A Pleasant Land

Sun (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 16, 9 April 1927, Page 23

A Pleasant Land

D UMANIA is a land of peasants, a happy band of people who live among great stretches of wheat and maize and build their own picturesque, white-washed houses. They are fond of gay colours and have their homes decorated with all manner of bright embroderies and even paint designs on the walls and furniture. Young and old are very fond of dancing. The young people will walk miles to a dance in a neighbouring village, and the public dancing-ground is of earth, beaten smooth and hard and clean as a board. The girls wear ribbons, flowers and a smart, if homemade, dress; the young men a long, snow-white blouse, with a border richly worked in colour, a sash of scarlet or embroidered leather and a sleeveless coat. They keep on their hats while they dance. All wear heelless sandals. The Rumanian peasant has no fear of having his house robbed. When he goes out he props a stick against the door to show he is not at home; it would be a serious breach of good taste to disregard this and enter. On the other hand, it is not a crime to help yourself to his fruit or his grain, provided you do not take more than yon need for yourself. It is recognised as the right of the hungry to be fed, whether the host is at home or not. There is a great love for children in Rumania. An old proverb says: “A child is a blessing to any man’s roof, ’ and a large family is the pride of their parents. Children are useful, of course, as they go early to work in the fields —girls to gather the flax and fetch wool, boys to help with the ploughing and reaping. THE LITTLE PEOPLE This “land of a thousand beauties and a hundred hopes,” as someone has styled Rumania, is a country full of the quaintest superstitions. Many of the peasants live in dread, as the Irish peasants do. of “The Little People” or, as some call them, “The Good People.” Many spells and incantations are practised to induce these spirits to be merciful, and to preserve homes and crops. In every well, too, there is supposed to live the Water Woman, to keep peace with whom everyone who draws water will spill a few drops on the ground before leaving, or, if drinking, will blow three times across the jug or pitcher. In some parts of the country the people place a full jug of water outside the door every night as a peace-offering to the Water Woman, because they have had to draw water from her well. It is considered lucky to meet a girl coining from the well with a full pitcher on her head, but it is so unlucky to meet her going there with an empty one that she will of her own accord turn her face away so that she may not see you. Many of the settlers are Saxons, although where they came from is a mystery. In fact, it is so mysterious that legend has it that the founders of this “tribe,” if we may so call them, were those children whom the Pied Piper decoyed from Hamelin town, and who entered the mountain after him and were seen no more by their parents and townsfolk.