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variety of these capricious ornaments, sometimes a fancy not inelegant is displayed. Their holiday shifts are embroidered with red silk and sometimes with gold, which they work while they attend their flocks, and this is executed very nicely. Both old and young women wear about their necks large strings of round glass beads, of various sizes and colours; and many rings of brass, tin, or silver, on their fingers. Their bracelets are of leather, covered with tin or silver; and they embroider their stomachers, or adorn them with beads or shells. Abroad wooden girdle surrounds their petticoat, which is commonly decked with shells, and of blue colour, called modrina. Their gown, called sadah, as well as petticoat, is of a kind of serge, and both reach near the ankle. They use no modrina in summer, and only wear the sadah without sleeves, over a linen petticoat or shift. The girls always wear red stockings, and their shoes are, like those of the men, called opanke. The sole is of undressed ox-hide, and the upper part of sheep-skin thongs knotted, which they call apute. These they fasten about the ankles like the ancient cothurnus. Even the richest unmarried women are not allowed to wear any other shoes, though after marriage they may lay aside the opanke, and use the Turkish slippers. The girls keep their hair tressed under their caps, but when married they let it fall dishevelled on the breast, or tie it under the chin; and always have medals, beads, or bored coins, in the Tartar or American mode, twisted amongst it. An unmarried woman who falls under the imputation of want of chastity, runs the risk of having her red cap torn off her head publicly by the curate, and her hair cut by some relation, in token of infamy. Hence, those who fall into an illicit amour, commonly lay aside the badge of virginity, and remove to some distance. Nothing is more common among the Morlacchi than marriages concluded by the old people of the respective families, when the young parties live at a great distance, and neither see nor know each other; and the ordinary motive of these alliances is the ambition of being related to a numerous and powerful family, famous for having produced valiant men. The father of the future bridegroom, or some other relation of mature age, goes to ask the young man, or rather a young woman, of such a family, not having commonly any determinate choice. Upon this, all the girls of the house are shewn to him, and he chooses which he likes best, though he generally respects the right of seniority. A denial in such case is very rare, nor does the father of the maid inquire much into the circumstances of the family that asks her.

Sometimes a daughter of the master is given in marriage to the servant or tenant. On these occasions the Morlacchi girls enjoy a privilege which ours would wish to have, as in justice they certainly ought. For he who acts by proxy, having obtained his suit, is obliged to go and bring the bridegroom; and if, on seeing each other, the young couple are content, the marriage is concluded, but not otherwise. In some parts it is the custom for the bride to go to see the house and family of the proposed husband, before she gives a definitive answer; and if the place or persons are disagreeable to her, she is at liberty to cancel the contract. But if she is contented, she returns to her father's house, escorted by the bridegroom and nearest

relations. There the marriage day is appointed; on which the bridegroom comes to the bride's house, attended by all his friends of greatest note, who on this occasion are called svati, and are all armed, and on horseback, in their holiday clothes, with a peacock's feather in their caps, which is the distinctive ornament used by those who are invited to weddings. The company goes armed, to repulse any attack or ambush that might be intended to disturb the feast. The bride is conducted to a church veiled, and surrounded by the svati on horseback; and the sacred ceremony is performed amidst the noise of muskets, pistols, barbaric shouts, and acclamations, which continue till she return to her father's house, or to that of her husband, if not far off. Each of the svati has his particular inspection, as well during the cavalcade as at the marriage feast, which begins immediately on their return from church. The parvinaz precedes all the rest, singing such songs as he thinks suitable to the occasion.

Abbé Fortis describes a number of ridiculous ceremonies that follow, which are not worth quoting. The first day's entertainment is sometimes made at the bride's house, but generally at the bridegroom's, whither the svati hasten immediately after the nuptial benediction. The most extravagant abundance reigns in these feasts, and each of the svati contributes, by sending a share of provisions. All sorts of domestic fowls, kids, lambs, and sometimes venison, are heaped in prodigal quantities upon their tables; but the Morlacchi never eat veal.

