a very serious nature.
All the villages, both Greek and Bulgarian, have theirKodja-Bashis, who see to the administration of the village, proportion the taxes, settle petty disputes, attend to the arrival and reception of guests, Zaptiehs and troops, and other wants or necessities of the community.
The Turkish villages bear a more impoverished appearance and look more neglected and decaying than the Christian. This is partly owing to the seclusion of the women, who are little seen about, and, unlike the Christian, never sit working at their doors. They are helpless; do no field work, and very little weaving; and occupy themselves solely about their in-door duties, and as these are not very heavy, they consequently spend much of their time idly. The men are laborious, but not so active and energetic as the Christians. They spend a good deal of time smoking in the coffee-houses of the village, and are much poorer than the Christians. This is due partly to their character and to the absence of all help from their wives, but also in great part to the conscription, which takes many valuable years of labor from the working-man. Drunkenness is rare among Turks of this class, but when chance cases occur they are of the most vicious and incurable kind.
In Macedonia landed property is more unequally divided than in Bulgaria. Great portions of it are united in large estates held by native beys, or by pashas and officials at Constantinople. Some of these estates comprise an immense area, of which only a part is cultivated. They are calledChiftliks; the house, orKonak, on the estate, is the residence of the owner when he visits it, for he seldom resides on his property, but is represented by aSoubashi, or agent. The elegance, dimensions, and comfort of the Konak depend, of course, upon the means and habits of the owner. Some of the more ancient of these edifices are large and spacious, built in the style of the old Konaks at Stamboul; but they present a still more dilapidated and neglected appearance. Others of more recent erection are smaller, but neither more comfortable nor more tidy in appearance. Some, again, are in the form of turrets, which, if not elegant, have at least the merit of being as strong as small fortresses. A large court-yard contains, beside the house, the usual farm buildings. On entering the yard of the best regulatedChiftlik, the first thing that attracts the attention is the air of complete disorder and dirt that pervades the premises. In one or two corners may be seen heaps of refuse, in others broken carts and farm implements standing in the midst of mud-pools and filth of every description, including a collection of old brooms that could never have been worn out in sweeping the place. Among these, children, fowls, geese, ducks, and dogs roam in freedom. The interior of the Konak is usually divided into Haremlik and Selamlik, if sufficiently large. One or two rooms in each department may be furnished with a few hard sofas and dingy calico curtains. The room reserved for the master sometimes presents a somewhat better appearance, its walls decorated with fire-arms, sometimes of beautiful workmanship, and its furniture boasting a deal table and a few chairs. When the Bey intends paying a long visit to his estate and is accompanied by his family, the bedding and other household necessaries are brought from town. It is astonishing to see how little luggage a Turkish family travels with on such an occasion. Each person will have aboghcha,[6]containing his or her wearing apparel; the articles for general use comprise a few candlesticks, petroleum lamps, perhaps twoLeyen[7]andIbrik[8]for ablutions, which in the morning and at meal times make the round of the house; kitchen utensils and a few tumblers, plates, etc., are all that is needed for theVilleggiaturaof a Turkish family.
The way in which the Bey spends his time on his estate is also regulated by the means and tastes of the individual. If he be a sportsman, he will have a battue on his lands and enjoy the pleasures of the chase. Should he be addicted to drinking and debauchery, he has every means of indulging his taste. His duties as landlord consist in regulating accounts with his agent, hearing the cases that need his interference, giving general instructions for future operations, and, above all, realizing the profits. As to improving his estate, ameliorating the condition of the tenants, beautifying the property by planting trees and laying out gardens, such things are never thought of or known to have been practised by any large land-owner in Macedonia.
The harem, on their side, bring friends to stay with them; and the days are spent in roaming out barefooted in the mostnégligéscostumes, eating fruit, and helping to make the winter provisions, such asTarhana Kouskous,Youfka,[9]Petmaiz,[10]Rechel,[11]andNichesteh.[12]No needlework is brought to fill up the leisure hours of country life; the only amusements are the indecent conversation and the practical jokes of the parasites who never fail to accompany such parties.
