Untrodden paths in Roumania

Front matter

min ^mia man

JEWISH ASSOCIATION FOR THE DIFFUSION OF RELIGIOUS KNOWLEDGE.

SABBATH SCHOOL.

Introduction

The kingdom of Roumania, formed by the union of the principalities of Wallachia and Moldavia, is one of the most interesting — -as it is certainly one of the least known — countries of Europe.

Situated between the Carpathians and the Danube, and unprotected by any high mountain range on its eastern boundaries, the climate of Roumania is ex¬ posed to the greatest extremes of temperature- — in winter suffering from intense cold, while the summer heats in the plains are only equalled in Greece or (as one author declares) in the West Indies ; but all agree as to the wonderful — almost inexhaustible — fertility of the soil, watered by countless streams that flow from the Carpathians. Much rain also falls during the months of June and July ; it is always accompanied by storms of wind and thunder, which return every day towards the evening. Here there are no tracts of barren land, and the use of even the

Yin

INTRODUCTION.

simplest artificial means for increasing the productive¬ ness of the earth is quite unknown.

‘ The chain of the Carpathians abounds in mineral wealth ; the rivers Dimbovitza and Argescli carry along a considerable quantity of grains of gold, which was formerly collected by the Tsiganes, who paid in this way the heavy tax imposed upon them. Silver, copper, iron, quicksilver, saltpetre, lead, tin, coal, and other valuable substances may also be traced in many places’ (Ubicini). Roumania is rich in mineral springs, Wallachia alone counting forty sources of various qualities and degrees of strength.

With the great and daily increasing extension of railway lines, some of this vast natural wealth is now being utilized, such as the great salt mines of Okna, the coal from another district, and the timber of the virgin forests that cover the mountains. The Mol¬ davian timber is especially valuable, and much of it is floated down the tributary streams as rafts, eventu¬ ally reaching the Danube, to be exported from Galatz. The resources of Roumania are so great, that under a wise, peaceful, and encouraging government (were only peace from without equally assured), this small state may become in a short firne one of the most flourishing in Europe — a prosperity that has been

INTRODUCTION.

IX dearly bought by centuries of suffering. We find a quotation from £ La Vallee ’ that says — ‘ There are few countries, few populations, that have been in former times more ill-treated, more trodden down, more tor¬ tured ; their history is but a long recital of martyrdom ; and when we read this monstrous record of devastation and massacres, we wonder that any inhabitants, any trace of cultivated land, should still remain.’

The highest peak of the Southern Carpathians is l’Omul — called also Kara Imam (now corrupted into Caraiman) ; it rises about 8000 feet, and is the crowning summit of the Butchesch, or Bucegi, be¬ tween Sinaia and the Transylvanian frontier. In Moldavia, Tchacldou, in the district of Neamtz, rises to nearly 9000 feet, the loftiest summit of the Eastern Carpathians. Tradition affirms, that on this crest the heathen Dacians had raised a statue to commemorate the tutelary genius of their race. ‘ The name of this genius,’ says Ubicini, ‘ has been preserved ; it is that of an old woman called .Baba Dokia (Old Dokia). The statue is colossal, partly of natural formation, partly wrought ; she is surrounded by twenty sheep. This statue may be seen on the highest peak of Mount Tchacleou in Moldavia, and the peasantry relate many traditions connected with this Dacian divinity.’

X

INTRODUCTION.

The Roumanian language offers a subject of deep interest, being mainly derived from the Roman colonists settled in Dacia by Trajan, in the beginning of the second century. These colonists were chiefly drawn from the northern provinces of Italy, and they introduced amongst the Dacians c a Latin which was no longer that of Rome, but a primitive and already corrupt dialect ; there are words belonging to the ancient Doric, to that popular idiom that had ceased to be used at Rome in the time of Virgil and Cicero ’ (Ubicini).

September , 1888.

