THE SIMPLE LIFE IN THE CARPATHIANS.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 50, 22 November 1907, Page 3

THE SIMPLE LIFE IN THE CARPATHIANS.

We call it spending tho summer: in our Carpathian villa (says a writer in an English paper).. It sounds safer for the benefit of our homo people. '

"In spring, the Roumanian peasants wero plundering and murdering, and in summer you live among them' without' even a lock to your door! Absurd rashness!"'would be tho mildest verdict. The anxious would scarcely be reassured by the knowledge that .the mountaineers never joined in rebellion their more oppressed brothers of the plain.. Although the former have hardly an onviablo lot, and their content seems rather sad and apathetic, yet, at least, they are not in the grip of tho Jew, and can mako pretty considerable profit out of the .summer -visitor. So the' visitors, chiefly Germans, invado the Carpathians in July and August, as usual, and take up their abode in the cottages with cheerful security. The peasant, equally cheerfully, yields his white-washed mud house for a good price, and rotires for the time to a building by tho side, that looks from without remarkably like a cowshed, but within is divided into two quite nice rooms. Two people might lodge there with comfort. It is impossible to fathom the number that really do—something between six and sixteen, and nearer the latter. They are as difficult to count as cliickons, those fair-haired, dark-eyed, solemn children, as they run in and out with ducks, pigs, cows, puppy, and white cat. The shed does not boast a chimney, but through the open door conies the whfrr of a modern sowing-machine.

Our mud villa has outside a pretty wooden verandah, and inside clean white-washed walls, decorated with fir-branchos. Right at the top are pictures covered with antimacassars gaily embroidered in black and rod. Saints of the Greek Church are side by side with most of tho Royalties of Europe, while over my bed is tho nicture of a forester's wedding, with all the boasts of the forest dancing at it. The bed consists of a few planks nailed on to rough wooden legs, and a straw sack; tho latter is a luxury for the mat usually suffices for him. For the first few (ays our luggage was delayed, and for bedding we had,to be content, with a horsecloth and a pillow decorated with a grim rod parrot that drooped disconsolately among black

A wooden bench serves for a chair, and another for a washstand, which is simply furnished with a tin basin. Woe betide the lazy and unwary who, to avoid early rising, ill up thei basm over-night; next morning they will be greeted with a thick scum of list. 0 wardrobe, of course, not a vosX s m S-fer*" , * ;,rranged (, °

When wo dp our hair, wo as often as not comb tho ceiling, but this very lowness his its conveniences. Windows form as good'; incans of exit as doors. On wet clays'there is no need to go to the brook for wator; it is easier to hold tho. basin out of the window .uul catch the ram from the roof Often oven so much trouble is spared, as the ruin -it rams nearly every day, too-comes directly into tho room. The days pass only too quicklv. We | )e gin the morning by brushing on ' t om . ro and cleaning our boots. The pretty Roumanian girl, already a married lady "at sixtoon, has very elementary ideas 'on sue!, subjects. Then follows a "laze" on the sunny meadow, and wo look with loneinc eyos across the river at tho mountains that have no roads but only woods and boars \Vo wonder if we havo courage .to oxplore but decide it is better to reserve our strength for tho range that, though higher, is more accessible.

We cast hungry glances at the wooden shelter- open at tho sides that does duty for dining-room, and hope that to-day is ourlvdinnor day. Meals aro very movable feasts here, but how can it be otherwise when sometimes you must scour tho wholo country side to find enough ? All round thero is not a

cornfield to bo scon, only pasture, yet butter and milk aro dearer than in town. The poasant lives chiefly on mamaliga, porridge of Indian corn.

A charming old German dnmo performs prodigies on a toy stovo that would cook faster for a family of dolls than for thirty or forty ravening humans. She is the middleman between us and tho peasants. Wo sometimes call our villa "Tho Hotel," and her the proprietress. In the afternoons wo bathe, or if we pine for civilisation, visit Sinaia, the summer capital. Ou Sundays, the -most interesting entertainment is afforded by the peasants, as, clad in their pretty costumes, they dance their national dances to w'ild monotonous gipsy music. Hero we learn to do without many luxuries, or necessaries, call them as you will. We boast we load' tho simple life, yet yesterday wo ate caviare. Caviare and mud huts, strange contrast! Surely only possible in Roumania, the land of contrasts.