Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 4.djvu/10

 NOTES AND QUERIES. [12 s. iv. JAN., iois.

of Pindus, which are very numerous in those parts of the chain between Albania and Thessaly, have all a distinct character, which probably has continued for centuries. The Vlachi are a hardy and active people, more regular, less ferocious in their habits than the Albanians, to whom they are not allied in their origin, and but little as it appears in later connexion.

" It may further be remarked that there is an air of active industry, neatness, and good order in these towns, which, while it distinguishes them from all others in the south of Turkey, affords a singular contrast to the wild and rugged scenery by which they are surrounded." ' Travels in the Ionian Isles, Albania, Thessaly, Macedonia,' &c., London, 1815, p. 226.

In 1838 appeared ' The Spirit of the East,' by D. Urquhart. A special interest attaches to this, in his time, most influential poli- tical author. A Roumanian statesman and writer of note, I. Ghica, for many years representative to the Court of St. James, knew him well. In a letter he portrays him as "a young man of short stature, delicate complexion, with pale face, long golden hair over his back, blue piercing eyes " ;* and he further speaks of Ur- quhart's noble character, of his ardour in espousing the great causes for freedom. Indeed, his ' Spirit of the East ' breathes in a large degree the tumultuous, fiery atmosphere of the Greek revolution. He deals in it with chiefs like Catchiandoni and Tchionga, both of the Vlach race, or, as Urquhart puts it, of " these hardy mountaineers, nowhere fixed, but always to be found where the wolves have dens and eagles nests " (vol. i. p. 122).

In some of these travellers' accounts one has to look carefully for the particular passages relating to our subject, as they are intermixed with various other matters.

Robert Curzon, for instance, looking down from the Meteora monasteries at the beauti- ful prospect stretched before him, and without any further reference, writes :

" The whole of this region is inhabited by a race of different origin from the real Albanians : they speak the Wallachian language, and are said to be extremely barbarous and ignorant." ' Visits to Monasteries in the Levant,' London, 1819, p. 294.

Of course, the author reports only the information conveyed to him, but still it is curious that he did not care to comment on it. His follower, George Ferguson Bowen, whose purpose was in a way to complete the ' Visits to Monasteries in the Levant,' f gives, on the contrary, a sym-

Bucuresti, p. 144.
 * ' Scrisori ale lui I. Ghica catre V. Alexandra,'

t ' Mount Athos, Thessaly, and Epiros," London, 1852. See Introductory Kemarks, chap. i. p. 3.

pathetic account, and finds it very inter- esting

" to meet a tribe of these nomad Wallachians on their march, winding in single file with their long trains of packhorses up one of the mountain passes of Epirus, or along the plains of Thessaly." ' Mount Athos, Thessaly, and Epirus,' p. 152'.

To the same period belongs Edward Lear's ' Journals of a Landscape Painter in Albania.' It has to be mentioned especially for the illustrations, which he himself con- tributed.

Henry Tozer relates having seen the Vlachs in their summer encampments at the heights between Ipek and Prizrend ; and he adds : " These families are com- pletely nomad, having no settled habita- tion."*

Such roaming communities are to be found in many other places, particularly towards the Adriatic coast, where hardly any traveller has been to seek them.

A limited region of Albania was visited in 1860 by Mary Adelaide Walker, who, passing near Coritza, heard the tinkling bells of the flocks, and caught a sight of their shepherds in " sheepskin cloaks and caps " (' Through Macedonia to the Albanian Lakes,' London, 1864, p. 249). On her way to Coritza she was present also at a Vlach wedding ceremony, of which she renders a clear account. In describing further the Bulgarian dresses she refers to a specimen worn by " the women from Vlacho-Clissura " (ibid., pp. 141-6). It is surely a mistake ; in Vlacho-Clissura, as shown by the name itself, no Bulgarian women are to be found. With regard to the town of Monastir, she writes :

" Among the Christian population of Monastir the Vlachs rank the highest for commercial nterprise, industry, and intelligence." Ib., p. 137.

G. M. Mackenzie and A. P. Irby in a book published a few years laterf fully agree on this point with the preceding author.

On the whole, English travellers dwell mostly on the nomadic life of the Vlachs and its external aspect, either because it appealed to them as more unusual or because they came into contact with it on their journeying to Greece. There is, how- ever, another section of these people repre- sented by numerous well-to-do boroughs, scattered on the mountains. Above all in

London, 1869, vol. i. p. 352. See also his foot- notes concerning the Vlachs in Finlay's ' History of Greece,' ed. 1877, Oxford, based as they are on a sound, personal knowledge.
 * ' Researches in the Highlands of Turkey,'

f ' Travels in the Slavonic Provinces of Turkey-in-Europe,' London, 1867, p. 74.