The villages owned by the bey are made up of the dwellings of the tenants. These for the most part present a pitiable appearance of poverty and misery, though their interiors are as clean as circumstances will allow. They are constructed of mud and wattle, and divided into two or three rooms, with small openings for windows, and open chimneys. A fence incloses the house, together with the granary and cattle-shed. The tenants are, with few exceptions, Christians, and are calledYeradjis. They are poor, and look dejected and depressed, a demeanor I have often heard superficial observers attribute to laziness and natural worthlessness. This judgment may be just in some instances, but can by no means be taken as generally correct; the people are as willing to work and gain an honest living as those of any other land, but they labor under certain disadvantages which merit attention, and which, when carefully examined, will go far to justify their failings.
A Yeradji’s house costs from £30 to £50; sometimes it is built by the landlord, sometimes by the tenant himself. This may happen for instance when the Yeradji has a son to marry and the landlord refuses to build a house for him, in which case he has to build it at his own expense, and should he leave the estate, receives no compensation for it. TheseChiftliksare cultivated on the Metayer system as it is understood and practised in Macedonia: the landlord provides the seed in the first instance, the Yeradji finds his own yoke of oxen or buffaloes and implements, tills the ground, sows the grain, reaps it, threshes and winnows it, and when the seed for the next year and the tithes have been deducted, shares the produce with the landlord. The Metayer system on a luxuriant soil like that of Macedonia would not only pay, but would also contribute to increase the wealth of the estate and improve the wretched condition of the Yeradji if it were only properly and equitably administered. But it is not difficult to point out capital failings in the working of the system. When the grain is cut, a certain number of sheaves, forty for instance, of the finest and heaviest, are set aside as samples. These are threshed separately, and the seed for the next year, the tithes, and the landlord’s share deducted according to this standard, which leaves the Yeradji an iniquitously small proportion of the produce. Under this unfair arrangement the Yeradji has to give for every head of cattle he possesses six Constantinople kilés of barley and six of wheat to theSoubashiof his bey.
In addition to these the Yeradji has to defray the heavy burden of his own taxes, and the quartering of troops and Zaptiehs upon him, besides other burdens, among which must be reckoned the wasted time of the numerous feast-days, that deprive him of so much work in the year. Toil as hard as he may, he can never become an independent and prosperous man.
When these estates are transferred by sale or other causes, the Yeradji, should he be in debt to the estate, goes with it into a sort of bondage terminable under certain conditions, viz.: his industry and activity and the honesty of the landlord and his agent. If on one hand the superabundance of feast-days is to be looked upon as a hindrance to the Yeradji freeing himself from debt, the unscrupulous manner in which his master or the Soubashi reckons accounts opposes fresh obstacles to the breaking of the chain that binds him to the soil. Farm accounts are generally kept by means ofchetolas, or notched sticks, a very primitive mode, leading tomany errors being committed, wittingly or unwittingly. The consequence is that all tenants are more or less in debt to their landlords in the same manner as all Turkish landlords are in debt to the Government or to private individuals.
The scarcity of Yeradjis and their disqualifications as tenants are now a general complaint throughout Macedonia. It is not, however, surprising that the better class of peasants should refuse to become Yeradjis, and that the inferior classes, employed in their absence, should be found fault with and be always in debt.
Of late years some of these estates have passed into the hands of Christians, by purchase or mortgage. These proprietors, as a rule, do not reside on their estates, which are left in the charge of an agent, but content themselves with an occasional visit. When this property is well situated, and (as seldom happens) free from litigation, it is said to be a good investment.
Besides these Yeradji villages, there are theKephalochoria, or head-villages, composed of petty landholders, some of whom were formerly wealthy, and might have continued so but for the injury done to them by the forest regulations and the heavy impositions laid upon them by the Government since the commencement of the war.
One of the principal grievances peasants labor under is theangaria, or statute-labor, into which man, beast, and cart are impressed at the command of a mere Zaptieh, causing a loss of time, and injury to property and cattle, which is often fatal to an otherwise well-to-do village. A village on a main road is never free from all kinds of vexatious impositions and the quartering of Zaptiehs and troops, who, whether they pay or not for what they have consumed, extort sums of money from their hosts, and are always careful to take away with them a declaration from theKodja-Bashithat all accounts have been settled.