I. Galatz.

Mixed Population — The Upper Town — Strada Ceres — View across the Danube — The Reni Chaussee — Burrs — The Public Garden — The Boulevard Elizabeth — A Roumanian House — Good Stoves — Stencilling — Droskys and Brishkas — Buffaloes and their bathing tendencies — Beautiful Moldavian Oxen — A Charioteer — The Lower Town — Schleps — Sylvan charm within the city — Bordeis — Caput Bovis — Antiquarian Treasures — View up and down the Danube — ‘No Man’s Land’ — The grandeur of a vast Plain — The Shadowy Carpathians ... page 3

II. Winter on the Danube.

Extreme Cold — Icy Marvels — The Singers of ‘ Kolindes ’—Blessing the Danube — A Motley Crowd — Sheepskin Coats — The Proces¬ sion of the Churches — The Service and the Struggles for the Cross — for the Evergreen — -and for the Water — Many Churches but poor Congregations — Supposed Burial-place of Mazeppa — Funereal Customs — Elaborate Preparations — Unseemly Hilarity —The Procession is formed — Starts — Stops again — Friends ask forgiveness of the Deceased — Survival of many Heathen Customs — Illumination of the Cemeteries . 20

Xll

CONTEXTS.

III. Ballads and Popular Superstitions in Boumania.

Alecsandri’s Poems and Legends— Veneration for the Memory of Trajan — Haiduks — Mihou — Chalga— The Little Lamb of Birsa ‘—The Shadow — Dolka — The Familiar Serpent — -An uncanny Egg — Superstitions — Stafii — Vampires — Balauri — Zinei — Hanoi the Mason and his Young Wife — The sinister Measuring

IY. The Monastery of Adam and Jassy.

At Berlad — Jewish Coachmen — Arrival at the Monastery — Monastic Cottages — Our good 1 Maica ’ — The Mother Superior' — Costume of the Nuns — Visits — Pretty Dwellings and Industry of the Maicas — Impoverishment of the Religious Communities — The Procession — Great Antiquity of Jassy — Beautiful Church of the Tre'i Jerahi — Delicate Lace in Stone— Careful Restoration of the Monument . . ... ... ... 53

Y. Agapia and the Monastery of Niamtz.

From Jassy to Pashkani — An Oasis — Primitive Shoes — Town of Niamtz — Beautiful approach to Agapia — The Monastery — Sora Katerina — The Sisters Cosinescu — A visit to the Ma'ica Staritza —The Great Hall and the Dispensary — The Asylum — The Great Church — Church Jewelry and Vestments — The Industry of the Nuns — Buffalo Babies — Monastery of Niamtz — Curious Archway — Former Prosperity of the Monastery — The two Churches — The Mortuary — The Shepherd’s Fountain- — Mar maliga — Katerina and Katinka — Beautiful Forest Scenery — A stiff pull — The Bar and Mallets — Picturesque Costume ... 64

YI. IIisiika and Baia.

Indirect Directions — A Short Cut — Conflicting Testimony — Stream¬ lets and Fords — A Floundering Progress — A Haven of Rest —

A Wild-Man-of-the-Woods — The Nephew of the Archimandrite — Delightful Guest-rooms — Refined Service of ‘Ancient Dacians’- — The Monastery Gardens — Basket Barns — The Church — Wall Paintings and Quaint Conceits — Great Hos¬ pitality — A Venerable Archimandrite — ‘ Non, je suis vieux I ’

— Uncertain Progress — Ba'ia and its ruined Church- — Folticeni 87

Contents

Xlll

YXI. Yeratic—- Balteteshti — Horaitza.

Dress of the Moldavian Peasantry — Ruins of the Castle of Stephen the Great — The Historical Gateway — Beautiful Ravine — Wild Gooseberries — Yeratic — Disorderly Arrangements and Unrest — The Church — Lovely Situation of the Monastery — A Cottage near the Pines — A Bespangled Porter — Mineral Baths of Balte¬ teshti — Pleasant Boarding-house — Mild Dissipation — A Fiasco —To Horaitza in a Basket-cart — Walking preferred to Wading — A Wooded Gorge — Sylvan Beauty — Arcadia Profaned — The Little Monastery — A Stencilled Church — A Drive accomplished on foot- — To Piatra . ... ... ... ... 102

Chapter I. Galatz

Mixed population — The Upper Town — Strada Ceres — Yiew across the Danube— -The Reni Chaussee — Burrs — The Public Garden -—The Boulevard Elizabeth — A Roumanian House — Good Stoves— Stencilling — Broskys and Brishkas- — -Buffaloes and their bathing tendencies — -Beautiful Moldavian Oxen — -A Charioteer — The Lower Town— Schleps — Sylvan charm within the city — Borders — Caput Bovis — Antiquarian Treasures — View up and down the Danube—' No Man’s Land 1 — The grandeur of a vast Plain — The Shadowy Carpathians.

Roumanians, Greeks, Bulgarians, Russians, Arme¬ nians, Jews, and a sprinkling of every European nationality, make up the population of Galatz, the important commercial town, near the junction of the river Sefeth with the Danube.

