MODERN ARCADIAN VILLAGE.

Poverty Bay Standard, Volume X, Issue 1147, 14 September 1882, Page 4

MODERN ARCADIAN VILLAGE.

According to a paper lately communicated to the French Geographical Society by Dr. Le Bon, there exists, high up among the Carpathian Mountains of Galaeia, in a district known as Tatras, one of the most primitive and unsophisticated communities in Europe. The population of this remote region numbers several hundred thousand individuals. They neither use strong drink, nor eat animal food. Richeshaveno charm for them. Though poor they are content, and though their diet is spare and monotonous, they enjoy perfect health and live long lives. The food of these Arcadians is principally oats, either simply boiled or ground and converted into cakes. Duringfour or five months of the year those of them who accompany their flocks and herds to the mountain pastures live exclusively on goat-milk whey, of which each man consumes from three to four litres daily. Practically, therefore, these goatherds live on the sugar and mineral salts contained in the whey. They do not consider this regimen a privation, and, says Dr. Le Bon, who has been amongst them when they return to the valleys

at the end of the season, they are as strong and vigorous as when they set out. The entire race of Podhalians (as the people of Tatras call themselves) are remarkable for their vigor and energy, and are incontestably superior, physically and intellectually, to the neighboring populations. The lives of the Podhalians are easy and tranquil, not because of the abundance of their resources—for they are a poor people inhabiting an and region —but because their needs aro few, and they are free from the craving for stimulants which is the curse of working people in other parts of Europe, Their physique is of a remarkable purity; they are quick of apprehension and frank in manner. Though far from being highly cultured, the Podhalians are poets and artists by nature, They are fond of dancing, and often, when the labors of the day are over, meet to indulge in their favorite diversion. They are born improvisatores, too, and many of them can their own songs set to music of their own composition. Their poetry, says Dr. Le Bon, is tender and artless in senti? ment, generous and elevated in style —qualities which he attributes to the ‘ wealth of spontaneous rerources ” possessed by natures that know neither violent passions nor unnatural excite, meats.