Page:The nomads of the Balkans, an account of life and customs among the Vlachs of Northern Pindus (1914).djvu/54

 foot of Zmolku and by one or two springs that burst out of the rocks at a great height and shooting down over the precipices are appropriately called Apa Spindzurata, the Hanging Water. On the far side of the Vale Kărnă is the boundary between the territories of Samarina and Armata, towards which latter village a difficult track leads from the saw mills.

Some thirty years ago the deep ravine which now separates the ridge of Aigl'a from the rest of the village was a small, insignificant stream and then the woods of Gorgul'u, known as K'urista came right down to the upper edge of the village itself. Then too the Morminde ridge and Ghumara were thick with pines and saw mills worked near the monastery. But they cut the trees recklessly and wastefully, and allowed sheep and goats to be pastured in the cleared areas, so that young pines had no chance of coming to maturity even in this hill country so well adapted for their rapid growth. So the destruction proceeded till the slope of Gorgul'u was bare, and then came retribution. The trees being away the melting snow and the heavy rains descended unchecked on Samarina, threatened to sweep away the village, and carved out the deep ravine already mentioned destroying houses and gardens. Not till then did Samarina awake to its danger and so some fifteen or twenty years ago it was decreed that no one should cut trees in K'urista or pasture any beasts of any kind there under pain of heavy fines. Since then the wood has grown up thick and strong, the destruction has been averted and pines will in time reclothe the slopes of Gorgul'u. From the upper edge of Samarina to the bottom of the K'urista woods is about a quarter of an hour’s easy walk up a gentle slope, now scarred with gravelly streamlets where formerly, before the cutting of the timber, there were grassy meadows. Arriving at the lower edge of the woods we climb a small bluff and dive into the pines where we find in a little basin of verdure an icy cold spring. This spring is known to Samarina as The Spring, Făndăna, and is a favourite place for picnics and merrymaking at festivals. There is room to dance, the pines give shade for sleep, and from the edge of the bluff one can survey the whole of Samarina together with the Morminde and Ghumara.