Page:The nomads of the Balkans, an account of life and customs among the Vlachs of Northern Pindus (1914).djvu/20

 CHAPTER II

FROM TIRNAVOS TO SAMARINA

Kānd are z yină prumuveara S easa Arumânl'i pri la mundzā,
 * Lilitshe n'i di pri Maiu!

When it is the season for the spring to come, for the Vlachs to go out on the mountains, my flower of May !

ARGE numbers of the Vlachs from Northern Pindus who pass the winter in the plains of Thessaly or Southern Macedonia arrange their departure for the hills each spring so as to pass through Ghrevena on their way home at the time of the great fair of St Akhillios which begins each year on the Monday that falls between the 16th and the 23rd of May O.S. (May 29th to June 5th N.S.), and lasts four or five days. Several days before the date of the fair we came to Timavos so as to travel up with the Vlach families to Samarina, as we had arranged. We found our muleteer and his family eagerly awaiting our arrival, but some days elapsed before the journey to Samarina began. First there was some uncertainty about the date of the fair, which was proclaimed by the Turkish authorities at Ghrevena, and secondly there was a change of plan as to the route to be followed. The direct route from Tirnavos or any place in Northeastern Thessaly to Ghrevena and the Vlach villages in Northern Pindus leads through the pass of Tirnavos to Kephalovriso leaving Elassona on the right, and then turns westwards to Dhiskata and so by Dhiminitsa and Phili to Ghrevena. This road is that normally used by the Vlachs who are joined as they go by friends and relations from the villages in the valley of the Xerias, the ancient