Page:The nomads of the Balkans, an account of life and customs among the Vlachs of Northern Pindus (1914).djvu/27

 camp on the hill-side about an hour from Velemishti. Here we were in the midst of a fine champaign country which was very pleasant to the eyes after the scorched and treeless Thessalian plains. Here were rolling hills, green and grassy, and well covered with trees among which oaks and wild pears were prominent. Water seemed plentiful, and the soil rich. This, if looks go for anything, should be an ideal agricultural and pastoral district. At 4 p.m. we were off again, and passing through the village without stopping reached the frontier station on the top of the ridge about half a mile further on. The Turkish customs officer, an Albanian, did not prove quite so amenable as had been hoped. He ordered all the mules to be unladen, and then satisfied his conscience by making a superficial search or rather by kicking each bundle in turn. This and the examination of passports occupied the time till sunset, so we stopped for the night on a grassy slope on the Turkish side.

Velemishti is a squalid Hashiot village, which owns several vineyards and some fields of corn and maize, and is wealthy compared with other Hashiot villages. The district called Hashia comprises the hill country between the Peneus and the Haliakmon on both sides of the former Graeco-Turkish frontier. Its western limit may be marked roughly by a line drawn from Ghrevena to Kalabaka, and its eastern limit by a similar line from Serfije through Elassona to Tirnavos. The name seems to imply that the villages in this district are all chiftliks. That is to say that each village instead of being composed of small holdings, is the absolute property of one or more absentee landlords. The inhabitants are thus little better than serfs, for within their own villages they can own nothing. The landlords are represented by resident bailiffs who collect the share of the produce due to the landlord. The landlord’s share is usually a half, if he finds the seed and the cost of ploughing, and a third if the peasant finds them. Often petty acts of tyranny take place. Some will take their third or half before setting aside the seed corn. Others will let the whole of the common pasturage of the village to nomad shepherds, and refuse the peasants any right of pasture without payment.