RUSTIC MODESTY PRESERVED

Lake Wakatip Mail, Issue 4330, 7 September 1937, Page 2

RUSTIC MODESTY PRESERVED

WOMAN OF YUGOSLAVIA You will not find Podvinje on any but the most detailed map of Yugoslavia; it is a place of no importance (says an exchange), not different from a dozen other villages in that remote part of Southern Slavonia whence, across the river, the first slender minaret of Bosnia can be seen pointing heavenwardsElectric light has not yet come to Podvinje; progress has no champion there among the peasants, who are content to trudge through life in the rut trodden by generations of ancestors. Tradition rules in dress, in custom, and in thought, and is stoutly defended by the grandmothers and grandfathers of the village. The young women still go decently clad in comely garments of hand-woven lace and linen and gaily-embroidered shawls; even in the fields at haymaking and harvesting the village maidens clothe themselves modestly in voluminous skirts, lace-edged petticoats, and frilly aprons. Rustic modesty must be preserved. But one breach has been made in the strong wall of conservatism that preserved Podvinje from worldly contacts. Sport, in its swift conquest of Europe, seduced Podvinje youth, too, and a football team composed of young men of the village soon won respect in the small towns of the region. Presently the village girls, accustomed to hold their own in the work of the fields, became ambitious to prove themselves in competition with the young men in sport as weli. THE HESENA TEAM. Jt takes a fine, courageous spirit to rebel against custom anywhere; to offer in Podvinje what must upset all j traditional notions of what is seemly for young girls might daunt any but the fiercest revolutionary. When “ the blond Ankitza,” with a hastily assembled team, challenged the young ] men to a hasena match in the village . square (hasena is a ball game much ; favoured in Eastern Europe), oppo- ' sition was immediate, indignant, 1 weighted with authority, j Mothers and grandmothers united in ' disapproval, insisting implacably that I work in the fields offered all the opI portunity that was needed for exer- ! cise, and they were not going to have i their daughters and granddaughters i tumbling about “ half-naked ” on the village green with a mob of young men. , Ankitza was undismayed; she fired ' her followers with a burning zeal for 1 their cause, and led the attack against j established authority relentlessly. 1 There was little peace in Podvinje | homes in those days. The worldly I battle raged back and forth, until at j last the elders, fearing total loss of [ authority, offered a compromise; the | girls might pursue their sport so long as it did not interfere with work on the farms. That was readily agreed; swinging a hay fork might in future be regarded as part of training for hurling a ball. But the other sop to propriety demanded of them was less easily swallowed. The village girls had seen sports girls in the towns, and cherished a picture of themselves parading, to the astonishment of the village, in brief, revealing shorts. But in this matter the grandmothers were adamant; they turned dress designers, and devised a quaint garment of the kind favoured by the intrepid Mrs Bloomer, or for which plus fours may have served as a model, which they prescribed as correct nether wear for Podvinje girls on the hasena field. Thus was rustic modesty preserved and sinful pride in comely legs defeated, by concealing pantaloons that reached to well below the knee. Ankitza and her team had, perforce, to declare themselves content. After all, the major concession was won; the j hasena team might go into training. | Most evenings, after working all day lin the fields, the girls met for pracI tice on the village green, where they were joined by the young men, and many a hero of the football field has had to bite the dust in those encounters. AMBITIOUS GRANDMOTHERS. The “ Amazons of Podvinje ” have been in training for over a year now, and already their fame has spread in Slavonia. The girls of neighbouring villages are beginning to follow the example of Ankitza and her lusty maidens and teams from the town come in no spirit of condescension, but gladly, to match their strength and skill in contests with the village girls. And what of the grandmothers?. They have become unashamed and insatible hasena “ fans,” and proud of their granddaughters’ prowess, follow the game with eager excitement. It is said that they have ambitions to form a team of their own, to show the young things what energy still resides in aged bodies; only the grandfathers have set their faces implacably against such senile foolishness.