B 2

UNTRODDEN PATHS IN ROUMANIA.

The Jews are very numerous here, and they hold in their hands the most lucrative commerce — the corn trade — almost exclusively. The gipsies (Tsiganes) are in great numbers throughout the country ; in former days they were slaves in the fullest sense of the word, but for many years have been entirely liberated ; as also the ‘ serfs,’ who were once in a condition little superior to that of the Tsiganes.

Galatz is divided into the Upper Town, spreading along a high earth-cliff, and the Lower Town, at the foot of the cliff, and reaching to the Danube.

THE UPPER TOWN.

The house in which I spent some happy weeks stands on the extreme edge of the earth-cliff, that runs along for a great distance, separating this quarter, in which all the best houses are situated, from the flat level of the Lower Town, composed of shops, magazines, and wharves. The windows of my room, looking over a fringe of apricot trees and acacias, commands a very extensive prospect ; not beautiful or richly varied, but often attractive, with that indescribable fascination of eastern colouring,

THE UPPER TOWN OF GALATZ.

that does much to compensate for many a deficiency of form and outline.

Not far from the foot of the cliff, a broad road, the Strada Cer4s, is bordered by immense magazines for storing corn, raised a few feet from the ground ; acres of the loner horizontal lines of the brown-toned

O

roofs stretch far away, with the occasional break of a pigeon-house or a flour-mill, till it reaches the banks of the Danube.

Beyond the stream — a meagre hamlet or two, and a few trees marking the line of the Bulgarian shore — the eye is carried over a richly-tinted plain, dotted by a few small lakes, until it meets a solid group of bronze and violet hills, backed by the majestic out¬ line of a last spur of the Balkan range.

The view over the western portion of the town shows, first, a broad road winding upwards from the plain ; along this, a slow and toiling procession of bullock-carts, laden with the gigantic reeds which serve as fuel in all the humbler dwellings ; these reeds — taken principally from a lake lying to the east of Galatz, not far from the Bdni Chaussee, the lake Bratisch — are used also for wattling fences, for supporting the vines, and for many other pur¬ poses. At the foot of the road, the railway station

UNTRODDEN PATHS IX ROUMANIA.

stands near the entrance to this R<hii Chaussee, a causeway five miles long, leading to the town of Reni on the Pruth. Workmen are just now busily engaged in raisins; this barrier a few feet higher, as a recent inundation had Hooded the whole of the Lower Town, and caused very great destruction of property. We cannot see the course of the Pruth, the often-disputed boundary stream, but we know that it is flowing beyond the white steeple of the church at Reni ; the hills of Bessarabia bound the prospect on the horizon.

The people of Roumania have a national aversion to the river Pruth ; it is the subject of verses far from complimentary, and they declare that all mis¬ fortunes — from cholera, war, and famine, down to the burrs brought by the Russians in their horses’ tails — come to them from the further side of that ill-famed river. The burr in this part of the world is a most wonderful production — a complicated, grapeshot sort of burr, that has a way of creeping up its victim, like a living creature, and that sews and binds and weaves the garments together into per¬ fectly hopeless masses of entanglement ; the horses’ tails become stiffened with them into heavy, immovable clubs, and a dog’s life is a burden to

GENERAL VIEW OF GALATZ.

him if he happen to be provided with a shaggy, woolly coat.

The best general view of Galatz is from the Strada Romana, a wide road on the outskirts of the Upper Town ; it embraces the whole extent, with thirty c'hurches- — the cupolas, some green, some touched with blue, one a rich creamy yellow, the Bulgarian and many others glittering all over with a coating of metal plates, like the scales of a fish.

On the north-eastern side of the town, before reaching the picturesque village of Vandungulo, that still contains some £ borders,’ or sunken dwellings, there is a large and well-planted garden, overlooking the lake Bratisch ; and on the opposite side of the road a fine boulevard, the first tree of which was planted by the Princess of Roumania, and called, after her, the £ Boulevard Elizabeth.’ Here also are situated the two hospitals occupied by the wounded soldiers during the last war, and the extensive build¬ ings of the fine convent of the £ Dames de Sion,’ in the Strada Domneasca. The houses of the Dames de Sion were founded by the celebrated Pere Ratisbonne, and here, as at Constantinople, Jerusalem, and other eastern cities, have rendered most valuable assistance to the cause of female education among the better

UNTRODDEN PATHS IN ROUMANIA.

classes, besides maintaining admirably conducted gratuitous schools for the humbler part of the population.

