Roumania Past and Present | Page 6

stranger, and still more striking are some of their
habitations. The men generally wear a long white coarse linen blouse
with trousers of the same material. The blouse is drawn in at the waist
by a coil of cords or by a belt, and frequently sandals are worn, in
which case the cords fastening them are wound some distance up the
leg. Hats of common felt, cheap cloth, or high cylindrical caps of
sheepskin, complete the external attire. In winter sheepskins take the
place of the coarse linen tunic. There are two types of face to be met
with amongst them, both of which are here depicted. The one has long
moustaches and shaven face; the other type, which is said to resemble
the Dacians of Trajan's Column, has the hair growing all over the face.
The latter appeared to the author to resemble the generality of Russian
peasants, and this view was confirmed by one or two lending observers
in the country.[10]

[Illustration: PEASANTS AT A WELL.]
The women, as in many other continental countries, are the chief
workers in the fields, and they are said to be much more industrious
than the men. They are not alone engaged in agricultural pursuits, but
perform the work of navvies, making roads, and along with the men
digging railway embankments. They usually wear a kerchief rather
gracefully folded over the head and under the chin; the upper part of the
body is clothed in a loose-fitting jacket or bodice, sometimes white, but
often of very bright showy material, and the lower limbs are covered
with a skirt which is usually of a darker colour than the jacket; but this
is also frequently made of a bright-coloured fabric. This is their
every-day dress, and thus habited the men work with square-bladed
spades resembling our own, whilst those of the women have handles as
long as a broomstick and bent spade-or heart-shaped blades. The gala
or holiday dresses of the peasantry are very handsome, each district
having its own peculiar costume, but of these we will say a few words
hereafter. Sometimes, as one walks or drives through the country, he
may see the peasants gossiping at the well, which is a hole dug in the
ground and fenced in with planks, the bucket being raised and lowered
by means of a very primitive contrivance. This consists of a horizontal
tree-trunk swinging upon another tall vertical one forked at the top; a
chain depends from one end of the horizontal beam or bar, to which the
bucket is attached, whilst the other end is counterpoised by means of
stones. Some of the wells are worked with a windlass and fly-wheel,
but the one just described frequently attracts the traveller's notice.
More primitive even than the wells are some of the peasants' houses in
the plains, if the hovels which serve as habitations can be so dignified.
A large hole, somewhat resembling in shape an old-fashioned saw-pit,
but of course of greater dimensions, is dug deep into the ground. This is
lined with clay, if necessary, and from the ground or immediately
above it a roof is formed of branches and twigs, in the centre of which a
hole is left for the issue of smoke. Sometimes a primitive doorway
forms the entrance, and the people descend either by steps or an
inclined plane, whilst at the opposite end a window is inserted.
Occasionally, but not always, a small drain is cut round these

semi-subterranean dwellings, which, as already stated, are chiefly to be
found on the plains, for the purpose of carrying off surface water. It is
hardly necessary to say that in these underground cells men, women,
and children live together higgledy-piggledy, and that the result of such
an existence is widespread disease. Marsh fever is one of the most
prevalent and malignant maladies of the plains; there is hardly a family
(and the families of the peasantry are very numerous) in which one or
more children have not been carried off by this fever. Still there are
those who maintain that the subterranean houses are not unhealthy, and
they are not necessarily an indication of poverty. Such hovels, it is said,
were first constructed in order that they might escape the observation of
those bands of marauders, first of one nation, then of another, who have
at various times overrun and pillaged the fair Danubian territory; that
they were originally surrounded by trees which have been cut down for
firewood; and that the spirit of conservatism, causes many peasants,
otherwise well-to-do, to prefer these underground dwellings to the
cottages of modern construction which constitute the villages of the
higher lands. This seems a plausible explanation of their presence; but
in a country which is largely cultivated, as we shall hear, by a peasant