This abhorrence to calves' flesh is very ancient among them. St. Jerome, against Jovinian, takes notice of it; and Torneo Marnavich, a Bosnian writer, who lived in the seventh century, says, that the Dalmatians, uncorrupted by the vices of strangers, abstain from eating calves' flesh, as an unclean food, even to his days. The women relations never dine at table with the men, but always by themselves. After dinner, they pass the rest of the day in dancing, singing ancient songs, and in games of dexterity, or of wit and fancy; and in the evening, at a convenient hour after supper, the three ritual healths having first gone round, viz. 1. The Saint Protector of the Family; 2. The Holy Faith; and 3. A certain sacred Name; the knum accompanies the bridegroom to the matrimonial apartment, which commonly is the cellar or the stable, whither the bride is also conducted by the diveri and the staches; but the three last are obliged to retire; and the knum remains alone with the new-married couple. If there happens to be any bed prepared better than the straw, he leads them to it; and having untied the bride's girdle, he causes them both to undress each other reciprocally. Next day the bride, without her veil and virginal cap, dines at table with the svati, and is forced to hear the coarse equivocal jests of her indelicate and sometimes intoxicated company. These nuptial feasts, called sdrave by the ancient Hunns, and by the Morlacchi sdravize, contain three, six, eight, or more days, according to the ability of the family. The new-married wife gets no inconsiderable profit in these days of joy, and it nearly amounts to much more than all the portion she brings with her, which often consists of nothing but a cow, and her clothes: nay, sometimes the parents, instead of giving money with their daughters, get some

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thing from the bridegroom by way of price. The bride carries water every morning to wash the hands of her guests, as long as the feasting lasts; and every one throws a small piece of money into the bason after washing. The brides are also permitted to raise other little contributions among the svati, by hiding their shoes, caps, knives, or some other necessary part of their equipage, which they are obliged to ransom by a piece of money, according as the company rates it. And, besides all these voluntary and extorted contributions, each guest must give some present to the new-married wife at taking leave the last day of the sdravize, and then she also distributes some trifles in return, such as shirts, caps, handkerchiefs, and the like. The nuptials are almost precisely the same throughout all the vast country inhabited by the Morlacchi; and those in use among the peasants of Dalmatia, Istria, and the islands, differ but little from them.

Yet among these particular varieties, there is one, of the island Zarine, near Sebenico, remarkable enough; for there the starisvat, whether drunk or sober, must, with his naked broad-sword, strike the bride's crown of flowers off her head, when she is ready to go to bed. And in the land of Pago, in the village of Novoglia, there is a custom more comical, and less dangerous, but equally savage. After the marriage contract is settled, and the bridegroom comes to conduct his bride to church, her father or mother, in delivering her over to him, makes an exaggeration of her ill qualities: "Know, since thou wilt have her, that she is good for nothing, ill-natured, obstinate, &c." On which the bridegroom, affecting an angry look, turns to the young woman, exclaiming, "Ah! since it is so, I will teach you to behave better;" and at the same time regales her with a blow or a kick, or some similar piece of gallantry, which is by no means figurative. And it seems in general, that the Morlach women, the inhabitants of the cities excepted, do not much dislike a beating either from their husbands or lovers.

Our author gives a most disgusting picture of the nastiness of the Morlacchi women after marriage; and says, that the mortifying manner in which they are treated by their husbands, is both the cause and effect of this neglect of their persons. He often lodged in Morlach houses, but observed that the female sex is universally treated with contempt. The pregnancy and births of those women would be thought very extraordinary among us, where the ladies suffer so much, notwithstanding all the care and circumspection used before and after labour. But a Morlach woman neither changes her food nor interrupts her daily fatigue on account of her pregnancy; and is often delivered in the fields, or on the road, by herself; and takes the infant, washes it in the first water she finds, carries it home, and returns the day after to her usual labour, or to feed her flock. The infants, thus carelessly treated in their tenderest moments, are afterwards wrapped in miserable rags, where they remain three or four months under the same ungentle management; after which they are set at liberty, and left to crawl about the cottage till they are able to walk upright by themselves; and at the same time acquire that singular degree of strength and health, with which the Morlacchi are

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endowed; when, without the least inconvenience, they can expose their naked breasts to the severest frosts and snow. The infants are allowed to suck their mother's milk till she is with child again; though that should not happen for four, five, or six years. The length of the breasts of the Morlacchi women is extraordinary; for it is certain, that they can give the teat to their children over their shoulders, or under their arms. They let the boys run about, without breeches, in a shirt which reaches only to the knee, till the age of thirteen or fourteen; following the custom of Bossina, subject to the Porte, where no capitation tax is paid for boys till they wear breeches, they being considered till then as children, not capable of earning their bread.