The Angaria work lately exacted from the inhabitants of Cavalla for the transport of flour for the use of the army was very nearly occasioning troubles of a nature likely to prove fatal to the whole town. The affair originated in the townspeople being required to carry on Sunday loads which they willingly carried on Saturday. They refused, and shut themselves up in their houses; whereupon an excess of zeal was displayed by the police in trying to force them out by breaking into some of the dwellings. This led to a slight disturbance which encouraged some noted bad characters belonging to the Moslem population to take a menacing attitude, and conspire to break into the offices of some of the principal merchants of the town, ransack them, and then proceed to follow the precedent with the rest of the town, threatening the Christians with massacre. Panic soon spread, and the people shut themselves in their churches. Men-of-war were telegraphed for, but luckily the local authorities were able to put down the tumult, and order was restored without loss of life. The incident is instructive in showing the difficulties and dangers under which the Macedonian peasant carries on his work. It is no wonder that the land is ill-cultivated.
Among the peasant farmers of Roumelia there is no regular system of rotation of crops observed; but with the occupants of large estates the ordinary rule for rich lands is two wheat crops and one of oats, then fallow one or more years, wheat, and then sesame. In Macedonia, where arable land is more abundant, one year’s rest is allowed to some lands. The only manure some of these lands obtain is from the treading of the sheep on the land in early spring and after the harvest is reaped, and yet the soil is naturally so rich that a generally bad harvest is of rare occurrence. The mode of cultivation is very primitive, employing much hand labor and involving much waste. Tillage is performed with the native plough, on an average depth of four inches to the furrow. The instrument used for the purpose is very rude and has only one handle. The number of buffaloes used varies from two to five. In Roumelia some large estate owners attempted introducing agricultural implements from Europe, but threshing-machines alone met with any success. In Macedonia even these proved a failure, as their management is not understood, and fuel is difficult to procure in the interior. In some parts the grain is scattered over the stubble and then ploughed in. Much of the harvest is done by young women and girls in Roumelia and Macedonia. They and the male harvesters hire themselves for the June harvest. On the 21st August the harvest-home is celebrated. Decked in their holiday costumes, crowned with garlands, and carrying bouquets composed of ears of corn, the reapers proceed to the nearest town to dance and sing before the doors of the principal houses and in the market-place.
Threshing is performed in the most antique manner imaginable. The instrument used for the purpose consists of two pieces of wood curved at one end, fastened together, and studded with a number of flints. This is attached at the curved end to a team of three or four horses. A girl stands on this sledge and drives the team rapidly over the corn thrown in bundles on the ground, which has been hardened and prepared for the purpose. This process breaks the straw into very small lengths, making it very palatable food for the cattle. The corn is winnowed by being thrown up in the air with wooden shovels, the breeze carrying away the chaff. In some parts of Macedonia the process is even more simple. A team of horses is driven over the bundles of corn, treading out the grain. The women and children also sit on the ground and help in the operation by beating it with sticks.
The principal crops raised in Roumelia are wheat, barley, maize, rye, oats, sesame, and canary-seed. A considerable quantity of rice is grown in some parts. In the south, towards Adrianople, the vine reaches some degree of perfection, and excellent wine is made, which, when kept for some years, resembles sherry in taste and color. The mulberry grows abundantly, and before the silkworm disease appeared in those districts formed a very profitable branch of industry. The mulberry gardens sometimes comprise several acres of land; when they are near towns or large villages, the silkworm nurseries are placed in them. The rearing process begins in early spring, with the budding of the leaves, and lasts over two months. It is a very tedious and laborious work, requiring great neatness and attention, and is generally undertaken by the women. When the crop succeeds and is free from disease, it is an interesting process to watch. In Macedonia the same crops are grown, with the addition of a large supply of excellent tobacco. The best comes from Drama and Cavalla.
The cattle in Turkey, though small, are hardy and very serviceable. Little attention has hitherto been paid by the Government towards improving the breed. The sheep, too, are small, and their wool is of an inferior quality. Those in Asiatic Turkey are mostly of the Karamanian, or broad-tailed, breed. Their fat is much used by the natives for cookery, and their milk made into cheese. Sheep-farming is carried on to a great extent both in European and Asiatic Turkey. Buffaloes for draft purposes and ploughing, and camels as beasts of burden, are very numerous, especially in Asia Minor. Great numbers of goats are also kept; their milk is much used for making cheese. The Angora goats are (I need hardly say) much prized for their fleece. Their introduction into other parts of the country has been attempted several times, but has invariably failed. They do not thrive away from their native mountains.