Roumanian houses are, with few exceptions, built upon the same plan ; they seldom rise to the dignity of a second floor. From a portico and colonnade, approached by a double flight of steps, you pass into a room serving as entrance-hall, and through that to the great ‘ sala/ the principal apartment, running the whole depth of the building. Other rooms open from this sala on either side, the whole dwelling being on one flat, raised a few feet above the level of the ground. The kitchens and servants’ offices are built out at a right angle along one side of the court, which is always very spacious, and contains the well, usually marked by an enormous wheel, the cellar, where the winter’s store of vegetables is preserved, buried deep in sand, and the icehouse, an equally indispensable provision against the overpowering heats of summer. There is always a sort of garden beyond, sometimes planted and cared for, more often a forlorn wilderness of acacias and scanty lilacs, a paradise of cocks and hens, with perhaps a goat or two ; in meaner house-yards ferocious, bristly-backed pigs are lords of the soil.

ROUMANIAN HOUSES.

It may be remarked here, that the pigs in these parts are extraordinarily savage, and even dangerous. A gentleman once passing late across an open piece of country beyond Galatz, was pursued by a herd of these creatures, who would have torn him to pieces if he had not, by almost incredible exertion, managed to outstrip them, and to save his life, though his health was seriously injured by the fatal race.

The Roumanian houses are particularly comfortable in winter. The rooms are large and lofty, but they have double windows-— a very great defence against the extreme cold,- — and every room is furnished with a brick stove ; the large sala is sometimes provided with two. These stoves, which are peculiar to Roumania, though with some similarity to the German stoves, rise nearly to the ceiling ; they diffuse warmth not only from the body of the structure, but from the tall hollow columns through which the heated air is carried. When judiciously managed, kept open, and not overheated, the temperature, which is equal in every part of the room, is the softest and most agree¬ able that can be imagined. Although there may be several windows, and four or five doors, you are never afflicted by those distressing draughts that our English grates seem especially to draw towards them :

UNTRODDEN PATHS IN ROU MANIA.

the heated bricks continue to radiate a gentle heat for several hours after the fire has burnt itself out.

The furniture and arrangement of a sitting-room is very much the same as may be seen in Paris — warm carpets in winter, and polished, parqueted floors in summer, with every luxury to be met with in Parisian or Viennese homes. The one peculiarity is, that the walls are often stencilled instead of being hung with paper ; but this work is so exquisitely done, by Maltese or Italian workmen, that it is difficult to realize it, even on a close inspection.

French is the language of polite society, as the manners and customs, the military organization, the coinage, and many other matters are modelled ac¬ cording to French system and rules. The toilettes also are Parisian, in good taste, and worn with ease and grace ; the carriages are mostly from Vienna, and they have some of the finest carriage-horses that can be seen, but the effect is generally spoiled by the rough, uncombed look of the servants.

Almost all the coachmen in Galatz are Russian, especially the drivers of the little ‘ droskys ’ ; they mostly belong to the sect of the Lipovans. They wear in winter fur caps, widening towards the top, which is flat ; sheepskin coats — the wool inwards —

ROUMANIAN CARRIAGES.

bound round the waist by a red sash, and heavy leather boots. They are admirable drivers, steering their skinny, wiry little horses and the rickety droskys over pitfalls and through entanglements that would quite upset the nerves of a dignified English coachman.

There is yet another style of carriage still to be met with in parts not as yet overrun with railway lines. The primitive conveyance, until lately the only travelling resource in the more distant part of the country, is called a brishka, a springless carriage. Its approach is announced from a distance by a great jangling of bells ; then, in a thick cloud of dust, a low, wide-open wicker basket (which one author has likened to a crate intended for earthenware) rattles by, the traveller and his goods heaped together in picturesque confusion. The vehicle is drawn by four small horses harnessed abreast; they are dirty, un¬ combed, uncared-for, and half-starved, but the poor little beasts go at a great pace, and show’ untiring endurance and goodwill.

For mountain-roads, where more fragile vehicles could not venture, the genuine rough timber-cart, without fastenings, that sways, and twists, and yields to the verge of dislocation, yet holds together, where

UNTRODDEN PATHS IN ROUMANIA.

any other conveyance would infallibly upset, must be accepted with gratitude — it is drawn sometimes by bullocks, at others by buffaloes ; the latter animals have an unconquerable tendency to bathe under adverse circumstances. An anecdote, related in the beginning of the century, refers, however, not to a cart, but to a rude sort of talika drawn by these hideous, ungainly beasts.