On the occasion of birth, and especially of the first, all the relations and friends send presents of meat to the woman in child bed, or rather to the woman delivered; and the family makes a supper of all those presents together. The women do not enter the church till forty days after the child-birth. The Morlacchi paɛs their youth in the woods, attending their flocks and herds; and in that life of quiet and leisure, they often become dexterous in carving with a simple knife: they make wooden cups, and whistles adorned with fanciful bas reliefs, which are not void of merit, and shew the genius of the people.

PARIAS, OR PERREAS.

THIS is a tribe of Hindoos, so peculiarly degraded beyond all others, that they live by themselves in the outskirts of towns; and, in the country, build their houses apart from the villages, or rather have villages of their own, furnished with wells; for they dare not fetch water from those which other families make use of; and, lest these latter should inadvertently go to one of theirs, they are obliged to scatter the bones of dead cattle about their wells, that they may be known. They dare not in cities pass through the streets where the Bramins live; nor set foot in their villages where they dwell; nor enter a temple, either of their god Wissnow or Eswara; because they are held impure. They get their bread by sowing, digging, and building the walls of mud houses; most of those inhabited by the common people being raised by these Parias; who do all such kinds of dirty work, as other people will not meddle with. Nor is their diet much more cleanly; for they eat cows, horses, fowls, or other carrion, which die of themselves.

One would scarce imagine that contention for precedency should ever occur among a people who have renounced all cleanliness, and like swine, wallow in filth, and who are held in such an utter contempt by the rest of the Hindoos; yet pride has divided the Parias into two classes: the first are simply called Parias, the other Seriperes. The employment of these last, is to go abroad selling leather, which they dress; also to make bridles; and some of them serve for soldiers. The Parias, who reckon themselves the better family, will not eat in the houses of the Seriperes; who must pay them respect, by lifting their hands aloft, and standing upright before them. The Seriperes,

when they marry, cannot set up a panaal, a kind of garland, before their doors, made with more than three stakes or trees; else the whole city would be in motion. They are, in fact, slaves; for when any person of authority dies, in the families of Komittis, Sittis, Palis, farriers or goldsmiths, and the relations incline to give some clothes to the Seriperes, their beards must be shaven; and when the corpse is carried out of town to be burned or interred, they must do that office; for which each receives a piece of silver worth three and a half sous. These Seriperes are called, at Surat, Kalalchors; that is, in the Persian language, eat-alls, or eaters at large. Nothing can offend an Hindoo more than to be called an Halalchor; yet these poor people submit to all this drudgery and contempt without repining.

They are very stupid and ignorant, and even vicious, from their wretched way of life; the Bramins and nobility shun them as if they had the plague, looking on the meeting of a Paria as the greatest misfortune. To come near one of them is a sin, to touch them a sacrilege. If a Paria were dying, it is infamy to visit him, or to give him the least assistance, even in the utmost distress. A Bramin, who touches a Paria, immediately washes himself from the impurity. Even their shadow and breath being reckoned contagious, they are obliged to live on the east side of their towns, that the westerly winds which reign in their country may keep back their breath. And a Bramin may kill one of these unhappy creatures, if he does not avoid it by getting out of his way. In short, they think them reprobated by God, and believe the souls of the damned enter into the Parias, to be punished for their crimes. Yet the mission have found among these dregs of the people very active and zealous catechists, who by their labours have very much contributed to the conversion of their countrymen, particularly one Rajanaitzen, a Paria soldier, who, of all the inferior missionaries, has distinguished himself most by his labours and sufferings.

DESCRIPTION OF ATHENIAN GIRLS.

From Hughes's Travels in Greece.

"OUR hostess, Signora Vitali, introduced us to our next door neighbours, who consisted of her own sister, with three fair daughters, considered at this time the belles of Athens. They are known by the title of Consuline, their father having held the post of British vice-consul. One of these young ladies was supposed to be that 'Maid of Athens' who is celebrated in some beautiful verses annexed to Childe Harolde her countenance was extremely interesting, and her eye maintained much of its wonted brilliancy; but the roses had already deserted her cheek, and we observed the remains only of that loveliness which elicited such strains from an impassioned poet. So fading a flower is beauty in these climates, that a very few years see it rise to sparkle like a meteor and to vanish. A Grecian damsel of sixteen is frequently angelical; at twenty she becomes plain; and, in five years more, frightfully ugly. There is no transition, as with

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