A RUMANIAN INTERIOR.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXII, Issue 18996, 18 April 1925, Page 6 (Supplement)

A RUMANIAN INTERIOR.

On the threshold stood the householder and his pretty young wife,whose white teeth flashed from ft winsome oronzert face The happy husband had inherited the house from his father, who was born in it He and his bride were thus saved the trouble of constructing a home. Wc had to bend our heads, to save humping, while we stepped over the stone threshold and entered the main room, the floor of which was of beaten mud, a3 smooth and clean as scrubbed boards \lonii the wainscot ran a wide wooden shelf, gaudily painted. On this were pegs from which hung gaily-painted jugs and platters. Other wall decorations were pictures of saints painted on glass and strips o£ woollen carpets of many colours inwoven with gold thread. The candela, burning the holy oil, memorialised the permanence of home life; it is never extinguished. One side of the room was taken up. with a handsome bed, on which lay huge square pillows, very beautifully ornamented with a cros3-stitch embroidery; they were piled up as high as tlio ceiling. On the topmost layer were brightly embroidered counterpanes. On the other side of the room stood a wooden chest, of which the sides were decorated with a naively executed flower pattern. On the top of it were piled up carpets, ombroideries, and more pillows. A couple of stools and a small table were the only other pieces of furniture. From the rafters by cords, ornamented with ribbons, hung a rack with wooden soup-pla*.es and carved spoons, and, a funny oval box in which a baby slept.—E. 0. Hoppe, in Gipsy Camps and Royal Palaces.