Page:Nicolae Iorga - My American lectures.djvu/118

 enough the interesting process of building up an urban centre.

But first to deal with its name. Vălenii de Munte signifies the inhabitants of the valley of the mountainous part of the region; more picturesquely but not more accurately: — the valley dwellers of the mountain. A torrential river, the Teleajen, a name which is reminiscent of the Italian Telesino, has assisted in the assemblage of large groups of peasant, labourers and carters for the transportation of goods. It is one of the most charming spots in Upper Wallachia; and the neighbourhood of Transylvania (the name of which alone evokes the vision of cool tinkling streams and shady woods and thickets), through the passes of Cheia and Bratocea, contributed in the past to the larger development, to the slow enrichment of an active and sympathetic population. All are Văleni in the special sense of vale. The village under the lofty eminences which are big enough to be called mountains is Vălenii de Munte.

All such villages retain the names of their founders in the remote and obscure past, which are those of their progeny. The newcomers are adopted by the natives based on the true legitimate possession of the soil. Consequenly Vălenii de Munte is the concentration of a certain number of these settlements: a descendant of Berivoiu, for instance, is a Berivoescu, in the village of Berivoești. Each with its own tiny old church, beside others, each with its particular church, each claiming a separate progenitor, the name of the ancestor taking the suffix ești: only to such as came later, uniting with the aboriginals, were