£ Half-way on our road we met with an adven¬ ture, comical enough, yet rather tragical in its consequences. The harem of Elik Oglou travelled in great coffers, painted red and gilt, set upon a foundation on four wheels ; the Turks call this a carriage. These boxes were hermetically closed, and the unfortunate women must have suffered horribly from the overpowering heat. They were drawn by buffaloes, who suffered equally from the burning atmosphere. When these animals come near water, their custom is to plunge into it and lie down ; nothing can make them leave it. We came to a shallow lake, and the harem was immediately drawn into it ; we heard terrible screams from the un¬ happy prisoners, who dreaded every moment to be engulfed, and yet, — such is the force of religious prejudice and of custom, — not one among them would

BESSARABIAN HORSES.

seek safety by an escape from her prison, which would involve showing her features to strangers. They remained in this fearful situation the whole night, and were only at length drawn out when hunger forced the buffaloes to quit the lake ; many of the women fell ill afterwards from fear, heat, and privation’ (De Langeron).

The southern plains of Bessarabia, on the further side of the Pruth, were celebrated for a breed of swift-footed, vigorous horses ; an animal from the ‘ Boudjak ’ is frequently the hero of a wild ballad or legend, as much the pride and cherished treasure of his owner, as the famous coursers of the Arabian desert.

Oxen are much used here for drawing heavy carts and burdens — a patient, mild-eyed, short-legged race, gray, with gigantic, wide-spreading horns. You may meet them towards sunset wandering homewards quite alone, and waiting quietly to be let in to their respective yards, or gently knocking with their horns for admittance. Sometimes they are footing heavily along in pairs (the day’s work over), dragging the empty chariot, which is driven, standing, by a peasant in the costume that has varied little for nearly two thousand years ; it may be seen as the

UNTRODDEN PATHS IN ROUMANIA.

dress of the Dacian captives on Trajan’s column at Rome.

This antique dress and the attitude irresistibly recall the origin of the word ‘ Boyard,’ a ‘ title borne by the Roman colonists in the eighth and ninth centuries, when they went to battle in chariots armed with scythes, and drawn by oxen ; every master of such armed chariots was called Boi'er (Bovis herus) ’ (Ubicini).

The Boyard s were created a distinct class of nobility in the fifteenth century, when Radu Yo'ivode of Wallachia endeavoured to model them in imitation of the officers of the court of Byzantium. The title of Boyard, if now used, merely siguifies a person of fortune and position.

THE LOWER TOWN.

The lower town of Galatz — the busy, commercial portion of the city — presents as yet no softening grace to diminish the squalid appearance of the streets and lanes, although the water-supply, and the lighting by petroleum, have of late years greatly improved the general condition of the inhabitants. One progress along the quays is enough to satisfy the

THE LOWER TOWN OF GALATZ.

curiosity of a stranger, and it is a real relief to reach the great wood-yards at the further limit of the town, where the vast ‘schleps’ are lying, moored to the river bank.1 These schleps are immense lighters used for shipping corn ; they have three and some¬ times, four powerful cranes rising from the flat decks, which are not furnished with any sort of bulwark, so that when the people living on board happen to have children with them, the poor little things pass their infancy at the end of a rope or chain for safety.

Turning upwards from the Danube, and reaching the summit of the cliff, from which you gain a good view of the Upper Town — still rising gently towards the deep cutting that serves as a barrier— you are struck with its leafy appearance ; the streets are very wide, and the cottages, neatly white-washed and thatched, or covered with a plank roofing, stand with their gable ends outwards, within the little garden or orchard, which gives a very pastoral character to the more distant quarters of the city, but on reaching the barriers you are amazed to find that almost all the sylvan charms of the neighbourhood are contained within the limits of the city ; beyond, extends the

1 One great and recent improvement in Galatz has been the building of a fine stone quay, to which vessels cau now he moored.

UNTRODDEN PATHS IN ROUMANIA.

treeless, almost boundless plain, with here and there a ‘ horde!,’ scarcely distinguishable but for their great bundles of dry reeds. These bordeis are small under¬ ground dwellings ; coming upon them from behind, you may simply observe a slight rise in the ground, and walk over the turf-covered roof without being aware of it, unless warned by smoke from the short, shapeless clay chimney. A door leading into a passage sloping downwards, three or four irregular holes for windows, and a few feet of mud wall, are all that constitute the outward appearance of this primitive hut ; and yet in former times of trouble in this much troubled land, which for five centuries served as a battle-field for all the restless neighbouring races, the lords of the soil themselves had often no better dwelling, forced to burrow in the earth like hunted animals, through dread of the constant invasions of the Tartar hordes.

