LIFE IN BULGARIA

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 3, Issue 277, 28 February 1941, Page 7

LIFE IN BULGARIA

The Bulgar is a brigand by nature and circumstances, a farmer by necessity, and a soldier because he is born a fighting man. Taking Mie armies of the Great War, the; Australian was the finest physical specimen, with the Bul-gar a close second, says an Australian writer in reviewing "Donkey Serenade." by Dr. George Sava. To survive the centuries of wars which Fate has thrust upon him, he has to be a tough citizen soldier. His history stretches back to the Norman conquest of England, und he has suffered periodical eclipses as Mongols, Turks, Byzantines, Moslems and modern nations have swept across his mountains and valleys. His homeland is an international and inter-continental highway, across which Caliphs and Crusaders have crowded, the pendulum swinging slowly from Europe to Asia, and back again.

Always he has been the sport of war, and ever he has come off second best. He fought Turkey and ■won, and the Serbs and the Greeks got the plums. He beat the Serbs and the Rumanians gathered, the spoil. He assailed- the Rumanians, and the Serbs regained what they had lost. Each time an additional slice) was snipped off his boundaries.

With all his immersion in the full flood of map-making, he remains a rude, somewhat crude,, primitive and if the larger nations could only let him live in amity with the other five Balkan countries he would most likely prove a peaceful and serviceable citizen of the world. Extravagance a Sin. ..As it is, he can give most of them points in personal and national economy. His frugality is proverbial. Extravagance is a unforgivable sin. To waste is folly and iniquity. Modesty of living is inbred in him. He has not the gaiety of Rumania, the agility of Greece, nor the melody of Italy, and ho is a formidable enemy and a trustworthy friend, which is uncommon in the Old World to-day.

Dr George Sava has written tbe most popular books about surgery and medicine, and revealed their adventurous and sensational core, and has now employed his gift of interpretation in operating on the Bulgar after wandering through his picturesque country with Old Vasil avid describing what he found in piquant prose.