CAPUT BOVIS.

There is a favourite drive from Galatz, on the road towards Ibraila ; the spot — known to the people here as ‘ Capi di Bovb,’ and Barboshi ; to antiquarians as Caput Bovis — is said to be the remains of an ancient Roman fortress.

CAPUT BOVIS.

The way leads past a curious-looking group of fifteen or twenty wells, standing together in a little dell, worked by the primitive method of beam and counterpoise. Half a mile beyond these wells you reach a great grassy mound crowning a huge bluff of earth* overhanging the valley of the Sereth ; this is the Caput Bovis, and the walls that formerly defended the stronghold may be still quite distinctly traced.

Considering the national reverence for the memory of Trajan, it is not astonishing that this interesting ruin should be considered as of his foundation ; but a most excellent authority on these matters judges, from coins and other relics found in abundance in the mound, that the place was alternately held by a Milesian colony, by the Romans, the Goths and other barbarians, the Genoese, and by the Turks, who took the stones of it to build the fortress of Ibraila. These ancient stones now serve the ignoble purpose of paving the streets of that town.

Amongst the antiquarian treasures found at Caput Bovis may be mentioned (besides a vast number of coins), an inscribed marble slab, a statue of Ceres, a bronze Mercury, a marble hand of exquisite beauty, many funereal ornaments, colonettes, capitals of pillars, and bas-reliefs.

UNTRODDEN PATHS IN ROUMANIA.

From the summit of the mound, a splendid panoramic view is obtained of the surrounding country ; you look down upon the Sereth, in many a silvery winding, until it falls into the Danube, forming the boundary between Moldavia and Wallacliia ; the course of the mighty river can be traced (looking upwards) until it melts into the softest, tenderest tones of distant land and sky ; or, following the downward current, you watch it flowing towards the delta of the Danube, that paradise of sportsmen and botanists, a wild ‘ No-man ’s-land,’ where pelicans, and black and white swans, cormorants, wild geese, ducks, and myriads of rare kind of aquatic fowl, live amongst wonderful lilies, gigantic flowering reeds, delicate plants and glowing blossoms, rarely met with in any other spot.

Many earth mounds, scattered over the immense plain which separates the shores of the Danube from the distant Carpathians, have excited the attention of the curious and the cupidity of treasure-seekers, but they have never yet been found to contain any¬ thing worth the trouble of the search ; several have been opened without result, and it is generally concluded that, placed as they are in these steppes, where the smallest moving object can be detected

CAPUT BOYIS.

at a great distance, these tumuli were merely used as outposts and places of observation.

These vast Roumanian plains, so infinitely dreary when seen from the lower level of a Danube steamer, have, from the higher ground above Barboshi, an undeniable charm of colouring and suggestion ; far beyond the long horizontal lines of the treeless steppe ; beyond the melting purple and gold and tender blue of the extreme distance, the shadowy majesty of the Carpathians raises visions of the beautiful mountain scenery, the forest-clothed gorges, the rocks and dark ravines, the sunny pasture-lands and flowering meadows, amongst which the traveller will find the most interesting features of Roumanian scenery.

Chapter II. Winter On The Danube

Extreme Cold — Icy Marvels — The Singers of ‘ Kolindes ’■ — Bless¬ ing the Danube — A Motley Crowd- — Sheepskin Coats — The Procession of the Churches — The Service and the Struggles for the Cross — for the Evergreen — and for the Water — Many Churches, but poor Congregations — Supposed Burial-place of Mazeppa — Eunereal Customs— Elaborate Preparations — Un¬ seemly Hilarity — The Procession is formed — Starts — Stops • again — Friends ask forgiveness of the Deceased — Survival of many Heathen Customs — Illumination of the Cemeteries.

The winter season in this part of Europe is usually extremely severe, for the winds that rush unchecked by any mountain range over the vast snowy steppes of Russia bring to the great plains of the Lower Danube an intensity of cold rarely, if ever, ex¬ perienced in our more northerly England. The Black Sea at this time is frozen for several miles’ distance from the shore, and the river flows beneath a thick crust of solid ice ; carriages are abandoned for sleighs ;